Fern Vale; or, the Queensland Squatter. Volume 2

by Colin Munro

"Oh, I never doubt him," said the other, "only I don't like those parsons, and never get into any arguments with them; whatever you say they twist so to suit their own ways and sayings. Who would ever have thought that he would have said that fellow, as I was a talking of, was any better for a blackguarding of me for offering him of my grog."

"What were the particulars of that story?" enquired William, "you did not tell us last night."

"Well, if you wants to hear it," replied Sawyer, "I don't mind having a pull at my pipe for a few minutes while I tell you."

"I would like exceedingly to hear," replied William. Whereupon the old man took his seat upon the log he had been splitting; filled his pipe and lit it; while Rueben was resting on his maul, and William, who had affixed the bridle of his horse to the stirrup, and allowed him to graze about the spot, took his seat at the old man's side. After ejecting from his mouth a volume of smoke he commenced the following narrative; which, for the sake of perspicuity, we will take the liberty of clothing in our own words.

Old Sawyer was "an old lag," and had been a long time in servitude (and afterwards in freedom) on the Hunter river. During the latter part of his career in that district he had been pretty successful as a farmer, and had accumulated some little means; but agriculture, in his opinion, ceasing to be a profitable occupation he had determined to turn to squatting; and had consequently sold his farm, and taken up the run on which he was then settling. It is of his early career, however, that we have at present to speak.

At a primary era of his penal servitude he was, in common with most of his class, assigned to a master in the district in which he was located; and, after a time, was made by his master an overseer over the other servants. Amongst those under his supervision, were two young men who had held some posts of trust in England, and either from some fraudulent delinquencies, or culpable dereliction of duty, had made themselves amenable to the then stringent laws of their country, and were transported to the penal colony. They were both men of education and gentlemanly bearing; and, from a life in a clerical appointment, they were both totally unused to manual labour, and unfit to grapple with the trials of the convict discipline. They were, consequently, awkward and clumsy in the performance of their allotted tasks; while their inability was construed, by their truculent master, into perversity and stubbornness; and he swore, by increased toil and exactions, to break their gentlemanly pride, as he termed their unskillfulness.

The two young men were put on one occasion, by the direction of the master, to fell some large trees, and they were given a cross-cut saw for the purpose; but on the first tree, on which they tried their hands, they broke their saw. As soon as the circumstance became known to their employer, he sent them to the magistrate; and had them sentenced to fifty lashes each for insubordination; and, after the execution of the sentence, to be sent back to work. They returned to their work, but from that moment they were altered men. The crushing influence of the convict system had done its work; they had undergone the demoniacal transition; and two more victims were added to that mass who breathed only for vengeance on their tyrants. It was during the period between this punishment, and the accomplishment of their vengeance, that Sawyer, who really pitied the poor fellows, had given the bibulous invitation, and met with the rebuff.

Not long after this, the two convicts made their escape, and took to the bush; which was scoured for months, over an immense extent, for their recovery, but ineffectually. Nothing was heard of them for nearly two years, when one, famished and emaciated, gave himself up at the settlement; reported the death of his companion; and confessed to the participation in one of the most horrible crimes on record; that which we are about to relate.

About six months after the escape of himself and his companion, when it was supposed they had perished in the wilds of the bush, the man whom we have mentioned as their master was suddenly missed. Upon instituting a search his body was found; but in such as state of putrefaction, and presenting such a hideous spectacle, that it was not removed; but a hole dug at the spot where it was discovered, and the remains, like any other vile carcass, shovelled into its last resting-place. The event at the time was thought of little moment, as the man was generally detested, and had no friends to agitate the matter; so it was hardly conjectured who were the perpetrators of his murder, and not until the criminal himself had confessed to the crime, were the authorities at all acquainted with the matter.

It appeared that the young men, when they effected their escape, secreted themselves in gullies and crevices of the rocks; only venturing out in search of food during the darkness of night. In this way they existed; enduring the greatest privations, and living only for the hope of revenge. They waited for the opportunity that was to throw their victim into their hands, with a patience worthy of a better cause; and watched with an eagerness and vigilance, almost perpetual, until the happy moment arrived, and they possessed themselves of the person of their late detested master.