Page:Victoria, with a description of its principal cities, Melbourne and Geelong.djvu/154

 obedient to the orders of their rulers. From another source, and one of the insurrectionary party, we have received the following version of the affair:—

"About daybreak on Sunday morning, 3rd inst, we were awakened by the cry—'The military are coming to attack us.' We had no sooner fallen into our different divisions, than a man in the fourth division fired a shot, said to be accidental, and when we had taken up our several positions in the barricades, he fired again: at this moment the military fired their first volley on us, and as they fired their second, we fired our first.

"The soldiers now rushed on the barricades, when we retreated, driven back at the point of the bayonet, still fighting as we retreated, and disputing every inch of the ground. One soldier whom I had disabled ran his bayonet through my comrade, when I put a bullet through him, and then retreating, fell over some slabs, and lay so till the conflict passed on to another part. I then endeavoured to escape through the broken barricade, but meeting some five or six comrades, we drew together behind a chimney, and fired at a party of troopers who were leading away some prisoners. They immediately turned on us, and ere we could gain a more secure retreat, we were cut down to a man, and, wounded and weary, driven to the camp. Several of the prisoners told us that they were surrounded