Part 12 (1/2)

The hostile blacks came to a sudden halt, as they found thethem, and turned over and over in a series of rapid and breathless soain Do not blaer is an enemy until he has proved himself a friend Hence it is that hitethese natives they run i promptly speared, unless they can make it quite clear that no harm is intended

Bruno ran the same risk Incident after incident of this kind happened alh they involved some peril, yet they carew toothe natives I caether absent; and, notwithstanding all er of our lives

One day we came upon a tribe as usual, and after the custoh they became apparently quite friendly I was careful never unduly to exhibit my steel to of opossuht not arouse envy; a secondmy body I never used either stiletto or toreat eencies I knew they could never be replaced, so it behoved uard such precious possessions I never even usedup animals for food, lest the blood should rust the blade and eat it away Many times already had it coht with the alligator and the killing of the cannibal chief ned the white girls

The chief of the tribe I aerly asked ift I courteously told him that I could not do so He seemed somewhat disappointed atin consequence The blacks, by the way, seldom cut down trees except for spears, and the reason for this is very curious They i of life, and when they are forced to cut one down, quite a religious cereiesits life

They never even take a strip of bark right round, knowing that this will kill the tree; they always leave a little bit of connecting bark

As some reason for the refusal of my tomahaas expected, I told the chief that it was part of , which was perfectly true I also worked on the chief's superstitions, assuring hier the spirits as to bring about a terrible curse in the country The toift to me froht of offering it, curses and all, but the risk of proht Ya Forthe ot certain definite information from the women We therefore slept sounyah built of boughs, in front of which the usual fire was made After we had retired to rest, Yae noises I i to my feet and looked all round our little shelter It wasdistinctly, but I fancied I heard retreating footsteps Utterly at a loss to account for this strange occurrence, and fearing that soer threatened us, Yamba and I covered in the front of the shelter, and then quietly retired into the bush, where we lay hidden without a fire until ht, and, as we half expected, we found three formidable spears buried in the sides of our little hut Three others were stuck in the ground near the fire, clearly proving that an atteht On exaed to the tribe we had left the previous day The spear-heads were of a different kind of flint froreen in colour; and they were extremely sharp The individuality of the different tribes is strongly and decidedly marked in the make of their spears Our treacherous hosts had evidently determined to obtain the coveted tomahawk by force, and when they reached the spot where they supposed we lay (they could not see into the interior fro us, but did not investigate the result, they being such arrant cowards at night Reht into the bush in spite of their inveterate fear of ”the spirits”

The precaution adopted on this occasion was always followed by us e had any real doubt about the natives; that is to say, we built a ”duhs, which ere supposed to sleep in; and we covered in the front so as our possible assailants could not easily detect our absence We would then creep away into the bush or hide behind a tree, and, of course, would light no fire

Many times was that same to boughs with it, or procuring honey by cutting down branches with an ease that caused them to despise their own rude stone axes

The case of treachery I have just described was not an isolated one, but I am bound to say such occurrences were rare in the interior--although more or less frequent about the western shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria At any rate, this wasour journey fro across a flat country froether When we did couilty of so_ at the women--(for many reasons I always studied the various types in a tribe)--and Yamba and I were often in peril of our lives on this account As a rule, however, safety lay in the fact that the natives are terribly afraid of darkness, and they believe the spirits of the dead roaht hours

Month after ress in a southerly direction, although, as I have said before, we often turned north-east and even due west, following the valleys when stopped by the ranges--where, by the e usually found turkeys in great nuaroos and wallabies, and would camp wherever possible close to a native well, where we knew food was to be found in plenty

At this period I noticed that the es I encountered; whilst the somewhat dreary and mostly waterless lowland lay to the west We would sometimes fail to obtain water for a couple of days; but this reions Often the wells were quite dry and food painfully scarce; this would be in a region of sand and spinifex

When I beheld an oasis of pal that if no water existed there, it could easily be got by digging The physical conditions of the country would change suddenly, and able as frequently at fault in her root-hunting expeditions Fortunately, animal life was very seldom scarce On the whole, ere extreh the natives often told me that the loastes of sand and spinifex were frequently so dry, that it was ireatly was that the line of demarcation between an utter desert and, say, a fine forest was almost as sharply htfully wooded country would follow the dreary wastes, and this in turn would give place to fairly highone of the tribes, the chief showed es that were close by It was altogether a very rugged country Always on the look- out for so to interest and a that soht_ turn up unexpectedly which would enable me to return to civilisation, I at once detere and thrilling adventure

Whilst roa perhaps twenty feet in diaht feet or nine feet in depth It had a sandy botto depression in one corner, I jue of the pit, because I knew I should have soain if I allowed hier than a waddy; perhaps it was a yam-stick--I cannot remember At any rate, just as I was about to probe ahole, I beheld with alare black snake suddenly thrust out at me from a dark mass, which I presently found was the decayed stump of a tree I fell back as far as possible, and then saw that the reptile had quite uncoiled itself froht at me I promptly dealt it a violent blow on the body, just below that point where it raised its head froround No sooner had I done this than another dark and hissing head caain I struck at the reptile's body and overpowered it Next came a third, and a fourth, and fifth, and then I realised that the whole of the dead stuOne after another they came at me; of course, had they all come at once, no power on earth could have savedthis weird contest would be kept up; and again and again between the attacks I tried to escape, but had scarcely taken an upward step when another huge reptile was uponbackwards and forwards at the edge of the pit all this ti frantically in a most excited state He knew perfectly hat snakes were, having frequently been bitten I owe my life on this occasion solely to the fact that the snakes were in a torpid state, and caether It was the cold season, about the month of June or July It is impossible at suchthe battle lasted At length, however, I was able to count the slain I did this partly out of curiosity and partly because I wanted to impress the natives--to boast, if you prefer that phrase Modesty, where modesty is unknoould have been absurd, if not fatal to ht black snakes_, _averaging about four feet six inches in length_

I do not rereat for any such feeling to have et away, I and Bruno rushed off to the native caht back the blacks to see what I had done The spectacle threw thereat areatest admiration The story of how I had killed the snakes soon spread abroad a the various tribes for miles round, and was chanted bythe universal snals One important consequence of this adventure was that I was everywhere received with the very greatest respect

It may be mentioned here that no e news by nals I may also say that at _corroborees_ and such-like festivities a vast aed in, each ”hero” being required to give practical dehty deeds he has done, &c He warnifies its importance in a ridiculous way It as about how I killed the thales _with my stiletto_, and other droll pretensions But, ah! I was serious enough then!

In the ion where I encountered the snakes, I also lish He called himself either Peter or Jacky Jacky--I cannot reiven him by pearlers He had once lived with some pearlers near the north- west coast of Western Australia--probably on the De Grey River His story was quite unprecedented aave me many terrible instances of the perfidy shown by white adventurers towards the unfortunate natives The precise locality where I met this man was probably near Mount Farewell, close to the border-line of South Australia and Western Australia Well, then, Jacky Jacky--to give hiers most tenaciously in ether with a nue that they were to be away about three moons Instead, they were practically kidnapped by force, and treated--or rather ill-treated--as slaves for several years

First of all, the poor creatures were taken to an island in the vicinity of North-West Cape, off which the pearling fleet lay During the voyage to the pearling grounds the water supply on board ran short, and so great was the suffering a the blacks--they were kept on the shortest of short commons, as you may suppose--that they plotted to steal a cask of the precious fluid for their own use The vessel was quite a small one, and the water was kept in the hold But the two or three whites who formed the crew forcibly prevented the black-fellows froave rise to much discontent, and eventually the blacks, in desperation, openly rose andthemselves with heavy pieces of firewood they proceeded to attack theirat the water, in spite of the whites, by sis out of the casks The captain thereupon went down to parley with them, but was met by a shower of blows from the heavy sticks I have just ot hisone black- fellow in the throat, and killing hi the rest, as would most certainly have been the case with any other race, this course of action terrified the blacks, and they barricaded theht the to conduct themselves more obediently in the future It may here be said that the shi+p had called specially at Jacky Jacky's ho at the pearling settle a number of other unfortunate creatures like the vessels just as the exigencies of the industry required Jacky Jacky himself was kept at this work for upwards of three years; and he told me many terrible stories of the white man's indescribable cruelty and villainy He and his coht and driven about like cattle in the dayti settlement had been kidnapped from their homes in a cruel and contemptible manner, and herded off like sheep by men on horseback ars were very great because, of course, they were totally unused to work of any kind The enforced exile from home and the dreary compulsory labour made the life far worse than death for these priain, they were exiled from their wives, ould, of course, be appropriated in their absence--another torht They were frequently beaten with sticks, and when they attempted to run away they were speared as ene altogether, they would not have been recognised even when they returned to their own homes One day Jacky Jacky's shi+p came into a little bay on thehis opportunity, struck inland for home and liberty, accompanied by several other companions in misery

These latter the coast natives promptly speared, but Jacky Jacky escaped, thanks probably to his knowledge of the white man's wiles He soon reached the more friendly mountain tribes in the interior, where he was received as a man and a brother You see, he had stolen a revolver froreat terror areat man, particularly when his story becath he got to the ranges where I met him--quite a vast distance from the coast

Many parts of the extensive country I traversed on irls, were exceedingly rich in old, both alluvial and in quartz As I wasthe banks of a creek, I beheld some reddish stones, which I at once pounced upon and found to be beautiful rubies Having nothem, however, and as they were of no value whatever to ain, and now e quantities of alluvial tin, but this, again, was not of the slightest use, any e quantities in the King Leopold Ranges

The test I applied to see whether it really _was_ tin was to scratch it with old lay at my feet, I hardly stooped to pick it up, save as a matter of curiosity Why should I? What use was it to ain in public, I would have given all the gold for a few ounces of salt, which I needed so sorely Afterwards, however, I made use of the precious metal in a very practical manner, but of this es in Western Australia--I picked up an immense piece of quartz, which was so rich that it appeared to be oneit to Yao to any part of the world, and undergo ht at first I was joking Indeed, the thing aht also mention that up in the then little-known Kihted their spears with pure gold I must not omit to mention that natives never poison their spear- heads I only found the nuggets, big and little, near the creeks during and after heavy rains; and Iwith some difficulty interested Yamba in the subject, she was always on the look- out for the tell-tale specks and gleae and small quantities, but soon discovered that the ht and brittle for spear-heads, to which curious use I essayed to put this beautiful stone Talking about spear-heads, in the ranges where I met Jacky Jacky there was a quarry of that kind of stone which was used for theof war and other implements It was very much worked, and as you may suppose was a valuable possession to the tribe in whose territory it was situated The stone was a kind of flint, extre its edge Natives from far and near came to barter for the stone with shells, and ornaments which these inland tribes did not possess Thefires over it, and then when it had becoe and sly dexterous way The stone would immediately be split and riven exactly in the old wascreek, which had cut its way through deep layers of conglomerate hundreds of feet thick This country was an elevated plateau, intersected by deeply cut creeks, which had left the various strata quite bare, with curious concave recesses in which the natives took shelter during the wet season One of the nuggets I picked up in the creek I have just hed several pounds, and was three or four inches long; it was rather et I placed on a block of wood and beat out with a stone, until I could twist it easily with ers, when I fashi+oned it into a fillet as an ornament for Yamba's hair This she continued to wear for olden bracelets and anklets I also ave away to the first children we met

In many of the rocky districts the reefs were evidently extremely rich; but I ions the gold-bearing quartz was actually a curse, our path being covered with sharp pebbles of quartz and slate, which es adjoined that congloathered, is extremely difficult to traverse