this river became a waterway for sandalwood getters and gold prospectors operating in the McIlwraith and Macrossan Ranges. These pioneers of industry established Giblet's Landing, at the head of the tidal reaches. Mr. John Embley afterwards surveyed the lower reaches of the river and laid out a township. (See Maps B and A.)
From Lloyd Bay, the "Basilisk" proceeded to Somerset, where she anchored on 18th January, 1873. Her officers were welcomed by Frank Jardine, the leader of the exploring expedition of 1865, now acting as Police Magistrate. A service was held on the ship by the Rev. A. W. Murray, who had been conducting missionary work in the South Seas for thirty-five years. The wet season had set in. Here an interesting personage was met, a naturalist named Cockerill, who lived, with his son, and a couple of natives, in an 8-ton boat, and had amassed a magnificent collection of tropical birds.
The "Basilisk" left Somerset on 24th January, 1873, and anchored at Saddle Island. (See Map A.) Thence a survey was made to Gabba, or The Brothers Islands. Jervis Island was next visited, and in this neighbourhood the "Basilisk" stuck on a shoal, but got clear on the rise of the tide. Jervis Island, which is said to be volcanic, rises to 525 feet. It was, at the date of the "Basilisk's" visit, the headquarters of three pearling stations. The anchorage was surveyed and named Philip Harbour. Moresby remarks that "the space of 36 miles which lies between Jervis Island and the low mangrove-covered coast of New Guinea is a mass of coral reefs and contains no passage for ships and scarcely any for boats. Thus all the passages by which ships can enter Torres Straits lie between Jervis Island and Cape York, and are now British waters." He adds: "The natives of Jervis Island are black Papuans, quite uncivilised and unclothed." (Cf. Douglas on Islands of Torres Straits, 1866.)
Cornwallis Island was next visited (30th January, 1873). It is described as high and healthy, a granite mountain rising to an altitude of 790 feet. It had hitherto been held to be part of the mainland of New Guinea. Saibai Island was the next anchorage, and was described as low and probably malarious, with 600 inhabitants, with two-story houses raised on poles, and some cultivation. It had for the first time been charted as an island by Moresby, who saw it in 1871 from the neighbourhood of Gabba Island. Lieutenant Connor, and Mr. Pitt, Midshipman, with nine seamen, on the pinnace and a whale-boat lent by Mr. Jardine, were left at Saibai Island to make a survey, while the "Basilisk" sailed for the eastern islands of Torres Strait and the New Guinea coast. On the 4th February, she touched at Warrior Island, to find that pearl-shelling had come to a standstill, thirty-two South Sea Islanders being idle while waiting till their employers
