The blacks had no theory of their own (save the superstitious one), as to how it got into the lagoon; and the only supposition I can offer is, that it must have been brought thither, when very small and young, either by a rain-cloud or at some unusually big flood time.
So delighted were the blacks at the service I had done them, that they paid me the greatest compliment in their power by offering me a chieftainship, and inviting me to stay with them for ever.

I refused the flattering offer, however, as I was quite bent on getting back to Cambridge Gulf.
On returning to my friends on the other side of the lagoon I learned for the first time that there was a half-caste girl living among them; and subsequent inquiries went to prove that her father was a white man who had penetrated into these regions and lived for some little time at least among the blacks--much as I myself was doing.

My interest in the matter was first of all roused by the accidental discovery of a cairn five feet or six feet high, made of loose flat stones.

My experience was such by this time that I saw at a glance this cairn was not the work of a native.
Drawings and figures, and a variety of curious characters, were faintly discernible on some of the stones, but were not distinct enough to be legible.
On one, however, I distinctly traced the initials "L.

L.," which had withstood the ravages of time because the stone containing them was in a protected place.
Naturally the existence of this structure set me inquiring among the older natives as to whether they ever remembered seeing a white man before; and then I learned that perhaps twenty years previously a man like myself _had_ made his appearance in those regions, and had died a few months afterwards, before the wife who, according to custom, was allotted to him had given birth to the half-caste baby girl, who was now a woman before me.