"O! pardon me thou bleeding piece of Earth
That I am meek and gentle with these butchers."
JULIUS CAESAR, _Act 3, Sc. 1_.
When "the Society" left Fern Vale they jaunted leisurely on for a short
distance, when they were overtaken by Sawyer and his son-in-law, the
notable Captain Jones, who made up to Mr. Rainsfield and told him they
had come out to join his party against the blacks. Though these
volunteers were not exactly the sort of men "the Society" would have
desired to enroll they were determined looking characters, and had the
appearance of those, who, if they could be trusted, could be made
serviceable in any desperate act. Therefore their aid was accepted, and
they were forthwith admitted into the confidence of the brethren. Such
is the influence of either perpetrated or contemplated crime that it
breaks down all social demarcation and collects in the bonds of unity
and friendship the most heterogeneous natures of man.
The cavalcade had proceeded about half-way towards Strawberry Hill when
some distance in advance of them a bullock crossed the road followed by
a black on horseback at a hard gallop. Both animals Rainsfield at once
recognised as his own; and, dashing spurs into his horse, he joined in
the chase, followed by the remainder of the party, with the intention of
sending one of his family's destroyers to a last account. The bullock
ran with his head carried low and his tail erect at a speed which for
some time kept him considerably in advance of his pursuer; but after a
while his pace relaxed and the superior mettle of the horse soon brought
him alongside the bovine fugitive. As the animals ran side by side the
rider seized the uplifted tail of the bullock in a firm grasp, while he
stimulated his horse to additional exertion, and with the application of
very little force he tilted the beast over its own head, and it fell
with its own velocity, breaking its neck.
The black was quite conscious all this time that he was the object of
pursuit; so giving a glance at his fallen prey to ascertain if his work
had been effectual, and another behind him to see if his pursuers were
in an unpleasant proximity, he continued his career through the bush
until he arrived at the banks of the river Gibson. Into it he plunged
without hesitation, and slipping from his saddle, as the horse entered
the water, he held on by the bridle and stirrup, and swam by the
animal's side. The black kept his eye upon the bank he had just left
until he saw approaching through the bush a number of horsemen; who, as
they reached the edge of river, presented their guns and fired. The
next moment the horse rolled over in the stream, dyeing the water with
his blood, and floated lifeless down the current.
Nothing was visible, however, of the black. He had sunk ere their pieces
were discharged; and the party knowing that he was untouched for some
minutes watched vigilantly for his reappearance, but in vain. Barwang
(for they had discovered it was he) did not show himself above the
surface of the water; and they thinking that he was floating down
concealed in some way with the carcass of the horse, followed it to
watch. It at the same time occurred to them that he might have dived and
was swimming for the other bank, assisting himself in eluding them by
first floating some distance down the river. They had thus gone down the
bank some two or three hundred yards, when they heard a loud hoarse
laugh from behind them; and, turning to the direction whence the sound
proceeded, they saw on the opposite side, some distance above where they
stood, him for whose reappearance they were watching. Barwang had
escaped them by swimming against the current and not with it as they had
anticipated he would; and once safely on the margin of the stream he
felt he was secure, and stood pointing at his pursuers in derision and
defiance. A dozen pieces were instantly pointed at him by the
disappointed party; but he with another loud laugh darted into the scrub
and, before the report of their guns was heard, was evanescent.
The chagrined company then proceeded to Strawberry Hill, where
Rainsfield proposed to lodge them; and where they would fix upon their
future plans of action.
That night the Society sat in grave debate, and various were the schemes
proposed to effect visitation on the blacks of an exterminating
retribution. The members at length became weary of making propositions
that met with no support from the body, and were beginning to be silent
when Dr. Graham renewed the energies of the meeting by remarking:
"I'll tell you what it is all you fellows! you'd better 'keep your eyes
on the picture.'"
All the eyes of the assemblage if not kept on the imaginary picture that
haunted the brain of this disciple of AEsculapius were at least kept
attentively fixed on the features of the speaker, who continued. "See
here! what is the good of the whole of us sitting here and looking at
one another? There won't be a black in that scrub to-morrow; so if we
don't go at them at once, they'll escape us as that scoundrel did
to-day. They will be sure to know what we are here for, and will make
themselves scarce at once; and if we once let them slip us we need never
expect to get at them again for they are sure to take up their abode
among the hills, gullies, or scrubs, where we could not follow them."
"But is the river crossable?" asked one.
"Rainsfield will tell you," replied the Doctor.
"I have not been at the ford for some time," said Rainsfield, "and do
not remember the usual depth of water. But the river has now gone down
considerably, and I have no doubt it can be crossed; at any rate it
shall soon be ascertained for I will do it myself this night in your
presence so that you can judge by my success or failure."
"Right," said Graham. "Then we all try it together, and that too as you
say this very night. At once! say I. I go; so let who likes follow me:"
and he started from his seat.
The movement then became general, and in a short time the whole
cavalcade were again on the move in the direction of the crossing-place
near which Barwang had escaped them. About an hour afterwards the party
were mustering in a state of saturation upon the edge of the scrub,
after having passed through the still swollen stream, which they had had
to swim. They noiselessly dismounted from their horses, arranged
themselves on the bank of the river, fastened their steeds to adjacent
trees, and then threaded the scrub under the guidance of Rainsfield, to
the camp of the blacks; which they speedily distinguished by the glare
of the fires. The party then halted and arranged to divide themselves
into two companies, one to advance from the spot where they then stood,
while the other made a detour so as to encompass the camp. Then upon a
given signal, they were to fire alternately into the midst of the
blacks, and so long as any of the unfortunate wretches remained
stationary to continue reloading and firing; but to close in upon them
with revolvers if the victims showed any disposition to break through
the compass of their rifles.
They then advanced, and as quickly as possible encircled the unconscious
aborigines, who lay, some in their gunyahs, and some stretched round the
fires. All were in a deep sleep, into which they appeared to have fallen
in a state of inert satiety, as was evident from the scattered remains
of roasted meat that strewed the ground around them. Not a sound was to
be heard in the whole camp except the sonorous breathing of the supine
gorgers; for even those watchful monitors, the dogs, had benefited by
this rare occasion, by indulging in a glut that inoculated them with the
same somnolent ineptitude.
In a few moments after the Society had spread itself in the array of
attack a low whistle was heard; when, almost simultaneously, eight
flashes describing a semicircle on one side of the camp momentarily lit
the dark avenues of the bush. They were instantly followed by a report,
whose echoes mingled with the shrieks and dying groans of the wounded,
and in an instant the unscathed portion of the prostrate forms stood
erect; while the gunyahs disgorged their living inmates, called forth in
their consternation and half unconscious lethargy, to offer marks for
their concealed executioners. Other eight shots then told their
murdering effects upon the huddled mass of the blacks, who remained in a
perfect state of bewilderment hardly knowing which way to turn. Many
rushed in the direction opposite to that whence the last fire had
emanated, but only to fall by the shots of the first division of the
Society, who, having thrown themselves down to avoid the chance of their
colleagues' fire, had reloaded, and were ready for action. Again and
again was this manoeuvre repeated, and discharge followed discharge.
The carnage had commenced, and many of the blacks sought a temporary
shelter in their gunyahs, while the majority, not knowing what to do,
remained in the open area, to be shot down by the rifles of the whites;
who, when they tired of reloading their pieces, closed in upon the camp,
and setting fire to their bark gunyahs drove the poor wretches from
their retreat, and butchered them indiscriminately with their revolvers.
One of the assailants, however, while dealing destruction around him,
was active in searching for one above all others of the blacks he prayed
to find. That searcher was Rainsfield, and the object of his concern we
need hardly say, was Barwang. Rainsfield had scanned the features of
every black, as he buried a ball in each victim's heart; but without
recognising the monster for whose blood he thirsted, and without which
he would never be appeased. He searched long, but in vain. The fiendish
leader of the tribe he could not discover; and he began to entertain
fears that the wretch's cunning had enabled him to elude his grasp.
Almost worn out with his work of death he was about relinquishing the
search in despair when he spied a dark form creeping from a heap of
bodies, and crawling away in the direction of the adjacent scrub. The
fitful glare of a fire fell upon the features of the crouching form and
disclosed the furtive glance of Barwang to the eyes of him who longed in
his very soul for the meeting.
The recognition was instantaneous on both sides, and at the same moment
that Rainsfield sprang forward and fired at the black the other leaped
from the ground and in an instant, poising a spear in his hand, buried
it in the body of his antagonist. Rainsfield tore the weapon from his
breast, and seeing that the black was not killed by the shot he had
fired at him, and it being the last he had, without time to reload, he
drew his knife and sprang upon his enemy. The struggle was fierce,
though short, for both the athletes were powerful men, and were
determined upon each other's death, even if they perished themselves
while effecting it. The black caught the right arm of his opponent as it
descended with the weapon that was intended to terminate his existence,
and with the other hand he seized the throat of Rainsfield, into which
he buried his fingers like the talons of an eagle.
Rainsfield taxed his strength to the utmost to disengage the hand from
his throat, and save himself from strangulation while he effected the
death of the black. Each strained and struggled as they, locked in each
other's grasp, panted to eliminate the spirit from each other's bodies.
After some time they stopped to gain breath, while they for a few
moments silently eyed one another with looks of vengeance and rage. The
conflict, however, was speedily renewed with fearful energy. Every nerve
was strained to the utmost tension in both frames; when, in a moment,
the black made several rapid lunges, battering with his hard cranium the
breast of his foe; at the same time that Rainsfield managed to bury the
knife up to its handle in the neck of Barwang. The loss of blood arising
from the previous wounds, and these excessive strainings and shocks,
soon produced their effects. Exhaustion speedily ensued; and the two
belligerents, still firmly knitted in a death grasp, sank to the ground
never again to rise in life.
In the meantime the work of destruction progressed all around with
unabated activity until no living black remained on whom to wreak a
vengeance. Nearly the whole tribe had been sacrificed, for few escaped
into the bush among the general slaughter. When the members of the
Society contemplated the result of their labours they felt perfectly
satisfied with the extent of their reparation, and surveyed the scene
with a complacency ill befitting the work. How little did they remember
that a work similar to this in result had been the cause of the reprisal
that had brought desolation to the Rainsfield family! and less did they
consider that they were incurring the displeasure of an indignant Maker.
No! they thought not of the judgments of Divine wrath: the victims, in
their imaginations, were only blacks, whose extermination was an
ordination of Providence, and an advantage to civilisation. Besides
which they looked upon the slaughter they had been engaged in as a just
punishment to the savages for their perfidious treachery in the murder
which they, the Society, were unable to prevent, but which they could,
and did avenge. By this sort of reasoning they quieted their
consciences, if any had been disturbed, and attempted to justify
themselves in the eyes of their God.
The forensic vision was that which most troubled them, for they knew, in
the eye of the law of their country, they were guilty of an act which,
if discovered, would cost them an atonement by the surrender of their
lives. But they were aware that, with the exception of their own
members, none could criminate them; while the probability of such an
event occurring was very remote, for all were equally implicated. While,
at the same time, the distance they were removed from the seat of
government, and the ineffectual means supplied for the protection of the
settlers in the border districts, would partly justify them in being
armed in the present affray; and the magistrates of the territory being
all of their own body, and consequently sympathising with their
movements, they experienced very little apprehension of danger.
We may here remark that this is not the only case in the land where
similar influences have actuated the settlers to take summary vengeance
on the blacks, for reprisals and peccadillos in themselves
insignificant. Hundreds, ah! we may say thousands, have been shot with
perfect impunity; and we hesitate not to say thousands more will
continue to meet the same sad fate, until the last of the race shall
have vanished from this terrestrial sphere. Yet we firmly believe their
blood will sink into the soil, and at a future age, when the people have
long since become extinct, will it cry aloud for vengeance; and woe to
the land if the great Governor of the universe should listen to that
cry.
The party when about to leave the ground suddenly missed their companion
Rainsfield, and, thinking that he might still be engaged on some
operations of retribution in another part of the camp, called him aloud
by name; but without meeting with any response. They waited impatiently
for his return but after a time finding he did not return they commenced
a search in the neighbourhood of the camp, at the same time that they
made the bush resound with their cooeys to attract him if he had
strayed. Still to no purpose were their calls, for no responsive cry
echoed to them; and not until they returned to the camp weary and
dispirited as the first coruscations from the solar rays darted their
luminous salutations over the eastern horizon did they discover his body
with that of his last antagonist. His position, and the spear wound in
his body, sufficiently explained his fate; and silently and sorrowfully
he was removed, and carried by them to where their horses were secured.
They then recrossed the river on their way back to Strawberry Hill,
which had now become destitute of an owner.
Shortly after their passage of the stream the cavalcade was met by John
Ferguson, who had heard the firing, and guessing its import had ridden
over for the purpose of inspecting the scene and satisfying himself upon
the nature and extent of the slaughter he knew must have taken place.
But when he saw the returning party he rode up to them and addressing
himself to Doctor Graham, who happened to be riding a little in advance,
he said:
"May I be permitted to enquire the nature of the firing which was
carried on in the scrub last night?"
"Oh, certainly, sir," replied the Doctor, "you are permitted to ask
whatever you like, for this is a free country. If you want to know the
cause of the reports you heard last night I may inform you for your
satisfaction that our friend Rainsfield had a warrant for the
apprehension of Barwang, and that he attempted to put it in force, while
we volunteered to assist and protect him. As might have been imagined we
were attacked by the villains, and had to fire upon them for our own
defence. In the affray we lost our friend Rainsfield, for he was killed
by the wretch he was attempting to secure, and who at the same time met
with his deserts."
"Rainsfield is dead, did you say?" enquired John in hurried tones; "is
life perfectly extinct?"
"Yes, dead!" replied the other, "as any herring. Go look at him
yourself;" and he pointed behind him to where followed a horse with the
body thrown across the saddle. "You can see there for yourself, where
you may keep your eye on the picture."
John silently surveyed the pale, discoloured, and distorted features
which he had seen only a few hours before in life and perfect health,
and with a deep drawn sigh, as he turned away, he muttered: "Poor
fellow! such a terrible doom."
The company then proceeded to the house of the Fergusons, when the
melancholy obsequies of the previous day were repeated; after which the
Society broke up, having ensured themselves against further
interruptions from the blacks by the success of their first onslaught;
and, although they arranged to be ready upon any emergency, they had no
anticipation of any future necessity.
We must now in the course of our narrative precipitate our readers over
a period of some six months after the events we have just related, which
interval was passed with the occurrence of few circumstances worth
detailing. Tom Rainsfield had been hastily recalled from town, but had
not arrived until after the final scene of the tragedy had been enacted.
The horrors of the events came upon him with such a shock, and so
subdued his spirit, that it was some time before he could school himself
to comprehend their full extent; and not until some weeks had elapsed
could he bring his mind to the level of mundane matters, and then only
with a melancholy feeling did he set to work to put the station in
order.