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MADMAN'S ISLAND.
By Ion L. Idriess.
Angus & Robertson, publishers oE j
Sydney, will shortly be publishing
"Madman's Island," by the well
known Australian writer, Ion L.
Idriess. "Madman's Island" is more
than a modern "Robinson Crusoe"
it is Ion L. Idriess's first book. "A
rough diary written on an old sea-log
to save myself from going mad," is
the author's modest description of it.
Tlie tattered log was salvaged from
the bodes of the "Sea Foam's" wreck
on Howick Island beach. The other
man on the island. Idriess's mate,
went mad, and the stores were ex
hausted-for six months they lived
on speared giant crab and fish-the
king tides salted the fresh water, the
trader with the". long overdue stores
misread Idriess's signal and sailed
away instead of dropping anchor, a
shark nipped Idriess's leg-all this
amazing true story is told in "Mad
man's Island."
Being the author's first book, it
has the "first fine careless rapture" of
his style's glowing vitality, the first
freshness of his unique power of
making the reader live the author's
adventures instead of just reading
them. This power, seen at its best
in "Madman's Island," has made th<?
author Australia's leading exponent
of every phase of her romantic life.
The reader becomes the. author, suf
fering, enduring, exulting in these
wild and splendid adventures-this
is surely the art of writing.
The coastline around which "Mad
man's Island" is written holds many
a story of Australian history and ro
mance. A few miles north of the is
Jand lies Restoration Rock, the first
land to gladden Bligh's eyes on his
terrible voyage after the mutiny of
the "Bounty." Along the coast oppo
sie Madman's Island is the rugged
country that Kennedy followed, in a'
journey that ended in his own deaCi
and in the death of nearly all his
men. On desolate Nobel Island near
by is the tunnel in which old Forma
ceni, the prospector, barricaded him
self against the blacks, his dead
mate beside him. Along these waters
sailed the venturesome little vessels
£hat heralded the .great pearl shell
rushes. Many did not return. Some
struck' hidden reefs and went down
with all hands. Others ran .aground
and the:rcrews were massacred by the
warlike natives of the Strait. But the
main fleet succeeded,; and by degrees
became familiar with those danger
ous ? waters and their thousands of
square miles of hidden reefs. Some
distance north of Madman's are the
palm-clad .isles of the Strait with
their little grass house villages and
brown men and girls. In the days of
the early pearl shell rushes the men
were fighters and great seamen who
cruised the Coral Sea in gigantic war
canoes rigged with fighting platforms
high above the water. ' Some vessels
were two masted, the sails were huge
things of cocoanut matting. The girls
were athletic and good to look at,
great swimmers and singers. Among
the wild and woolly pearling crews
some Romeos sought to becomt is
land kings and to found kingdoms at
their own. With this object in view
venturesome men deserted, slipped
overboard in the night and chanced
sharks and currents in swimming to
tlie island of their desire: or quietly
provisioned a dinghy, lowered ^t ov
erboard in the dark, dropped down,
into it and set out on their lonely
and highly perilous voyage.
Most of these ambitious ones ware
promptly clubbed and their painted
skulls went to adorn the necks of the
Great Au-Guuds, huge images of a
squatting man, made of beautifully
mottled plates of tortoise shell. How
ever, a few of the most determined
and luckiest among them succeeded
and actually formed the tiny king
doms of their dreams.
Madman's Island, grows no palms,
nor brown maids either. Life there
to the author and his mate proved a
desperate struggle for existence-a
struggle not lessened by the bulk of
Lizard Island but IS miles away, and
the knowledge of the tragedy there
that has made bitter its memory.
North of Madman's on the coast is
Lloyd's Bay where Hughie Giblgtt,
the "Sandalwood King," made his
famous camp. A solitary man in a
whaleboat, he sailed from Cooktowii
and landed on the coast among wild
Blacks just opposite Madman's. He
battled through and lived to found a
great sandalwood industry and make
a fortune out of it. Thus started the .
huge sandalwood depots to which the
luggers from Thursday Island sailed
with stores, returning loaded with
sandalwood that was shipped to
China and sold for many thousands
of pounds. The wild doings in those
sandalwood camps is a romance of
? the great Peninsula.
Not far from Madman's lies Forbes
Island, the "Spirit Island" of the
natives. Here in the gardens have
iieen found old time cannon balls,
buried deep as if the island at some
time had suffered a cannonade. When
the pearlers landed there, first they
were astonished by the remains of a
stone wall, built as if for a rough for
tification. It is believed that the is
land at one time was a base for the
lawless blackbirders who. fought out
their own fights; a story is also cur
' etit that it was bombarded by. a fri
gate when the Colonial Government
of the day was trying tb;.drive the
blackbirders and "shell pirates" from
the Coral Sea.
Every square mile of that fascinat
ing reef and sea has its history, but
aone so strange as this story of Mad
man's Island, which was acted In
srim realism since the war.
After shaking bedroom rugs, rub
them lightly with a damp cloth; this
collects all fluff, and at the same
time brightens the rugs.
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