They each carried a handful
of spears. They wore the usual kangaroo skin cloak thrown over the back or
shoulder, and thickly smeared with red ochre and grease. Their hair as
well as skin was also thickly coated with the same, the hair being
carefully dressed or formed by its help into neat little knots or globules
all round the head. One of the men has lost his arm, being the same who
about two years ago was caught in the rat trap that happened to be set in
the flour cask in Mr. Adey's stock-keeper's hut. They surrendered to Mr.
Robinson (who, however, very prudently did not take possession of them)
six stand of arms, which they had taken from the whites they had murdered,
or stolen from the huts. Three of them were ready loaded, and the muzzles
carefully stuffed with pieces of blanket, and one is the same which was so
recently borne by the late unfortunate Mr. Parker. The inside of several
of their bark huts, which Mr. Robinson entered, was very ingeniously
ornamented with rude delineations of kangaroos, emus, and other animals.
The removal of these blacks will be of essential benefit both to
themselves and the colony. The large tracts of pasture that have so long
been deserted, owing to their murderous attacks on the shepherds and the
stockhuts, will now be available, and a very sensible relief will be
afforded to the flocks of sheep that had been withdrawn from them, and
pent up on inadequate ranges of pasture--a circumstance which indeed has
tended materially to impoverish the flocks and keep up the price of
butcher's meat.
Pages:
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28