Among the Rocks there were innumerable caves, depressions, and hiding-places of all kinds, in which the natives had been used to find secure retreat and[Pg 64] safe hiding in days gone by. Whether they could not bear to surrender to the white man these cherished solitudes9, or whether it was the shortsighted, childish anxiety to possess our goods and chattels10, can hardly ever be told. Whatever the motive11, it was sufficient, as on all sides at once came tales of wrong-doing and violence, of maimed and slaughtered12 stock, of homicide or murder.
Next day we saw the greater part of the cattle, but those particular ones that Old Tom had missed were not to be found anywhere. We were turning our horses' heads homewards when I noticed the eaglehawks circling around and above a circular clump13 of ti-tree scrub in a marsh14. While we looked a crow flew straight up from the midst of the clump, and we heard the harsh cry of others. The same thought evidently was in all our minds, as we rode straight for the place, and forced our horses between the thick-growing, slender, feathery points. In the centre, amid the tall tussac grass, lay the yellow heifer with the white flank, stone dead. A spear-hole was visible beneath the back ribs15. Exactly on the corresponding portion of the other side was another, proving that, strange as it may seem, a spear had been driven right through her body. After Old Tom had concluded his exclamations16 and imprecations, which were of a most comprehensive nature, we agreed that the campaign had been opened in earnest, and that we knew what we had to expect. "We'll find more to-morrow," said the old man. "Onest they'll begin like this, they'll never lave off till thim villains17, Jupiter and Cocknose, is shot, anyway."
[Pg 65]
These strangely-named individuals had been familiar to our ears ever since our arrival. "Jupiter" was supposed to have a title to the head chieftainship of the tribe which specially18 affected19 the Rocks and the neighbourhood of the extinct volcano. Cocknose had been named by the early settlers from the highly unclassical shape of the facial appendage20. He was known to be a restless, malevolent21 savage22. Again on the war trail next morning, we tried beating up and down among the paths by which the cattle went to water, at the lower portion of the great marsh. It may be explained that the summer of 1844 was exceptionally dry, and much of the surface water having disappeared, the cattle were compelled to walk in Indian file through the ti-tree, in many places more than ten feet in height, to the deeper portion of the marsh, where water was still visible.
Here Joe Burge hit off a trail, which seemed likely to solve the mystery. "Here they've been back and forward, and pretty thick too," he said, getting off and pointing to the track of native feet, plain enough in the swamp mud.
"Cattle been here," said the old stockman, "and running too. Look at thim deep tracks. The thieves of the world, my heavy curse on them!"
As we followed on the trail grew broader and more plain. A few head of cattle had evidently been surrounded—two or more bullocks, we agreed, and several cows and calves23, heading now in this direction, now in that. Presently half of a broken spear was picked up. We followed the track to a thick brake of reeds nearly opposite to a jutting24 cape25 of the lava[Pg 66] country. There we halted. A new character was legible in the cipher26 we had been puzzling out.
"They've thrown him here," said the old man. "Here's where he fell down. There's blood on that tuft of grass; and here's the mark of the side of him in the mud. They've cut him up and carried him away into the Rocks, bit by bit—hide and horns, bones and mate. The divil resave the bit of Magpie27 ever we'll see again. There's where they wint in."
Sure enough we saw a plainly-marked track, with a fragment of flesh, or a blood-stain, showing the path by which they had carried in a slaughtered animal. Further we could not follow them, as the lava downs were at this spot too rough for horses, and we might also have been taken at a disadvantage. So, on the second evening, we rode home, having found what we went out to seek, certainly, but not elated by the discovery.
It now became a serious question how to bear ourselves in the face of the new state of matters. If the blacks persisted in a guerilla warfare28, besides killing29 many of the best of our cattle, they would scatter30 and terrify the remainder, so that they would hardly stay on the run; besides which, they held us at a disadvantage. They could watch our movements, and from time to time make sorties from the Rocks, and attack our homesteads or cut us off in detail. In the winter season much of the forest land became so deep and boggy31 that, even on horseback, if surprised and overmatched in numbers, there would be very little chance of getting away. By this time the owners of the neighbouring stations were fully32 aroused to the necessity of concerted action.[Pg 67] We had reached the point when "something must be done." We could not permit our cattle to be harried33, our servants to be killed, and ourselves to be hunted out of the good land we had occupied by a few savages34.
Our difficulty was heightened by its being necessary to behave in a quasi-legal manner. Shooting blacks, except in manifest self-defence, had been always held to be murder in the Supreme35 Courts of the land, and occasionally punished as such.
Now, there were obstacles in the way of taking out warrants and apprehending36 Jupiter and Cocknose, or any of their marauding braves, in the act. The Queen's writ37, as in certain historic portions of the west of Ireland, did not run in those parts. Like all guerillas, moreover, their act of outrage38 took place sometimes in one part of a large district, sometimes in another, the actors vanishing meanwhile, and reappearing with puzzling rapidity.
We went now well armed. We were well mounted and vigilantly39 on guard. The Children of the Rocks were occasionally met with, when collisions, not all bloodless, took place.
Their most flagrant robbery was committed on Mr. John Cox's Mount Napier station, whence a flock of maiden40 ewes was driven, and the shepherd maltreated. These young sheep were worth nearly two pounds per head, besides being impossible to replace. Mr. Cox told me himself that they constituted about a third of his stock in sheep at the time. He therefore armed a few retainers and followed hot on the trail.
[Pg 68]
He had unusual facilities for making successful pursuit. In his house lived a tame aboriginal named Sou'wester, who had a strong personal attachment41 for Mr. Cox. Like most of his race, he had the true bloodhound faculty42 when a man-hunt was in question. He led the armed party, following easily the trampling43 of the flock in the long grass until they reached the edge of the Rocks.
Into this rugged44 region the flock had been driven. Before long Sou'wester's piercing eye discovered signs of their having been forced along the rocky paths at the point of the spear.
It was evident to him that they were making for the lake, which was in the centre of the lava country.
By and by he pointed45 out that, by the look of the tracks, they were gaining upon the robbers. And shortly too sure an indication of the reckless greed and cruelty of the savage was furnished.
Passing round an angular ridge46 of boulders47, suddenly they came upon about a hundred young sheep, which had been left behind. "But why are they all lying down?" said one of the party.
The tracker paused, and, lifting a hind-leg of one of the helpless brutes48, showed without speech that the limb was useless.
The robbers had dislocated the hind-legs as a simple preventive of locomotion49; to insure their being in the same place when it should please their captors to return and eat them.
"I never felt so wolfish in my life," said Mr. Cox to me, afterwards, "as when I saw the poor things turn up their eyes reproachfully as they lay, as if imploring50 our assistance."
[Pg 69]
A few more miles brought them up with the main body. They opened fire upon the tolerably large body of blacks in possession, directly they came within range.
"It was the first time I had ever levelled a gun at my fellow-man," John Cox remarked. "I did so without regret or hesitation51 in this instance. I never remember having the feeling that I could not miss so strong in me—except in snipe-shooting. I distinctly remember knocking over three blacks, two men and a boy, with one discharge of my double barrel."
Sou'wester had a good innings that day, which he thoroughly52 enjoyed. He fired right and left, raging like a demoniac. One huge black, wounded to death, hastened his own end by dragging out his entrails, meanwhile praising up the weapons of the white man as opposed to those of the black. Sou'wester cut short his death-song by blowing out his brains with the horse-pistol of the period.
A few of the front-rankers were shot on this occasion; but most of the others saved themselves by precipitately53 taking to the lake.
After this nothing happened for a while, until one day a good-sized party was discovered killing a bullock of Messrs. Jamieson, near Ettrick. The brothers Jamieson and Major Learmonth—then unknown to martial54 fame—went out to dispute title. The scene was in a reed-brake—the opposing force numerous. Spears began to drop searchingly amid and around the little party. It looked like another Isandula, and the swart foe55 crept ominously56 close, and yet more close, from tree to tree.
[Pg 70]
Then a spear struck William Jamieson in the forehead—a rough straw hat alone saving his brain. The blood rushed down, and, dripping on his gun, damped the priming.
Things looked bad. A little faltering57 had lost the fight.
But the Laird of Ettrick shot the savage dead who threw the spear, and under cover of this surprise he and Robert Jamieson carried their wounded comrade safely out of the field.
Among other experiments for the benefit of the tribe, I had adopted a small black boy. He was formally handed over to me by his grand-uncle, who informed me that his name was Tommy, and adjured58 me to "kick him plenty." With this thoughtful admonition from his only surviving male relative I did not trouble myself to comply, though it occurred to me subsequently that it was founded upon a correct analysis of boy nature generally, and of Master Tommy's in particular. So he was a good deal spoiled, and, though occasionally useful with the cattle, did pretty much as he liked, and vexed59 the soul of good Mrs. Burge continually.
One night, when we had been on the run all day and had found the cattle much disorganised, we noticed an unusual number and brilliancy of fires at the black camp in the Rocks. We could generally see their fires in the distance at night, and could judge of the direction of the camp, though, owing to the broken nature of the ground, we did not seek to follow them up, unless when making a reconnaissance en force.
On this particular night, however, something[Pg 71] more than usual appeared to be going on. The dogs, too, were uneasy, and I could see that Old Tom appeared to be perturbed60 and anxious.
"I wouldn't be putting it past them black divils to be makin' a rush some night and thryin' to burn the hut on us," he said gloomily. "If we lave them there, atin' and roastin' away at shins of beef and the hoighth of good livin', as they have now, they'll think we're afraid, and there'll be no houldin' them. Ye might get the gintlemen from Dunmore, and Peter Kearney, and Joe Betts, and Mr. Craufurd, from Eumeralla, and give them a fright out of that before they rise on us in rale arnest."
"No, Tom," I said; "I should not think that just or right. I believe that they have been killing our cattle, but I must catch them in the act, and know for certain what blacks they are, before I take the law into my own hands. As to driving them away from the Rocks, it is their own country, and I will not attack them there till they have done something in my presence to deserve it."
"Take your own way," said the old man, sullenly61. He lit his pipe, and said no more.
That night, about midnight, the dogs began to bark in a violent and furious manner, running out into the darkness and returning with all the appearance of having seen something hostile and unusual. We turned out promptly62, and, gun in hand, went out some distance into the darkness. The night was of a pitchy Egyptian darkness, in which naught63 was visible a hand's breadth before one. Once we heard a low murmur64 as of cautious voices, but it ceased. Suddenly the black boy, Tommy, who had crept a[Pg 72] few yards farther, came tearing back past us, and raced into the hut, where, apparently65 in an agony of fear, he threw himself down among the ashes of the fireplace, ejaculating, "Wild blackfellow, wild blackfellow!" to the great discomposure of Mrs. Burge.
We fired off a gun to let them know that we were prepared, and separating so that we surrounded the hut on three sides of a front, and could retreat upon it if hard pressed, awaited the attack.
It was rather an exciting moment. The dark midnight, the intense stillness, broken only by the baying of the dogs and the "mysterious sounds of the desert"; the chance of a rush of the wild warriors66, who, if unchecked at the onset67, would obliterate68 our small outpost—all these ideas passed through my mind in quick succession as we stood to our guns, and shouted to them to come on.
"But none answered." They probably came near, under cover of the darkness, and, true to their general tactics, declined to make an attack when the garrison69 was prepared. Had they caught us napping, the result might have been different. This view of the subject was confirmed by something which happened a little while afterwards, and gave us a most apposite text on which to enlarge in our memorials to the Government. I happened to be away with Old Tom on a journey which took us more than a week. When I returned, "wonderful ashes had fallen on our heads," as Hadji Baba phrases it. Our homestead had been surprised and taken by the enemy. They had held possession of the hut for an hour or more, and cleared it of all that they regarded as valuable. Blood had not[Pg 73] been spilled, but "it was God's mercy," Mrs. Burge said, "that she, and Joe, and the precious baby had not all been killed and murdered, and eaten, and all the cattle driven into the Rocks." I began to think that I would never go away again—certainly not for a few years—if adventures of this sort were possible in my absence. After a little blowing off of steam, on Old Tom's part, I gathered from the calmer narrative70 of Joe Burge the substance of the affair.
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1
creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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lava
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| n.熔岩，火山岩 | |
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aboriginal
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| adj.（指动植物）土生的，原产地的，土著的 | |
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tract
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| n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林) | |
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rendezvous
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| n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇 | |
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eminently
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| adv.突出地；显著地；不寻常地 | |
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swarmed
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| 密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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fowl
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| n.家禽，鸡，禽肉 | |
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solitudes
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| n.独居( solitude的名词复数 )；孤独；荒僻的地方；人迹罕至的地方 | |
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chattels
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| n.动产，奴隶( chattel的名词复数 ) | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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12
slaughtered
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| v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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clump
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| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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marsh
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| n.沼泽，湿地 | |
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ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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exclamations
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| n.呼喊( exclamation的名词复数 )；感叹；感叹语；感叹词 | |
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villains
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| n.恶棍( villain的名词复数 )；罪犯；（小说、戏剧等中的）反面人物；淘气鬼 | |
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specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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appendage
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| n.附加物 | |
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malevolent
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| adj.有恶意的，恶毒的 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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calves
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| n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子，腓；腿肚子( calf的名词复数 )；牛犊；腓；小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 )；（冰川）崩解；生（小牛等），产（犊）；使（冰川）崩解 | |
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jutting
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| v.（使）突出( jut的现在分词 )；伸出；（从…）突出；高出 | |
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25
cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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cipher
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| n.零；无影响力的人；密码 | |
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magpie
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| n.喜欢收藏物品的人，喜鹊，饶舌者 | |
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warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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scatter
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| vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散 | |
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boggy
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| adj.沼泽多的 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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harried
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| v.使苦恼( harry的过去式和过去分词 )；不断烦扰；一再袭击；侵扰 | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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apprehending
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| 逮捕，拘押( apprehend的现在分词 )； 理解 | |
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writ
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| n.命令状，书面命令 | |
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38
outrage
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| n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒 | |
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vigilantly
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| adv.警觉地，警惕地 | |
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maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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attachment
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| n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附 | |
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42
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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43
trampling
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| 踩( trample的现在分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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45
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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46
ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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boulders
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| n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾 | |
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brutes
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| 兽( brute的名词复数 )； 畜生； 残酷无情的人； 兽性 | |
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49
locomotion
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| n.运动，移动 | |
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50
imploring
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| 恳求的，哀求的 | |
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51
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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52
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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precipitately
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| adv.猛进地 | |
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54
martial
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| adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的 | |
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55
foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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56
ominously
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| adv.恶兆地，不吉利地；预示地 | |
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faltering
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| 犹豫的，支吾的，蹒跚的 | |
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58
adjured
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| v.（以起誓或诅咒等形式）命令要求( adjure的过去式和过去分词 )；祈求；恳求 | |
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59
vexed
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| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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perturbed
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| adj.烦燥不安的v.使（某人）烦恼，不安( perturb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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61
sullenly
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| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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naught
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| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
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64
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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67
onset
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| n.进攻，袭击，开始，突然开始 | |
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68
obliterate
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| v.擦去，涂抹，去掉...痕迹，消失，除去 | |
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69
garrison
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| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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