They Have Utilized Their Intercourse With The Whites So Far As To Improve The Quality Of Their Spears By Tipping

Them with iron, a piece of fencing wire, 18 inches long, having been found on one taken from them on

A late occasion. In his last letter Frank Jardine mentions an encounter with a "friendly" native detected in the act of spearing cattle, in which he had a narrow escape of losing his life, and states that, despite their professions of friendship, they are always on the watch for mischief. It is evident therefore, that no terms can safely be held with a race who know no law but their own cowardly impulse of evil, and that an active and watchful force of bushmen well acquainted with savage warfare is necessary to secure the safety of the young settlement. For a description of the habits and the character of the Australian and Papuan races, which people the Peninsula and the adjacent islands of Torres Straits, the reader is referred to the interesting narrative of the voyage of the Rattlesnake, by Mr. John McGillivray, in which the subject is ably and exhaustively treated, and which leaves but little to add by succeeding writers.

THE MIDAMO.

The "villanous compound, a mixture of mangrove roots and berries," which was presented to the explorers by the friendly natives as a peace-offering on first meeting them near Somerset, was probably what is described as the "Midamo" in Mr. Anthelme Thozets' valuable pamphlet already alluded to above on "the roots, tubers, bulbs, and fruits used as vegetable food by the aboriginals of Northern Queensland." The midamo is made by baking the root of the common mangrove ('Avicennia Tomentosa'), which is called Egaie by the tribes of Cleveland Bay, and Tagon-Tagon by those of Rockhampton.

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