In October, the vessels were at Cape York, waiting for Mr Kennedy, and
receiving supplies from a storeship despatched from Sydney, and
letters from the 'post-office' on Booby Island. In his capacity as
naturalist and ethnologist, Mr Macgillivray made frequent excursions,
collecting plants and animals, and words for a vocabulary. The natives
are described as inordinately fond of smoking whenever they can get
_choka_, as they call tobacco. 'The pipe--which is a piece of bamboo
as thick as the arm, and two or three feet long--is first filled with
tobacco-smoke, and then handed round the company, seated on the ground
in a ring; each takes a long inhalation, and passes the pipe to his
neighbour, slowly allowing the smoke to exhale. On several occasions
at Cape York,' continues the author, 'I have seen a native so affected
by a single inhalation, as to be rendered nearly senseless, with the
perspiration bursting out at every pore, and require a draught of
water to restore him; and although myself a smoker, yet, on the only
occasion when I tried this mode of using tobacco, the sensations of
nausea and faintness were produced.' There is something new in the
idea of taking whiffs of ready-made smoke, which might perhaps be
turned to account by enterprising purveyors of social enjoyments on
this side of the world.

After the abortive attempt to establish the colony of 'North
Australia' at Port Curtis, at a cost of L.15,000, and the abandonment
of Port Essington, it is not uninteresting to learn that Cape York
presents many natural capabilities for a settlement. There is a good
harbour, safe anchorage, abundance of fresh water all the year round,
and a moderate extent of cultivable land, all of which will help to
constitute it a desirable coaling station for the contemplated line of
steamers from Sydney to Singapore and India. The Port-Essington