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•KRKM.0UW BOOKDEALLRS SYDNEY

STORIES RETOLD

AND

Sketches of Country Life,

BY W. H. SUTTOR, M.L.C.,

NEW SOUTH WALES.

GLYNDWR WHALAN, HOWICK STREET. 1887.

RATHURST :

GLYNDWR WHALAN, PRINTER, HOWICK STREET.

§0 the <Pemorij

OP

MY MUCH-LOVED AUSTRALIAN FATHER,

Who for twenty-eight years of his life was a mem- ber of our Representative Parliaments, commencing with the very first, and was always a patriotic, energetic, and unselfish worker, and who, although born under the Southern Cross, was ever a true- hearted Englishman,

I DKDICATK THIS LITTLE VOLUME,

which, in a large part, contains a record of my filial service for him.

1288678

PRKFACK.

CTING in accordance with the unexpected, ancj therefore flattering, solicitations of many friends, I have consented to collect in a small volume the " Stories" and " Country Sketches" contained herein. Originally written for a charitable purpose, and published in the Daily Telegraph in Sydney, they have beguiled many weary hours of their author at a time of much anxiety for all those who, like himself, were interested in the great pas- toral industry of the country. I am no judge of their merits, if, indeed, they have any. The first person who suggested their collection in this form was the late Chief Justice, Sir James Martin, who was pleased to speak in terms somewhat too laudatory of them, and in his rapid manner said, " You must put them in a book, you know — you must put them in a book." Well, here they are in a book. There is little or nothing imagina- tive in the volume. The " Stories Retold" are chiefly gathered from the Press records of the day, and from the word of mouth of old colonial friends who have some recollection of the events narrated. The " Sketches of Country Life " are derived almost wholly from my own experiences. The descriptions of men and scenery are exactly set down as they appeared to me. So many wonderful changes have taken place in colonial society since " I was young," that I venture to hope the book may not prove uninteresting to those who have not been eyewitnesses of those changes.

CONTENTS.

AUSTRALIAN STORIES RETOLD—

PAGE.

MY GRANDFATHER'S POCKETBOOK ......... i

FISHER'S GHOST .................. 12

VENGEANCE FOR IPPITHA ............ 17

A PAIR OF OLD PISTOLS ............ 27

THE HUNDREDWEIGHT OF GOLD ......... 33

\YESTERN REBELLIONS — BLACK & WHITE... 44

VAN DIEMEN'S LAND GHOULS ......... 52

SKETCHES OF COUNTRY LIFE-

A CATTLE MUSTER IN THE HILLS ...... 61

A CATTLE MUSTER ON THE PLAINS ...... 81

PAST AND PRESENT, AND Two TRIPS TO

THE DARLING RIVER ......... ... 94

LOST CHILDREN 116

viii Contents.

SKETCHES OF COUNTRY LIFE- PAGE.

IN DREAMLAND 133

ROUGH SKETCHES IN BLACK AND WHITE... 143

A SUICIDE'S GRAVE 153

MY EXPERIENCE AS A HOSPITAL COLLECTOR 164

A VISIT TO MOUNT WILSON 171

NOTES 183

Australian Stories Retold.

MY GRANDFATHER'S POCKETBOOK.

is with much reverence I take up this old book and pry into its contents. It is a large

book of its kind, and I have not yet seen a coat

fc\ dj pocket that would hold it comfortably. It "^k measures exactly seven inches in length by five ('$ * inches in breadth, and has a girth when empty of nearly one foot. Old age and venerableness are stamped indelibly upon its smoothed and well-worn old skin. Although, babe and man, I have been a colonist for over fifty years, I feel that I am one of the veriest of new chums in its ancient presence. It belongs indis- putably to the eighteenth century — the French Revolution, Napoleon, Nelson, Wellington, Trafalgar, Waterloo : it has been an inanimate witness of all the stirring times these names recall. It has long survived Emperors, Kings, and great ones of the earth, and has not yet lost all usefulness. Old letters and papers it has held for near a century it still enfolds in secure and

B

2 Australian Stones Retold.

loving embrace. It has been the unconscious recipient of many hopes and fears. It is identified with the early struggles and hard times of colonial life. Let us examine some of its contents. They are suggestive of much that is interesting in our history. The first paper we take out is a letter dated February 3, 1800, written more than 87 years ago. The paper is of good texture, and is gilt-edged. The writer, Sir Joseph Banks, sailed into Botany Bay with Captain Cook. He took a keen interest in the early settlement of these lands ; indeed, it was largely through his representations and influence that the Govenment were induced to colonize Australia. The letter has reference to the misdoings of a Gosport waggoner, who neglected to deliver some grape vines at their proper destination into the care of the recipient of the letter, and has thereby kindled the wrath of Sir Joseph. These vines, with many other useful plants, were in- tended to be carried to Sydney in charge of the owner of our pocketbook, a young man of six and twenty years, whose imagination had been much stirred by accounts of this distant land, and who had energy and ambition enough to desire to seek a larger field for his industry than the old country seemed to afford. The outward appear- ance of the letter claims some little attention. Our fathers of that date knew nothing of the convenient gummed envelope. The paper is doubled down from top to bottom, so that the two edges meet in the centre. The two other edges are then folded down ; one edge is pushed into the folds of the other ; a paste wafer is used to stick the two together. The direction written upon it tells of an old privilege once held by members of Par- liament. In the left corner is the name of one " Steph. Cottrell." This signature has had the effect of author- ising the post-office to carry the letter free of charge to its destination. The next letter (from the same writer) is dated August 10, 1802, and is addressed to New

My Grandfather's Pocketbook. 3

South Wales. Many pertinent inquiries are made as to the kinds of fruit and grain-bearing and other useful plants that may be thought suitable to the soil and cli- mate of the colony.. It is advised that the capsicum should be planted, " as it might be beneficial to Governor King's constitution." The feeding of this early and somewhat irascible Governor on this extremely pungent fruit is a curious suggeston. I am not aware whether or not the idea was carried out. Between the times of the writing of these two letters our pocketbook has been carried a long voyage. In the month of October, 1798, it had been taken on board H.M.S. Porpoise, and had gone as far as Spithead, when the exigencies of the war with France prevented further voyaging. In the month of September, 1799, after eleven months of delay, a fresh start was made with a large convoy of sail, with twenty ships of war, under the command of Admiral Sir Roger Curtis, a magnificent sight, which filled the heart of our intending colonist with pride at the power of his country. However, a gale coming on, the Por- poise was disabled and returned to Spithead, where our voyagers had to remain until a vessel, La Infanta Amelia, and lately taken from the Spaniards, to be called the Porpose, was refitted ; so that it was not till the 1 7th March, 1800, that final departure for Australia was made. After a long delay at the Cape of Good Hope, the owner of our book, with his family, at length entered Sydney Heads on November 6th, 1800, and saw " with admiration the many coves and headlands of Port Jackson, its deep waters and secure anchorages ; the wooded heights, the bluff heads, the rude rocks which presented to the view innumerable primitive and romantic scenes, which cultivation had done nothing to reclaim." They also noticed " several bark canoes (a novel sight) of the natives with women in them fishing, a convict ship from Ireland, and a ship

B2

4 Australian Stones Retold.

from India. Two small wharves were observed, one called the King's and the other the Governor's, on opposite sides of the cove. Campbell's Wharf was then being creeled. Sydney was more like a camp than a town. The streets were full of stumps and dead trees, the houses were all covered with thatch, the walls chiefly of wattle and dab whitewashed. A few had glazed windows. In Pitt and George streets some weatherboard houses were to be seen." On the day after his arrival our colonist waited upon Governor King, who, he thought, received him with ill humour, and advised him " not to think of staying at Sydney, as every man there was a rogue, and they would be surely robbed of all they possessed ; to remain on board till a house could be got at Parramatta; not to trust anybody ;" and further, " that he could not be troubled with his affairs ; he had six thousand people to govern, and that was as much as he could do." Rather a disheartening prospect for a new chum this ; all the more so, as before leaving England he had been led to expect some consideration from the Governor. Perhaps it was this scene duly related to Sir J. Banks that sug- gested the capsicum diet. However, he followed the Governor's advice, and managed to secure a two- roomed cottage at the then rural village of Parramatta, to which place he had made a walking excursion. Having found there an old friend in Mr. George Caley, the botanist, and made the acquaintance of the Rev. S. Marsden, and of Mr. Lewin, painter and ornithologist, and of a Dr. Thompson, all of whom assisted him in the search for a piece of land to take up as his grant, things began to look somewhat brighter. Parramatta in 1800 was but a small nucleus of a town, and consisted princi- pally of prisoners' huts. Having found a fertile spot, the Government built for our new arrival a small cot- tage, and allowed a certain number of prisoners to clear some of the land ; and, in about eighteen months after,

My Grandfather's Pocketbook. 5

he had the supreme satisfaction of " settling " upon his own farm, and of harvesting his first crop of corn or maize. There was much destitution and even starvation in the colony in those days, caused by frequent and devastating floods in the Hawkesbury, which, covering the cultivated land, destroyed the crops.

The next letters we examine were written by our colo- lonist himself, and are addressed to his wife from the Sydney Gaol, 180-9. New and strange experience had come upon him. Governor Bligh had been deposed by the military, and was an exile from his seat of Govern- ment. He was an eye witness of the event of that memo- rable evening of January 26, 1808, having from curiosity followed the troops to the gates of the Governor's resi- dence. How he came in contact with the rebel Govern- ment is not very clear ; but certain it is he was ordered to do something which drew from him a certain letter " with contumelious expressions ;" for which writing, and for refusing to plead to his indictment for such conduct, he Avas cast into gaol for the period of six months, always hoping for a day when the " king would enjoy his own again," when his friend Governor Bligh would be reinstated.

The next paper is a tiny, dainty, delicate gilt-edged note, written in characters of almost microscopic small- ness, but are of perfect form, and are as clear and as legible as a schoolboy's round text. A thoroughbred hand is manifest in every line of it, written by a lady seventy-five years ago, whose name is connected with the history of the colony. I fancy I can detect in the writing itself, where " I marked the particular turn of her Ps and Qs," evidences of that firm bravery and filial loving duty that prompted Mrs. Putland (Bligh's daughter) to defy the rude soldiers, and one would fain hope, almost shame those into submission who came to

6 Australian Stories Retold.

depose her father. The letter is kind, short, practical, and to the purpose.

" Mrs. O'Connell" (she was then the wife of Colonel, afterwards Sir Maurice O'Connell), "was hoping to have the pleasure of informing Mrs. Suttor that Captain Bodie of the late ship from England, saw the Hindostan, Dromedary, and Porpoise going into Rio on the 25th July (1810), as he was coming out of that port, but un- fortunately did not speak to them. The Colonel (O'Connell) requests Mrs. S, will mention what descrip- tion of workmen she wants, and when she will be ready to receive them, as he forgets. The Governor (Mac- quarie) will be at Parramatta next week, and the Colonel wishes Mrs. S. then to speak to him about ex- changing her bullock."

This letter was written to assure her friend, Mrs. S., that, so far as was known, her husband, who had gone to England with Bligh to give evidence in his case, was so far safe. This witness, to the day of his death, fifty years after, was a firm believer in the honesty of pur- pose of Bligh. He had, as we have seen, given strong evidence of this belief in preferring to be cast into prison rather than forsake his friend and acknowledge as lawful rulers persons whom he believed and knew to be rebels, for their own selfish and not patriotic purposes. He always spoke of him as a firm and kind-hearted English gentleman, and no tyrant and no coward, and that his single purpose was to prevent the wholesale demoraliza- tion of the people of the colon}' through the rum-selling propensities of people in high places. It has always been the fashion to speak of Bligh as a tyrant, because of the unfortunate mutiny of a part of his crew on board the Bounty. The subsequent history of these mutineers affords a clue to the rcifeon for their insubordination. Having secured the ship, they went back to the seduc- tions of Tahiti. They sailed from there, taking with

My Grandfather's Pocketbook. 7

them a number of Tahitian women and a few men. They beached the ship on Pitcairn's Island. When discovered in 1808 only one (Smith or Adams) of the mutineers survived. Of Christian, the ringleader, two stories are told. One that he became insane and threw himself into the sea shortly after the landing at Pitcairn's. The other, that he, " for the short time he was spared, sullen and morose, committed many acts of wanton oppres- sion," and with the rest was murdered by their Tahi- tian men slaves. If the first be true, then is it too much to suppose that the mutiny was, in a great measure, due to the incipient mania of Christian ? If the latter, then it shows what a tyrannical, insane temper this man had, whose harshness could goad the gentle and timorous Tahitian to such an outbreak and just retribution. The romantic story of the descendants of the mutineers has helped to veil the misdeeds of their forefathers, and to cloud unjustly the meritorious memory of Bligh. If Bligh were such a tyrant and coward, it is impossible to understand the implicit obedience of the men, his fellow- sufferers, cast adrift with him in the open boat at the time of the mutiny, during the most memorahle voyage of the kind ever undertaken. Bligh's deposers accused him of cowardice after they deposed him, forgetting what a compliment they paid to his courage in march- ing nearly the whole regiment down to his house to seize him, knowing, too, as they did, that the lieutenant on guard would not resist his superior officer, the colonel. Men who used so much force to capture a single unarmed man were not competent judges to dis- tinguish bravery from cowardice. To compare small things with great, the scene at Government House with our fair correspondent recalls Burke's famous and glow- ing words in reference to Marie, Antoinette. One of the soldiers made a low and insulting remark to her. To the lasting shame of the officers', who were supposed to

8 Australian Stories Retold.

be high-minded English gentlemen, he was not rebuked by them. But the days of chivalry were past, those who could do battle for the noble cause of rum mono- poly were not likely to be touched by beauty in distress when " the craft was in danger."

While the owner of our book was away on this busi- ness, his wife was left, witli her little children, to fight the battle of early colonial life as best she could. Not a word of repining from her. She " seen her duty a dead sure thing, and went for it there and then." A young girl, who, in 1798, married the man of her choice, and made the honeymoon trip a voyage to New South Wales, knowing that privation and hard work were at the end of it, was not likely to make a bad colonist. So, in the absence of her husband, she carries on the work of their little farm ; applies, as we see, to the Government for more workmen ; makes bargains for her stock ; and rules her convict servants with firmness and kind consi- deration. Many of those who, obtaining their freedom, lived and died in the service of her sons, always spoke of her with reverent affection. On his return, having been away more than two years, her husband finds the farm much improved. Her " counterfeit presentment " looks down upon me as I write. I know that the artist has, in drawing the large, calm, kind, and courageous eyes, and the firm lines about the mouth, faithfully de- picted her character. Hard struggle had this pair in those days ; but economy, plodding industry, and the gift to seize an opportunity, to " take the tide at the flood," brought in time comparative wealth and much happiness, and a long life crowned with " love, obedi- ence, troops of friends," made ample amends for many sore and rough trials.

The next paper is a triplicate order on the Treasury of England to pay Mr. - — , a very worthy servant, the sum of ^25, his six months' salary, from June to.

My Grandfather's Pocketbook. g

December, 1816, not £i per week. It must have been in some way negotiated by the owner of our book. This gentleman, through patient industry and making good use of honest opportunity, captured fortune and left de- scendants. I recollect once overhearing one of these speaking with much supercilious contempt of the social position of some who were then much higher up the ladder than was her grandfather when that order was made out. " Ah, my dear madam," thought I, " if you only knew what my grandfather's pocketbook reveals, you would, I am sure, add one more to your many per- fections by showing a little more charity and kindly con- sideration to those who, with laudable and honest ambition, are striving (as your grandfather did) to leave their descendants in the position in which you now find yourself." But is it not the way of the world to despise those who occupy the places from which we flatter our- selves we have risen ? I once knew a man who, having attained wealth, never could conceal his contempt for what he was pleased to call persons of " low birth," himself being — well, never mind ! he had nothing to boast of, as a living exemplification of the proverb, "It's a wise child that knows its own father."

Here are many letters from George Caley and Allan Cunningham, both men of science, doing much hard work to enlarge the sphere of botanical and geo- graphical knowledge. Caley was among the first to try to scale the Blue Mountains, and managed to push his way as far as near Woodford, where a stone cairn on the old roadside, marking the spot of his furthest jour- neying, was called Caley's Repulse. Some of his letters are from England. One, dated 1812, gives an interest- ing account of the people near Manchester. He writes ; " In these parts there has been a great deal of rioting, and, in short, throughout all the manufacturing counties, to the disgrace of the nation. These riots are said to

io Australian Stories Retold.

originate from the high prices of provisions, decay of trade, and new inventions for facilitating labour, chiefly worked by steam engines. To see the factories that are in this country and the rapid manner of making goods, one would think there is more made than all the world could consume. Many of the people are out of employ- ment, and numbers of parties can only get a bare subsist- ence. The middle class of people, 1 ;un told, have suffered and still do feel it most. If I may hazard a conjecture, I think England has manufactured too much. I saw hundreds going to attack a manufactory about two miles from here, and I must say they did not look like starved people. The chief beginners of the riots were colliers, who had no occasion to complain of the times, for steam engines furnished thousands of them with a livelihood. You may expect a fine lot of them perhaps by the receipt of this letter, and they will prove a different set from thieves, croppies, threshers, &c., &c. I should like to give some of them a good sweating in the New South Wales mountains." Some of these machine breakers were sent out here. An assigned servant of my father's was one of them. He used to tell an amus- ing story. The party of rioters he was with came to a church. Curiosity tempted them to look inside. They saw the organ, which, with its pipes, looked suspicious. " Wha'at be tha'at ?" said one. " Woy, a zingin' (singing) masheen," was the reply. " A masheen, a singin' masheen," shouted the crowd." " Oh, dang un ! let's smash un oop ;" and smashed it accordingly was. Thus the right of the human voice to a complete mono- poly of the utterances of sweet sounds was nobly vindi- cated. In this same letter he tells of the assassination of Percival by Bellingham. One part is to this effect : — " People would think New South Wales a fine place in reading the following paragraph, which I have copied from a paper: — 'An elegant hospital has 1

My Grandfather's Pocketbook. n

built by contract at Port Jackson. The condition on which the building is reared is rather novel : ' That the contractor should receive no money for the erection, but should be permitted, in lieu thereof, to import 30,000 gallons of rum duty free.' " This appears to have been a stroke of genius. The hospital would, after this importation, not be wanting in patients. The payment for the building would ensure its usefulness.

As the population of the colony nine years after, when the first census was taken, was under 30,000 persons, this importation probably represented nearly two gallons per head. At the present day, all spirits included, we import about one gallon and a half per head per annum. We always seem to have been good solid drinkers ; the droughty climate has much to answer for. Not long since in Sydney, the president of a certain club at the annual meeting, seeing from the balance-sheet that affairs were very satisfactory, and judging of the true cause, exclaimed as he pulled his venerable beard, "My G — , gentlemen, we have drunk ourselves into a state of prosperity." History repeats itself, as the Treasurer's annual statements renew the same story for the country.

One friend writes to tell of Napoleon's march to Moscow ; another of the return of Captain Parry's expedition from the Arctic Seas ; and among other gossips relates " How Captain Parry's wife that was to be on his return is on the point of marrying with some- one else, and he likely to be out of his mind." Lucidly, this last sad state of things did not happen, for Parry came out here, and, living at Port Stephens, did good service as a colonist in managing the affairs of the A. A. Company.

A note from Dr. Lang, of date 1833, asking "for views and opinions about the class of emigrants most desirable for the colony, as he was going to England, and may be able to make suggestions of value," is not

12 Australian Stories Retold.

the least interesting of the budget. There are letters from John Clark, an engraver, and father of Mrs. William Chambers. From one of these I learn that so much of the proof sheets of the " Information for the People " as refer to Australia were submitted to our colonist, who was in Edinburgh at that time, for hints for revision, if need be, before final publication. Some letters from Bligh himself are in the pocket-book, but as they throw no light upon the facts of the rebellion, they are, therefore, not quoted.

* . . •. ' • •' :

FISHER'S GHOST.

j^N the year 1826 there lived at Campbelltown two persons who had been transported to New South Wales. They were Frederick Fisher and George Worrall ; they were friends and lived together. Fisher owned a farm and some stock. On the night of June 17, Fisher was in Campbelltown, and left a public-house there in company with other persons. Some of these persons shortly after- wards came back to the inn and asked for Fisher, stating that they wanted to get money from him to purchase liquor. Fisher was never after seen alive. His disappearance gave rise to much remark, as his friend Worrall told people that he had left the colony to escape a prosecution for forgery and had sailed in a ship the name of which he g Worrall further stated that Fisher had authorised him in writing to deal with his property, and lie offered for sale a horse and some timber known to belong to the

Fisfor's Ghost. 13

supposed absconder. The written authority was never produced, but a document in reference to the horse was shown, and was at once seen to be a forgery by those who knew Fisher's signature. Worrall lost no time in going to Sydney to Mr. D. Cooper, to whom Fisher was in debt some £80, and offered to pay this debt provided the deeds of Fisher's farm, held by Cooper as security, were given up to him. This Cooper refused to do, and having questioned Worrall very closely about Fisher's disappearance, he suspected from Worrall's manner that Fisher had been made away with. Cooper had an intimate knowledge of Fisher, and was satisfied in his own mind that he had no reason for leaving the colony. The ship, too, in which Worrall said Fisher had sailed was not knowrn to have been in Sydney Harbor. Cooper did not express his thoughts to Worrall but he did so to another person, who told Worrall of Cooper's suspicions, and observed his agi- tation when so told. In October (four months after Fisher's disappearance), the authorities thought it necessary to take some action. A reward was offered and Constable George Leeland was instructed to search for the body. He commenced the search at a spot about fifty rods from Worrall's place, and where some blood was found sprinkled on the rails of a fence. It was noticed that an attempt had been made to burn the fence at this spot, as though to destroy the blood marks. Two aboriginals joined in the search from this spot, and the party came to a waterhole in the creek Gilbert, one of the blacks, went into the water, and scumming off something from the surface with a maize leaf, smelt and tasted it, and said it was "white man's fat." Led by the natives, they went to another creek forty yards further, when one of the blacks struck an iron rod into the ground in a marshy spot and called out that there was something there. The place

14 Australian Stoyies Retold.

was dug, and the body of Fisher, not very much decom- posed, was found. An inquest was held, and a verdict of wilful murder was found against some person or persons unknown. Worrall, a man named Laurence, and another, were apprehended. Worrall only was put upon his trial, and upon evidence wholly circumstantial, was convicted and executed. Early on the morning of his execution he confessed to the late Rev. W. Cowper that he had killed Fisher by misadventure; that he and Fisher were driving a horse from out of a crop of wheat ; that he made a blow at the horse with a paling, and accidentally hit Fisher and killed him. As there were several wounds found on Fisher's head, this statement was also false. That he became alarmed lest he should be accused of murder, hid the body first in the reeds, and then where it was afterwards found. Such is the story as told, without any embellishment or hint of supernatural agency, in the Sydney Gazette, the Monitor, and the Australian of the first week in February, 1827. The Monitor contains some editorial comment, and remarks upon "the almost miraculous discovery four months after the murder had been committed." The words " almost miraculous " evidently referring only to the discovery after such a lapse of time. The story, which so far seems plain and simple enough, and not requiring much acumen to unravel, became celebrated for the assertion that a supernatural manifestation led to the discovery of the murderer.

It is stated that a man named Farley, leaving Camp- belltown one night with probably some grog on board, having parted from his boon companions, returned to them, appearing in a frightened condition, with a state- ment that he had seen the ghost of Fisher at the slip- panel leading into the paddock at Fisher's house, and that the appearance pointed to the paddock. The ghost was dressed in the ordinary everyday garments of the

Fisher's Ghost. 15

period, in fact, in Fisher's clothes. There can be no doubt whatever that Fisher's body and clothes were at this very time under the ground and rapidly becoming in a very decomposed and unpresentable and (with regard to the clothes especially) very rotten condition. If the ghost really wore Fisher's clothes, one wonders how such an unsubstantiality could support their weight, unless, indeed (but this is too funny or too dreadful to contemplate) clothes— material clothes— may become sublimed and spiritualized, and be invested with a future existence. (In this condition, will they wear out ?) But perhaps ghosts are able to wear clothes. I once saw and heard the ghost of Hamlet's father in very creaky boots ; but I cannot say that their noisiness added to the solemnity. It is a consolation to know, at all events, that in spirit-land decency at least is strictly preserved.

But may we not seek for a rationalistic theory to account for this ghost ? The ghost is not reported to have been seen until four months had elapsed after the time of the murder. It did not appear until those who knew Fisher became perfectly satisfied that he did not leave the colony, and that Worrall's statement about him must have been untruthful. It is proved that the night he was missed he left a public-house in company with several persons. None of these seem to have been called at the trial. It is most likely that others knew of, if indeed they did not participate in, the murder. What had been done had probably been known to or discovered by Farley, and he then invented the whole story to ease his conscience of a burden too heavy to carry any longer. This gave a clue which, when followed up, led to the finding of the body. The neighbours, who were of the same class with Fisher and Worrall,were not likely to have been deceived by Worrall's lies. They were probably too loyal to one of their num-

1 6 Australian Stories Retold.

her to state openly what they knew. The blood on the fence, the attempt to burn it out, most surely was known to some of them. Other theories suggest themselves, but I venture to think that the above is most likely to be the correct one.

It has been suggested that the story of the ghost having been seen at all was a mythical growth of a later day. In contradiction to this idea, I have the authority of a correspondent who was intimately con- nected with the gentleman who had charge of the police in the district when the murder was done, to the effecft that Farley's story did suggest the search for the body in the creek. But even so, this does not prove that Farley saw a ghost, but rather strengthens the solution given above. I am informed that the first time the story appeared in print, it was in an almanac published in the colony, and was written by a Mr. Kerr, who at or about the time was a tutor in the family of Mr. Howe, of Glenlee. It is shortly referred to in Montgomery Martin's book on the colonies, published in 1835. He evidently had implicit faith in the ghost, and writes of " the discovery of the murder as one of the inscrutible dispensations of Providence." In " Tegg's Monthly Annual" for March, 1836, the story is told with much imaginative detail, and evidently for the purpose of furnishing an interesting story rather than an ascer- tained matter of fact.

It is to be remarked that during the hearing of the case, the man who is said to have seen the ghost gave no evidence, nor is there any allusion whatever to any- thing supernatural having been supposed to have been manifested. It is also curious that the blacks should have led the party to the spot where the bod)- was found. They are very observant, and most likely had previously seen marks and indications that, now a clue was given, they had no difficulty in following up.

Vengeance for Ippitha. 17

VENGEANCE FOR IPPITHA.

the latter part of the year 1838 there sat in the law offices in Sydney a tall, thin, bilious, sallow, and somewhat saturnine-looking man. His face was innocent of hair, and on his head he wore a jet-black wig. He was one of those men of whom one felt inquisitive at the very first glance one had of him. Whether you met him in the street or saw him in the Legislative Chamber, he was one of the first whose name you felt compelled to ask. He was an Irishman and a Roman Catholic, and bore an historic name. He was the Attorney-General for New South Wales. A peculiar-looking man, with a keen sense of duty and a strong, resolute will, John Hubert Plunkett left his mark in the history of his adopted country.

Dressed in black from head to foot, he sat in his office-chair, scanning with his dark eyes a thick pile of manuscript that lay on the table before him. In imagination one can picture his manner and mental absorption as his strong sense of justice was shocked and horrified by the terrible details which he read when they disclosed to him one of the most cruel tragedies that has stained the pages of our history with its crime. It was his business and inflexible duty as Grand Jury of the country to probe this matter to the very bottom, and to secure the awful punishment of the law for those who might be proved to be guily. As he read so, some- thing like the following was made known to him : — Away out in the far north-east parts of the colony, in c

1 8 Australian Stories Retold.

some of its most fertile and fair spots, the squatters were finding their way and occupying with their herds of cattle some of the richest pastoral lands, and were thus turning to account the wealth of grass and herbage that for untold ages had grown and passed away uncropped. It is a pleasant land to look upon, with its myall plains and alluvial valleys, and thinly - timbered, undulating downs and high blue mountain ranges bounding the horizon. It is a country of spring and summer seasons and where winter snows are never known. There was but one enemy of the white man there, if, indeed, he could be regarded as such, and that was the black aboriginal man — a creature not very hard to deal with, timid cer- tainly, and probably at times somewhat treacherous, that is, when his rights — and he had rights — seemed to him to be unduly invaded. His treachery, such as it was, was the natural result of his weakness. Whatever his treachery might have been, this story tells us that he was far supassed in that unmanly vice by the white intruders into his country. It was not, at all events, charged against him as a ground of offence on this occa- sion. If for a moment we put ourselves into his place, we will see how irritating it must have been to him to be pushed away from the lands that his forefathers had roamed over from time immemorial — to be circumscribed in his liberty of hunting his natural and only supply of food in those places where he had preyed at will. Hunger, unfortunately, is one of those sensations that -comes to a human being with irritating consciousness and a certain constant rapidity, and is no doubt very in- convenient ; but somehow or another, it must be appeased. Each one, at least, thinks so of himself. Perhaps we are not quite so convinced of the necessity when we contemplate the desires of others, more es- pecially when satisfying these desires interferes with us

Vengeance for Ippitha. 19

and our pleasures. Now, there is nothing that causes cattle to wander away from their homes more than men — and especially black men — walking about where they are depastured. So it came to pass that the blacks were not allowed to wander at pleasure, hunting kan- garoo and emu, and chopping out the sleepy opossum everywhere as had been their custom. And as, without such hunting, they were not able to appease that tor- menting thing called hunger, this hunger was proving rather a bar to the peaceful settlement of the country, and no doubt some illfeeling was thereby created be- tween the two races.

The men who were employed as servants in carrying on this early pioneering business were " Government men," and although up to the time of the commence- ment of our story there is no evidence of any actual deadly conflict having taken place in these parts, still there had been some smouldering hostility ; so much so, that the whites never went out on their business with- out carrying firearms with them. This more by way of defence than offence. However, now more peaceable relations seem to have been established, and at a squatter's station which a man named Kilminster had charge of this was especially evident. Up to this time Kilminster does not seem to have been a bad man. An energetic, faithful servant, and apparently a kindly man, he had made a truce with the black tribes of the place, had "made friends," as they said, and they were allowed to congregate at the station to the number of thirty or forty, and had the use of some of the huts. Kilminster's immediate superior, the overseer, had remonstrated with him for allowing the blacks to be about the place in such numbers, but at his earnest request they were permitted to take up their quarters there. And as he often danced and played with the " piccaninnies," and otherwise seemed to harbour no ill*

C2

2b Australian Stories Retold.

will, but rather the contrary, they appear to have enter- tained no other than the friendliest feelings towards him. Unfortunately, all this was to be changed on one fateful Saturday evening. The previous Friday had been very gloomy and wet, as though Nature herself had some foreboding of an impending catastrophe.

Among this people, all unconscious of coming evil, who were then in their camp, was Old Daddy, a tall, erect old man, a very patriarch of the tribe, with a long venerable grey beard, squatting under his sheet of bark, with his opossum cloak thrown over his shoulders. As he slowly smoked his pipe of tobacco (a new pleasure learned from the whites) he warmed his hands over his low fire, and now and again raked out a small live coal ot revivify his pipe, and with eyes winking and blinking as the breeze drove the smoke of his fire over him, he looked a very picture of uncivilized barbarian content- ment. Close to him, and circling round the fire, were younger men, sitting tailor-like, one crooning in low, monotonous, but not by any means harsh, tone, a tribal hunting-song, all the while scratching with a sharp- edged " bindoogan " shell the fleshy side of a dried opossum's skin, doubled over on the thick muscles of his naked thigh, and thus marking on the skin his "totem." Another was shaping a boomerang from a piece of wood cut from the bent elbow of a myall tree, the heel of his left foot crossed over his right knee, acting the part of the carpenter's bench, while he chop- ped away at the wood with the point of a shear-blade, a present from the whites, and of inestimable value. Ippitha, a buxom young lubra, has just come to the camp from the station-hut with the clothes of the white men to wash, so that they may have them clean for the Sunday. \\ith large, dark, lustrous eyes, and white, even teeth, and merry laugh and low, soft, musical voice, she has learned to comb her hair in simple adornment and

Vengeance for Ippitha. 21

behave with not unattractive feminine coquetry. Little Charley (named after and by Kilminster, an intelligent little fellow, three years old, learning to speak the whites' language) utterly impotent and guileless, with others like him, is rolling over and tumbling on the ground in childish play and glee. They chase each other round and through the camps, pretending to be