Page:Rambles in Australia (IA ramblesinaustral00grewiala).pdf/368

 justified by their own code, but the forces of order were obliged to assert themselves.

Life sentences are imposed for murder, but the prisoners are always released, the period of their detention depending on their good behaviour, for often they pine away in captivity.

Looking at these simple, childlike, confiding creatures, who play marbles for amusement, one felt that any white who could treat them cruelly deserved all he got. Only one of them looked at us with the gloomy, smouldering eyes of a caged animal. The others all greeted our host with beaming confidence. One man's skull was deeply cleft horizontally for about two inches. "By a black fellow," he remarked without resentment. Another from Pine Creek was asked what he was in for. "Longa fight Chinaman," he responded with a reminiscent chuckle of satisfaction. It was the last amusing thing the poor fellow had done. Another was in "longa kill Chinaman," as he unconcernedly explained. Our friend with the cleft skull had committed a very cruel murder. After acting as guide to a white man in the bush, he followed him secretly for days, and finally murdered him in his sleep for the little food he had got left, and he was almost starving at the time. We had come from England and must return, our host told them. "No