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[Page 11]
24th August Monday
"Sydney" leaves us early presumably to coal at Townsville & we run into the Palm Islands where we meet the "Encounter" Islands very beautiful with peaks rising out of the pale blue waters. Some (to port) are bare & barren in appearance, but the large island on our right is clothed in thick tropical forest of varying hues, which against the waters of the little sandy crecent shaped bays form a very engrossing spectacle.
At two oclock a party of soldiers & sailors went ashore for skirmishing. We are likely to remain here for several days owing ,according to one of the ever rampant rumours on board, to the presence of several German cruisers off New Guinea. I note this rumour in order to show what gossips some men can be, & that women are not wholly to blame for the wild stories which are always in circulation.
The yarn about the