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.
[CHAPTER XV.]
A Free Man.
"I must have liberty
Withal, as large a charter as the wind,
To blow on whom I please."
—Shakespeare.