Page:Some account of the wars, extirpation, habits.djvu/56

48 the other was condemned. But McCarthy's death being then brought against him, he was not so lucky as to escape condemnation a second time, and was ordered for execution accordingly.

The murders of Hollyoak and the Otahetian took place on the 15th of November, 1823, on the land of Mr Silas Gatehouse at Grindstone Bay, which is on the East Coast, between Spring Bay and Little Swanport, and about sixty miles, by land, from Hobart Town.

Though not far from the East Coast road, it is even at present a rarely visited and most retired spot; and to any person disposed to encourage despondency, and anxious for complete seclusion and isolation from the world, I should certainly recommend him a location at Grindstone Bay.

There is, however, some fair cultivable land about it, and a large extent of rough pasture ground between the shoreline and the East Coast tiers, which commended it to Mr. Gatehouse as suitable for farm purposes; though what it was that induced anyone to fix his homestead hereabouts fifty or sixty years ago, when nearly all the best lands of the colony were to be had for the trouble of asking, we need not now concern ourselves about. It is, however, as said just above, a grassy tract, and then swarmed with large game, namely, emu and kangaroo, and was one of the hunting grounds of the tribe who were just now roaming about this quarter.

It may be worth remarking that the last emu caught in Tasmania—as far as I know at least—was taken not very far from here, and just about thirty years ago.

But the monotonous quietude that generally prevaded the listless neighbourhood of Grindstone Bay, was dispelled by the unwelcome arrival of a strong detachment of the sanguinary Oyster Bay natives, on Thursday the 13th November, 1823. They numbered sixty-five, and took up their quarters by a small stream that flowed past Mr. Gatehouse's stock hut, then occupied by three persons, namely, John Radford, William Hollyoak, and Mammoa.

But at this period of partial intercourse between the two races, the appearance of a horde of natives, though not an agreeable event, did not always excite the extreme alarm, with which it was witnessed a few years afterwards. But whatever may have been the fears of the solitary stockmen, at the sight of such a number of wild looking fellows, and weird looking women, they were allayed, or partially so, by the assurances of the leading man, Musquito, that no mischief was intended, and all went on friendly enough until the catastrophe that terminated the lives of Hollyoak and Mammoa took place.