Page:Some account of the wars, extirpation, habits.djvu/101

Rh and none more so than Duncan himself, whom they recognised immediately. Snatching down their spears from the trees in which they customarily stuck them when in repose, they only waited till he was within range; then, with the fatal aim for which they were so famous, he was struck in nearly all parts of his body at once. He fell of course, death ensuing instantaneously.

The two Sydney men fled for their lives directly; and as the blacks did not pursue them at once, they succeeded in gaining the coast, but at a considerable distance from the camp before they were overtaken. They plodded on rapidly towards the boat but failed to reach it, the superior agility of the blacks proving too much for them. The particulars of the meeting have been too imperfectly preserved for narration, but as their dead bodies were found a few days afterwards in a shockingly mutilated state, no doubt was left about who were the authors of this massacre.

Duncan's woman remained with her own race. Glad of regaining her liberty, she voluntarily rejoined them; and without regret, resigned to chance the half-caste offspring of her forced connection with Duncan.

It is a remarkable fact, but vouched for by Mr. G. A. Robinson, that the black women though passionately fond of children of their own blood, as a rule detested such as they bore to white men; and on this occasion Duncan's woman abandoned her only son with perfect unconcern.

In following the relation that I have received of these transactions, the narrative reconducts me to the sealers camp at Cape Portland.

The first and second day of Tucker's solitude closed, but Duncan and his companions returned not to the boat; and he grew more and more uneasy as their absence was prolonged, till a sentiment of fear for their safety overpowered every other feeling. It was in vain that he endeavoured to suppress the idea that some evil had befallen them, the presentiment that was on him grew the stronger the more he strove to dismiss it from his mind. He tried to believe it possible that they had failed to reach the tribe so soon as they hoped, and were still in pursuit; but this hope vanished as he remembered they had made no provision for an absence of more than a few hours, after which they should have returned, they might have lost themselves—but this was most unlikely in a nearly open district, and with a native woman for a guide, who could have retraced their steps one by one to the boat, like a bloodhound; and his belief settled at last into an immutabe conviction that they would not come back again. Frequently during the second day, did he fire off his piece to notify the position of the camp in case they might be returning, but the precaution