1 George street] George Street, Brisbane, (Australian Life, hereafter AL).Google Scholar

2 anyone I know,] any of my friends, (Christmas Boomerang, hereafter CB).Google Scholar

3 piece of humanity] human (CB); eccentric] abnormal (CB).Google Scholar

4 Frank Melvil of Maidenhair Passage is a thinly disguised portrait of Francis Lascelles (Frank) Jardine (1841–1919), whose home at Somerset on the tip of Cape York Peninsula overlooked Albany Passage.Google Scholar

5 In 1887, Francis Adams travelled by ship up the coast of Queensland to Port Darwin en route to China and Japan. Although he had remarried, his new wife (Ella Edith Goldstone) did not accompany him.Google Scholar

6 Algernon Charles Swinburne, Poems and Ballads (London: J.C. Hotten, 1866). The publication of this volume revived an Anglophone interest in Sappho and contributed to the development of a homoerotic strain in English decadent verse. Adams's alliterative phrase ‘somnolent sweet winy airs’ in the next sentence echoes Swinburne.Google Scholar

7 Pacific] Pacific, (AL); my overworked, sick, fevered personality] overworked, sick, fevered me (CB).Google Scholar

8 islands] islands, (AL).Google Scholar

9 left, a large coral island to the right;] left; a large coral island to the right, (CB).Google Scholar

10 mangroves,] mangoes (CB).Google Scholar

11 graceful and serpentine] graceful serpentine (CB).Google Scholar

12 piles,] piles (AL).Google Scholar

13 onto] on to (AL).Google Scholar

14 The phrase ‘Eden of bland repose’ is from Edgar Allan Poe, ‘To F…’, The Raven and Other Poems, 1845 (London: Wiley and Putnam, 1846), 25. ‘F…’ here refers to the poet Frances Sargeant Osgood (1811–50). Earlier versions of this poem — ‘To Mary’ (Southern Literary Messenger, July 1835) and ‘To One Departed’ (Graham's Magazine, March 1842) — also contain the same phrase. Although it is suggestive of both Poe and Swinburne, I have been unable to identify the following phrase, ‘where the sea winds sing and sunlight smiles': it is probably a misquotation by Adams. Poe's ‘To F…’ ends with the lines: ‘Serenest skies continually / Just o'er that one bright island smile.’Google Scholar

15 Brisbane and at Christmas too.] Brisbane. (AL).Google Scholar

16 boats,] boats (CB).Google Scholar

17 why — as the Yankees say] — why, as the Yankees say (CB).Google Scholar

18 know.] know, Acheson. (AL) The narrator is never named in the Christmas Boomerang version of ‘The Red Snake’. In Australian Life, Acheson reappears as the narrator of ‘Long Forster’ (pp. 137–47), and ‘The Hut by the Tanks’ (pp. 177–91).Google Scholar

19 Frank Jardine was the grandson of Sir Alexander Jardine, 6th Bt, and the nephew of naturalist Sir William Jardine, 7th Bt.Google Scholar

20 there.] there? (AL).Google Scholar

21 Frank Jardine was removed from his post as Police Magistrate in 1875 after many complaints about his ill-treatment of Aborigines and his exploitation of his government post for private gain.Google Scholar

22 In 1879, following the non-fatal spearing of two white men by Aborigines at Cape Bedford north of Cooktown, Sub-Inspector O'Connor led his Native Police troopers on a reprisal attack in which 24 Aborigines were massacred. (Cape Bedford is now part of the Hopevale Aboriginal Community.) Reginald Spencer Browne, associate editor of the Brisbane Courier and a friend and admirer of Francis Adams, gives an account of the massacre in A Journalist's Memories (Brisbane: The Read Press, 1927), 27, where he claims that 28 ‘bucks’ were killed. As a former editor of the Cooktown Herald, Spencer Browne was well informed about northern Queensland. Spencer Browne is the most likely source of Adams’ information about both the Cape Bedford massacre and Frank Jardine.Google Scholar

23 ‘Long Forster’, in the eponymous story by Adams which opens the ‘Up-Country’ section of Australian Life, is also described (20) as ‘about the softest-hearted cuss ever lived. He wouldn't hurt a fly.’ Nonetheless, as revenge for the spearing of a mate, he corners and kills thirteen Aborigines, including women, with a tomahawk and his bare hands. This story first appeared under the pseudonym Proteus as ‘Tony Forster’ in The Boomerang, 5 May 1888: 11.Google Scholar

24 old man,] too, (AL).Google Scholar

25 chap] man (CB).Google Scholar

26 have a chat] spin a yarn (AL); [at six and have chow,] at 6 and have chow (CB); you're] your (AL); Christmas Day] Christmas-day (AL).Google Scholar

27 For the term ‘chin-chin’, see Sir Henry Yule, Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive, new ed. edited by Crooke, William (London: J. Murray, 1903), 200: ‘In the “pigeon English” of Chinese ports this signifies “salutation, compliments,” or “to salute,” and is much used by Englishmen as slang in such senses. It is a corruption of the Chinese phrase ts'ing-ts'ing, Pekingese ch'ing-ch'ing, a term of salutation answering to “thank-you,” “adieu.”’ The entry (201) also cites W. Gill, The River of Golden Sand (1883), 41: ‘But far from thinking it any shame to deface our beautiful language, the English seem to glory in its distortion, and will often ask one another to come to “chow-chow” instead of dinner; and send their “chin-chin,” even in letters, rather than their compliments; most of them ignorant of the fact that “chow-chow” is no more Chinese than it is Hebrew; that “chin-chin,” though an expression used by the Chinese, does not in its true meaning come near to the “good-bye, old fellow,” for which it is often used, or the compliments for which it is frequently substituted.’Google Scholar

28 sail] pearl-shell (AL).Google Scholar

29 George-street] George Street, (AL).Google Scholar

30 Christmas Day] Christmas-day (AL).Google Scholar

31 Manila] Manilla in (AL); [Hongkong] Hong Kong (AL).Google Scholar

32 After the word ‘faint’ in the Christmas Boomerang version, two lines of extraneous text have been erroneously inserted: ‘the office a usual to see if any work was wanted from me for the next morning's issue, but there’.Google Scholar

33 boarding-house,] boarding-house; (CB); George street] George Street (AL). Adams describes what is now the Brisbane CBD (North Quay and George Street) and the South Bank precinct (South Brisbane, across the river).Google Scholar

34 The reference is to Toowong Cemetery, at the foot of Mt Coot-tha. Adams’ first wife, Helen Elizabeth Uttley, died in Brisbane in July 1886 of rheumatic fever and complications from the birth in June of their son Leith, who died in November of that year; both are buried in Toowong Cemetery.Google Scholar

35 garden gate,] garden-gate (CB); and,] and (AL).Google Scholar

36 left.] right (CB).Google Scholar

37 affects,] loves, (CB).Google Scholar

38 door-windows] garden windows (AL); right door-window.] right window. (AL).Google Scholar

39 brow, with its broad frowning bar,] brow with its broad frowning bar (CB).Google Scholar

40 fixed inscrutable resolve of a sphinx.] bold, fixed, and inscrutable resolve of a sphinx. (AL).Google Scholar

41 impassive,] impassive (CB).Google Scholar

42 by the left door-window,] to the left, (AL).Google Scholar

43 the man's face] Melvil's face (CB).Google Scholar

44 wretched,] wretched (CB).Google Scholar

45 ‘Madeline Brown'] ‘Maud Harcourt’ (AL) Francis Adams was the author of a sensational murder mystery, Madeline Brown's Murderer (Melbourne: Kemp and Boyce, [1887]). By substituting the title ‘Maud Harcourt’ and naming the framing narrator Acheson, Adams distances the narrator from himself in the later version. Madeline Brown's Murderer was republished as The Murder of Madeline Brown (Melbourne: Text, 2000), with an introduction by Shane Maloney.Google Scholar

46 me:] me; (AL).Google Scholar

47 miserable,] miserable (AL).Google Scholar

48 suppose?”] suppose.” (CB).Google Scholar

49 civilisation,] civilisation; (AL).Google Scholar

50 to] into (CB).Google Scholar

51 has] had (AL).Google Scholar

52 singing,] singing; (CB).Google Scholar

53 untutored,] untutored (CB); “musical”] pseudo-“musical” (AL).Google Scholar

54 white,] white (CB).Google Scholar

55 him,] him (CB).Google Scholar

56 blackfellows] black fellows (AL).Google Scholar

57 mysteries.”] Mysteries.” (AL).Google Scholar

58 several] several, (AL); runs.] runs, (CB).Google Scholar

59 Lepers); put two revolvers in my belt (AL); take my rifle and] Lepers), put two revolvers in my belt and (CB).Google Scholar

60 interested me,] interested me (CB).Google Scholar

61 in North America, I unravelled the Red Indian carvings] in South America on the Amazon, I unravelled the Indian carvings (AL).Google Scholar

62 Biame (also Baiame or Byamee) is the Great Spirit of the dreaming of several language groups of Indigenous people in south-eastern Australia, and is associated with initiation sites (boras). He is depicted in a famous Wiradjuri rock painting near Singleton as a man with staring eyes and extremely elongated arms. Following the usage of the English Presbyterian missionary William Ridley, who translated the language of the Kamilaroi people in 1866, Baiame is sometimes identified with the Christian God. The story told here by Adams does not appear to have any real connection with Cape York, although a white man may well have tried to pass himself off as the ‘Biame’ of southern language groups. See William Ridley, Kamilaroi, Dippil, and Turrubul: Languages Spoken by Australian Aborigines (Sydney: Government Printer, 1875). See also CareyH.M., ‘The Land of Byamee: K. Langloh-Parker, David Unaipon, and Popular Aboriginality in the Assimilation Era’, in Journal of Religious History, 22(2) (1998): 200–218.Google Scholar

63 mysteries,] Mysteries, (AL).Google Scholar

64 gorges.] gullies (AL).Google Scholar

65 gully] gulley (AL).Google Scholar

66 it] the rock (CB).Google Scholar

67 over the sea and the plans in the east.] in the east over the sea and the coast. (AL).Google Scholar

68 dingoes] dingos (CB).Google Scholar

69 cutting,] cutting (CB).Google Scholar

70 a sweet, lingering passion] a lingering passion (AL).Google Scholar

71 were] were were (AL).Google Scholar

72 over] ever (AL).Google Scholar

73 mysteries] Mysteries (AL).Google Scholar

74 of all] of (CB).Google Scholar

75 the men] the young men (AL).Google Scholar

76 After the death by drowning in the Nile of his Bithynian-born lover, Antinous, Roman Emperor Hadrian was inconsolable and decreed that Antinous be deified. The cause of Antinous's death is unknown, but Melvil here refers to the tradition that Antinous was sacrificed, or sacrificed himself, perhaps to restore Hadrian's health.Google Scholar

77 someone] a man (CB).Google Scholar

78 a man] some man (CB).Google Scholar

79 The bust of Antinous held by the Louvre is the so-called ‘Antinous of Ecouen’ (Accession number Ma 1082 [MR 413], presented to the Louvre in 1793), an eighteenth century copy of an original found at Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli during the Renaissance, and widely copied.Google Scholar

80 earth.] sand. (AL).Google Scholar

81 spade,] spade (CB).Google Scholar

82 love-place—] love-place, (CB).Google Scholar

83 faintly from the left] from the left (CB).Google Scholar

84 earth] sand (AL).Google Scholar

85 earth] sand (AL).Google Scholar

86 By this time a slight land breeze was blowing.] A slight land breeze was blowing. (AL).Google Scholar

87 bannered] coloured (AL).Google Scholar

88 match] match, (AL).Google Scholar

89 every one] everyone (CB).Google Scholar

90 sea breeze blowing from the east] land breeze blowing from the west (AL).Google Scholar

91 quite quiet,] both quite quiet (AL).Google Scholar

92 Then I put down] I put down (CB).Google Scholar

93 onto] on to (AL).Google Scholar

94 Then putting] Then I putting (CB).Google Scholar

95 the cord. They] the cord, they (CB).Google Scholar

96 just glinting] gold (CB).Google Scholar

97 commanded] told (CB).Google Scholar

98 coast.] east (CB) Eucalyptus coolabah grows widely on flood plains throughout Australia, in both coastal and inland areas. The description here of the tree as ‘crooked and stunted’ is curious: the coolabah (as it is generally spelt today) grows to about 15 metres, with wide, spreading branches; however, its lower bark is furrowed.Google Scholar

99 wrists,] wrists (CB).Google Scholar

100 growing radiance] full glow (CB).Google Scholar

101 No quotation marks in CB. These words, like the following snatches of song, are from ‘Home Sweet Home’ by American John Howard Payne. They occur in his 1823 opera, Clari; or the Maid of Milan. In 1852, the English composer Sir Henry Bishop adapted Payne's words and wrote the melody that is still popular today.Google Scholar

102 The Red Snake — square-snouted, thin, whip-like, furious —] The Red Snake, square-snouted, thin, whip-like, furious, (CB).Google Scholar

103 his,] his (AL).Google Scholar

104 a row in the sun for their friends to come and see,] a row in the sun, (CB).Google Scholar

105 “Home, home, sweet, sweet home!”] “Home, home, sweet, sweet home,” (CB).Google Scholar

106 well — the work] well; the work (CB).Google Scholar