A contribution to the history of leprosy in Australia / by J. Ashburton Thompson.

  • Thompson, John Ashburton, 1848-1915.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A contribution to the history of leprosy in Australia / by J. Ashburton Thompson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    I also learned that a considerable number of Malay proas, chiefly from Macassar, had visited the settlement last season, and that while they remained their crews had conducted themselves with great propriety. They were highly gratified by their reception, and much pleased with the prospect of being able to carry on their operations without fear of molestation from the natives, with whom they are always at variance, and whom they repre- sented as very bad characters, . . . stating that they were in the habit of stealing their canoes and spearing their men whenever an opportunity offered. They spoke well of the natives on the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, four of whom were accompanying them to Macassar. . . . They proceed, according to their own report, as far east as Cape York (pp. 30—32). From something said in another place I suppose these four natives did not go to Macassar^ but it seems unlikely they could expect to reach their own country alive again if they left the Malay party with whom they were travelling so far away from it as Eaffles Bay. Raffles Bay was settled from Sydney (but temporarily, as it turned out) in an expedition of three vessels led by Captain Stirling; they arrived June lyth, 1827. Curr/ on authority of ]\Jr. Paul Foelsche, Commissioner of Police, Northern Territory, says that during quite recent years there has been friendly intercourse between the natives about Port Essington and the Malay fishermen; but at the time referred to the aboriginal tribe he mentioned had dwindled to a very small number indeed, so that Mr. Foelsche was able to name all the remaining members. Prahus still come down, and now penetrate, I believe, as far as the head of the Gulph. The Report of the Govern- ment Resident of the Northern Territory for the year 1892, published 1894, which is the only report in type I have been able to see, is a considerable document (but entirely want- ing in population statistics). It appears therefrom that the Malays have regularly visited some parts of the coast- line down to the present, as they are said to have yielded a revenue of £4757 in licence fees since 1884, when this impost was first declared, and to have taken away produce to the value of £52,272. I have no definite information as to the exact region from ^ Op. cit., vol. i., p. 270.