far as Cape York. Here I saw for the first time a species of
Sciadophyllum (BRASSAIA ACTINOPHYLLA, the umbrella-tree) one of the most
singular trees of the eastern coast-line of tropical Australia; a slender
stem, about thirty feet in height, gives off a few branches with immense
digitate dark and glossy leaves, and long spike-like racemes of small
scarlet flowers, a great resort for insects and insect-feeding birds.
Soon after the ship had come to an anchor, some of the natives came off
in their canoes and paid us a visit, bringing with them a quantity of
shell-fish (SANGUINOLARIA RUGOSA), which they eagerly exchanged for
biscuit. For a few days afterwards we occasionally met them on the beach,
but at length they disappeared altogether, in consequence of having been
fired at with shot by one of two 'young gentlemen' of the BRAMBLE on a
shooting excursion, whom they wished to prevent approaching too closely a
small village where they had their wives and children. Immediate steps
were taken in consequence to prevent the recurrence of such collisions
when thoughtless curiosity on one side is apt to be promptly resented on
the other if numerically superior in force... The men had large
cicatrices on the shoulders and across the breast and belly, the septum
of the nose was perforated, and none of the teeth had been removed. I saw
no weapons, and some rude armlets were their only ornaments."

Tam o' Shanter Point derives its title from the barque of that name, in
which the members of the Kennedy Exploring Expedition voyaged from
Sydney, whence they disembarked on 24th and 25th May 1848. H.M.S.
RATTLESNAKE had been commissioned to lend Kennedy assistance, and
Macgillivray relates that everything belonging to the party (with the
exception of one horse drowned while swimming ashore) was safely landed.
The first camp was formed on some open forest-land behind the beach at a
small fresh-water creek. On the 27th Mr Carson, the botanist of the party,
commenced digging a piece of ground, in which he sowed seeds of cabbages,