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26 THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALIA. “ On the evening of Thursday, the 17th October, Kenny was returning to the station with his sheep, when he met Paddy, who had been shepherding the rams. Paddy said to him, ‘ There has been slaughter here to-day.’ Kenny then went up to the station, and saw the corpse of his late master (Mr. Wills), the overseer’s wife (Mrs. Baker), with grown-up daughter and two children, Mrs. Manyon, and three children, and a man named Jemmy Scotty—in all ten bodies—having evidently been killed by the blacks. He then took a horse and rode over to Bainworth (Mr. G-regson’s station), where he arrived about 1 p.tn., on Priday last. He does not know what became of Paddy after he left him. There were at the time twenty-two Europeans on the station, and it is feared that others have shared a similar fate to that of the ten above-mentioned. The remaining eleven on the station were, the overseer (Mr. Baker), Patrick Manyon, George Ling, Paddy, George Elliott, Harry, Tom, Davey Baker, Charlie, Ned, and John Moon. Mr. Thomas Wills (son of the deceased) and two men had left the station the previous Sunday morning, with drays, on their way to Albinia Downs, for loading. “ We are informed that the remnant of the Native Police Eorce, at the camp Kockhampton, con sisting of Cadet Johnson, two sergeants, and one trooper only, will start to-morrow for Peak Downs, an officer named Genatas with ten men being stationed there, and from thence they will proceed to Nogoa. There is also a small company of troopers under Lieutenant Patrick stationed at the Comet Eiver. “ Preparations are being made by Mr. P. F. Macdonald, of Yaamby, for the equipment of a private party to accompany him to the scene of the recent massacre, to assist in succouring the men left on tho station, and preserve the property from injury. A subscription, headed by Mr. P. F. Macdonald, £100, which already amounts to £236, has been opened to defray its expenses, and will be found at the Banks. 11 Later intelligence.—News was received on Thursday evening that Lieutenant Cave, with eleven troopers, arrived at the scene of the late tragedy two days after its occurrence. Lieutenant Cave was on patrol with the troopers at Living’s station, on the Dawson, when he heard of the murders. He hastened off in the middle of the night, taking with him fresh horses. Mr. Living and the settlers in the vicinity formed a separate party, and started at once to render assistance. No further particulars have as yet transpired.” In a work published in 1871—“ Colonial Adventures ; by a University man,”—we have a chapter devoted to the Aborigines of Queensland, in which the writer gives the general opinion as to the destruc tion of the black race, “ That God never intended them to live long on the land in which he had placed them, therefore away with them until there be none remaining, and we will go in and possess the land.” The writer draws a distinction not creditable between the tame blacks and wild ones :—“ The former picked up all the worst characteristics of the white man, and lost some of their own. They learned to drink, smoke, and become lazy, living on the white man’s scraps. They do not hesitate to commit murders and robberies—doing as they are done by. In short, instead of improving their condition, we have made them more wretched and base than ever, not over complimentary to Christianity or civilization. In new districts taken up by the whites, almost invariably by way of retaliation, either from the whites destroying their camps or possibly firing on them, the black meditates revenge, and spears or kills the first defenceless shepherd or traveller. Then the Europeans turn out to disperse them—to shoot them down—men, women, and children. The native police, being blacks trained to arms, delight in shooting their fellow-men. For every white man murdered, six blacks are made to bite the dust.” The writer gives a description of a shipwrecked sailor who lived with the blacks twenty years, and experienced continual kindness, and of their kindness to his fellow-seamen who escaped from the wreck, but died of fever. These very men having boarded a cutter near the coast, and one of them having stolen a tomahawk, leaped overboard with his prize, the rest following. The crew fired upon them while swimming, and killed two of them. The writer, in describing the massacre of the natives by the black police, says :—“ I have seen two large pits, covered with branches and brush, secured by a few stones ; the pits filled with dead bodies of blacks, of all ages .and both sexes.” Again, he says, “Whilst travelling along the road, for more than a quarter of a mile the air was tainted with the putrefaction of corpses, which lay all along the ridges, just as they had fallen. This was in retaliation for the murder of five shepherds. Each detachment of four or five troopers is officered by a European, domiciled in barracks or camps. They sometimes show some compunction in shooting women, but they are usually encouraged in this work, as the women are often the abettors and agents in most of the murders, and as the blacks must be exterminated, the more shot the better.” The celebrated tourist, Mr. Trollope, in his work on “ Queensland ; a Flying Visit,” devotes some pages to this people. He describes them as sapient as monkeys and great mimics of white dandies. He
