SURGICAL HISTORY
THE COLONIAL CAREER OF JAMES PATRICK MURRAY RONALD ELMSLIE Adelaide This paper is a biographical sketch of Dr Murray during the years 1860 to 1873 when he lived in Victoria, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. It records details of his career from his residency at the Melbourne Hospital followed by his exemplary conduct in the Howitt expedition to recover the remains of Burke and Wills. It traces his progress of degradation unhampered by constituted authority and concludes with his magnum opus - the greatest massacre o f Q u t h Sea Islanders in the annals of the South Sea slave trade. He departed from the colonies still registered to practise medicine and without penalty or probation. This paper concludes with a brief summary of his personal qualities and asserts that it was these qualities, together perhaps with the discordance between the colonies, which allowed this knave to escape the penalty which he appeared amply to deserve.
THIS paper was prompted by reading what is probably the most attractively presented publication on an historical theme handled by our College - Julian Orm Smith's 1966 Archibald Watson Memorial Lecture'. Fellows will know that Smith occupied every position of authority in the College at one time or another in his long career from Honorary Assistant Secretary to President2and that he had other claims to some consideration by future generations. However, it is quite possible that his lasting contribution will be his publication of the Watson lecture (which is still available from the College at a modest sum). I n that booklet hedealt in passing w i t h James Patrick M u r r a y , b u t unfortunately.he did not identify the sources of his information and therein perhaps lies the sole claim for this presentation. There are no substantive changes to the record of James Patrick Murray made by Smith, merely additional information and a record of the sources from which it was culled. The steady cadence of professional life is sometimes broken by a discordant spirit. Such a man is newsworthy and, if his actions are judged meritorious, he becomes a hero and his life becomes attractive to generations which follow. However if his actions offend, he is dubbed a scoundrel by his peers and he usually fades quickly from the written accounts of the time- although he might be included as the villain to provide antithetic comparison with the heroes. Seldom does he Reprints Professor Ronald Elmslte University of Adelalde Department of Surgery The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Woodville S A 5011
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deserve or achieve a place in history on achievements alone, and when he does it is usually for the enormity of a single crime or the magnitude of a repeated, basically identical, criminal tendency. James Patrick Murray (registered in the colony of Victoria as Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland, and Licenciate of the King and Queen's College of Physicians, Ireland) spent 13 years in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. He was a villain of immense proportions, and on four occasions during this period in dissimilar incidents he incurred the furious disapprobation of his fellows, of his profession, and of the public. Yet he received no penalty, suffered no withdrawal of privilege, and finally he departed as he arrived - with the firm expectation of future abundance. The medical literature provides some assistance to the biographer of J.P. Murray. The Australian Medical Journal makes passing reference to him between 1863 and 18733 20, there is the reference to him made by Smith in his Archibald Watson Memorial Lecture', and the lay press reported, and continue to revive, the more spectacular incidents in his colonial career. According to Smith', James Patrick Murray was the son of James, a merchant, and was ". . . born in Roscommon and entered Trinity College, Dublin on September 25th, 1856 when he was 17 years of age.". He presumably arrived in Melbourne in November 1860, because he wrote on December 4, 1860, from Prince George's Hotel, Swanston ( s i c ) Street, to the Honorary Secretary to the Royal AUST N.Z. J. SURGVOL 49 - No 1, FEBRUARY, 1979
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Society (of Victoria), offering himself to the Exploration Committee concerned with the Burke and Wills expedition - "Having arrived during the past week for the first time in your Colony, . . ."; the same letter claims Burke, an lrishborn policeman, as ". . . a Countryman of mine"21.He concluded the letter: "But while I thus earnestly solicit your suffrage I am sensibly persuaded by the perusal of Kennedy, Leichhardt (sic) and others; that the enterprise is one involving the greatest personal sufferings and dangers; these however I accept, being animated by an honourable desire for fame and an ardent love of science." Murray, throughout his colonial career, was never short of an eloquent phrase. The Burke and Wills expedition (the Victorian Expedition) had left Melbourne on August 20, 1860, and at the time Murray wrote his letter there was no cause for concern asto its outcome. By June 1861 the Royal Society were less complacent and they sent a search party, led by A. W. Howitt, to determine t-fate of the expedition. Just before reaching Swan Hill the party met a member of the original expedition with the news that the four men who wereattempting tocrosstheContinent had not returned. Howitt repaired to Melbourne, reorganized his party, and returned to thesearch for the lost explorers. At Cooper's Creek* Howitt's party found the sole survivor, King, and the remains of Burke and Wills which they buried before returning to Melbourne. The Royal Society now determined that Howitt should lead another party (tile Exploration Party) to Cooper's Creek to bring back the remains of Burke and Wills for burial in Melbourne. This party left Melbourne in 1862 and included Dr J.P. Murray. (There is a letter2' from the Melbourne Hospital dated December 14, 1861, giving permission, consequent to a deputation from the Exploration Committee, for Dr Murray to join the party about to proceed tq Cooper's Creek underthe leadership of Mr Howitt.) There is every indication that Murray earned the approval of the taciturn and exacting Howitt. Indeed the young Murray appears to have been an exemplary member of the party which itself proved a model of efficiency in land exploration. Scurvy (the scourge of the Burke and Wills expedition) was prevented by the growing of vegetables at the Cooper's Creek base camp, probably at the insistence of Howitt, the experienced bushman. Murray travelled in some of the exploratory parties from the base camp and had 'Captain Charles Sturt originaliy named the Creek "I gave the name Cooper's Creek to the water course we had anxiously traced " " Geographers now label this occasional waterway 'Cooper' However. Howilt. Burke and Wills and others of that era. including Arrowsmith. the mapmaker. labelled i t 'Coopers" which has been retained in this account Murray in his letters ' gave his address as "Coopers Creek"
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a creek and a mountain named after him' He received written praise from his leader and accompanied him (with the remains of Burke and Wills) to Adelaide After the early exploration undertaken by the Colony of New South Wales the quest for high honour moved to the newer colonies, Victoria and South Australia. Although the Victorian purse was deeper, the trumpets of the youngercolonies loudly proclaimed their rivalry. The agonizing success of Burke and Wills, in crossing the continent at the forfeit of their lives, was not allowed to become an ephemeral event; their remains were to become the object of greater mass mourning in Melbourne than any event before or since. Adelaide shared this mourning with her sister state. On Thursday December 11, 1862, a large concourse of the citizens of Adelaide assembled,near the Newmarket Inn on the edge of the city to show their respects to the remains of the dead Victorians being conveyed ". . . in Mr Rounsevell's best hearse, drawn by four black horses.. . " 2 4 The hearse was preceded by the Mayor and city officials and followed immediately by Mr Howitt, Dr Murray and South Australia's own Mr John McKinley. The remains of Burke and Wills remained at the Mounted Police Barracks in the City of Adelaide until December 24, when they, together presumably with Dr Murray, were conveyed aboard the Havilah to Melbourne where there were "great preparations for their i nt ermen t"25. J. P. Murray had apparently set the scene for a successful medical career in Melbourne. Some of the gloss and public esteem acquired by Burke and Wills was transferred to the reluctant Howitt, and no doubt to other members of his party including Murray. At 24 years of age, with a year's residencyat the Melbourne Hospital and an unblemished, even outstanding, record of exploration behind him, one could predict that he would settle down to a stable i f unconventional medical career. Yet shortly after arriving back in Melbourne Murray left for New Zealand. The Southland News of April 15, 1863, carried an announcement of his consulting hours in InvercargillZ6.Heisdescribedas". . .ayoungmanof neat, rather dandified appearance, good-looking and with any amount of assurance and selfconfidence, suave and ingratiating in manner which 'went down' particularly well with the ladies.. .". He became Resident Surgeon to the Southland Provincial Hospital with the right of private practice, and according to Fulton26-there was increasing discontent in regard to this aspect of his practice, 'Nebfher Murray Creek nor M I Murray are to be found In inodern Army Survey maps of the area Murray Creek appears to have been renamed Candradecka Creek M I Murray I S on the edge of Stilrt's Stony desert
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letters of disapproval regarding the charging of public patients being published in the lay press. Murray left lnvercargill in 1865 and returned to Melbourne. The Victorian Government appointed him second-in-charge of the Maclntyre search expedition looking for the remains of Leichhardt, whose earlier disappearance provided a strange episode in Australila’s land exploration history. Leichhardt, a fugitive from Prussia, had already achieved fame with his privately sponsored journey from the Darling Downs to Port Essington, a distance of some 3,000 miles. He disappeared in 1848 in his second attempt to cross the Continent from east to west, and he was last identified in the Darling Downs area. Duncan Maclntyre, having earlier found two trees inscribed “L” in the region of the Flinders River in the North of Australia, was selected by a Ladies’ Committee of Melbourne (16 worthy wealthy women, two from each denomination, selected e L e i c h h a r d t ’ s old friend Ferdinand von Mueller) to lead the party, and Dr J.P. Murray was nominated to be second-in-command. They reached Cooper’s Creek on November 26, 1865 but finding it dry they retraced their track, Maclntyre going ahead to look for water. However, on this return trip Murray, in the rear guard, lost his head and, with some of his companions, became drunk on brandy and let the stock roam free - an incident which was widely reported in the local news, and caused Marcus Clarke27to write of him (Murray) “. . . to his gross misconduct is largely to The Ladies’ be attributed the catastrophy.. Leichhardt Search Expedition, for which E4,000had been raised, was a failure. The Bendigo Advertiser published a letter from Dr Murray to a Dr James dated January 4, 186628,in which he explained in most plausible terms his predicament: “We were all more or less delirious, but I think I was one of the worst, as I had received a kick from one of the horses which very nearly gave me my quietus.. . Met a black boy who saved my life by keeping me in his miamia all day from the hot sun. . . . so my life was saved by the infinite mercy of God.” This is not to be the last time Murray returns to his Christian pose. The Riverina Herald of February 7, 186628,was not convinced: “. . .We know of no single instance in the history of exploration where a leader has been deserted as Mr Mclntyre has been.” The Daily Telegraph, Adelaide, on August 3, 186628, in reporting the death of Duncan Maclntyre, refers to “. . . the base, cruel and cowardly desertion of one in whom the leader of the party had first reposed implicit confidence. We refer, of course, to Dr Murray, who seems to have become chickenhearted at the first sign of danger, and to have returned in haste to the settled districts, regardless of what .’I.
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became of his leader and the brave few who still remained faithful to him. It would be useless now to dwell on the proceedings of the few days prior to Dr Murray’s desertion of his charge, o r to describe that orgie in which he and one or two others wgre the actors while their cattle were straying away from them. Where was Dr Murray when the leader of the expedition was dying? Safe within the precincts of the Melbourne Benevolent Asylum, hundreds of miles from the spot where the brave, true-hearted, Mclntyre was taking leave of the world forever.” Little is known of the next period of Murray’s colonial career spanning the time he returned to Melbourne from the abortive Ladies’ Leichhardt Search Expedition early i n 1866 until his departure for Fiji in 1871. The Australian Medical Journal carries several references, and we learn, for instance, that on September.8, 1866, he married Caroline, daughter of Dr James Patterson of St Kilda6.Then there is the announcement of the birth of a son on April 11, 1868, at Timperley Lodge, Brighton’. The July 1868 issue carried the first part of a paper ”Diptheria and Scarlatina” by James P. Murray, L.R.C.S.I., L.K. and Q.C.P.I., etc., in which he suggests that both might be the same diseases.In January 1869 there was the announcement of the formation of a new medical society - “The Victorian Medical A s s o ~ i a t i o n ” ~Dr . Murray was listed as a Committeeman, and it was announced that a Medical Gazette would be published. The March 1869” issue in its “Local topics” section quotes from the Melbourne Age and the Daily Telegraph of March 3, 1866 at Murray’s expense. Thus the Age announcement was “Dr James P. Murray has requested us to state that he has given up his connection with the Australian Medical Gazette. We are requested to state, on the other hand, that the Medical Association dispensed with his services after the first number.” The Daily Telegraph published a letter (signed H.B.) to its editor: “Will you permit me, through your columns, to ask the sedretary of the Medical Association, if Dr J.P. Murray, mentioned in your today’s issue is the same individual who became somewhat notorious by his connection with the Mclntyre search expedition? If this be so, has the Association sustained a serious loss by his retirement?”. The July 1869 issue carried without comment under the heading “Professional Dignity” copies of two soliciting documents which had been addressed to the members of the Friendly Societies of Brighton and the Cheltenham by Dr J.P. Murraylz. The language of the advertisements is explicit; in part it read: “You will, I hope, clearly understand Ido not wish to urge any member to have me as his surgeon, unless he is perfectly satisfied that my AUST
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qualifications are superior to any other surgeon about here (being a physician as well as a surgeon etc.) . . ." He then goes on to list his diplomas and his medical appointments, finishing with the information that he was previously an assistant leader writer while in New Zealand and has since been "a constant contributor to the Medical and other Journals of the Colony." While this news may have offended the editorial staff of the Australian Medical Journal and some of his professional colleagues it in no way limited Murray's ability to practise. Indeed, minor honours followed, for in November 1869 it was announced that Dr James Patrick Murray had been gazetted Assistant Surgeon to the Brighton R.V.V. Artillery Corps'3. In March 1870 the Australian Medical Journal saw fit to announce the birth of a daughter to James P. Murray14. According to Smith' Murray then sold his practice in Brighton to Dr e f G . Casey and partly with these proceeds he purchased the Brigantine Carl. It was to be in this vessel that Murray seared the tapestry of his professed Christian life and slaughtered 70 kidnapped South Sea islanders - probably the most unsavoury episode in the annals of slavery in the Pacific. By the late 1860s the romance of the goldfields, which had gripped thecoloniesof Australiafor 15 or more years, had soured. The more venturesome of young men now looked for wealth and fame to the South Seas, and particularly to the Fiji Islands, with their more equitable climate and their previous acquaintance wit,h the western world. While the imaginative vision may have been romantic, Fiji and the other South Sea islands were often shoals on which lives, as well as ships, floundered. For years American and British discards from society had used the islands to escape either the law or the tedium of more established society and to plunder with few restraints. At the close of the 18th century the interdenominational L o n d o n Missionary Society had been set up specifically to bring enlightenment to the South Seas, initially to Tahiti, later to all adjacent islands. Hard on their heels came the Wesleyans. The most powerful Chief in the discordant Fiji island society was Cakobau, who was converted to Christianity by the Wesleyans in 1854. In 1858 Cakobau was pursued b y a United States citizen for an alleged debt of $9,000, He offered to cede the Fiji islands to Queen Victoria if the debt was accommodated. However, England was not then in an acquisitive mood, being beset with military difficulties in New Zealand, and the offer was refused. The American threat was mere bluff, and it
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was not until 1874 that Queen Victoria graciously added these jewels to her crown. Meanwhile the government affairs of expatriate Englishmen and colonials in and around Fiji were conducted by Her Britannic Majesty's Consul in Levuka, the capital of the islands; and at the time James Patrick Murray had need to use these services the position was occupied by Edward March of whom the normally restrained Fiji Timesz9wrote: About our Consul in Fiji Was held a consultation His conduct as all agree A grievance worth narration As of his just authority He oversteps the borders What joy t'will be when Mr March receives his marching orders In 1871 the planters in Fiji were riding the wave of a cotton boom, and their problem was to find labourers to work their plantations. Although slavery had been officially abolished by Her Majesty's Parliament in 1834, it took many years for the Royal Navy to suppress both the West Indian and West African slave trade. Australian slavery began in Queensland in 1863, the recruits being called either indentured labour (or simply labour) or kanakas. The first group of kanakas worked on Robert Town's cotton plantation: they were recruited humanely, housed adequately, and returned to their island homes at the completion of their contract. Although the "labour trade" thus began with some honour and was judged a success it soon deteriorated into kidnapping with all its attendant human misery. The demand for labour in Queensland and then Fiji increased, and wealthy interests, not only in Brisbane, but also in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, became involved, although the true situation was suppressed. E.W. Docker in his book "The black birder^"^^ describes the year 1871 (the year J.P. Murray entered the market) as the turning point in public opinion in Australia against the "labour cruises" as they were euphemistically called. He relates how a year or so earlier the hero of the West Indian slave trade abolitionists, Captain George Palmer, had seized the Daphne (by his testimony looking for all the world exactly like an African slaver) in the South Seas. The Master of the Daphne was broughtto trial in Sydney and Captain Palmer, the champion of Imperial jurisdiction, was present as the Chief Justice of the Colony of New South Wales heard the charge that the Master df the Daphne had contravened the Imperial Passenger Act and the Queensland Labour Act. The Master was acquitted, and the ship released; Captain Palmer was ordered
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to pay the expenses of the trial (E170) from his own pocket! Later these expenses were refunded by Her Majesty's Government and Palmer, now out of the colonies, was promotedz9.However the message of the Australian Court to the Royal Navy and to the buccaneer blackbirders was quite clear. The Chief Justice, in ruling that the Daphne with its 108 primitive naked islanders had been illegally seized by the Royal Navy, gave a clear signal to eager blackbirders that the Pacific Island slave trade could be continued. One can imagine there was a general unfurling of sail in the eastern ports of Australia and in the gin-ridden out-stations of western society in the Pacific. The slave trade would have flourished for years and the far-off heathens would have been ignored had not an event of special irritation occurred - the ritual murder of the Eton-educated Bishop of Melanesia, Bishop Patteson, on September 20, 1871, in &e Santa Cruz group of islands, as a reprisal against the butchery of their own natives by blackbirders. Dr Murray's activities too were to be placed on record in thecontemplative days after Patteson's murder became known. Although Patteson's martyrdom and Murray's massacre took place within the same week, the massacre was not exposed for eight months. What then did Murray do in the South Pacific? He made his impetuous move into the Fijian slave trade by using the proceeds of the sale of his Melbourne home together with E300 (E50 from each of six young Melbourne men he undertook to set up as planters in theSouth Seas) to purchase the brig Carl of 280 tons on April 25,1871. The plan was to start a cotton plantation in the New Hebrides or the Fijis or any island found suitable for the purpose. The land was to be selected subject to the approval of the party. The Carl, with the six planters and several other passengers together with Dr Murray and its crew, left Melbourne on June 8, 1871, with seed, farm implements, and horses aboard. If Dr Murray had decided to enter the slave trade the passengers were unaware of it. Their route is not recorded, but it is recorded that they reached Levuka, the capital of Fiji, on June 28, 1871. The accounts of the New Hebrides were not pleasant, and the planters tried to persuade Murray to start the plantation there rather than in the Hebrides. Fiji at that time was not the idyllic haven some may imagine. There were some 2,500 aliens - English, Americans and colonials - many fugitives frqm the law. Levuka, the seaport on the island of Ovalu, housed 600 whites and had no less than 52 hotels, licensed bars and kava-saloons strung along itsone mile of beach front? It was said that ships'captains had no need for charts when approaching Levuka. All they needed to do was to pick up the long line of 158
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Holland's square gin bottles that floated out to sea, increasing in number as they neared the port, and they found themselves unerringly right at their a n ~ h o r a g eOn ~ ~ .June 5, 1871, just 23 days before Murray and the Carjarrived i n Levuka, Cakobau was proclaimed King of Fiji at a ceremony in Levuka, His court was weak, ineffectiveand divided. The first Fiji boom in sandalwood for the China trade was over; now the golden gain was in South Seas cotton grown for the French market. In 1871 the effect of the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war (which ultimately led to a fall in cotton prices from 4/4d to 1/4d (per pound) on the market had not yet been appreciated, and the cry of the landowners there as in Queensland was for cheap labour. The Fijians themselves were not by nature diligent workers; indeed, anything approaching sustained work was regarded as rather unmanly. Furthermore their tribal system, whereby the chief controlled each member of the tribe, gave the natives noopportunity to sell their own labour even had they been so inclined. Therefore natives from neighbouring islands, sometimes over 1,000 miles away, were being enticed aboard ships, kidnapped and transported to the Levuka labour market, ostensibly on an indenture system supervised by Consul March. There were two voyages of the brig Carl from Levuka while it was owned by Murray. Prior to the first voyage Murray shipped a new crew with the exception of the first mate Johnson, who he promoted to captain, and convinced the Melbourne planters that they should at least explore the prospects of setting up a plantation in the New Hebrides. At the same time Murray received from the Consul March a certificate authorizing him to procure labour. On weighing anchor on the first voyage the ship proceeded in a westerlydirection to the Island of Tanna in the New Hebrides, where they began to trade for food. It was here that Murray quarrelled with two of the planters (Bell and Grut) and forcibly put them and their party ashore; the party, which included Grut's wife and child and a fellow-passenger, Miss Chapman, found themselves in the midst of a savage war being waged between the cannibal tribes. Bell and Grut were eaten, and the ladiesand child were saved only by being snatched away by a missionary who later returned them to Melbourne. After a hasty departure from Tanna, Murray turned north to Api (Efate), where he procured land, three miles square, for the remaining planters. They now prepared to disembark and commence farming on the understanding that Murray would go off and procure the labour. Preparations for a labour cruise were begun in earnest, and the crew cut and stowed AUST N.Z. J. SURG VOL 49
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saplings to accommodate captured natives in the holds. However, Murray let his passengers down when he precipitously sailed away with them still on board. Later i n his lengthy affidavit33 Murray dismisses this voyage (in which 70 natives were slaughtered) in one sentence: "We now went in search of labour and remained out some months when, having obtained a certain number, the vessel returned again to the New Hebrides." In fact during the next months Murray, his crew, and the planters kidnapped some 160 natives. The natives of these parts were aware of the usual tricks employed by blackbirders to kidnap them, yet many were captured by a new technique apparently devised b y Murray. Lead weights and cannon were secured by ropes in the shrouds of the Carl and released when the canoes containing the natives were beneath them. The Murray kidnapping cruise was unique in other ways. Firsghere was the exceptionally large number of prisoners; then the islands they chose to steal from were well to the west and north-west of Fiji with warlike natives unlike those to the north where the placid Kingsmill islanders lived. Their first attempt at kidnapping was to pose as missionaries and entice the natives aboard at the island of Palma (Paama). When this failed a more direct approach was used. The crew took the boats on a wide excursion in a vain attempt to round up natives at gunpoint. On returning to the Carl they found a dozen canoes around their boat peacefully trading. Murray approached shooting. In the melee which followed many of the canoes capsized and a dozen natives were captured. According to one version of the Murray ordered a wounded native to be thrown overboard. Travelling northwest the Carl went to Santa Anna, Molata (Malaita), Ysabel (Isabel) and Choiseul, finally reaching Bougainville. By this time more than 60 natives had been captured. Their final haul, extending over three days, took place in the Buka strait between the island of Bouka (Buka) and Bougainville. Oneof the seamen aboard the Carl gave this account of the last day's action: "We stood out to seaat night and came in again the next morning. There were a number of canoes putting off. Three large canoes containing from 7 to 16 men each came alongside. The pig iron was got ready before they reached us. Dr Murray called out 'Well boys we must look sharp now. We want those natives. We want about30 more!" We got about 80 or 82 altogether at Bougainville in those 3 days. After capturing the last lot of natives we set sail for L e v ~ k a " The ~ ~ . holds of the Carl were now prison to some 160 captured natives including 25 fierce Malaitamen and no less than 86 natives from Bougainville. On the night of September 14,' 1871, 'Statement of Mount and
Smith' gives the dateasSeptember20
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two days after leaving the Buka strait, on their return to Fiji via Api, the natives in the holds created a worrying disturbance, certainly by shouting and hammering, and perhaps by lighting a fire34.In the blackness of the night Murray led the crew in a bloody massacre by firing blindly through the hatches into the holds,. Later Murray further distinguished himself by piercing the bulkheads with augurs to fire with rifles and guns directly into the holds. In the morning about 35 bodies were thrown overboard and another 35 severely wounded were bound hand and foot and similarly despatched. About 15 managed toescape by jumping overboard. Before nightfall the holds were thoroughly washed and on reaching Api they were whitewashed to cover the bloody evidence. This concealment succeeded because shortly afterwards she was boarded and the holds were examined without comment by Lieutenant Taylor of H.M.S. Rosario. At Api Murray and one of the planters, Scott, and a dozen or so natives were landed. The other three planters, Mount, Morris, and Wilson, remained on board until the Carl reached Levuka, where they borrowed their fares and returned to Australia in a vain attempt to put the nightmare behind them. Captain Johnson sold the residual 59 natives for a net profit of f560/10/-37.The planters having left the ship, it now took on a new passenger somewhat down on his luck - Archibald Watson - the future foundation Professor of Anatomy at the University of Adelaide. The second voyage of the Carl was a more orthodox cruise. The first call out of Levuka was to Api, where Murray and Scott rejoined the ship. The vessel then did a wide circle of the Pacific Islands, a voyage described in a diary kept by Watson3'. On this voyage natives were persuaded rather than forced to remain aboard. Nevertheless some coercion must have been used. On at least two occasions groups of natives having joined the ship left i t precipitously. Watson makes scant mention of Murray in his diary ". . . Saturday 30th of March Dr. very sick and foolish"; "2nd of April . . . after tea the Doctor made a rush on deck tomahawk in hand and threw himself into the sea over the quarter and tried to swim away from theship. Saul (?) cutthelashings of the boat and he Scotty and Jim and two Tannamen quickly pulled after him and just succeeded in catching him before he sank. He was nearly choked with salt water. I kept awake all night lest he should try again.". Then "April l o t h , Doctor in a terrible state lying amongst the natives whom he got to drench him with buckets of salt water . . . mind wandering very much." On April 18 the Carl
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returned back to Levuka with 100 natives. One native died of pneumonia, and was buried at sea. The events leading up to the Court proceedings which i n turn led to the exposure of the massacre of the first trip followed an unusual path. Early on the second trip Murray conceived his life to beat risk. In his affidavit later33he stated "Archibald Watson, the passenger who was in the beginning of the voyage most attentive to me in every way, most unaccountably now turned against meand acting in conjunction with the Captain he circulated slanders in the vilest nature amongst the crew which they believed. From this date, Watson became my most inveterate enemy." In a supplementary handwritten statement he alluded to Watson: ". . . should this man ever turn up on the stage of life again he will prove a tough fellow to deal with. The deliberate malice with which he persecuted me . . . surpassed anything I thought a human being capable of. I cannot attempt to handle this man's character but leave it in the hands of one who said 'vengeance is mine I will repay'."33Murray finished the statement in the next paragraph with this pious sentence ". . . Almighty God support me through it as I merit his Infinite mercy and loving kindness." Murray spent the first week ashore being treated by Dr Brown, who was'also Watson's doctor, and who had recommended that Watson take a sea trip. Then the Consul March invited Dr Murray to be his house guest for the remainder of his stay, and there on May 17, 1872, Murray swore an affidavit in which he laid criminal information against Joseph Armstrong, Master, Archibald Watson "who acted as the Master's tool and did me the utmost harm", Saul McCarthy, and the second mate (W. Dowden). Subsequently a court martial was held on H.M.S. Cossack where the charges dealing with thesecond voyage were upheld in respect to the Captain and some of his crew and they were despatched to Sydney for trial. Edward March granted the Queen's immunity to his house guest, Murray, and in the subsequent trials Murray appears for the prosecution. Watson was relieved on his own recognizance of $1,000 which he forfeited when he left the colony shortly afterwards. In November 1872 the trials of Captain Armstrong and seven of his crew in Sydney for assault, and of Armstrong and the Mate, for murder, resulted in all but two being judged guilty of assault; the Captain and the Mate received the death sentence, later commuted to life imprisonment, the first three years to be served in irons. Although the judge mentioned the dubious character of the leading witness for the prosecution, the report of the triaP leaves the reader in doubt about the justice of the verdict.
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Certainly Murray was not critically cross-examined. The reporter noted; "His honour then in a most impressive and solemn manner passed the sentence of death upon Joseph Armstrong and Charles Dowden ."36 The Colony of Victoria was seized with a sense of guilt; after all the Carl and its crew were identified with that colony and the chief villain, albeit immune from prosecution, had spent most of his adult life there. As S e a ~ I wrote e ~ ~ in his account of the affair, "The Colony (Victoria) had burst out suddenly into one of those fits of virtuous indignation which most c i v i l i z e d c o m m u n i t i e s , e s p e c i a l l y British communities are apt to indulge in, when evils long tolerated all at once by some accident gain a strong hold on the public attention.". The fact that in the meantime D r Murray h.td obtained a local Government a ~ p o i n t m e n t ' ~seemed to have escaped attention. Instead the two planters of the first cruise who had returned to Victoria - Henry Clarke Mount and William Charles Morris - were arrested within days of the verdict in Sydney. They were tried before the Chief Justice (Sir William Foster Stawell) for murder of South Seas islanders, found guilty of manslaughter, and sentenced to 15 years' penal servitude. Their trial, like that of Armstrong and Dowden in Sydney, dealt with events of the first voyage of the Carl. After being imprisoned for some time they were brought up on a writ of habeas corpus and discharged. Ultimately, an appeal was referred to the judicial committee of the Queen's Privy Council in London, where the opinion was adverse to the Victorian judges. By that time Mount and Morris were not to be numbered in a Victorian census. After Murray had returned to Sydney as principal witness for the prosecution of the Captain and Mate of the Carl he was not idle. The Australian Medical Journal in September, 1872j6, tells its readers that the Dr Murray whose confession concerning "the unbelievable atrocities committed on board the Carl while on a kidnapping cruise" is the same Dr Murray who distinguished himself as a member of the Leichhardt expedition. It issomewhat surprising to learn in the October issue17the City Council of Sandhurst on October 27 voted Dr J.P. Murray a letter of thanks and the sum of E50 in recognition of his services during a recent smallpox outbreak (particularly as in January 187215 there was the question of whether his name should be erased from the register for not having replied to letters sent regarding his registration). Dr Murray's reply to the Sandhurst City Council was printed in the Bendigo AdvertiseP which declared: "a more sickening and disgusting tirade of hypocrisy and cant has seldom, if ever, found its way into print." They referred no AUST N.Z. J. SURGVOL 49 - N o 1, FEBRUARY. 1979
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doubt to the following excerpts from Murray's letter3$: "It is true that I was one of the humble instruments employed by God in stamping out the smallpox in your city.. . My object from the date of my conversion (towards the close of the 'Carl's' last voyage) has been the suppression of South Sea slavery. . . The prosperity of a city, having you for its head, should be certain; and I humbly pray to the Giver of all good things that your public efforts may be characterised by success and crowned with honour, while in private life you taste the sweets of in unallayed domestic happiness. . ." The editorializing over this episode, concluded; "At all events we hope that we shall not be nauseated by any more communication from this murdering MAWWORM."' The November issue of the Australian Medical Journalla castigated Murray in an editorial entitled "Absolute Infamy", and found some consolation in erroneously believing it would be possible to prevent him from practising medicine. Referring to the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland and the King and Queen's College of Physicians of Ireland the editor wrote "...it is tolerably certain the profession will be relieved of the discredit of his remaining on its roll as soon as the two bodies from which he derives his qualifications shall have been officially advised of all the circumstances connected with his crimes." Theaditorial concluded: "A shadow rests upon our order so long as the name of James Patrick Murray defiles the Medical Register." Dr Murray was last seen in Sydney on January 20, 1873, and it was generally believed that he had gone to Englandz0.It has been suggested36that he abandoned his family in Melbourne. Were it not for Sir Edward Ford's Bibliography of Australian Medicine40 that would be the end of the story. His reference work cites the January 18, 1879 issue of the Lancet4' which carries a letter from James P. Murray, Late Surgeon to the Victorian Contingent Search Expedition into Central Australia, on the pronounciation and pharmacology of Pituri. There is no hint in that letter that the writer has retired from active medical practice; he gave as his qualification L.R.C.S.I. etc. and his address as Newlands, Manchester. By any standard James Patrick Murray was a rogue. A fair appraisal would be the letter written to the Herald by his father and published on May 23, 187334:"As regard Dr Murray the celebrated "Carl" mancatching approver.. . whom I for years havecut off as a disgrace to creed, country and family.. . if any of the "Carl" crew murderers should ever ascend the gibbet for the kidnapped seventy c r ue I Iy -s Ia ug ht e r ed poor Po Iy n es ians , Dr M u r ray ' A hypocritical pretender lo Sahcltly (0 E D )
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should be the first, as head." A more analytical appraisal was given by S e a ~ l e ~"A ~ : polished manner, however, often covers a multitude of sins. Except for this one quality he seems to have been one of those remarkable scoundrels whom, happily, we rarely meet with, either in the pages of history or in actual life - a man unredeemed by one single virtue. Cruel, treacherous, mean in money matters, a liar in word and a traitor in action, brutal in authority - with all the trickery of the monkey, all the ferocity of the tiger - but a coward in danger.. . Yet for depth of artifice, sustained by wonderful cunning through a long-continued chain of circumstances, he seems so skillful. . ." At the time, what concerned the public at large and the medical profession was how gross unprofessional and antisocial conduct could be unpunished. He was never tried on any court. His name was not removed from the Victorian Register of Medical Practitioners, and the Lancet letter suggests that he continued to practice medicine on his return to England. There is little doubt that a certain type of villain can be identified by reviewing Murray's career; many will never come across one such as Murray; those who do may be forewarned by such a review. He combined a pleasing superficial personality with an exuberance of charm and apparent dedication. He was vain and ungenerous. Articulate in speech and fluent in prose, he was a master of flattery and persuasion. He was supremely plausible, eloquent in his own defence and uncapable of genuine remorse. While he performed well asa subaltern he wilted as a leader; yet he aspired to leadership. He was supremely contemptuous, and cunning He was sublimely confident, he made no effort to conceal his past by changing his name, and he was never shown to be a barefaced liar. The record shows hts capacity to deceive (the Board of the Melbourne Hospital and the medical appointing committees, the Ladies' Leichhardt Expedition, Ferdinand von Mueller, the planter passengers on the Carl and Edward March). There are also undertones of Murray's capacity to deceive and seduce women, but no firm record has been found. Perhapssomeof his moves were to escape situations other than creditors - the short stay in Melbourne, the visit to New Zealand, the return to Melbourne and the departure for Fiji. In each new role he presumably fails to achieve what he conceives to be success; the overriding attribute he shares with other great villains was his superb capacity to move rapidly when his own survival was at stake. He then took the initiative in his own defence and secured his future by removing himself before a full exposure and its consequences became inevitable. I f the medical 161
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profession can salvage any credit from the colonial career of J.P. Murray, it was that, apart from his family, the 23-year-old Archibald Watson was the only one to see quickly through his bluff and to refuse to be persuaded against his own judgement. James Patrick Murray did a great disservice to mankind and to Medicine, and medical authorities did themselves a great disservice by not pursuing him with vigour and disgorging him from their ranks. One wonders whether this lesson of medical history has been learned or whether we still tend to tolerate those whose actions merit not mere ostracism but a dedicated pursuit to expunge them from practice? It would be interesting to know of the later career of J.P. Murray.' No doubt he continued to leave a trail of broken people as he went on practising medicine. No doubt too he walked boldly, making no attempt to cover his tracks, and no doubt at the end he felt no remorse. The J.P. Murrays of this world are strong evil destructive influences. They prosper when selfinterest, lethargy, or misplaced benevolence on the part of those responsible for ordered society fail to crush them with vigour. Since the completioii of this paper i t has been found that the name James Patrick Murray appeared on the list of erasures of the General Medical Council List dated July 18,1879. by order otthe General Council. in consequence of his name having been removed froin the Lists of Licentiates of the King and Oueen's College of Physicians of Ireland, and of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland The reason given for the erasure i s bland "Kidnapping natives in the Pacific"
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I should like to express my thanks to the Council of The University of Adelaide for the granting of study leave during which this paper was prepared and to Mrs E. Maze1 for her constant assistance Others have generously assisted in the preparation of this paper, particularly librarians - Mr Michael Piggott of the National Library of Australia, Miss Reynolds of the State Library of Victoria, Miss Lloyd of the Barr Smith Library of the University of Adelaide, and Miss Cooper of the South Australian State Library. Two recent publications "The Blackbirders", by E.W. Docker and "Come Wind, Come Weather", by Mary Howitt Walker, were most helpful sources of information. Many others have helped me in finding out about Archibald Watson, whose life was no doubt influenced by J.P. Murray, and it was this association which prompted a closer look at his colonial career.
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REFERENCES 1 SMITH J 0 (1967) The 1966 Archibald Watson Memorial Lecture McLaren and Co Melbourne 2 LOEWENTHAL J (1972) AUST N Z J SURG 41 297 3 Austral M J (1863) 8 151 4 ibidem (1866) 11 216 5 ibidem 255 6 ibidem 301 7 ibidem (1868) 13 128 8 ibidem 200 9 ibidem (1869) 14 32 10 ibidem 94 11 ibidem 132 12 ibidem 220 13 ibidem 355 14 ibidem (1870), 15 9 6 15 ibidem (1872) 17 30 16 ibidem 296 17 ibidem 328 18 ibidem 343 19 ibidem (1873) 18 7 20 ibidem 95 21 Records of the Exploration Committee of the Royal Society of Victoria State Library of Victoria 22 The Australian Encyclopedia (1965) Grolier 23 Walker M H (1971) Come Wind Come Weather A Biography o f Alfred Howitt Melbourne University Press 24 The Register (Adelaide) December 12 1862 25 The Register (Adelaide) December 25 1862 26 FuLTON R (1922) Medical practice in Otago and Southland in the early days Otago Daily Times and Witness Newspaper Co 27 CLARKE M (ed ) (1877) School History o f Australia F F Bailliere Melbourne 221 28 Quoted by Fulton (27) 29 Fili Times December 10 1872 30 DOCKER E W (1970) The Blackbirders The Recruiting ot South Seas Labour for Queensland 1863-1907 Angusand Robertson Sydney 31 PALMER G (1871) Kidnapping in the South Seas being a Narrative o f a Three Months Cruise o f H M Ship Rosario Edrnonston and Douglas Edinburgh 32 WHONSBONASTON C W (1970) Pacific Irishman William Floyd Inaugural Memorial Lecture C C Merritl Lakernba 33 Attorney General sSpeclal Bundles Vol 4 7/2698B 1836 1876 New South Wales State Archives 34 SEARLE G S (1875) M o u n t a n d Morris €xonerated A Narrative o f the Voyage o f the B r i g Carl in 1871 with Comments u p o n the Trial which Followed the Massacre o n Board that Vessel Evans Bros Melbourne 35 Daily Telegraph January 10 1873 36 Sydney Morning Herald September 3 1872 37 MARSTON H Papers (item 3927) National Library of Australia 38 Sydney Morning Herald November 20 1872 39 The Argus November 18 1872 40 FORD E (1976) Bibliography o f Australian Medicine 1790 7900 Sydney University Press 41 MURRAY J P (1879) Lancet 1 106
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THE COLONIAL CAREER OF JAMES PATRICK MURRAY RONALD ELMSLIE Adelaide This paper is a biographical sketch of Dr Murray during the years 1860 to 1873 when he lived in Victoria, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. It records details of his career from his residency at the Melbourne Hospital followed by his exemplary conduct in the Howitt expedition to recover the remains of Burke and Wills. It traces his progress of degradation unhampered by constituted authority and concludes with his magnum opus - the greatest massacre o f Q u t h Sea Islanders in the annals of the South Sea slave trade. He departed from the colonies still registered to practise medicine and without penalty or probation. This paper concludes with a brief summary of his personal qualities and asserts that it was these qualities, together perhaps with the discordance between the colonies, which allowed this knave to escape the penalty which he appeared amply to deserve.
THIS paper was prompted by reading what is probably the most attractively presented publication on an historical theme handled by our College - Julian Orm Smith's 1966 Archibald Watson Memorial Lecture'. Fellows will know that Smith occupied every position of authority in the College at one time or another in his long career from Honorary Assistant Secretary to President2and that he had other claims to some consideration by future generations. However, it is quite possible that his lasting contribution will be his publication of the Watson lecture (which is still available from the College at a modest sum). I n that booklet hedealt in passing w i t h James Patrick M u r r a y , b u t unfortunately.he did not identify the sources of his information and therein perhaps lies the sole claim for this presentation. There are no substantive changes to the record of James Patrick Murray made by Smith, merely additional information and a record of the sources from which it was culled. The steady cadence of professional life is sometimes broken by a discordant spirit. Such a man is newsworthy and, if his actions are judged meritorious, he becomes a hero and his life becomes attractive to generations which follow. However if his actions offend, he is dubbed a scoundrel by his peers and he usually fades quickly from the written accounts of the time- although he might be included as the villain to provide antithetic comparison with the heroes. Seldom does he Reprints Professor Ronald Elmslte University of Adelalde Department of Surgery The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Woodville S A 5011
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deserve or achieve a place in history on achievements alone, and when he does it is usually for the enormity of a single crime or the magnitude of a repeated, basically identical, criminal tendency. James Patrick Murray (registered in the colony of Victoria as Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland, and Licenciate of the King and Queen's College of Physicians, Ireland) spent 13 years in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. He was a villain of immense proportions, and on four occasions during this period in dissimilar incidents he incurred the furious disapprobation of his fellows, of his profession, and of the public. Yet he received no penalty, suffered no withdrawal of privilege, and finally he departed as he arrived - with the firm expectation of future abundance. The medical literature provides some assistance to the biographer of J.P. Murray. The Australian Medical Journal makes passing reference to him between 1863 and 18733 20, there is the reference to him made by Smith in his Archibald Watson Memorial Lecture', and the lay press reported, and continue to revive, the more spectacular incidents in his colonial career. According to Smith', James Patrick Murray was the son of James, a merchant, and was ". . . born in Roscommon and entered Trinity College, Dublin on September 25th, 1856 when he was 17 years of age.". He presumably arrived in Melbourne in November 1860, because he wrote on December 4, 1860, from Prince George's Hotel, Swanston ( s i c ) Street, to the Honorary Secretary to the Royal AUST N.Z. J. SURGVOL 49 - No 1, FEBRUARY, 1979
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Society (of Victoria), offering himself to the Exploration Committee concerned with the Burke and Wills expedition - "Having arrived during the past week for the first time in your Colony, . . ."; the same letter claims Burke, an lrishborn policeman, as ". . . a Countryman of mine"21.He concluded the letter: "But while I thus earnestly solicit your suffrage I am sensibly persuaded by the perusal of Kennedy, Leichhardt (sic) and others; that the enterprise is one involving the greatest personal sufferings and dangers; these however I accept, being animated by an honourable desire for fame and an ardent love of science." Murray, throughout his colonial career, was never short of an eloquent phrase. The Burke and Wills expedition (the Victorian Expedition) had left Melbourne on August 20, 1860, and at the time Murray wrote his letter there was no cause for concern asto its outcome. By June 1861 the Royal Society were less complacent and they sent a search party, led by A. W. Howitt, to determine t-fate of the expedition. Just before reaching Swan Hill the party met a member of the original expedition with the news that the four men who wereattempting tocrosstheContinent had not returned. Howitt repaired to Melbourne, reorganized his party, and returned to thesearch for the lost explorers. At Cooper's Creek* Howitt's party found the sole survivor, King, and the remains of Burke and Wills which they buried before returning to Melbourne. The Royal Society now determined that Howitt should lead another party (tile Exploration Party) to Cooper's Creek to bring back the remains of Burke and Wills for burial in Melbourne. This party left Melbourne in 1862 and included Dr J.P. Murray. (There is a letter2' from the Melbourne Hospital dated December 14, 1861, giving permission, consequent to a deputation from the Exploration Committee, for Dr Murray to join the party about to proceed tq Cooper's Creek underthe leadership of Mr Howitt.) There is every indication that Murray earned the approval of the taciturn and exacting Howitt. Indeed the young Murray appears to have been an exemplary member of the party which itself proved a model of efficiency in land exploration. Scurvy (the scourge of the Burke and Wills expedition) was prevented by the growing of vegetables at the Cooper's Creek base camp, probably at the insistence of Howitt, the experienced bushman. Murray travelled in some of the exploratory parties from the base camp and had 'Captain Charles Sturt originaliy named the Creek "I gave the name Cooper's Creek to the water course we had anxiously traced " " Geographers now label this occasional waterway 'Cooper' However. Howilt. Burke and Wills and others of that era. including Arrowsmith. the mapmaker. labelled i t 'Coopers" which has been retained in this account Murray in his letters ' gave his address as "Coopers Creek"
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a creek and a mountain named after him' He received written praise from his leader and accompanied him (with the remains of Burke and Wills) to Adelaide After the early exploration undertaken by the Colony of New South Wales the quest for high honour moved to the newer colonies, Victoria and South Australia. Although the Victorian purse was deeper, the trumpets of the youngercolonies loudly proclaimed their rivalry. The agonizing success of Burke and Wills, in crossing the continent at the forfeit of their lives, was not allowed to become an ephemeral event; their remains were to become the object of greater mass mourning in Melbourne than any event before or since. Adelaide shared this mourning with her sister state. On Thursday December 11, 1862, a large concourse of the citizens of Adelaide assembled,near the Newmarket Inn on the edge of the city to show their respects to the remains of the dead Victorians being conveyed ". . . in Mr Rounsevell's best hearse, drawn by four black horses.. . " 2 4 The hearse was preceded by the Mayor and city officials and followed immediately by Mr Howitt, Dr Murray and South Australia's own Mr John McKinley. The remains of Burke and Wills remained at the Mounted Police Barracks in the City of Adelaide until December 24, when they, together presumably with Dr Murray, were conveyed aboard the Havilah to Melbourne where there were "great preparations for their i nt ermen t"25. J. P. Murray had apparently set the scene for a successful medical career in Melbourne. Some of the gloss and public esteem acquired by Burke and Wills was transferred to the reluctant Howitt, and no doubt to other members of his party including Murray. At 24 years of age, with a year's residencyat the Melbourne Hospital and an unblemished, even outstanding, record of exploration behind him, one could predict that he would settle down to a stable i f unconventional medical career. Yet shortly after arriving back in Melbourne Murray left for New Zealand. The Southland News of April 15, 1863, carried an announcement of his consulting hours in InvercargillZ6.Heisdescribedas". . .ayoungmanof neat, rather dandified appearance, good-looking and with any amount of assurance and selfconfidence, suave and ingratiating in manner which 'went down' particularly well with the ladies.. .". He became Resident Surgeon to the Southland Provincial Hospital with the right of private practice, and according to Fulton26-there was increasing discontent in regard to this aspect of his practice, 'Nebfher Murray Creek nor M I Murray are to be found In inodern Army Survey maps of the area Murray Creek appears to have been renamed Candradecka Creek M I Murray I S on the edge of Stilrt's Stony desert
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letters of disapproval regarding the charging of public patients being published in the lay press. Murray left lnvercargill in 1865 and returned to Melbourne. The Victorian Government appointed him second-in-charge of the Maclntyre search expedition looking for the remains of Leichhardt, whose earlier disappearance provided a strange episode in Australila’s land exploration history. Leichhardt, a fugitive from Prussia, had already achieved fame with his privately sponsored journey from the Darling Downs to Port Essington, a distance of some 3,000 miles. He disappeared in 1848 in his second attempt to cross the Continent from east to west, and he was last identified in the Darling Downs area. Duncan Maclntyre, having earlier found two trees inscribed “L” in the region of the Flinders River in the North of Australia, was selected by a Ladies’ Committee of Melbourne (16 worthy wealthy women, two from each denomination, selected e L e i c h h a r d t ’ s old friend Ferdinand von Mueller) to lead the party, and Dr J.P. Murray was nominated to be second-in-command. They reached Cooper’s Creek on November 26, 1865 but finding it dry they retraced their track, Maclntyre going ahead to look for water. However, on this return trip Murray, in the rear guard, lost his head and, with some of his companions, became drunk on brandy and let the stock roam free - an incident which was widely reported in the local news, and caused Marcus Clarke27to write of him (Murray) “. . . to his gross misconduct is largely to The Ladies’ be attributed the catastrophy.. Leichhardt Search Expedition, for which E4,000had been raised, was a failure. The Bendigo Advertiser published a letter from Dr Murray to a Dr James dated January 4, 186628,in which he explained in most plausible terms his predicament: “We were all more or less delirious, but I think I was one of the worst, as I had received a kick from one of the horses which very nearly gave me my quietus.. . Met a black boy who saved my life by keeping me in his miamia all day from the hot sun. . . . so my life was saved by the infinite mercy of God.” This is not to be the last time Murray returns to his Christian pose. The Riverina Herald of February 7, 186628,was not convinced: “. . .We know of no single instance in the history of exploration where a leader has been deserted as Mr Mclntyre has been.” The Daily Telegraph, Adelaide, on August 3, 186628, in reporting the death of Duncan Maclntyre, refers to “. . . the base, cruel and cowardly desertion of one in whom the leader of the party had first reposed implicit confidence. We refer, of course, to Dr Murray, who seems to have become chickenhearted at the first sign of danger, and to have returned in haste to the settled districts, regardless of what .’I.
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became of his leader and the brave few who still remained faithful to him. It would be useless now to dwell on the proceedings of the few days prior to Dr Murray’s desertion of his charge, o r to describe that orgie in which he and one or two others wgre the actors while their cattle were straying away from them. Where was Dr Murray when the leader of the expedition was dying? Safe within the precincts of the Melbourne Benevolent Asylum, hundreds of miles from the spot where the brave, true-hearted, Mclntyre was taking leave of the world forever.” Little is known of the next period of Murray’s colonial career spanning the time he returned to Melbourne from the abortive Ladies’ Leichhardt Search Expedition early i n 1866 until his departure for Fiji in 1871. The Australian Medical Journal carries several references, and we learn, for instance, that on September.8, 1866, he married Caroline, daughter of Dr James Patterson of St Kilda6.Then there is the announcement of the birth of a son on April 11, 1868, at Timperley Lodge, Brighton’. The July 1868 issue carried the first part of a paper ”Diptheria and Scarlatina” by James P. Murray, L.R.C.S.I., L.K. and Q.C.P.I., etc., in which he suggests that both might be the same diseases.In January 1869 there was the announcement of the formation of a new medical society - “The Victorian Medical A s s o ~ i a t i o n ” ~Dr . Murray was listed as a Committeeman, and it was announced that a Medical Gazette would be published. The March 1869” issue in its “Local topics” section quotes from the Melbourne Age and the Daily Telegraph of March 3, 1866 at Murray’s expense. Thus the Age announcement was “Dr James P. Murray has requested us to state that he has given up his connection with the Australian Medical Gazette. We are requested to state, on the other hand, that the Medical Association dispensed with his services after the first number.” The Daily Telegraph published a letter (signed H.B.) to its editor: “Will you permit me, through your columns, to ask the sedretary of the Medical Association, if Dr J.P. Murray, mentioned in your today’s issue is the same individual who became somewhat notorious by his connection with the Mclntyre search expedition? If this be so, has the Association sustained a serious loss by his retirement?”. The July 1869 issue carried without comment under the heading “Professional Dignity” copies of two soliciting documents which had been addressed to the members of the Friendly Societies of Brighton and the Cheltenham by Dr J.P. Murraylz. The language of the advertisements is explicit; in part it read: “You will, I hope, clearly understand Ido not wish to urge any member to have me as his surgeon, unless he is perfectly satisfied that my AUST
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qualifications are superior to any other surgeon about here (being a physician as well as a surgeon etc.) . . ." He then goes on to list his diplomas and his medical appointments, finishing with the information that he was previously an assistant leader writer while in New Zealand and has since been "a constant contributor to the Medical and other Journals of the Colony." While this news may have offended the editorial staff of the Australian Medical Journal and some of his professional colleagues it in no way limited Murray's ability to practise. Indeed, minor honours followed, for in November 1869 it was announced that Dr James Patrick Murray had been gazetted Assistant Surgeon to the Brighton R.V.V. Artillery Corps'3. In March 1870 the Australian Medical Journal saw fit to announce the birth of a daughter to James P. Murray14. According to Smith' Murray then sold his practice in Brighton to Dr e f G . Casey and partly with these proceeds he purchased the Brigantine Carl. It was to be in this vessel that Murray seared the tapestry of his professed Christian life and slaughtered 70 kidnapped South Sea islanders - probably the most unsavoury episode in the annals of slavery in the Pacific. By the late 1860s the romance of the goldfields, which had gripped thecoloniesof Australiafor 15 or more years, had soured. The more venturesome of young men now looked for wealth and fame to the South Seas, and particularly to the Fiji Islands, with their more equitable climate and their previous acquaintance wit,h the western world. While the imaginative vision may have been romantic, Fiji and the other South Sea islands were often shoals on which lives, as well as ships, floundered. For years American and British discards from society had used the islands to escape either the law or the tedium of more established society and to plunder with few restraints. At the close of the 18th century the interdenominational L o n d o n Missionary Society had been set up specifically to bring enlightenment to the South Seas, initially to Tahiti, later to all adjacent islands. Hard on their heels came the Wesleyans. The most powerful Chief in the discordant Fiji island society was Cakobau, who was converted to Christianity by the Wesleyans in 1854. In 1858 Cakobau was pursued b y a United States citizen for an alleged debt of $9,000, He offered to cede the Fiji islands to Queen Victoria if the debt was accommodated. However, England was not then in an acquisitive mood, being beset with military difficulties in New Zealand, and the offer was refused. The American threat was mere bluff, and it
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was not until 1874 that Queen Victoria graciously added these jewels to her crown. Meanwhile the government affairs of expatriate Englishmen and colonials in and around Fiji were conducted by Her Britannic Majesty's Consul in Levuka, the capital of the islands; and at the time James Patrick Murray had need to use these services the position was occupied by Edward March of whom the normally restrained Fiji Timesz9wrote: About our Consul in Fiji Was held a consultation His conduct as all agree A grievance worth narration As of his just authority He oversteps the borders What joy t'will be when Mr March receives his marching orders In 1871 the planters in Fiji were riding the wave of a cotton boom, and their problem was to find labourers to work their plantations. Although slavery had been officially abolished by Her Majesty's Parliament in 1834, it took many years for the Royal Navy to suppress both the West Indian and West African slave trade. Australian slavery began in Queensland in 1863, the recruits being called either indentured labour (or simply labour) or kanakas. The first group of kanakas worked on Robert Town's cotton plantation: they were recruited humanely, housed adequately, and returned to their island homes at the completion of their contract. Although the "labour trade" thus began with some honour and was judged a success it soon deteriorated into kidnapping with all its attendant human misery. The demand for labour in Queensland and then Fiji increased, and wealthy interests, not only in Brisbane, but also in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, became involved, although the true situation was suppressed. E.W. Docker in his book "The black birder^"^^ describes the year 1871 (the year J.P. Murray entered the market) as the turning point in public opinion in Australia against the "labour cruises" as they were euphemistically called. He relates how a year or so earlier the hero of the West Indian slave trade abolitionists, Captain George Palmer, had seized the Daphne (by his testimony looking for all the world exactly like an African slaver) in the South Seas. The Master of the Daphne was broughtto trial in Sydney and Captain Palmer, the champion of Imperial jurisdiction, was present as the Chief Justice of the Colony of New South Wales heard the charge that the Master df the Daphne had contravened the Imperial Passenger Act and the Queensland Labour Act. The Master was acquitted, and the ship released; Captain Palmer was ordered
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to pay the expenses of the trial (E170) from his own pocket! Later these expenses were refunded by Her Majesty's Government and Palmer, now out of the colonies, was promotedz9.However the message of the Australian Court to the Royal Navy and to the buccaneer blackbirders was quite clear. The Chief Justice, in ruling that the Daphne with its 108 primitive naked islanders had been illegally seized by the Royal Navy, gave a clear signal to eager blackbirders that the Pacific Island slave trade could be continued. One can imagine there was a general unfurling of sail in the eastern ports of Australia and in the gin-ridden out-stations of western society in the Pacific. The slave trade would have flourished for years and the far-off heathens would have been ignored had not an event of special irritation occurred - the ritual murder of the Eton-educated Bishop of Melanesia, Bishop Patteson, on September 20, 1871, in &e Santa Cruz group of islands, as a reprisal against the butchery of their own natives by blackbirders. Dr Murray's activities too were to be placed on record in thecontemplative days after Patteson's murder became known. Although Patteson's martyrdom and Murray's massacre took place within the same week, the massacre was not exposed for eight months. What then did Murray do in the South Pacific? He made his impetuous move into the Fijian slave trade by using the proceeds of the sale of his Melbourne home together with E300 (E50 from each of six young Melbourne men he undertook to set up as planters in theSouth Seas) to purchase the brig Carl of 280 tons on April 25,1871. The plan was to start a cotton plantation in the New Hebrides or the Fijis or any island found suitable for the purpose. The land was to be selected subject to the approval of the party. The Carl, with the six planters and several other passengers together with Dr Murray and its crew, left Melbourne on June 8, 1871, with seed, farm implements, and horses aboard. If Dr Murray had decided to enter the slave trade the passengers were unaware of it. Their route is not recorded, but it is recorded that they reached Levuka, the capital of Fiji, on June 28, 1871. The accounts of the New Hebrides were not pleasant, and the planters tried to persuade Murray to start the plantation there rather than in the Hebrides. Fiji at that time was not the idyllic haven some may imagine. There were some 2,500 aliens - English, Americans and colonials - many fugitives frqm the law. Levuka, the seaport on the island of Ovalu, housed 600 whites and had no less than 52 hotels, licensed bars and kava-saloons strung along itsone mile of beach front? It was said that ships'captains had no need for charts when approaching Levuka. All they needed to do was to pick up the long line of 158
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Holland's square gin bottles that floated out to sea, increasing in number as they neared the port, and they found themselves unerringly right at their a n ~ h o r a g eOn ~ ~ .June 5, 1871, just 23 days before Murray and the Carjarrived i n Levuka, Cakobau was proclaimed King of Fiji at a ceremony in Levuka, His court was weak, ineffectiveand divided. The first Fiji boom in sandalwood for the China trade was over; now the golden gain was in South Seas cotton grown for the French market. In 1871 the effect of the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war (which ultimately led to a fall in cotton prices from 4/4d to 1/4d (per pound) on the market had not yet been appreciated, and the cry of the landowners there as in Queensland was for cheap labour. The Fijians themselves were not by nature diligent workers; indeed, anything approaching sustained work was regarded as rather unmanly. Furthermore their tribal system, whereby the chief controlled each member of the tribe, gave the natives noopportunity to sell their own labour even had they been so inclined. Therefore natives from neighbouring islands, sometimes over 1,000 miles away, were being enticed aboard ships, kidnapped and transported to the Levuka labour market, ostensibly on an indenture system supervised by Consul March. There were two voyages of the brig Carl from Levuka while it was owned by Murray. Prior to the first voyage Murray shipped a new crew with the exception of the first mate Johnson, who he promoted to captain, and convinced the Melbourne planters that they should at least explore the prospects of setting up a plantation in the New Hebrides. At the same time Murray received from the Consul March a certificate authorizing him to procure labour. On weighing anchor on the first voyage the ship proceeded in a westerlydirection to the Island of Tanna in the New Hebrides, where they began to trade for food. It was here that Murray quarrelled with two of the planters (Bell and Grut) and forcibly put them and their party ashore; the party, which included Grut's wife and child and a fellow-passenger, Miss Chapman, found themselves in the midst of a savage war being waged between the cannibal tribes. Bell and Grut were eaten, and the ladiesand child were saved only by being snatched away by a missionary who later returned them to Melbourne. After a hasty departure from Tanna, Murray turned north to Api (Efate), where he procured land, three miles square, for the remaining planters. They now prepared to disembark and commence farming on the understanding that Murray would go off and procure the labour. Preparations for a labour cruise were begun in earnest, and the crew cut and stowed AUST N.Z. J. SURG VOL 49
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saplings to accommodate captured natives in the holds. However, Murray let his passengers down when he precipitously sailed away with them still on board. Later i n his lengthy affidavit33 Murray dismisses this voyage (in which 70 natives were slaughtered) in one sentence: "We now went in search of labour and remained out some months when, having obtained a certain number, the vessel returned again to the New Hebrides." In fact during the next months Murray, his crew, and the planters kidnapped some 160 natives. The natives of these parts were aware of the usual tricks employed by blackbirders to kidnap them, yet many were captured by a new technique apparently devised b y Murray. Lead weights and cannon were secured by ropes in the shrouds of the Carl and released when the canoes containing the natives were beneath them. The Murray kidnapping cruise was unique in other ways. Firsghere was the exceptionally large number of prisoners; then the islands they chose to steal from were well to the west and north-west of Fiji with warlike natives unlike those to the north where the placid Kingsmill islanders lived. Their first attempt at kidnapping was to pose as missionaries and entice the natives aboard at the island of Palma (Paama). When this failed a more direct approach was used. The crew took the boats on a wide excursion in a vain attempt to round up natives at gunpoint. On returning to the Carl they found a dozen canoes around their boat peacefully trading. Murray approached shooting. In the melee which followed many of the canoes capsized and a dozen natives were captured. According to one version of the Murray ordered a wounded native to be thrown overboard. Travelling northwest the Carl went to Santa Anna, Molata (Malaita), Ysabel (Isabel) and Choiseul, finally reaching Bougainville. By this time more than 60 natives had been captured. Their final haul, extending over three days, took place in the Buka strait between the island of Bouka (Buka) and Bougainville. Oneof the seamen aboard the Carl gave this account of the last day's action: "We stood out to seaat night and came in again the next morning. There were a number of canoes putting off. Three large canoes containing from 7 to 16 men each came alongside. The pig iron was got ready before they reached us. Dr Murray called out 'Well boys we must look sharp now. We want those natives. We want about30 more!" We got about 80 or 82 altogether at Bougainville in those 3 days. After capturing the last lot of natives we set sail for L e v ~ k a " The ~ ~ . holds of the Carl were now prison to some 160 captured natives including 25 fierce Malaitamen and no less than 86 natives from Bougainville. On the night of September 14,' 1871, 'Statement of Mount and
Smith' gives the dateasSeptember20
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two days after leaving the Buka strait, on their return to Fiji via Api, the natives in the holds created a worrying disturbance, certainly by shouting and hammering, and perhaps by lighting a fire34.In the blackness of the night Murray led the crew in a bloody massacre by firing blindly through the hatches into the holds,. Later Murray further distinguished himself by piercing the bulkheads with augurs to fire with rifles and guns directly into the holds. In the morning about 35 bodies were thrown overboard and another 35 severely wounded were bound hand and foot and similarly despatched. About 15 managed toescape by jumping overboard. Before nightfall the holds were thoroughly washed and on reaching Api they were whitewashed to cover the bloody evidence. This concealment succeeded because shortly afterwards she was boarded and the holds were examined without comment by Lieutenant Taylor of H.M.S. Rosario. At Api Murray and one of the planters, Scott, and a dozen or so natives were landed. The other three planters, Mount, Morris, and Wilson, remained on board until the Carl reached Levuka, where they borrowed their fares and returned to Australia in a vain attempt to put the nightmare behind them. Captain Johnson sold the residual 59 natives for a net profit of f560/10/-37.The planters having left the ship, it now took on a new passenger somewhat down on his luck - Archibald Watson - the future foundation Professor of Anatomy at the University of Adelaide. The second voyage of the Carl was a more orthodox cruise. The first call out of Levuka was to Api, where Murray and Scott rejoined the ship. The vessel then did a wide circle of the Pacific Islands, a voyage described in a diary kept by Watson3'. On this voyage natives were persuaded rather than forced to remain aboard. Nevertheless some coercion must have been used. On at least two occasions groups of natives having joined the ship left i t precipitously. Watson makes scant mention of Murray in his diary ". . . Saturday 30th of March Dr. very sick and foolish"; "2nd of April . . . after tea the Doctor made a rush on deck tomahawk in hand and threw himself into the sea over the quarter and tried to swim away from theship. Saul (?) cutthelashings of the boat and he Scotty and Jim and two Tannamen quickly pulled after him and just succeeded in catching him before he sank. He was nearly choked with salt water. I kept awake all night lest he should try again.". Then "April l o t h , Doctor in a terrible state lying amongst the natives whom he got to drench him with buckets of salt water . . . mind wandering very much." On April 18 the Carl
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returned back to Levuka with 100 natives. One native died of pneumonia, and was buried at sea. The events leading up to the Court proceedings which i n turn led to the exposure of the massacre of the first trip followed an unusual path. Early on the second trip Murray conceived his life to beat risk. In his affidavit later33he stated "Archibald Watson, the passenger who was in the beginning of the voyage most attentive to me in every way, most unaccountably now turned against meand acting in conjunction with the Captain he circulated slanders in the vilest nature amongst the crew which they believed. From this date, Watson became my most inveterate enemy." In a supplementary handwritten statement he alluded to Watson: ". . . should this man ever turn up on the stage of life again he will prove a tough fellow to deal with. The deliberate malice with which he persecuted me . . . surpassed anything I thought a human being capable of. I cannot attempt to handle this man's character but leave it in the hands of one who said 'vengeance is mine I will repay'."33Murray finished the statement in the next paragraph with this pious sentence ". . . Almighty God support me through it as I merit his Infinite mercy and loving kindness." Murray spent the first week ashore being treated by Dr Brown, who was'also Watson's doctor, and who had recommended that Watson take a sea trip. Then the Consul March invited Dr Murray to be his house guest for the remainder of his stay, and there on May 17, 1872, Murray swore an affidavit in which he laid criminal information against Joseph Armstrong, Master, Archibald Watson "who acted as the Master's tool and did me the utmost harm", Saul McCarthy, and the second mate (W. Dowden). Subsequently a court martial was held on H.M.S. Cossack where the charges dealing with thesecond voyage were upheld in respect to the Captain and some of his crew and they were despatched to Sydney for trial. Edward March granted the Queen's immunity to his house guest, Murray, and in the subsequent trials Murray appears for the prosecution. Watson was relieved on his own recognizance of $1,000 which he forfeited when he left the colony shortly afterwards. In November 1872 the trials of Captain Armstrong and seven of his crew in Sydney for assault, and of Armstrong and the Mate, for murder, resulted in all but two being judged guilty of assault; the Captain and the Mate received the death sentence, later commuted to life imprisonment, the first three years to be served in irons. Although the judge mentioned the dubious character of the leading witness for the prosecution, the report of the triaP leaves the reader in doubt about the justice of the verdict.
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Certainly Murray was not critically cross-examined. The reporter noted; "His honour then in a most impressive and solemn manner passed the sentence of death upon Joseph Armstrong and Charles Dowden ."36 The Colony of Victoria was seized with a sense of guilt; after all the Carl and its crew were identified with that colony and the chief villain, albeit immune from prosecution, had spent most of his adult life there. As S e a ~ I wrote e ~ ~ in his account of the affair, "The Colony (Victoria) had burst out suddenly into one of those fits of virtuous indignation which most c i v i l i z e d c o m m u n i t i e s , e s p e c i a l l y British communities are apt to indulge in, when evils long tolerated all at once by some accident gain a strong hold on the public attention.". The fact that in the meantime D r Murray h.td obtained a local Government a ~ p o i n t m e n t ' ~seemed to have escaped attention. Instead the two planters of the first cruise who had returned to Victoria - Henry Clarke Mount and William Charles Morris - were arrested within days of the verdict in Sydney. They were tried before the Chief Justice (Sir William Foster Stawell) for murder of South Seas islanders, found guilty of manslaughter, and sentenced to 15 years' penal servitude. Their trial, like that of Armstrong and Dowden in Sydney, dealt with events of the first voyage of the Carl. After being imprisoned for some time they were brought up on a writ of habeas corpus and discharged. Ultimately, an appeal was referred to the judicial committee of the Queen's Privy Council in London, where the opinion was adverse to the Victorian judges. By that time Mount and Morris were not to be numbered in a Victorian census. After Murray had returned to Sydney as principal witness for the prosecution of the Captain and Mate of the Carl he was not idle. The Australian Medical Journal in September, 1872j6, tells its readers that the Dr Murray whose confession concerning "the unbelievable atrocities committed on board the Carl while on a kidnapping cruise" is the same Dr Murray who distinguished himself as a member of the Leichhardt expedition. It issomewhat surprising to learn in the October issue17the City Council of Sandhurst on October 27 voted Dr J.P. Murray a letter of thanks and the sum of E50 in recognition of his services during a recent smallpox outbreak (particularly as in January 187215 there was the question of whether his name should be erased from the register for not having replied to letters sent regarding his registration). Dr Murray's reply to the Sandhurst City Council was printed in the Bendigo AdvertiseP which declared: "a more sickening and disgusting tirade of hypocrisy and cant has seldom, if ever, found its way into print." They referred no AUST N.Z. J. SURGVOL 49 - N o 1, FEBRUARY. 1979
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doubt to the following excerpts from Murray's letter3$: "It is true that I was one of the humble instruments employed by God in stamping out the smallpox in your city.. . My object from the date of my conversion (towards the close of the 'Carl's' last voyage) has been the suppression of South Sea slavery. . . The prosperity of a city, having you for its head, should be certain; and I humbly pray to the Giver of all good things that your public efforts may be characterised by success and crowned with honour, while in private life you taste the sweets of in unallayed domestic happiness. . ." The editorializing over this episode, concluded; "At all events we hope that we shall not be nauseated by any more communication from this murdering MAWWORM."' The November issue of the Australian Medical Journalla castigated Murray in an editorial entitled "Absolute Infamy", and found some consolation in erroneously believing it would be possible to prevent him from practising medicine. Referring to the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland and the King and Queen's College of Physicians of Ireland the editor wrote "...it is tolerably certain the profession will be relieved of the discredit of his remaining on its roll as soon as the two bodies from which he derives his qualifications shall have been officially advised of all the circumstances connected with his crimes." Theaditorial concluded: "A shadow rests upon our order so long as the name of James Patrick Murray defiles the Medical Register." Dr Murray was last seen in Sydney on January 20, 1873, and it was generally believed that he had gone to Englandz0.It has been suggested36that he abandoned his family in Melbourne. Were it not for Sir Edward Ford's Bibliography of Australian Medicine40 that would be the end of the story. His reference work cites the January 18, 1879 issue of the Lancet4' which carries a letter from James P. Murray, Late Surgeon to the Victorian Contingent Search Expedition into Central Australia, on the pronounciation and pharmacology of Pituri. There is no hint in that letter that the writer has retired from active medical practice; he gave as his qualification L.R.C.S.I. etc. and his address as Newlands, Manchester. By any standard James Patrick Murray was a rogue. A fair appraisal would be the letter written to the Herald by his father and published on May 23, 187334:"As regard Dr Murray the celebrated "Carl" mancatching approver.. . whom I for years havecut off as a disgrace to creed, country and family.. . if any of the "Carl" crew murderers should ever ascend the gibbet for the kidnapped seventy c r ue I Iy -s Ia ug ht e r ed poor Po Iy n es ians , Dr M u r ray ' A hypocritical pretender lo Sahcltly (0 E D )
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should be the first, as head." A more analytical appraisal was given by S e a ~ l e ~"A ~ : polished manner, however, often covers a multitude of sins. Except for this one quality he seems to have been one of those remarkable scoundrels whom, happily, we rarely meet with, either in the pages of history or in actual life - a man unredeemed by one single virtue. Cruel, treacherous, mean in money matters, a liar in word and a traitor in action, brutal in authority - with all the trickery of the monkey, all the ferocity of the tiger - but a coward in danger.. . Yet for depth of artifice, sustained by wonderful cunning through a long-continued chain of circumstances, he seems so skillful. . ." At the time, what concerned the public at large and the medical profession was how gross unprofessional and antisocial conduct could be unpunished. He was never tried on any court. His name was not removed from the Victorian Register of Medical Practitioners, and the Lancet letter suggests that he continued to practice medicine on his return to England. There is little doubt that a certain type of villain can be identified by reviewing Murray's career; many will never come across one such as Murray; those who do may be forewarned by such a review. He combined a pleasing superficial personality with an exuberance of charm and apparent dedication. He was vain and ungenerous. Articulate in speech and fluent in prose, he was a master of flattery and persuasion. He was supremely plausible, eloquent in his own defence and uncapable of genuine remorse. While he performed well asa subaltern he wilted as a leader; yet he aspired to leadership. He was supremely contemptuous, and cunning He was sublimely confident, he made no effort to conceal his past by changing his name, and he was never shown to be a barefaced liar. The record shows hts capacity to deceive (the Board of the Melbourne Hospital and the medical appointing committees, the Ladies' Leichhardt Expedition, Ferdinand von Mueller, the planter passengers on the Carl and Edward March). There are also undertones of Murray's capacity to deceive and seduce women, but no firm record has been found. Perhapssomeof his moves were to escape situations other than creditors - the short stay in Melbourne, the visit to New Zealand, the return to Melbourne and the departure for Fiji. In each new role he presumably fails to achieve what he conceives to be success; the overriding attribute he shares with other great villains was his superb capacity to move rapidly when his own survival was at stake. He then took the initiative in his own defence and secured his future by removing himself before a full exposure and its consequences became inevitable. I f the medical 161
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profession can salvage any credit from the colonial career of J.P. Murray, it was that, apart from his family, the 23-year-old Archibald Watson was the only one to see quickly through his bluff and to refuse to be persuaded against his own judgement. James Patrick Murray did a great disservice to mankind and to Medicine, and medical authorities did themselves a great disservice by not pursuing him with vigour and disgorging him from their ranks. One wonders whether this lesson of medical history has been learned or whether we still tend to tolerate those whose actions merit not mere ostracism but a dedicated pursuit to expunge them from practice? It would be interesting to know of the later career of J.P. Murray.' No doubt he continued to leave a trail of broken people as he went on practising medicine. No doubt too he walked boldly, making no attempt to cover his tracks, and no doubt at the end he felt no remorse. The J.P. Murrays of this world are strong evil destructive influences. They prosper when selfinterest, lethargy, or misplaced benevolence on the part of those responsible for ordered society fail to crush them with vigour. Since the completioii of this paper i t has been found that the name James Patrick Murray appeared on the list of erasures of the General Medical Council List dated July 18,1879. by order otthe General Council. in consequence of his name having been removed froin the Lists of Licentiates of the King and Oueen's College of Physicians of Ireland, and of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland The reason given for the erasure i s bland "Kidnapping natives in the Pacific"
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I should like to express my thanks to the Council of The University of Adelaide for the granting of study leave during which this paper was prepared and to Mrs E. Maze1 for her constant assistance Others have generously assisted in the preparation of this paper, particularly librarians - Mr Michael Piggott of the National Library of Australia, Miss Reynolds of the State Library of Victoria, Miss Lloyd of the Barr Smith Library of the University of Adelaide, and Miss Cooper of the South Australian State Library. Two recent publications "The Blackbirders", by E.W. Docker and "Come Wind, Come Weather", by Mary Howitt Walker, were most helpful sources of information. Many others have helped me in finding out about Archibald Watson, whose life was no doubt influenced by J.P. Murray, and it was this association which prompted a closer look at his colonial career.
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REFERENCES 1 SMITH J 0 (1967) The 1966 Archibald Watson Memorial Lecture McLaren and Co Melbourne 2 LOEWENTHAL J (1972) AUST N Z J SURG 41 297 3 Austral M J (1863) 8 151 4 ibidem (1866) 11 216 5 ibidem 255 6 ibidem 301 7 ibidem (1868) 13 128 8 ibidem 200 9 ibidem (1869) 14 32 10 ibidem 94 11 ibidem 132 12 ibidem 220 13 ibidem 355 14 ibidem (1870), 15 9 6 15 ibidem (1872) 17 30 16 ibidem 296 17 ibidem 328 18 ibidem 343 19 ibidem (1873) 18 7 20 ibidem 95 21 Records of the Exploration Committee of the Royal Society of Victoria State Library of Victoria 22 The Australian Encyclopedia (1965) Grolier 23 Walker M H (1971) Come Wind Come Weather A Biography o f Alfred Howitt Melbourne University Press 24 The Register (Adelaide) December 12 1862 25 The Register (Adelaide) December 25 1862 26 FuLTON R (1922) Medical practice in Otago and Southland in the early days Otago Daily Times and Witness Newspaper Co 27 CLARKE M (ed ) (1877) School History o f Australia F F Bailliere Melbourne 221 28 Quoted by Fulton (27) 29 Fili Times December 10 1872 30 DOCKER E W (1970) The Blackbirders The Recruiting ot South Seas Labour for Queensland 1863-1907 Angusand Robertson Sydney 31 PALMER G (1871) Kidnapping in the South Seas being a Narrative o f a Three Months Cruise o f H M Ship Rosario Edrnonston and Douglas Edinburgh 32 WHONSBONASTON C W (1970) Pacific Irishman William Floyd Inaugural Memorial Lecture C C Merritl Lakernba 33 Attorney General sSpeclal Bundles Vol 4 7/2698B 1836 1876 New South Wales State Archives 34 SEARLE G S (1875) M o u n t a n d Morris €xonerated A Narrative o f the Voyage o f the B r i g Carl in 1871 with Comments u p o n the Trial which Followed the Massacre o n Board that Vessel Evans Bros Melbourne 35 Daily Telegraph January 10 1873 36 Sydney Morning Herald September 3 1872 37 MARSTON H Papers (item 3927) National Library of Australia 38 Sydney Morning Herald November 20 1872 39 The Argus November 18 1872 40 FORD E (1976) Bibliography o f Australian Medicine 1790 7900 Sydney University Press 41 MURRAY J P (1879) Lancet 1 106
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