Thursday Island

“ Then if you want other sorts of enterprise, there is Thursday Island, where I hail from, with its extraordinary people. Let us suppose ourselves wandering down the Front at nightfall, past the Kanaka billiard saloons and the Chinese stores, into, say, the Hotel of All Nations. Who is that handsome, dark, mysterious fellow, smoking a cigarette and idly flirting with the pretty bar girl? You don't know him, but I do! There's indeed a history for you. You didn't notice, perhaps, that rakish schooner that came to anchor in the bay early in the forenoon. ”

“ Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday Islands exist near Thursday Island, and the only island about which I should have been doubtful, would have been a Sunday island. I don’t think the people who live near the land’s end of the Australian continent could harmonize with an island named after the seventh day. I wonder if Peter looked at the atlas before he made the bet?
Thursday Island is one out of a set of hilly islands forming outliers off the end of Cape York. From a balloon they ought to look like the commencement of a series of stepping stones, reaching from Australia towards New Guinea. ”

“ The entire population, white and coloured, does not exceed a hundred.
Thursday Island owes its importance to being the shipping port for the produce of all the pearl shell fisheries in Torres Straits. ”

“ When I emerged from my cabin I found it was blowing rather stiffly, and we were steaming close to the coast amidst picturesque rocky islands and islets. Captain M‘Lean was a pleasant, cheery, kind old man, but he and the passengers expressed the greatest wonder that I should be bound for Thursday Island, and evidently thought me “a freak” to want to go to such a place for pleasure.
We stopped at Flat Top Island about midday, it being only a small isle with a lighthouse. We arrived in Cleveland Bay and anchored off Townsville about 11 p.m. A steam tender took passengers and baggage ashore. ”

“ Thursday Island, a small island in Normanby Sound, Torres Strait, belonging to Queensland, and used as a Government station; has a fine harbour, Port Kennedy, largely used for the Australian transit trade; also the centre of valuable pearl fisheries.
Thurso (4) , a seaport in Caithness, at the mouth of the Thurso River, 21 m. NW. of Wick; does a brisk trade in agricultural produce, cattle, and paving stones. ”

“ The 22d was the great day on Thursday Island, for then we had not only the jubilee, but a jubilee with a grand corroboree in it, Mr. Douglas having brought some four hundred native warriors and their wives and children across from the mainland to give the celebration the true native touch, for when they do a thing on Thursday Island they do it with a roar. ”

“ The following description of a night at Thursday Island is taken from a new-chum's note book:
“Passed Proudfoot shoal and arrived at Thursday Island. First sight of Australia. Lot of men came aboard, all called Captain. They are all pearl-fishers or pilots, not a bit like the bushmen I expected. When they came aboard they divided into parties. Some invaded the Captain's cabin; others sat in the smoking room; the rest crowded into the saloon. They talked to the passengers about the Boer War, and told us about pearls worth 1000 pounds that had been found lately. ”

“ In the good old days of Thursday Island there passed as waif currency a certain local jest. When some pride of the pearling fleet was moved to approve himself, his company, and the pervading wickedness in general he was wont to state—more or less titubant on his pins the while—that the only honest men in that merry little hell had come by land. ”

“ From sidewalks which are over the tops of naturally formed sand dunes, it may be inferred that there is no Department of Public Works in Thursday Island. There is a nice sandy walk in any direction you like to take. Now and then you may be stopped by a small mountain of old bottles and meat tins.
The persons who live here are of various nationalities. I saw British, Blacks, Cingalese, Japanese, and Kanakas. There were also a few residents from Damascus, and a Polish emigrant from Siberia. The chief occupation is diving for pearl shells. ”

“ Some day strangers might land, strangers from Thursday Island or from the big world beyond Thursday Island. The splendid steam yacht at its moorings and Madame's luxurious camp outfit in the woods were not common objects of the shore to be accepted in the Straits without explanation. And they would use up a lot of explanation, and still leave the curious unsatisfied. There was too much of Toppys [Pg 154] about the Island and the yacht for their conjunction to be wholly a matter of chance. Grant, Willatopy's banker, already knew much, and had guessed the rest. He was safe, for his own reasons. ”

“ It now seems to be the fashion for the people on one side of the island to learn new songs from Thursday Island or from the crews of fishing-boats. When they consider themselves proficient they go to other villages on the opposite side of the island and there sing them. ”

“ Outside the Barrier Reef there is always a swell, in which the small boats rolled heavily, and the passengers grumbled proportionately. On the return journey the prevailing strong winds heap up heavy seas, and are apt to drive a ship past the narrow opening in the Reef. Small boats of about 800 tons now run directly from Thursday Island to Port Moresby. But though we had all the inclination, we had no time to make this most interesting journey.
Our fellow-passenger had an interest in the Pearl-fishing Industry carried on in the neighbourhood of Thursday Island, by the “Island boys.” ”

“ The boats of the fishing fleet afford a most picturesque accessory to the scene, and the harbour is full of life. Small boats dart about everywhere, and there is a continual coming and going. The large Chinese and Japanese steamers, of from 6000 to 7000 tons burden, are continually arriving at and leaving the Government wharf. The Europeans are most agreeable and hospitable. The sea round Thursday Island is a most wonderful colour—in parts emerald green and silver, deep blue varied with light yellow and brown, and everywhere perfectly clear. ”

“ There are 100 English living in Thursday Island; they have no sheep or cattle, for there is nothing in this sterile spot for them to feed on; no fruit, no milk, no vegetables. There is neither church nor clergyman ”

“ During this time but few of the ship’s company had put foot upon land, and glad indeed were we when Strong’s Island hove in sight. We were experiencing heavy weather, but on Thursday, December 12th, the wind gradually grew less boisterous, and as we neared the land, steering for the passage, died away, leaving us at its mouth in a dead calm; but we down boats, and every man “pulled with a will,” and soon towed the old ship in, and at 7 P.M. we once more dropped anchor, weary with labor, but refreshed at the sight of the land, and the prospect of “stretching our legs” on shore once more. ”

“ Thursday Isle, an English coaling-station in Torres Strait, is a port of call for all steamers bound from Europe or China for east Australian ports, besides being a center of a big local trade in pearl shell and tripang. Hence its population of 526 souls comprises 270 Europeans of various nationalities, including British, Germans, Scandinavians, Danes, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Australians of European origin, besides 256 South Sea Islanders, Papuans, Africans, Philippines, Chinese and other Asiatics.861
Mixed population of island markets. ”

“ Last Island has gone! How it went I first heard from the lips of a veteran pilot, while we sat one evening together on the trunk of a drifted cypress which some high tide had pressed deeply into the Grande Isle beach. The day had been tropically warm; we had sought the shore for a breath of living air. Sunset came, and with it the ponderous heat lifted,—a sudden breeze blew,—lightnings flickered in the darkening horizon,—wind and water began to strive together,—and soon all the low coast boomed. Then my companion began his story; perhaps the coming of the storm inspired him to speak! ”

“ Nothing worthy of notice happened till Monday the 24th when, about ten o'clock in the morning, we discovered another island, bearing S.S.W. distant about seven or eight leagues: We steered for it, and found it to be low, but covered with wood, among which were cocoa-nut trees in great abundance. It had a pleasant appearance, and a large lake in the middle, like King George's Island: It is near thirty miles in circumference, a dreadful sea breaks upon almost every part of the coast, and a great deal of foul ground lies about it. ”

“ Lying nearly forty miles west of Grande Isle, it was nevertheless far more populated a generation ago: it was not only the most celebrated island of the group, but also the most fashionable watering-place of the aristocratic South;—to-day it is visited by fishermen only, at long intervals. Its admirable beach in many respects resembled that of Grande Isle to-day; the accommodations also were much similar, although finer: a charming village of cottages facing the Gulf near the western end. ”

“ But with its imposing groves of oak, its golden wealth of orange-trees, its odorous lanes of oleander.
its broad grazing-meadows yellow-starred with wild camomile, Grande Isle remains the prettiest island of the Gulf; and its loveliness is exceptional. For the bleakness of Grand Terre is reiterated by most of the other islands,—Caillou, Cassetete, Calumet, Wine Island, the twin Timbaliers, Gull Island, and the many islets haunted by the gray pelican,—all of which are little more than sand-bars covered with wiry grasses, prairie-cane, and scrub-timber. ”

“ Kingston, a city at the head of the lake, is reached at four o’clock in the morning. Immediately after leaving this thriving town the state-rooms begin to disgorge their occupants, for we now enter the broad throat of the St. Lawrence River, and here the Thousand Islands begin. Who that has a soul beyond cakes and ale would let the desire to indulge in his own dreams cheat him from enjoying one of nature’s loveliest visions?
For some four hours thereafter the boat runs through an uninterrupted succession of the most beautiful island scenery. ”

“ Arthur suggested that we should make an excursion to Palm-Islet as soon as the heat of the day was over, and the sea-breeze had set in, for the purpose of getting the hatchet, and bringing the boat round to the side of the island where we intended to fix our residence, as we might have occasion for its use. “We can get there before dark,” said he, “and pass the night once more at our old quarters on the little island; then we can row back in the fresh of the morning, before sunrise, and be ready to commence our building in earnest.” ”

“ Nobody lives upon it, but it is used in winter for keeping cattle, horses, oxen, hogs and others, which are able to obtain there sufficient to eat the whole winter, and to shelter themselves from the cold in the thickets. This island is not so cold as Long Island or the Mahatans, or others, like some other islands on the coast, in consequence of their having more sea breeze, and of the saltness of the sea breaking upon the shoals, rocks and reefs, with which the coast is beset. There is also the Bear's Island and others, separated from Long Island by creeks and marshes overflown at high water. ”

“ It is second in population to Massett, containing 150 natives, 20 houses and 25 carved poles. There is only one more Hyda village to the southward, Ninstints, with 30 inhabitants, 20 houses, 25 carved poles, and 20 burial columns, occupying a rock-bound islet lying off the south-west coast of Moresby Island, near the western entrance to Houston Stewart Channel. There are five other villages on the west coast of the islands, all abandoned, and most of them in ruins. ”

“ The southermost is the largest, and much higher than any part of the main land. On the north-west side of this island there appeared to be good anchorage, and on shore, vallies that promised both wood and water. These islands are distinguished in the chart by the name of York Isles. To the southward, and south-east, and even to the eastward and northward of them, there are several other low islands, rocks, and shoals: Our depth of water in sailing between them and the main, was twelve, thirteen, and fourteen fathom. ”

“ George’s, getting a little smith’s work done and watering ship. There is no surface water on the island; the rain water is collected and stored in great underground cisterns hewn in the solid coral rock of which the island is formed. The water-supply thus conserved has never been known to fail. In Mana’s case the Military Authorities kindly sent their large tank-boat alongside. At odd times we explored in the launch some of the labyrinth of waterways and islets forming part of St. George’s Harbour, or connected with it. ”

“ In the interval, a period of seven-and-twenty months, he discovered the Duke of York Bay, the numerous inlets which break up the northern coast-line of the American continent, Winter Island, the islands of Anatoak and Ooght, the Strait of the Fury and Hecla, Melville Peninsula, and Cockburn Island. During their winter sojourn on Winter Island, the English crews were surprised by a visit from a party of Eskimos, whose settlement Captain Parry visited in his turn. ”

“ The narrator of the voyage takes this occasion to describe certain parts of the coast and waters of Newfoundland, the island of St. Catherine, Blanc Sablon, Brest, the Isle of Birds, and a numerous group of Islands called the Islets. But these memoranda are not connected with any observations or discoveries of importance. Speaking of Bird and Brest Islands, he says, they afford "great store of godwits, and crows, with red beaks and red feet," who "make their nests in holes underground, even as conies." Near this locality "there is great fishing." ”