many fish would be caught in the traps. These fish would not be killed nor eaten, instead they were left for the birds. To this day fish are still captured by these traps feeding the local birds. In 1770, British Captain James Cook on sailed past at some distance to the east, naming Mount Hinchinbrook without realising that it was an island. Lieutenant Phillip Parker King on his surveying voyage in 1819 suspected it was separated from the mainland but could not confirm this. It was not until 1843, when Captain Blackwood on stayed two weeks in the area, that the British were able to verify that it was a distinct landmass, naming it Hinchinbrook Island. The name is from Hinchingbrooke House, in Huntingdon, England, as John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich was First Lord of the Admiralty, and the naming of Hinchinbrook Island, Brampton Island and Montague Island in the South Sandwich Islands are evidence of the early explorers' gratitude to the 4th Earl. Early interactions between British navigators and the Biyaygiri were mostly amicable. Lieutenant Jeffreys of landed there in 1815 as did Lieutenant P.P. King in 1819 and both reported friendly dealings with the indigenous population. In his 1843 voyage, Captain Blackwood of HMS Fly also had peaceful communications with the Biyaygiri initially, but conflict occurred on several occasions when the sailors were pelted with rocks, resulting in a number of islanders being shot. Following the establishment of the township of Cardwell in 1864 on the mainland across from Hinchinbrook, relations with the Biyaygiri soon deteriorated. Inspector John Murray of the Native Police led a group of settlers and troopers on a month long expedition through the island in 1867, bringing some Aboriginal people back to their camp and ship to question them for information about some possible shipwreck survivors. In 1872, after the murder and mutilation of two white fishermen at nearby Goold Island, a large expedition led by sub-Inspector Robert Arthur Johnstone scoured Hinchinbrook Island to locate the perpetrators, returning with three captured young Indigenous children. A visitor to Cardwell at the time reported that one of these children was violated by the police and that the settlers openly talked of "the slaughter of whole camps not only of men, but of women and children". Through violent incidents such as these, the population of Hichinbrook Island was rapidly reduced to a handful of survivors. Reverend