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AN AUSTRALIAN STORY
'MADMAN'S ISLAND'
ANOTHER BOOK BY ION L.
IDRIESS
Described as being more than a
modern 'Robinson Crusoe,' Messrs.
Angus & Robertson Ltd. advise having
just completed the first printing of ten
thousand copies of 'Madman's Island,'
which is the fir.st book ever written
by Ion L. Idriess. The manuscript
was first offered for publication about
eleven years ago as a book of fact, but
at the time the author was asked to
turn the story into a novel, there being
no demand in those days for Austra
lian 'true' adventure. Being the
author's first book, 'Madman's Island'
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 ad
ventures instead of just reading about
them. This power, seen at its best in
'Madman's Island,' has made the
author Australia's leading exponent of
every phase of her romantic life. The
reader becomes the author, suffering,
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 i
romance. A few miles north of the
island lies Restoration Rock, the first
land to gladden Bligh's eyes on his
terrible voyage after the mutiny of the
'Bounty.' Along the coast opposite
Madman's Island is the rugged country
that Kennedy followed in a journey
that ended in his own death and in the
death of nearly all his men. On deso
late Nobel Island nearby is the tunnel
in which the old prospector (Formac
eni) barricaded himself against the
blacks, his dead mate beside him.
Along these waters sailed the venture
some little vessels that 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 crews were massacred
by the war-like natives of the . Strait.
But the main fleet succeeded and by
degree became familiar with those
dangerous \vaters and the 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 being 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 become island kings
and to found kingdoms of their own.
With this object in view venturesome
men deserted, slipped overboard in the
night and chanced sharks and currents
in swimming to the island of their
desire ; or quietly provisioned a dinghy,
lowered it overboard in the dark,
dropped down into it and set out on
their lonely and highly perilous voyage.
Most of these ambitious ones were
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 kingdoms 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 fifteen miles away, }
and the knowledge of the tragedy there -
that has made bitter its memory. North
of Madman's Island on the coast is
Lloyd's Bay, where the 'Sandalwood
King' (Hughie Giblett) made his fam- j
ous camp. A solitary man in a whale
boat, he sailed from Cooktown and
landed ou the coast among wild blacks
just opposite Madman's. He battled
through and lived to found a great san
dalwood industry and made a fortune
out of it. Thus started the huge san
dalwood depots to which the luggers
from Thursday Island sailed with
stores, returning loaded with sandal
wood that was shipped to China a'nd
sold for many thousands of pounds.
The wild doings in those saudalwood !
camps is a romance of the great pen
insula. Not far from Madman's lies
Forbes Island, the 'Spirit Island' of
the natives. Here in the gardens have
been found old-time cannon balls, bur
ied 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 fortifica
tion. It is believed that the island at
one time was a base for the lawless
blackbirders who fought out their own
fights ; a story is also current that it
was bombarded by a frigate when the
Colonial Government of the day was
trying to drive the blackbirders and
'shell pirates' from the Coral Sea.
Every square mile of that fascinating
reef and sea has its story, but none so
strange as this story of Madman's
Island, which was acted in grim
realism since the war.
'A rough diary written on an old
sea log to save myself from going I
mad,' is the author's modest descrip- j
tion of 'Madman's Island.' The tat- j
tered log was salvaged from the bones j
of the 'Sea Foam's' wreck on Howick j
Island beach. The other man on the }
island— Idriess' mate— went mad, and
the stores were exhausted — for six
months they lived on speared giant
crab and fish— the king tides salted the
fresh water, the trader with the long
over-due stores misread Idriess' signal |
and sailed away instead of dropping
anchor, a shark nipped Idriess' leg— all
this amazing true story is told in
'Madman's Island.'
A girl aged eight years has flown
from Salnniaua, New Guinea, to Mel
bourne unaccompanied.
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