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14
leters
went very far north or south beyond the limits just stated; he has seen a camp with visitors - a total of 600 or 700 - congregated at Miriam Vale and stretching over a length of three miles, though they were perforea [?] to keep shifting owing to the food-supply.
10. Two excursions to the Keppel Islands gave very in-teresting results. On Big Keppel where the 19 remnants of the Islanders are now congregated, there are 16 full-blood adults, 2 half-caste children, and a full-blood 6-month old (October 1898) female infant: among the adults only three are males, the over-whelming preponderance of women being easily ex-plicable when the character of some of the previous European visitors to the Island is borne in mind. On North Keppel is still to be seen the actual campuing ground where at least 7 males were shot down one night in cold blood, the father of one of the suriving women (who described to me the scene as it actually took place) being butchered while his little girl was clinging round his neck. Other males were deported and decoyed to the mainland, by fake promises of food etc: some of them (including Yulowa) succeeding in swimming back the distance of between 6 and 7 miles whilst others were shark-eaten. Mr. Wyndham, the first white occupant of Big Keppel, in 1884, tells me that there were then about 54 individuals there; he was Just and Kind to them. The manner in which he first entered into com-munication with them is interesting: - in his own words - "at first when I was there the blacks used to keep away from me and the two mainland natives who ac-companied me, till we managed to surprise and catch 8 or more of the tribe that inhabited the South end of the Island. Mr. Ross was there at the time