Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/273

 inferior animals to themselves, I suppose the Tryal bay tribe had brought up this scolding old lady, in order to evince the greater contempt for the other tribe; much upon the same principle, which once induced a king of France to send a defiance to an English prince by a scullion, instead of a herald, in order to insult him the more grievously.

After a long altercation the two hostile tribes mingled together, as though they were on the best terms with each other; they encamped, however, for the night, at some distance apart. Next morning the fight commenced, in which, according to the usual custom, the three natives who had been the original cause of the quarrel, stood prominently forward, exposed to the spears of the Tryal bay blacks for some time, without receiving any assistance from their companions, until one of them received a spear wound on the instep, and another on the knee. The fight then became general, but no further damage was done, as each party was equally adroit in warding off, with their shields, the missiles that were flying about. This engagement seemed to conclude the quarrel between the Yarra-Bandini and Yarra-Hapinni blacks, as the gin Dilberree, who had been carried off, was restored to her friends. It was, however, some time before the other quarrels, which had arisen from this affair, were fought out; after which a general peace had to be consolidated by solemn corroberrees, danced successively on the grounds of each of the belligerent tribes.