THE ABORIGINES.
"Gimme 'bacca, you pleas, massa."
--AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL.
Aboriginals were plentiful in the forties, and they had the "run of
their knife" then a little more than they do now. A murder amongst
them was a common occurrence, and not infrequently was a head severed
from a body in a quarrel over a bottle of rum. Occasionally they went
further than this, for several members of a white family were murdered
by blacks at Rollands Plains. The father of this family was a sawyer,
and they killed him first while working at a cedar tree in the bush.
The house containing the mother and children was then attacked, but
the mother, it is supposed, on hearing the blacks trying to enter the
house, threw her infant, only a few months old, out of the back window,
and this child was the only member of the family that escaped, it
being found the day afterwards. The chief perpetrator of this deed was
a blackfellow named "Terramidgee," who paid the penalty by being hanged
in front of the Port Macquarie Gaol. To act as a warning, all the
aborigines around the Settlement were collected together to witness the
punishment.
It did not appear to be much of a warning, however, as about the
year 1849 another cedar-cutter was murdered on the upper portion of
Rollands Plains. This sawyer had adopted a young aboriginal, and when
considered old enough to learn, he was sent to school in Sydney. After
being away for some years he grew into a fine youth, and on returning,
used to assist his master with the cedar. Two or three years elapsed
in this way, until one day a tribe of blacks came to the old sawyer
and demanded tobacco and rations, which he refused to give them.
This colored youth, however, whose name was "Mogo Gard," made the
necessary arrangements with the other aboriginals to murder the master
that night, which was accordingly done, and they cleared the hut of
everything and took to the bush. When the murder became known, the
police were communicated with, and, on arrival, they suspected "Mogo,"
and shortly afterwards he was arrested and conveyed to Port Macquarie.
He was placed in heavy irons, tried, and afterwards transferred to
Sydney, where a sentence of death was passed on him. When the vessel
which conveyed this murderer to Sydney entered the Heads, he attempted
to jump overboard, but was noticed in time to be prevented from doing
so. At the gallows, when the rope was being put around his neck, he
looked at the hangman, and said; "No, bale you put 'im that place,
you put 'im here," pointing to his waist. But he had to pay the last
penalty of the law. He was a tremendous man, standing six feet seven
inches in height, besides being broad in proportion; and was a splendid
specimen of the Australian aboriginal.
Amongst the other aboriginals who were in the main Settlement was
a notorious thief, named "Micky," who was also a splendidly-built
blackfellow. I caught him one day stealing money from a man who was
stopping at Colley's hotel. I informed on him, and the magistrate
ordered him to be given 50 lashes. In due course he received the
flogging, and at every smack, he said, "By G--, G----, I not Guv'ment
man!"
Once I had a keg of rum, and when I was away from home "Micky" used to
break in and steal it; so I vowed at last that I'd get even with him. I
had some laudanum on hand, which I used for my eyes, so I got a bottle,
put some rum in it, and then added some of the laudanum. This I left
in a convenient place for him, and went away as usual to my work. Sure
enough the bait was taken, and then he lay asleep on the road for a day
and a-half. I was driving a cart at the time, and would have driven
over him (for he was a terrible thief) only I was afraid the cart would
be tracked, and I'd get into trouble. "Micky" did not come back for any
more rum.
Perhaps the cleverest piece of work ever done by an aboriginal in
the Settlement, was carried out by "Charles Merriman," a well-known
blackfellow. On one occasion some prisoners bolted from the gaol, and
a black-tracker was wanted. "Merriman" was the chosen tracker, but
did not seem to care about the billet. He, however, was forced to
accompany two policemen in search of the runaways, and was attired
in the usual uniform of a policeman. As they travelled away from the
town on horseback, the police noticed that the tracker was going very
much against his will. At last when they had gone six or seven miles
out, he asked one of the police to hold his horse saying: "I been see
it something up in the ferns, there." He ran up into the tall ferns,
picked up a stick, took the cap off and placed it on top of the stick,
which he stuck in the ground, so that only the cap could be seen above
the ferns. He then made a bee-line for the Settlement. Some time
elapsed, and the constable rode up to see what he was doing, only to
find, much to his disgust, that, snake-like, "Merriman" had shed his
coat.