Page:Songs from the Southern Seas and Other Poems (1873).djvu/76

72 That the bushman followed to strike the spot,— While the dogs and natives were all forgot. In two days, from that camp on the River Swan, To the Shark's Bay Sound had the settlers gone; And no merciful feeling did one retard For the helpless men and their terrible guard.

It were vain to try, in my quiet room. To write down the truth of the awful doom That befell those savages prisoned there, When the pangs of hunger and wild despair Had nigh made them mad as the fiends outside: 'Tis enough that one night, through the low ebb tide. Swam nine hundred savages, armed with stones And with weapons made from their dead friends' bones. Without ripple or sound, when the moon was gone. Through the inky water they glided on; Swimming deep, and scarce daring to draw a breath, While the guards, if they saw, were as dumb as death.