Page:Songs from the Southern Seas and Other Poems (1873).djvu/72

68 So a plan was proposed,—'twas deemed safest and best To imprison the natives in Rottenest.

And so every time there was white blood spilled, There were black men captured; and those not killed In the rage of vengeance were sent away To this bleak sand isle in Fremantle Bay; And it soon came round that a thousand men Were together there, like wild beasts in a pen. There was not a shrub or grass-blade in the sand, Nor a piece of timber as large as your hand; But a government boat went out each day To fling meat ashore—and then sailed away.

For a year or so was this course pursued, Till 'twas noticed that fewer came down for food When the boat appeared; then a guard lay round The island one night, and the white men found That the savages swam at the lowest tide To the shoal that lay on the landward side,—