turnips, leek, pumpkin, rock and water melons, pomegranate, peach-stones
and apple-pips. No trace of this first venture in gardening in North
Queensland is now discernible. No doubt, inquisitive and curious blacks
would rummage the freshly turned soil as soon as the back of the
good-natured gardener was turned. It occurred to me that possibly the
pomegranate seeds might have germinated, and the plants become
established and acclimatised, but search proved resultless. Carson makes
no reference to the coco-nut palm which once flourished at the mouth of
the creek. The inference is that the nut whence it sprang drifted ashore
after his attempt to civilise the vicinity by the planting of seeds.
Dalrymple refers to the tree which, at the date of his visit (September
1873), was "about fourteen feet in height, but without fruit!" It grew to
a great tree, and blacks found in the fruit a refreshing, nutritious
food; but an evil thing came along one day in the shape of a thirsty
Chinaman, and as he could not climb the tree he cut it down, and blacks,
even to this day, hate the name of Chinaman. Opposite the Point is the
Island of Timana, known to some as "the Island on which the Chinaman was
killed!" Whether "the Chinaman" was the person who cut down the coco-nut
palm is not known, but somehow his fate and that of the palm have become
associated.

The only traces of the expedition of half a century ago are marks upon
trees at the mouth of the Hull River--2 miles to the south, at the spot
which it appears to have crossed. The object of Kennedy's expedition was
to explore the country to the eastward of the dividing range running
along the north-east coast of Australia. Difficulties assailed them at
the outset, as many weeks passed before they got clear of Rockingham Bay,
its rivers, swamps, and dense scrubs fenced in by a mountain chain. The
cart was abandoned on July 18th and the horses were packed. An axle and
other ironwork of a cart was found many years ago in the neighbourhood of