Page:Tales-of-Banks-Peninsula Jacobson 2ed 1893 cropped.pdf/202

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Harry Head.
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foot, for it was his last pedestrian feat. He eventually returned to England, and astonished his friends there by his remarkable costume and strange style, and no doubt they were heartily glad when he announced his intention of proceeding to his old home in America. He is now, to the best of our informant’s belief, located at Dacotah, where his primitive habits appear to have enabled him to withstand the effects of the terrible seasons, which have been so fatal to other Europeans. Before leaving he sold his property to the Messrs. Masefield, and his old clearing is now the site of the sawmills erected at Waikerakikari by the energetic Mr. John Smith.

From Mr. W. Masefield we further learn that Head’s real name was Alexander, and that he was the son of a bookseller, who had him well educated. He was an excellent mathematician, and a fair Greek scholar, besides understanding a good deal of botany. The latter was much cultivated by him during his sojourn on the Peninsula, and he was constantly in correspondence with Dr. Haast. From his youth he had strange fancies, and, when young, slept a night at Stonehenge, on what is known as the vertical monument, in the hope that mysterious dreams would come to him from the forgotten past. The dead Druids, however, made no sign, and a cold was the only result.

He was born at Chippenham, in Wiltshire, and, on leaving England, went to America, and joined a party to the Rocky Mountains. He had a great admiration for the North American Indians. He afterwards went to Vancouver Island, and thence worked his passage Home in a lumber ship, which made the longest passage on record. After a brief spell at Home he came out to Australia, and was at the diggings for some time. He walked over a great part of Australia, and applied to join the Burke and Willis expedition, but was too late. He there formed