The struggle continued apace between the contending factions on the one hand, and with the governments of Great Britain and New South Wales on the other. The pro-convict party, who had established a weekly newspaperto advocate their cause, gradually diminished, until eventually their zeal expired, and they succumbed to popular feeling, leaving the body of free separationists united and energetic. Petition after petition continued to be poured at the feet of Her most gracious Majesty, who at last condescended to listen to the prayer of her loyal though distant subjects. In the year 1855, by an act passed in the Imperial Parliament, entitled, "The Constitution Act of New South Wales," right was reserved to her Majesty to separate from that colony any portion of its northern territory she, by her ministers, might deem expedient. It was then made manifest to the colonists that some hope existed of the desired event taking place, and their importunities consequently increased. In July 1856, the then Secretary of State for the Colonies (Mr. Labouchere) intimated, in a despatch to the Governor of New South Wales, that her Majesty's ministers considered that the time had arrived when the dismemberment should be effected,and suggested that the 30th parallel of south latitude should be fixed upon as the boundary of the two colonies. About this parallel a natural line of demarcation exists in the form of a mountain range, and at no other part of the coast could so eligible a division be made.The magnates in Sydney perceiving that, notwithstanding all their strenuous opposition, separation was determined upon considered it useless to further attempt its prevention; but they were, nevertheless, sanguine of their ability to mar the fair prospects of the new colony. The thought of losing the revenue of so large a district rankled in their bosoms, and the idea of procuring an alteration in the boundary line, by a removal farther away from them, suggested itself to their minds. Confident in their success and the time for an execution of their machinations, that would be afforded them by the usual circumlocutions of government, they forthwith entered upon their work.One of the districts embraced in the proposed new colony was the Clarence river, which was only second in importance to that of Moreton Bay itself, and which comprised a coast-line of upwards of 120 miles, and a country that extended nearly double that distance inland. This, then, they set to work to retain; and, though the inhabitants themselves of the debateable ground were strongly averse to a continued connexion with the parent colony, and desired annexation to the new one, a petition was presented to the legislature, purporting to be from the residents of that district, and praying for the maintenance of their existing relationship with New South Wales. The opprobrium attached to the concoction of this petition is due to the then member of the legislature for the New England district; for through his chicanery the signatures were obtained and the people deceived. It was represented to them as for a local assize court, and their signatures obtained on blank sheets of paper, which were afterwards attached to thegenuine anti-separation petition and laid before the government of the colony, by whom it was forwarded to the British secretary.This fraud was shortly afterwards detected by the parties cajoled, who exposed the deception practised upon them, and eventually petitioned the crown with a similar view. But, too late: the first had reached the home government as a genuine document, and the result may be imagined; for, combining such a strong demonstration of public feeling as the petition appeared to do with the biassed representations of the Sydney government, the crown had no other alternative but to alter the boundary originally intended Mr. Labouchere (dated just one year after his former despatch) then informed the Governor of New South Wales that her Majesty's ministers had determined to separate the northern colony at the 28th (instead of the 30th) parallel of south latitude. There the matter rested until the year 1860, when the proclamation calling into existence the colony ofQueensland was read in the capital city of Brisbane by the first governor, Sir George Ferguson Bowen.We would not have pursued this theme had it not been to explain the ferment in which Tom Rainsfield found the good people of Brisbane when he visited their town, as we have said, in the summer of 1857; and, amidst the agitation of the public mind which absorbed all thought and attention, we will leave him for the present to pursue his business.CHAPTER IX."Hark! there be murmurs heard in Lara's hall,A sound—a voice—a shriek—a fearful call!A long loud shriek—and silence—did they hearThat frantic echo burst the sleeping ear?"Byron.At a certain spot on the Darling Downs approaching towards their northern extremity, and where the country divides the eastern from the western water-sheds, a party was encamped for the night round their fire; on which preparations were being made by a civilized black for the evening meal of white men, who lay stretched on the ground in the full enjoyment of their "doodeens." Theculinary operator was Joey, and the recumbent beings were his master and the shepherds, who had progressed thus far with a flock of sheep, on their way from New England to Fern Vale.The weather that had spread devastation over the face of the country, was equally fatal in its effects to the flock of our hero. He had attempted to force their march so as to reach his destination before their entire destruction, but was at last constrained to halt in a state, both to man and beast, of perfect exhaustion. He had been the more anxious to reach his own station as he was aware that, after the long and severe drought the district had been visited with, a flood might be expected as the inevitable consequence; and that if he were caught in it the strong probability was that he would lose the remaining half of his flock. Further progression, however, for his exhausted sheep, he saw was, at least for a time, perfectly hopeless; and he felt his only alternative was towait for the rain, which from the portensions of the sky, was not far distant. Therefore a rude hut, or arborous shelter of boughs and saplings, was erected to shield him and his companions from the rays of the sun, and they waited with what patience they could assume for the pluvial blessing so much prayed for all over the country.Here then the party was located, anxiously waiting for the advent of the propitious event that would admit of their progression; and, on the evening we have discovered them to the reader, they were dragging out in listless idleness the remainder of an intolerably hot day, too much enervated to indulge in any exertion or conversation. While John Ferguson, who was possibly even more taciturn than his companions, was absorbed in his own gloomy thoughts, occasioned by the inauspicious result of his journey, he with his colleagues was suddenly aroused from his lethargy by a most unearthly sound in the close proximity of their camp. He instantlystarted to his feet, and was greeted with a burst of demoniacal laughter that made his very blood curdle in his veins.Before him stood a being evidently human, but no more like his first prototype than Gabriel to Lucifer; a man wild and dishevelled in appearance; his eyes like balls of fire; and his face and other parts of his body, perceptible from his all but state of nudity, cut and bleeding. In the fitful light of the camp fire he had more the appearance of one of the eliminated shades of Hades than an habitant of this world. The startled and affrighted quartette, who had been interrupted by his unexpected appearance, gazed on the object with wonder, commiseration, and alarm; for his condition was speedily made palpable by his wild gesticulations and incoherent utterance. He was mad, and in that most to be deplored state of madness—delirium tremens.John Ferguson advanced a few steps towards the man with the object of leadinghim to their temporary abode; but the maniac warned him off by a wave of the hand, and darted off again into the settling obscurity with the fleetness of an arrow. No human creature in such a condition could be permitted thus to rush to inevitable death by observers with any spark of Christian charity. John Ferguson and his companions felt this, and notwithstanding the darkness of the night, and the interminable nature of the bush around them, they instantly pursued the fugitive, being guided in his track by his fearful cries and yells.The chase was tedious, and but for an accident might have been fruitless. The unnatural stimulus of madness lends powerful aid to the cartilaginous anatomy of its victims; so that, notwithstanding the evident fatigue that this wretched inebriate had sustained, his crural muscles performed their functions with even more force and facility than those of his athletic pursuers; and he continued to keep considerably in advanceof them. But his course was providentially checked by a fall, that not only stopped him in his headlong career of destruction, but extinguished the treacherous spark that had stimulated his system, and then left him prostrate and perfectly paralysed. When his pursuers came up, and by the light of a "firestick" gazed upon him, they found him writhing in agony on the ground, foaming at the mouth, gnashing his teeth, and actually biting the very dust in the intensity of his suffering. Nature could not long stand so fearful a tax as this without speedily succumbing. Reason had already been hurled from her throne by the arrogated sway of the incensed devils of debauch, and strength and consciousness had been expatriated by the usurpation; while life was all but extinguished. In this state he was borne by his rescuers back to their camp, and tended with every care they could devise; but when he awoke to consciousness, it was only to add the horrors of a raging fever to those of dementation; the morefearful on account of the inability of his attendants to afford him any assistance.To truthfully describe his appearance, or his sufferings, as he lay rending the air with his fearful and impious imprecations, would not only be beyond our powers of portrayal, but would have none other effect than to sicken and disgust our readers. Nevertheless we feel constrained, fain as we would draw a veil over the scene, to continue our description for the furtherance of temperance and morality. The man remained for fully twenty-four hours in the state we have mentioned; when the exacerbation of his malady threatened to terminate his existence. No hope of relief could be entertained, for none was procurable in such a situation; even had the exhausted travellers been capable of seeking it. So that the wretched being's doom seemed inevitably sealed.At this moment the Fern Vale party were startled by the sudden appearance of two others, who came seeking their comrade, andbore in their countenances almost as indelible a stamp of dissipation as that on the visage of the dying madman. From these new comers John learnt that the three had been travelling in company of a bullock dray, and being unable to proceed on their journey, through the loss of the greater portion of the team, they had all been engaged in a social wassail on some grog they had had in charge; and for a considerable period had all been more or less drunk. Their companion had been in a fit of delirium tremens for days; and while in a state of madness had suddenly gone, they knew not, nor at the time cared not, whither. But finding he did not return as they had anticipated even their besotted natures began to take alarm for his safety, and had induced them to go in search of him.The two men now stood by the prostrate and paralysed form of their late robust companion, on whom, blunted and debased as were their own feelings, they could not gazewithout emotions; and as they witnessed the glaring blood-shot eyes, rotating in their sunken and discoloured sockets, the pendent jaw which left the parched tongue protruding from the open mouth, the colourless emaciated cheeks which contrasted fearfully with the sore and livid lips, the generally wasted frame, the shaking though powerless hands imploring with the looks of distracted vision, and the ineffectual attempts to articulate the cravings for that very poison which was fast hastening a commingling of his putrid carcass with its native dust, their hearts sickened within them. They, however, knew the purport of his signs; and subdued as they were by the presence of the destroying angel, and chastened by the momentary visitations of compunction, their devotion to their idol, and their belief in its efficacies were such, that, even in the face of death, they exorcised their destroying spirit. Before their motion could be anticipated, or prevented by John Ferguson, one of the dying man's companions drew abottle from his bosom, and applied it to the lips of the sufferer.The taste of the exhilarating poison effected a transitory release of the bonds of death's victim. His hands clasped with a convulsive grasp the endeared destroyer of his life; and as the spirit flowed into the celiac channel of his wasted system, its consuming fire mantled his cheek with an unnatural erubescence, shot from his lustrous eyes, and imparted vigour to his inert frame. If the men's action had been noticed in time John would have no doubt prevented the drink being given, though it would have signified little; for no power on earth could have saved the victim, while possibly the draught of spirits which he had taken ameliorated his departing agonies. Be that as it may he had hardly swallowed it than fresh strength seemed to have been imparted to his frame. He then started to his feet, waved the bottle above his head with a fiendish laugh, and fell to the ground a corpse.Can mortals ever be rescued from the fearful infatuation of drink? Can rational and sentient beings ever be brought to an abhorrence of that vile and bestial vice that equally destroys the intellect and degrades the body? or will reason ever inculcate in the mind of man the virtue of temperance, so as to use without abusing the gifts of a bountiful providence? Let an incorrigible drunkard stand before such a scene as we have attempted to describe, and for five minutes witness the agonies and death of a fellow inebriate; let his soul commune with the tortured spirit of the wretched victim of intemperance; let him witness the horrors of delirium tremens, that tear to pieces both body and life, and consigns them to the lowest depths of perdition; let him not only witness but feel the hell that burns up the very soul of the blind votaries of Bacchus; and let him witness the last struggle, the tortuous departure of the spirit, accompanied with the blasphemous ribaldry of the vile worm that, whileinsinuating its eliminated spirit before the judgment-seat of its Maker, dares to utter its arrogant defiance to the august and omnipotent Creator. Let him see this; tell him this is the consequence of intemperance possibly only indulged in moderately at an early stage, but growing by degrees as evil does grow, like the gathering avalanche accumulating in its downward progress until it reaches its final descent amidst universal destruction. Tell him also that a similar fate awaits every drunkard, and tell him, if he turns not away from his course of vileness, such will be his; then, if his conscience does not lead him to penitence through such a lesson, no human effort can save him.The state of the weather, the mortification of the body, and its consequent immediate decomposition, made it imperative that no time should be lost in the interment of the corpse. The funeral obsequies were speedily performed, with little more ceremony than what would attend the burying of an animal,while nothing marked the spot where lay the bones that would in all probability be soon forgotten. The two men then took their departure, and we doubt not would soon return to their carouse; such is the quickness with which man forgets the visitations of the warning hand of God.A few days after the event we have just narrated the rain that had been so long threatening at last appeared with one of those terrific thunder-storms which the colonies are in the summer visited with; and speedily the whole surface of the country became deluged. The arid and thirsty soil drank in the moisture, and almost spontaneously shot forth its herbage. The flock was then enabled to luxuriate on the tender grasses and, notwithstanding the deluging rains, to pursue its journey with more comfort than it had experienced for some considerable time previously.For a week the rain continued with unabating violence when John Ferguson andhis flock struck the course of the Gibson river near Brompton. The river was "bank high" at the time, rolling its swollen volume on in sullen impetuosity; while the ground around was so saturated and swampy that the travelling of the sheep was exceedingly tedious; and their owner began to feel anxious lest their course should be altogether impeded. He, however, managed to push on past Brompton, when the weather happily moderated; and though still overcast, and rainy-looking, the actual fall of water ceased. The respite was made good use of by John Ferguson, who pushed on as rapidly as he could, and he arrived at the Wombi without any interruption; but there he met with a check he had little anticipated. He fully expected the bridge would be level with the water or even covered, and thought that he might have to wait for the river to fall; but the volume of water had considerably subsided and left no trace of the structure he and his neighbours had erected. It had infact been washed away by the flood, and he was made painfully aware that the only course open to him was to wait until the swollen current became sufficiently reduced to make it practicable to swim over his sheep. With that object he camped his party and flock on the bank of the Wombi.For some days they waited in this position; but the river, notwithstanding that the rain had ceased, fell very slowly; while the surrounding gloominess plainly indicated an additional visitation of wet as not far distant. In conjunction with this the sheep began to show signs of foot-rot; and John, becoming anxious to get them home, considered it better under the circumstances to attempt a passage of the river at once. Acting on this decision he removed the flock to the old crossing-place and attempted the transit.Two of his men had, by the aid of a horse, swam the river, and a large number of the sheep had either crossed or were struggling in the current, when a noise was heard thatstruck our hero with dismay. The distant roll of thunder, combined with the roar of battle, would convey but an imperfect idea of its nature. Distinct and more distinctly came the sound and, while the darkened atmosphere lent its gloom to the mighty convulsion that seemed to rend the earth, the cause of the noise seemed to approach nearer and nearer. Though John had never seen the sudden rising of a river he had heard of such phenomena, and guessed that the sound that he then heard was the harbinger of such an event. He therefore used all his exertions, with those of Joey and the white man that had remained with him on the upper bank of the Wombi, to prevent the remainder of the sheep from following their fellows into the water. They were with difficulty diverted from the stream; and those that had already crossed, being driven by the men as far as possible from the influence of the tide, John waited with an intense anxiety to watch thefate of those that would of a certainty be overtaken by the current.The flood was in the Gibson river, and its cause can be easily explained in a few words. Towards its source the rain had been continuous, and the water-holes and surcharged swamps being filled to repletion, had burst their bounds and added their immense volumes to the already swollen stream. This imparted a force and impetuosity even greater than the current had previously possessed, and forced the water in one immense body down its course. On and on it swept like the monstrous rolling surge of the ocean, carrying to inevitable ruin everything that it overtook in its passage. John stood on an elevation sufficiently high to enable him to watch the progress of the destructive fluid; and, with his gaze alternately directed to it and his sheep still swimming in the stream at his feet, he calculated their chances of reaching the bank in safety. For this,however, he had little time, for the progress of the flood was quicker than that of his thoughts; and the sudden rise in the Gibson, as the deluge approached, caused a similar one in the Wombi. As the main body in the river swept past, it flooded the minor stream with its back current, sending the reversed tide, seething and swelling, up its narrow channel, and carrying with it some hundreds of the swimming sheep, most of which were drowned in their vain struggles with the element.Unfortunate as this was John gave vent to no vain regrets, but at once decided how he would act. He knew that the brunt of the flood was over, and that the water would speedily fall in the river. He therefore determined to camp where he was for the night, and in the morning to send on the portion of his flock on the opposite side of the river, while he waited with the remainder until the flood should have so far receded as to permit his crossing them with safety. He communicatedhis plans to both sections of his party, while Joey lit a fire and prepared a camp.Towards midnight, when everything was hushed in the nocturnal stillness, Joey came softly to his master, who was stretched in his blanket before the fire on the damp ground, and awoke him from his sleep. John, when he was aroused, instantly started up in the full expectation of some fresh misfortune, and hastily demanded of Joey what was the matter."You no hear, massa?" replied Joey; "you listen. The black fellows come back again and make great noise."John listened attentively for some moments, and unmistakably distinguished the sounds of blacks' voices, though what was the purport of the noise he could not conjecture. It was evident to him they had returned to the neighbourhood and, from the sounds he heard, in considerable numbers. But where could they be camped? he asked himself; surely not at their old ground in the scrub, hethought; for the noise plainly indicated a closer proximity. In fact, it sounded to him as if it emanated from somewhere about Strawberry Hill, if not from that very place. Then John's thoughts led him to make the enquiry what could bring them across the Gibson; if they had any object in visiting Strawberry Hill; and if so, what that object could be? His thoughts, once led into such a channel, were not long in picturing a gloomy catalogue of probable causes. A remembrance of Rainsfield's cruelties was too indelibly impressed upon his mind to be forgotten, and the scene he had witnessed at the blacks' camp on the night previous to their departure was instantly conjured up in all its horrors. Though the disappearance of the blacks for months had momentarily dimmed his memory to the pangs he then witnessed and felt, they were instantly remembered when his mind reverted to the subject; and he vividly recollected the ebullition of evil passions that had been kindled in the breastsof some of the survivors and relatives of the victims. In his fancy he heard anew the threat of revenge that was uttered against Rainsfield; and he began to entertain the belief that the blacks were at the station of Strawberry Hill, and had come there for the purpose of wreaking vengeance on their destroyer and his family at a time when they would imagine their visitation least expected.At the same time, however, he could not bring his mind to imagine that the blacks would be bold enough to attack the whole station, being confident the knowledge of the superior prowess of the whites would deter them, besides their dread of fire-arms, which, they would know at least all the men on the station would possess. He had no doubt, either, but that Rainsfield, having incurred the enmity of the aborigines, would take every precaution against surprisal, and believed that he could, with the assistance of one or two of his men, preserve himself against the assaults of a hundred of theblacks. But still John Ferguson could not divest his mind of some degree of apprehension, which (notwithstanding his endeavours to calm the perturbation his train of thoughts had led him to experience) still lingered there, and dark forebodings disturbed his brain."Where are they, do you think, Joey?" he enquired, as if he wanted corroboration of his own senses."Strawberry Hill, I believe, massa," was the reply."I am afraid so, too," said John; "and I fear they are up to no good. If they were only going to rob the store they would never make so much noise over it.""No, massa, they not go to rob the store," said Joey; "they be frighted to do that again, I believe; taltoe (food) kill too many black fellow that time when they steal 'em ration; they be going to kill now, I believe.""That's what I've been thinking too, Joey," replied his master; "but they wouldn'thave any chance if the white fellows had guns.""I don't know, massa," replied the black boy; "p'rhaps no, p'rhaps yes—black fellows be very frightened of guns; but the Nungar black fellows, you pidner (know), very wild and budgery belonging to fight (good at fighting), and bael they lik'em (hate) Mr. Rainsfield; so I believe they will try very hard to kill him.""I've no doubt they will," replied his master, "if they can get a mark at him; but if he keeps himself and his men within the house they will be able to fire away at the blacks without giving them a chance at themselves.""White fellows all sit down liket huts," said Joey, by which he meant to imply that the men in all probability would be in their own huts, removed from the house of the station; "and," he continued, "bael Misser Rainsfield fight 'em all round big fellow humpie; and black fellow, when he find 'em bael come out, he gett'um firestick, and mak'em humpieone fellow-corbon fire;" which may be rendered into our vernacular by saying, that Rainsfield would be unable of himself to protect all parts of the dwelling; while the blacks would unhouse him by setting on fire the building, which it must be remembered was of wood.John mused a few minutes in a reverie, in which his feelings sustained a violent convulsion. That love preserved a prominent position we have no doubt; and, also, that apprehension for the safety of the object of that love maintained a lively agitation in his mind. We fear we must not attribute his sympathy and anxiety for the family to a general friendship alone, but to the additional stimulus of a more inspiring feeling. However, we will not arrogate to ourselves the censorship of his motives, but simply confine ourselves to a recordance of events."Joey, get my horse and saddle him," said John, turning to the boy, who was standing with his body bent in an attitude to catch the floating sound of the blacks' voices.Joey turned his eyes, looking surprised at his master; and though he did not actually ask him the nature of the work he intended to require of his horse, his manner and hesitation made that inquiry; and his master devising its meaning voluntarily made the explanation."I will go over at once to Strawberry Hill, Joey," he said, "and see what the blacks are doing; for I cannot bear this suspense, and I fear the morrow will disclose some fearful work.""Bael you cross the river, masser," cried the boy; "too much water sit down. Bael you swim, masser? More liket be drowned.""Don't make yourself uneasy, Joey," replied his master, "my horse has taken me over worse floods than that; it is only back water from the Gibson, and there is very little current.""But oh! massa, bael you go! supposing you cross river, and supposing black fellows fight with Misser Rainsfield, what you cando? bael you got 'um gun or pistol, and black fellow have plenty spear; so you do nothing, and black fellow only kill you.""No fear, Joey," said John. "The blacks would have no object in killing me; and if they are congregated at Strawberry Hill, to commit some outrage as I suspect, I may be enabled to effect some good by inducing them to abandon their scheme; or, at least, I can afford some assistance to the family they are attacking.""Oh no, massa! I tell you no," exclaimed the poor faithful attendant. "These black fellows kill any white fellow now; bael they care for you now; they come to kill Misser Rainsfield; and Misser Rainsfield's friends liket help him they kill them too. Bael you go! Budgery massa!" exclaimed the attached creature, as he threw himself down on the ground before his master, and clung to his feet.The expression and evidence of so much attachment in the poor boy sensibly affectedthe kind nature of John Ferguson; and he was moved to see so much genuine warmth and affection in one of a race which was looked upon as incapable of such emotions—a race which is deemed by professed judges of their nature to be destitute of all human virtue; to be the lowest in the social scale; incapable of the inculcation of civilisation, morality, and religion; to be only a stage above the brute creation, and to be segregated by an insuperable barrier from all sentient creatures. Could you, oh, self-sufficient philosopher (who enunciate these doctrines), only present yourself before these two, and penetrate with a visual percipiency the heart that beats in the breast of that poor, prostrate black, thou wouldst surely be brought to acknowledge the existence of that germ that was implanted in our first parents by the omnipotent Creator. Thou wouldst also be brought to acknowledge, unless prejudice blinded thine intellect, that, degraded as that race which thou contemnest undoubtedly is,much of the weight of that degradation has been the burdening of thine own countrymen. Say not that, by the immutable decrees of Providence, the black races are destined to disappear before the white, and to succumb their savage natures and existence to advancing civilisation. Such may, or may not, be so; but in either case how can you relieve yourself of the obligation imposed upon you by the Supreme Being to ameliorate the condition of that unfortunate people of whom you first rob their inheritance and then sweep from the face of the earth, by instilling into their unsophisticated natures all the vices incidental to yours; without attempting their regeneration, or even an ethic inculcation.John looked upon his faithful attendant as he implored him not to venture either near the blacks or across the swollen river before him; and he felt a pleasurable sensation, akin to gratitude, towards the poor creature. It is true he had himself almost reared the poor boy, who had been always near him; but theidea of so much attachment being in the nature of the black had never occurred to him; and its discovery therefore caused him astonishment."I must go, Joey," he said, "I have no fear for danger to myself; and if anything should happen this night to the family at Strawberry Hill, and I remained here, I shall ever accuse myself as being, by my selfish neglect, accessary to their fate.""Will massa let me go with him?" enquired the boy."No, Joey," replied his master; "I wish you to stop here with the shepherd and sheep, until the water falls sufficiently to enable you to cross with them; but get me my horse, I must lose no time;" saying which he turned away to seek the shepherd, who was watching the flock, to give him directions, while Joey performed the necessary services for the horse.The black boy went down with his master to the edge of the river, in vain entreating to be permitted to accompany him, and stood onthe brink of the water as John plunged his horse into the dark rolling stream. The night was black and cloudy and the opposite bank was hardly discernible in the gloom; while the opaque waters rolled their disturbed body in their sullen course. As John had said the river was not swift, but it was deep and treacherous. Its tide, though swollen by the immense volume in the Gibson, ran only slowly; but it was filled with eddies caused by the stoppage of its own natural current. Its passage was therefore more dangerous than perhaps it would have been had it been running with the velocity of its parent stream.As John entered the water the noble animal that carried him, guessing the nature of the work that was expected of him, courageously breasted the current, and swam for the opposite bank. For some minutes he could have been seen speeding his course, with precision for his desired goal; when anon he would be drawn into the vortex ofone of those whirlpools in which the stream then abounded, and from which his persevering beast would extricate himself, and again struggle on his course. The horse and rider had nearly reached the other side, and were almost lost to Joey's sight in the obscurity, when suddenly both man and beast were entirely submerged; and the next instant the animal's feet were plainly discernible above water, in a state of violent agitation.With one bound the black boy sprang into the water, and swam vigorously for the spot where his master had disappeared; but his anxieties were relieved by John's reappearance, and seeing him strike out for the bank in company with his horse. Joey did not return when he perceived that his master was safe, but pursued his course. Long and arduous was his struggle, and he had enough to do to preserve himself from the eddies and floating masses that were rotating in the pools, or that were descending the stream. But he succeeded in crossing it without anymishap, and he presented himself to his master as the latter was about to mount his horse after his own dangerous passage."What, Joey!" exclaimed John as he witnessed the boy before him, "what on earth has possessed you to risk your life in crossing the river by yourself, and after my telling you I wanted you to stay with the sheep?""Oh! massa," replied the boy, "me thinkum you be drowned, when me been seeum you capsized; bael me help coming after you to see you all right.""Well, I suppose I must not be angry with you Joey," said his master."Oh no, massa!" replied the black, "but that very ugly capsize, how 'em happen?""A log that was floating in one of the pools," said John, "turned the horse over and me with him; but I kept hold of the bridle and reached the shore safe enough, with only the addition of a little extra wetting. But I can't stop now, Joey, I must not lose any more time, and you will have to get backagain as soon as you can; for that man you have left on the other side will not be able to watch and 'shepherd' the sheep all by himself. You can get your own horse that the two fellows crossed with yesterday to take you back.""But, massa, you let me come now with you? and I be over the river all right liket morning.""Well, come if you will," said his master, "you can follow me;" and he dashed spurs into his horse and rode off.Joey thus obtaining the permission he sought wasn't long in getting his horse saddled, and he galloping after his master whom he overtook on the road; as, notwithstanding his impatient haste, John was unable, owing to the fatigue his horse had already endured in the water, to keep in advance of the fresher steed of his black boy.The two horsemen for some minutes rode rapidly side by side; and, as they approached Strawberry Hill, they every moment becamemore conscious, not only of the proximity of the blacks, but of their either meditating, or actually perpetrating some diabolical work. These kept up a chorus of voices which formed a perfect Babel of discord, resounding through the still night, and reverberating among the vaulted and umbrageous canopy of the bush like the conclaves of assembled pandemonium. Anon this was succeeded by frantic yells that curdled the very blood in John Ferguson's veins; and then shriek after shriek pierced the air, telling too plainly the nature of the savages' work.What further stimulus could John have had for his fears? Here was a realization of his most direful dread. The very echo of the woods proclaimed the fate of his friends; and possibly that being whom he loved most on earth was by that wail numbered among the dead; her lovely features defaced by the brutality of fiendish savages; and her fair form mutilated and possibly dishonoured. The thought was too harrowing; it deprived himof all consideration for his own person; the idea of his own saftey never entered his mind, and unarmed and defenceless as he was, he dashed the spurs again and again into the side of his steed, and galloped madly until he reached the scene of horror. He sprang from his horse, as the panting animal halted before the house, which was now still and apparently desolate; while the retreating forms of the blacks might have been seen by other eyes than John Ferguson's.CHAPTER X."Wisdom! to leave his wife, to leave his babes,His mansion, and his titles in a placeFrom whence himself does fly?"Macbeth,Act 4, Sc. 2.When Rainsfield parted from Jemmy Davies he retraced his steps to his own house, which he reached as the first rays of the morning sun irradiated the eastern sky; and, flinging himself upon a sofa in the sitting-room, he sought a few hours' rest. Sleep we cannot call it for it was more of the nature of a waking dream than refreshing slumbers; and, after enduring two or three hours of increasing restlessness, he sprang from his couch, and, while it was yet early morn, strolled forth to refresh his fevered brain.His reflections were of no enviable kind. That the object the blacks had in returning to the neighbourhood was, as Jemmy Davies had warned him, he had no doubt; for, however much he was disinclined to credit the disinterestedness of Jemmy, and his good feeling towards himself, he could not imagine any motive that could influence the black in acquainting him of a plot if no plot existed. Rainsfield had no faith in one of their colour, believing sincerity a virtue incompatible with their nature; but at the same time he fully credited the information of Jemmy, especially after the evidently hostile preparations he had witnessed. He was also perfectly aware that he might expect the animosity of the blacks while they remained in the neighbourhood; and though he had flattered himself upon their former disappearance that he had been for ever relieved from the annoyance of their proximity, he now found he had exorcised the demon which threatened his destruction.What their mode of procedure would be hecould hardly conjecture, though he had doubted not, from what he had witnessed at the camp, that they had not only concerted measures, but that their plans would be on somewhat an extensive scale. Their primary object, he believed, would be his life; but personally he had a supreme contempt for the whole race, and flattered himself that, with a little caution, he was a match, numerically speaking, against extreme odds. He believed, as in fact experience had demonstrated, their cowardice was one of their inherent characteristics, and that, with decision on his part, and a chastisement by a few examples, he would avert the threatened danger. He imagined that their tactics would be a perpetual ambuscade, never dreaming that they would so far venture on the offensive as to assume the aggressive overtly, but would rather attempt a surprisal; in which case he determined, as soon as his opponents showed themselves, to take upon himself the offensive. As the harass, however, of a perpetual watch would not onlyinconvenience him, but weaken his already too small force, he bethought him to acquaint his neighbours of his position, and beg their assistance. His first care, then, was to apprise all his men on the station of the intention of the blacks, and to provide them with fire-arms, so far as his stock admitted, charging them to use every vigilance to prevent the approach of any of the aborigines, and to shoot them if they came within range of their guns.On the evening of that day, acting under the advice of Jemmy Davies, Mr. Rainsfield posted himself, and two of his men, in the bush near the house, where he expected the blacks would be lurking if they visited the station at all; and not long after night-fall he became sensible of the stealthy approach of some of the natives. Rainsfield and his men had secreted themselves so as to elude even the keen vision of the aborigines, at the same time that they themselves could discern, as plainly as was practicable in the darkness, the crouching formsof the reconnoiterers. The party in espionage watched their victims until they approached sufficiently near to enable them to distinguish their dusky outlines, and then they simultaneously discharged the contents of their three pieces into their very midst.The report was instantly followed by more than one yell, and at least one body was heard to fall heavily to the ground, when the next moment a shower of spears rattled amongst the trees and bushes where the party lay concealed. Rainsfield and his men remained perfectly motionless, not daring to venture another shot; for they knew well that every native had already shielded himself behind some tree, and was watching for a repetition of the fire to guide them whence to aim their own missiles. By remaining in his quiescence Rainsfield was aware he was safe; for he knew the blacks would not trust themselves to a closer investigation of the quarter from whence emanated their destruction. Of the two watching parties the blackswere the first to withdraw, after discharging another random volley of spears, and taking with them their dead or wounded. When Rainsfield was convinced of their departure he came out from his hiding-place, and returned to the station much pleased with his adventure, and, arguing from the nature of the reception the blacks had met with, that they would considerably cool in their ardour for any further visitation of his premises.The other inmates of Strawberry Hill were too much occupied with their attention to Eleanor, and too much engrossed by their anxieties for her welfare to be conscious of the occurrence we have lately described; for when the doctor arrived with William from Alma she was in an exceedingly dangerous state, and it was not until the day following the encounter that the son of Galen considered himself warranted in taking his departure, and leaving his patient to the care of her own friends. Eleanor's state was still precarious, and though the fever was sufficientlysubdued to relieve her friends of alarm, her nervous system had received a tremendous shock. Added to her corporeal sufferings she had to endure mental agonies of a far more acute description, which kept her prostrate, dispirited, and almost unconscious, while her friends ministered with affectionate hands to her every want. Days thus passed over with only shadows of improvement; and William, who at first returned home leaving his sister at Strawberry Hill, came back and brought her away from the bedside of her friend.As Mr. Rainsfield had anticipated, the blacks entered no further appearance after their first night of reconnoitering; and, though the watchfulness of himself and his men was unabated, he began to entertain less fears of their carrying out or even attempting their premeditated design. All the men on the station were now well armed, and were quite capable, acting in unison, of repelling the attack of a whole host of natives should theymake the attempt. At least so thought Rainsfield and hisemployés; for their first success, and the subsequent respectful distance that the blacks had maintained, engendered a sense of security in their minds.How many has this very feeling ruined, and will continue to ruin for succeeding ages, who can tell? "A sea of troubles" is incidental to our existence, and the dark prognostic that rises on our mental horizon, heralding the approach of some destructive blast, is too often unheeded by us until it has swept over our devoted heads. While the necessary precautions to avert the coming danger have been either neglected or postponed under the impression of false security we have fallen victims to our own procrastination; and as the withering blast howls in its fury as it settles its incubus form upon our spirits, we mourn our own inertness, when timely exertion would have saved us from the calamity. We will not say this was exactly the case with Mr. Rainsfield, though after a few days ofunceasing watchfulness without any other molestation taking place, he began to relax in his vigilance, and was imitated by his servants. He already looked upon the blacks as cowed and vanquished, and entertained very little apprehension of another visitation, though at the same time he was not altogether at ease considering that they still remained in his vicinity with the avowed purpose of attacking the station.The idea had struck him that he could report to the authorities the attack already made by construing what might have been an intention into an act itself, as also the determination of the blacks to renew it, and their location in his neighbourhood in a hostile and warlike spirit. He would then be enabled to claim the protection of the police; but, what would be more to his purpose, he would be enabled to obtain a warrant for the apprehension of the ringleaders of the perpetrated and intended breach of the peace. Armed with such a document he could make use ofit to visit their camp; while he was aware, from his knowledge of the blacks, that the only result of the farce would be a rupture with them, but by its means he would gain the opportunity he desired, viz., of driving them from the country.That such a farce as the administration of justice, or rather the enforcement of the law, in one proscribed form on the savage should be permitted to exist is deeply to be deplored. To punish the ignorant aboriginal for the sins we have either taught or compelled him to commit, without his having any knowledge of their nature, is sufficiently iniquitous to require no comment; and to expect him to conform to laws of which he has no conception, and which are contrary to his natural instincts, is equally absurd and unjust. But such is the case: the aboriginal is supposed to be a British subject in all but the privileges pertaining to those favoured individuals; and if he commits any act contrary to the code of our justiciary he is made amenable to our lawsand judged accordingly. Mr. Rainsfield was as well aware of this as any one, but it mattered not to him. All he desired was to possess some recognised authority for his molestation of the natives, while he was nominally in the performance of a duty, though in reality shielding himself under the protection of the law in the committal of an unjustifiable aggression. That he would receive an order to obtain the assistance of the native police he had no doubt, though he did have misgivings as to their services being forthcoming. He little cared, however, if they were so; in fact, it would suit his views better than if they accompanied him, as he would prefer not to be annoyed with the supervision of police, even though troopers, and they only blacks. He could obtain sympathy, he thought, from his friends, and collect a small body of volunteers that would aid him in his operations far more effectually than police. Thus he hatched a scheme that had for its object a trap in which to catch the unwary blacks; so that, by someshow of resistance, he would be warranted in taking the law into his own hands in self-defence for himself and his friends and to enter upon their crusade of extermination. Such was the offspring of Rainsfield's mind: a laudable undertaking worthy of the cool-blooded monsters of antiquity.The rains, of which we spoke in the last chapter, had by this time set in, and Rainsfield watched the rising of the Gibson river with some degree of satisfaction. Knowing the blacks to be encamped on the other side, he looked upon a flood as an insuperable barrier to their advance, and an impregnable circumvallation to his own station; therefore he had no fears of an attack while the water maintained its height, and he determined to choose that opportunity for carrying out the preliminaries of his plot.He explained so much of his plans as he thought necessary to his wife, including, of course, his object in leaving her, and attempted to allay her fears, if she had hadany, by assuring her that it was impossible for the blacks to cross the river in its then state, while long before the flood settled he would collect such assistance as would not only protect them from any attack but enable him to drive their annoyance to a safe distance. Mrs. Rainsfield, however, entertained no fears, notwithstanding the monitory aspect of affairs around her. She had long accustomed herself to look upon her husband's operations against the unfortunate natives as not only harsh but cruel and unjust; and she lamented his proneness to seize upon every opportunity of treating them with severity. Believing them to be ill-used, and at the same time inoffensive, she saw no cause for fear, and therefore did not participate in her husband's alarm and felt no uneasiness in his meditated absence.Mr. Rainsfield, though he thought very little, if any, danger was to be apprehended, deemed it expedient for his wife and family's safety to use some precaution, and thereforefor their protection requested Mr. Billing to take up his abode in the house. He gave him strict injunctions to keep the place well secured against the possibility of any ingress, and himself always in possession of a relay of arms, which he was to use without any hesitation if a black presented himself within range of his fire. Giving similar instruction to the remainder of his men he took his departure.His first step was to proceed to Alma and make a declaration before a bench of magistrates to the effect that the blacks had already made an attack upon his premises, and were still in considerable force in his neighbourhood, to the imminent peril of his life and property; and that the said party was headed by a half-civilized black named Barwang. Upon making this affidavit he at once obtained what he desired, viz., a warrant for the apprehension of the ringleader, Barwang, and all others who might either commit or incite other of Her Majesty's subjects to commit a breach of the peace. Healso procured the promise of assistance from what portion of the native police could be collected, who would be stationed at Strawberry Hill for his protection, until such time as the blacks should be quieted. Succeeding thus far he then proceeded to Brompton to enlist the services of Bob Smithers, knowing well that few arguments would suffice to induce him to engage in a work which was exactly to his tastes. He found him at home, and, after the ordinary greetings had been passed, and Bob's asking him what brought him from home, he entered upon the subject of his mission by replying: "I want your aid, Smithers, to chastise those infernal blacks, for they are at me again. I have beaten them off once, but I believe they are only now prevented from attacking me in full force by their inability to cross the Gibson from their camp. See here I have got a warrant for the apprehension of their chief, so that will be sufficient authority for us to carry out our own plans.""All right, old boy," exclaimed Bob, as he gave his friend a proof of his exuberance and readiness to join him by administering a playful poke in the ribs; "I'm your man. I am fully convinced we shall never live in peace until those d—d blacks are exterminated. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to shoot every mother's son of the dogs; so, by Jove! you may depend upon my lending you a hand.""I do not believe, either," said Rainsfield, "that we shall ever enjoy any degree of quietude until we have suppressed the wretches. It is no use our looking to government for protection; we must take the administration of the law into our own hands and punish them ourselves. But to effect this we ought to make it a common cause, and all work in unison for our mutual protection.""Just so!" said Smithers; "I perfectly agree with you.""I've long thought of the plan," continued Rainsfield, "to form ourselves into a confederationfor that purpose; but owing to the absence of the blacks for some months past I have allowed it to escape my memory. Now, however, I think, is a time that some such measure should be adopted, for if these depredations are not speedily checked the blacks may be going to such extremes that our position in the country will become untenable.""I am quite of your way of thinking," said Smithers, "and so I know are many others. I am confident Graham would assist you in a minute, and so would Brown, and many others round us. I'll tell you what; if you like I'll just go round to a few of them and bring them over to your place, so that if you return home now, and keep the black scoundrels in check for a day or two, until I get my forces collected, we will give them a lesson which they will not forget in a hurry; that is, if any of them survive to have any recollection."Diabolical as was the intention implied inthis threat it fully accorded with Rainsfield's own desire and determination, and he readily fell into the views of his colleague, who at once started on his recruiting expedition, while Rainsfield, in high fettle, the following morning took his ride home. On this journey we will leave him for the present while we glance at the events in progress at another scene of our narrative.CHAPTER XI.
The struggle continued apace between the contending factions on the one hand, and with the governments of Great Britain and New South Wales on the other. The pro-convict party, who had established a weekly newspaperto advocate their cause, gradually diminished, until eventually their zeal expired, and they succumbed to popular feeling, leaving the body of free separationists united and energetic. Petition after petition continued to be poured at the feet of Her most gracious Majesty, who at last condescended to listen to the prayer of her loyal though distant subjects. In the year 1855, by an act passed in the Imperial Parliament, entitled, "The Constitution Act of New South Wales," right was reserved to her Majesty to separate from that colony any portion of its northern territory she, by her ministers, might deem expedient. It was then made manifest to the colonists that some hope existed of the desired event taking place, and their importunities consequently increased. In July 1856, the then Secretary of State for the Colonies (Mr. Labouchere) intimated, in a despatch to the Governor of New South Wales, that her Majesty's ministers considered that the time had arrived when the dismemberment should be effected,and suggested that the 30th parallel of south latitude should be fixed upon as the boundary of the two colonies. About this parallel a natural line of demarcation exists in the form of a mountain range, and at no other part of the coast could so eligible a division be made.
The magnates in Sydney perceiving that, notwithstanding all their strenuous opposition, separation was determined upon considered it useless to further attempt its prevention; but they were, nevertheless, sanguine of their ability to mar the fair prospects of the new colony. The thought of losing the revenue of so large a district rankled in their bosoms, and the idea of procuring an alteration in the boundary line, by a removal farther away from them, suggested itself to their minds. Confident in their success and the time for an execution of their machinations, that would be afforded them by the usual circumlocutions of government, they forthwith entered upon their work.
One of the districts embraced in the proposed new colony was the Clarence river, which was only second in importance to that of Moreton Bay itself, and which comprised a coast-line of upwards of 120 miles, and a country that extended nearly double that distance inland. This, then, they set to work to retain; and, though the inhabitants themselves of the debateable ground were strongly averse to a continued connexion with the parent colony, and desired annexation to the new one, a petition was presented to the legislature, purporting to be from the residents of that district, and praying for the maintenance of their existing relationship with New South Wales. The opprobrium attached to the concoction of this petition is due to the then member of the legislature for the New England district; for through his chicanery the signatures were obtained and the people deceived. It was represented to them as for a local assize court, and their signatures obtained on blank sheets of paper, which were afterwards attached to thegenuine anti-separation petition and laid before the government of the colony, by whom it was forwarded to the British secretary.
This fraud was shortly afterwards detected by the parties cajoled, who exposed the deception practised upon them, and eventually petitioned the crown with a similar view. But, too late: the first had reached the home government as a genuine document, and the result may be imagined; for, combining such a strong demonstration of public feeling as the petition appeared to do with the biassed representations of the Sydney government, the crown had no other alternative but to alter the boundary originally intended Mr. Labouchere (dated just one year after his former despatch) then informed the Governor of New South Wales that her Majesty's ministers had determined to separate the northern colony at the 28th (instead of the 30th) parallel of south latitude. There the matter rested until the year 1860, when the proclamation calling into existence the colony ofQueensland was read in the capital city of Brisbane by the first governor, Sir George Ferguson Bowen.
We would not have pursued this theme had it not been to explain the ferment in which Tom Rainsfield found the good people of Brisbane when he visited their town, as we have said, in the summer of 1857; and, amidst the agitation of the public mind which absorbed all thought and attention, we will leave him for the present to pursue his business.
"Hark! there be murmurs heard in Lara's hall,A sound—a voice—a shriek—a fearful call!A long loud shriek—and silence—did they hearThat frantic echo burst the sleeping ear?"Byron.
"Hark! there be murmurs heard in Lara's hall,A sound—a voice—a shriek—a fearful call!A long loud shriek—and silence—did they hearThat frantic echo burst the sleeping ear?"Byron.
At a certain spot on the Darling Downs approaching towards their northern extremity, and where the country divides the eastern from the western water-sheds, a party was encamped for the night round their fire; on which preparations were being made by a civilized black for the evening meal of white men, who lay stretched on the ground in the full enjoyment of their "doodeens." Theculinary operator was Joey, and the recumbent beings were his master and the shepherds, who had progressed thus far with a flock of sheep, on their way from New England to Fern Vale.
The weather that had spread devastation over the face of the country, was equally fatal in its effects to the flock of our hero. He had attempted to force their march so as to reach his destination before their entire destruction, but was at last constrained to halt in a state, both to man and beast, of perfect exhaustion. He had been the more anxious to reach his own station as he was aware that, after the long and severe drought the district had been visited with, a flood might be expected as the inevitable consequence; and that if he were caught in it the strong probability was that he would lose the remaining half of his flock. Further progression, however, for his exhausted sheep, he saw was, at least for a time, perfectly hopeless; and he felt his only alternative was towait for the rain, which from the portensions of the sky, was not far distant. Therefore a rude hut, or arborous shelter of boughs and saplings, was erected to shield him and his companions from the rays of the sun, and they waited with what patience they could assume for the pluvial blessing so much prayed for all over the country.
Here then the party was located, anxiously waiting for the advent of the propitious event that would admit of their progression; and, on the evening we have discovered them to the reader, they were dragging out in listless idleness the remainder of an intolerably hot day, too much enervated to indulge in any exertion or conversation. While John Ferguson, who was possibly even more taciturn than his companions, was absorbed in his own gloomy thoughts, occasioned by the inauspicious result of his journey, he with his colleagues was suddenly aroused from his lethargy by a most unearthly sound in the close proximity of their camp. He instantlystarted to his feet, and was greeted with a burst of demoniacal laughter that made his very blood curdle in his veins.
Before him stood a being evidently human, but no more like his first prototype than Gabriel to Lucifer; a man wild and dishevelled in appearance; his eyes like balls of fire; and his face and other parts of his body, perceptible from his all but state of nudity, cut and bleeding. In the fitful light of the camp fire he had more the appearance of one of the eliminated shades of Hades than an habitant of this world. The startled and affrighted quartette, who had been interrupted by his unexpected appearance, gazed on the object with wonder, commiseration, and alarm; for his condition was speedily made palpable by his wild gesticulations and incoherent utterance. He was mad, and in that most to be deplored state of madness—delirium tremens.
John Ferguson advanced a few steps towards the man with the object of leadinghim to their temporary abode; but the maniac warned him off by a wave of the hand, and darted off again into the settling obscurity with the fleetness of an arrow. No human creature in such a condition could be permitted thus to rush to inevitable death by observers with any spark of Christian charity. John Ferguson and his companions felt this, and notwithstanding the darkness of the night, and the interminable nature of the bush around them, they instantly pursued the fugitive, being guided in his track by his fearful cries and yells.
The chase was tedious, and but for an accident might have been fruitless. The unnatural stimulus of madness lends powerful aid to the cartilaginous anatomy of its victims; so that, notwithstanding the evident fatigue that this wretched inebriate had sustained, his crural muscles performed their functions with even more force and facility than those of his athletic pursuers; and he continued to keep considerably in advanceof them. But his course was providentially checked by a fall, that not only stopped him in his headlong career of destruction, but extinguished the treacherous spark that had stimulated his system, and then left him prostrate and perfectly paralysed. When his pursuers came up, and by the light of a "firestick" gazed upon him, they found him writhing in agony on the ground, foaming at the mouth, gnashing his teeth, and actually biting the very dust in the intensity of his suffering. Nature could not long stand so fearful a tax as this without speedily succumbing. Reason had already been hurled from her throne by the arrogated sway of the incensed devils of debauch, and strength and consciousness had been expatriated by the usurpation; while life was all but extinguished. In this state he was borne by his rescuers back to their camp, and tended with every care they could devise; but when he awoke to consciousness, it was only to add the horrors of a raging fever to those of dementation; the morefearful on account of the inability of his attendants to afford him any assistance.
To truthfully describe his appearance, or his sufferings, as he lay rending the air with his fearful and impious imprecations, would not only be beyond our powers of portrayal, but would have none other effect than to sicken and disgust our readers. Nevertheless we feel constrained, fain as we would draw a veil over the scene, to continue our description for the furtherance of temperance and morality. The man remained for fully twenty-four hours in the state we have mentioned; when the exacerbation of his malady threatened to terminate his existence. No hope of relief could be entertained, for none was procurable in such a situation; even had the exhausted travellers been capable of seeking it. So that the wretched being's doom seemed inevitably sealed.
At this moment the Fern Vale party were startled by the sudden appearance of two others, who came seeking their comrade, andbore in their countenances almost as indelible a stamp of dissipation as that on the visage of the dying madman. From these new comers John learnt that the three had been travelling in company of a bullock dray, and being unable to proceed on their journey, through the loss of the greater portion of the team, they had all been engaged in a social wassail on some grog they had had in charge; and for a considerable period had all been more or less drunk. Their companion had been in a fit of delirium tremens for days; and while in a state of madness had suddenly gone, they knew not, nor at the time cared not, whither. But finding he did not return as they had anticipated even their besotted natures began to take alarm for his safety, and had induced them to go in search of him.
The two men now stood by the prostrate and paralysed form of their late robust companion, on whom, blunted and debased as were their own feelings, they could not gazewithout emotions; and as they witnessed the glaring blood-shot eyes, rotating in their sunken and discoloured sockets, the pendent jaw which left the parched tongue protruding from the open mouth, the colourless emaciated cheeks which contrasted fearfully with the sore and livid lips, the generally wasted frame, the shaking though powerless hands imploring with the looks of distracted vision, and the ineffectual attempts to articulate the cravings for that very poison which was fast hastening a commingling of his putrid carcass with its native dust, their hearts sickened within them. They, however, knew the purport of his signs; and subdued as they were by the presence of the destroying angel, and chastened by the momentary visitations of compunction, their devotion to their idol, and their belief in its efficacies were such, that, even in the face of death, they exorcised their destroying spirit. Before their motion could be anticipated, or prevented by John Ferguson, one of the dying man's companions drew abottle from his bosom, and applied it to the lips of the sufferer.
The taste of the exhilarating poison effected a transitory release of the bonds of death's victim. His hands clasped with a convulsive grasp the endeared destroyer of his life; and as the spirit flowed into the celiac channel of his wasted system, its consuming fire mantled his cheek with an unnatural erubescence, shot from his lustrous eyes, and imparted vigour to his inert frame. If the men's action had been noticed in time John would have no doubt prevented the drink being given, though it would have signified little; for no power on earth could have saved the victim, while possibly the draught of spirits which he had taken ameliorated his departing agonies. Be that as it may he had hardly swallowed it than fresh strength seemed to have been imparted to his frame. He then started to his feet, waved the bottle above his head with a fiendish laugh, and fell to the ground a corpse.
Can mortals ever be rescued from the fearful infatuation of drink? Can rational and sentient beings ever be brought to an abhorrence of that vile and bestial vice that equally destroys the intellect and degrades the body? or will reason ever inculcate in the mind of man the virtue of temperance, so as to use without abusing the gifts of a bountiful providence? Let an incorrigible drunkard stand before such a scene as we have attempted to describe, and for five minutes witness the agonies and death of a fellow inebriate; let his soul commune with the tortured spirit of the wretched victim of intemperance; let him witness the horrors of delirium tremens, that tear to pieces both body and life, and consigns them to the lowest depths of perdition; let him not only witness but feel the hell that burns up the very soul of the blind votaries of Bacchus; and let him witness the last struggle, the tortuous departure of the spirit, accompanied with the blasphemous ribaldry of the vile worm that, whileinsinuating its eliminated spirit before the judgment-seat of its Maker, dares to utter its arrogant defiance to the august and omnipotent Creator. Let him see this; tell him this is the consequence of intemperance possibly only indulged in moderately at an early stage, but growing by degrees as evil does grow, like the gathering avalanche accumulating in its downward progress until it reaches its final descent amidst universal destruction. Tell him also that a similar fate awaits every drunkard, and tell him, if he turns not away from his course of vileness, such will be his; then, if his conscience does not lead him to penitence through such a lesson, no human effort can save him.
The state of the weather, the mortification of the body, and its consequent immediate decomposition, made it imperative that no time should be lost in the interment of the corpse. The funeral obsequies were speedily performed, with little more ceremony than what would attend the burying of an animal,while nothing marked the spot where lay the bones that would in all probability be soon forgotten. The two men then took their departure, and we doubt not would soon return to their carouse; such is the quickness with which man forgets the visitations of the warning hand of God.
A few days after the event we have just narrated the rain that had been so long threatening at last appeared with one of those terrific thunder-storms which the colonies are in the summer visited with; and speedily the whole surface of the country became deluged. The arid and thirsty soil drank in the moisture, and almost spontaneously shot forth its herbage. The flock was then enabled to luxuriate on the tender grasses and, notwithstanding the deluging rains, to pursue its journey with more comfort than it had experienced for some considerable time previously.
For a week the rain continued with unabating violence when John Ferguson andhis flock struck the course of the Gibson river near Brompton. The river was "bank high" at the time, rolling its swollen volume on in sullen impetuosity; while the ground around was so saturated and swampy that the travelling of the sheep was exceedingly tedious; and their owner began to feel anxious lest their course should be altogether impeded. He, however, managed to push on past Brompton, when the weather happily moderated; and though still overcast, and rainy-looking, the actual fall of water ceased. The respite was made good use of by John Ferguson, who pushed on as rapidly as he could, and he arrived at the Wombi without any interruption; but there he met with a check he had little anticipated. He fully expected the bridge would be level with the water or even covered, and thought that he might have to wait for the river to fall; but the volume of water had considerably subsided and left no trace of the structure he and his neighbours had erected. It had infact been washed away by the flood, and he was made painfully aware that the only course open to him was to wait until the swollen current became sufficiently reduced to make it practicable to swim over his sheep. With that object he camped his party and flock on the bank of the Wombi.
For some days they waited in this position; but the river, notwithstanding that the rain had ceased, fell very slowly; while the surrounding gloominess plainly indicated an additional visitation of wet as not far distant. In conjunction with this the sheep began to show signs of foot-rot; and John, becoming anxious to get them home, considered it better under the circumstances to attempt a passage of the river at once. Acting on this decision he removed the flock to the old crossing-place and attempted the transit.
Two of his men had, by the aid of a horse, swam the river, and a large number of the sheep had either crossed or were struggling in the current, when a noise was heard thatstruck our hero with dismay. The distant roll of thunder, combined with the roar of battle, would convey but an imperfect idea of its nature. Distinct and more distinctly came the sound and, while the darkened atmosphere lent its gloom to the mighty convulsion that seemed to rend the earth, the cause of the noise seemed to approach nearer and nearer. Though John had never seen the sudden rising of a river he had heard of such phenomena, and guessed that the sound that he then heard was the harbinger of such an event. He therefore used all his exertions, with those of Joey and the white man that had remained with him on the upper bank of the Wombi, to prevent the remainder of the sheep from following their fellows into the water. They were with difficulty diverted from the stream; and those that had already crossed, being driven by the men as far as possible from the influence of the tide, John waited with an intense anxiety to watch thefate of those that would of a certainty be overtaken by the current.
The flood was in the Gibson river, and its cause can be easily explained in a few words. Towards its source the rain had been continuous, and the water-holes and surcharged swamps being filled to repletion, had burst their bounds and added their immense volumes to the already swollen stream. This imparted a force and impetuosity even greater than the current had previously possessed, and forced the water in one immense body down its course. On and on it swept like the monstrous rolling surge of the ocean, carrying to inevitable ruin everything that it overtook in its passage. John stood on an elevation sufficiently high to enable him to watch the progress of the destructive fluid; and, with his gaze alternately directed to it and his sheep still swimming in the stream at his feet, he calculated their chances of reaching the bank in safety. For this,however, he had little time, for the progress of the flood was quicker than that of his thoughts; and the sudden rise in the Gibson, as the deluge approached, caused a similar one in the Wombi. As the main body in the river swept past, it flooded the minor stream with its back current, sending the reversed tide, seething and swelling, up its narrow channel, and carrying with it some hundreds of the swimming sheep, most of which were drowned in their vain struggles with the element.
Unfortunate as this was John gave vent to no vain regrets, but at once decided how he would act. He knew that the brunt of the flood was over, and that the water would speedily fall in the river. He therefore determined to camp where he was for the night, and in the morning to send on the portion of his flock on the opposite side of the river, while he waited with the remainder until the flood should have so far receded as to permit his crossing them with safety. He communicatedhis plans to both sections of his party, while Joey lit a fire and prepared a camp.
Towards midnight, when everything was hushed in the nocturnal stillness, Joey came softly to his master, who was stretched in his blanket before the fire on the damp ground, and awoke him from his sleep. John, when he was aroused, instantly started up in the full expectation of some fresh misfortune, and hastily demanded of Joey what was the matter.
"You no hear, massa?" replied Joey; "you listen. The black fellows come back again and make great noise."
John listened attentively for some moments, and unmistakably distinguished the sounds of blacks' voices, though what was the purport of the noise he could not conjecture. It was evident to him they had returned to the neighbourhood and, from the sounds he heard, in considerable numbers. But where could they be camped? he asked himself; surely not at their old ground in the scrub, hethought; for the noise plainly indicated a closer proximity. In fact, it sounded to him as if it emanated from somewhere about Strawberry Hill, if not from that very place. Then John's thoughts led him to make the enquiry what could bring them across the Gibson; if they had any object in visiting Strawberry Hill; and if so, what that object could be? His thoughts, once led into such a channel, were not long in picturing a gloomy catalogue of probable causes. A remembrance of Rainsfield's cruelties was too indelibly impressed upon his mind to be forgotten, and the scene he had witnessed at the blacks' camp on the night previous to their departure was instantly conjured up in all its horrors. Though the disappearance of the blacks for months had momentarily dimmed his memory to the pangs he then witnessed and felt, they were instantly remembered when his mind reverted to the subject; and he vividly recollected the ebullition of evil passions that had been kindled in the breastsof some of the survivors and relatives of the victims. In his fancy he heard anew the threat of revenge that was uttered against Rainsfield; and he began to entertain the belief that the blacks were at the station of Strawberry Hill, and had come there for the purpose of wreaking vengeance on their destroyer and his family at a time when they would imagine their visitation least expected.
At the same time, however, he could not bring his mind to imagine that the blacks would be bold enough to attack the whole station, being confident the knowledge of the superior prowess of the whites would deter them, besides their dread of fire-arms, which, they would know at least all the men on the station would possess. He had no doubt, either, but that Rainsfield, having incurred the enmity of the aborigines, would take every precaution against surprisal, and believed that he could, with the assistance of one or two of his men, preserve himself against the assaults of a hundred of theblacks. But still John Ferguson could not divest his mind of some degree of apprehension, which (notwithstanding his endeavours to calm the perturbation his train of thoughts had led him to experience) still lingered there, and dark forebodings disturbed his brain.
"Where are they, do you think, Joey?" he enquired, as if he wanted corroboration of his own senses.
"Strawberry Hill, I believe, massa," was the reply.
"I am afraid so, too," said John; "and I fear they are up to no good. If they were only going to rob the store they would never make so much noise over it."
"No, massa, they not go to rob the store," said Joey; "they be frighted to do that again, I believe; taltoe (food) kill too many black fellow that time when they steal 'em ration; they be going to kill now, I believe."
"That's what I've been thinking too, Joey," replied his master; "but they wouldn'thave any chance if the white fellows had guns."
"I don't know, massa," replied the black boy; "p'rhaps no, p'rhaps yes—black fellows be very frightened of guns; but the Nungar black fellows, you pidner (know), very wild and budgery belonging to fight (good at fighting), and bael they lik'em (hate) Mr. Rainsfield; so I believe they will try very hard to kill him."
"I've no doubt they will," replied his master, "if they can get a mark at him; but if he keeps himself and his men within the house they will be able to fire away at the blacks without giving them a chance at themselves."
"White fellows all sit down liket huts," said Joey, by which he meant to imply that the men in all probability would be in their own huts, removed from the house of the station; "and," he continued, "bael Misser Rainsfield fight 'em all round big fellow humpie; and black fellow, when he find 'em bael come out, he gett'um firestick, and mak'em humpieone fellow-corbon fire;" which may be rendered into our vernacular by saying, that Rainsfield would be unable of himself to protect all parts of the dwelling; while the blacks would unhouse him by setting on fire the building, which it must be remembered was of wood.
John mused a few minutes in a reverie, in which his feelings sustained a violent convulsion. That love preserved a prominent position we have no doubt; and, also, that apprehension for the safety of the object of that love maintained a lively agitation in his mind. We fear we must not attribute his sympathy and anxiety for the family to a general friendship alone, but to the additional stimulus of a more inspiring feeling. However, we will not arrogate to ourselves the censorship of his motives, but simply confine ourselves to a recordance of events.
"Joey, get my horse and saddle him," said John, turning to the boy, who was standing with his body bent in an attitude to catch the floating sound of the blacks' voices.
Joey turned his eyes, looking surprised at his master; and though he did not actually ask him the nature of the work he intended to require of his horse, his manner and hesitation made that inquiry; and his master devising its meaning voluntarily made the explanation.
"I will go over at once to Strawberry Hill, Joey," he said, "and see what the blacks are doing; for I cannot bear this suspense, and I fear the morrow will disclose some fearful work."
"Bael you cross the river, masser," cried the boy; "too much water sit down. Bael you swim, masser? More liket be drowned."
"Don't make yourself uneasy, Joey," replied his master, "my horse has taken me over worse floods than that; it is only back water from the Gibson, and there is very little current."
"But oh! massa, bael you go! supposing you cross river, and supposing black fellows fight with Misser Rainsfield, what you cando? bael you got 'um gun or pistol, and black fellow have plenty spear; so you do nothing, and black fellow only kill you."
"No fear, Joey," said John. "The blacks would have no object in killing me; and if they are congregated at Strawberry Hill, to commit some outrage as I suspect, I may be enabled to effect some good by inducing them to abandon their scheme; or, at least, I can afford some assistance to the family they are attacking."
"Oh no, massa! I tell you no," exclaimed the poor faithful attendant. "These black fellows kill any white fellow now; bael they care for you now; they come to kill Misser Rainsfield; and Misser Rainsfield's friends liket help him they kill them too. Bael you go! Budgery massa!" exclaimed the attached creature, as he threw himself down on the ground before his master, and clung to his feet.
The expression and evidence of so much attachment in the poor boy sensibly affectedthe kind nature of John Ferguson; and he was moved to see so much genuine warmth and affection in one of a race which was looked upon as incapable of such emotions—a race which is deemed by professed judges of their nature to be destitute of all human virtue; to be the lowest in the social scale; incapable of the inculcation of civilisation, morality, and religion; to be only a stage above the brute creation, and to be segregated by an insuperable barrier from all sentient creatures. Could you, oh, self-sufficient philosopher (who enunciate these doctrines), only present yourself before these two, and penetrate with a visual percipiency the heart that beats in the breast of that poor, prostrate black, thou wouldst surely be brought to acknowledge the existence of that germ that was implanted in our first parents by the omnipotent Creator. Thou wouldst also be brought to acknowledge, unless prejudice blinded thine intellect, that, degraded as that race which thou contemnest undoubtedly is,much of the weight of that degradation has been the burdening of thine own countrymen. Say not that, by the immutable decrees of Providence, the black races are destined to disappear before the white, and to succumb their savage natures and existence to advancing civilisation. Such may, or may not, be so; but in either case how can you relieve yourself of the obligation imposed upon you by the Supreme Being to ameliorate the condition of that unfortunate people of whom you first rob their inheritance and then sweep from the face of the earth, by instilling into their unsophisticated natures all the vices incidental to yours; without attempting their regeneration, or even an ethic inculcation.
John looked upon his faithful attendant as he implored him not to venture either near the blacks or across the swollen river before him; and he felt a pleasurable sensation, akin to gratitude, towards the poor creature. It is true he had himself almost reared the poor boy, who had been always near him; but theidea of so much attachment being in the nature of the black had never occurred to him; and its discovery therefore caused him astonishment.
"I must go, Joey," he said, "I have no fear for danger to myself; and if anything should happen this night to the family at Strawberry Hill, and I remained here, I shall ever accuse myself as being, by my selfish neglect, accessary to their fate."
"Will massa let me go with him?" enquired the boy.
"No, Joey," replied his master; "I wish you to stop here with the shepherd and sheep, until the water falls sufficiently to enable you to cross with them; but get me my horse, I must lose no time;" saying which he turned away to seek the shepherd, who was watching the flock, to give him directions, while Joey performed the necessary services for the horse.
The black boy went down with his master to the edge of the river, in vain entreating to be permitted to accompany him, and stood onthe brink of the water as John plunged his horse into the dark rolling stream. The night was black and cloudy and the opposite bank was hardly discernible in the gloom; while the opaque waters rolled their disturbed body in their sullen course. As John had said the river was not swift, but it was deep and treacherous. Its tide, though swollen by the immense volume in the Gibson, ran only slowly; but it was filled with eddies caused by the stoppage of its own natural current. Its passage was therefore more dangerous than perhaps it would have been had it been running with the velocity of its parent stream.
As John entered the water the noble animal that carried him, guessing the nature of the work that was expected of him, courageously breasted the current, and swam for the opposite bank. For some minutes he could have been seen speeding his course, with precision for his desired goal; when anon he would be drawn into the vortex ofone of those whirlpools in which the stream then abounded, and from which his persevering beast would extricate himself, and again struggle on his course. The horse and rider had nearly reached the other side, and were almost lost to Joey's sight in the obscurity, when suddenly both man and beast were entirely submerged; and the next instant the animal's feet were plainly discernible above water, in a state of violent agitation.
With one bound the black boy sprang into the water, and swam vigorously for the spot where his master had disappeared; but his anxieties were relieved by John's reappearance, and seeing him strike out for the bank in company with his horse. Joey did not return when he perceived that his master was safe, but pursued his course. Long and arduous was his struggle, and he had enough to do to preserve himself from the eddies and floating masses that were rotating in the pools, or that were descending the stream. But he succeeded in crossing it without anymishap, and he presented himself to his master as the latter was about to mount his horse after his own dangerous passage.
"What, Joey!" exclaimed John as he witnessed the boy before him, "what on earth has possessed you to risk your life in crossing the river by yourself, and after my telling you I wanted you to stay with the sheep?"
"Oh! massa," replied the boy, "me thinkum you be drowned, when me been seeum you capsized; bael me help coming after you to see you all right."
"Well, I suppose I must not be angry with you Joey," said his master.
"Oh no, massa!" replied the black, "but that very ugly capsize, how 'em happen?"
"A log that was floating in one of the pools," said John, "turned the horse over and me with him; but I kept hold of the bridle and reached the shore safe enough, with only the addition of a little extra wetting. But I can't stop now, Joey, I must not lose any more time, and you will have to get backagain as soon as you can; for that man you have left on the other side will not be able to watch and 'shepherd' the sheep all by himself. You can get your own horse that the two fellows crossed with yesterday to take you back."
"But, massa, you let me come now with you? and I be over the river all right liket morning."
"Well, come if you will," said his master, "you can follow me;" and he dashed spurs into his horse and rode off.
Joey thus obtaining the permission he sought wasn't long in getting his horse saddled, and he galloping after his master whom he overtook on the road; as, notwithstanding his impatient haste, John was unable, owing to the fatigue his horse had already endured in the water, to keep in advance of the fresher steed of his black boy.
The two horsemen for some minutes rode rapidly side by side; and, as they approached Strawberry Hill, they every moment becamemore conscious, not only of the proximity of the blacks, but of their either meditating, or actually perpetrating some diabolical work. These kept up a chorus of voices which formed a perfect Babel of discord, resounding through the still night, and reverberating among the vaulted and umbrageous canopy of the bush like the conclaves of assembled pandemonium. Anon this was succeeded by frantic yells that curdled the very blood in John Ferguson's veins; and then shriek after shriek pierced the air, telling too plainly the nature of the savages' work.
What further stimulus could John have had for his fears? Here was a realization of his most direful dread. The very echo of the woods proclaimed the fate of his friends; and possibly that being whom he loved most on earth was by that wail numbered among the dead; her lovely features defaced by the brutality of fiendish savages; and her fair form mutilated and possibly dishonoured. The thought was too harrowing; it deprived himof all consideration for his own person; the idea of his own saftey never entered his mind, and unarmed and defenceless as he was, he dashed the spurs again and again into the side of his steed, and galloped madly until he reached the scene of horror. He sprang from his horse, as the panting animal halted before the house, which was now still and apparently desolate; while the retreating forms of the blacks might have been seen by other eyes than John Ferguson's.
"Wisdom! to leave his wife, to leave his babes,His mansion, and his titles in a placeFrom whence himself does fly?"Macbeth,Act 4, Sc. 2.
"Wisdom! to leave his wife, to leave his babes,His mansion, and his titles in a placeFrom whence himself does fly?"Macbeth,Act 4, Sc. 2.
When Rainsfield parted from Jemmy Davies he retraced his steps to his own house, which he reached as the first rays of the morning sun irradiated the eastern sky; and, flinging himself upon a sofa in the sitting-room, he sought a few hours' rest. Sleep we cannot call it for it was more of the nature of a waking dream than refreshing slumbers; and, after enduring two or three hours of increasing restlessness, he sprang from his couch, and, while it was yet early morn, strolled forth to refresh his fevered brain.
His reflections were of no enviable kind. That the object the blacks had in returning to the neighbourhood was, as Jemmy Davies had warned him, he had no doubt; for, however much he was disinclined to credit the disinterestedness of Jemmy, and his good feeling towards himself, he could not imagine any motive that could influence the black in acquainting him of a plot if no plot existed. Rainsfield had no faith in one of their colour, believing sincerity a virtue incompatible with their nature; but at the same time he fully credited the information of Jemmy, especially after the evidently hostile preparations he had witnessed. He was also perfectly aware that he might expect the animosity of the blacks while they remained in the neighbourhood; and though he had flattered himself upon their former disappearance that he had been for ever relieved from the annoyance of their proximity, he now found he had exorcised the demon which threatened his destruction.
What their mode of procedure would be hecould hardly conjecture, though he had doubted not, from what he had witnessed at the camp, that they had not only concerted measures, but that their plans would be on somewhat an extensive scale. Their primary object, he believed, would be his life; but personally he had a supreme contempt for the whole race, and flattered himself that, with a little caution, he was a match, numerically speaking, against extreme odds. He believed, as in fact experience had demonstrated, their cowardice was one of their inherent characteristics, and that, with decision on his part, and a chastisement by a few examples, he would avert the threatened danger. He imagined that their tactics would be a perpetual ambuscade, never dreaming that they would so far venture on the offensive as to assume the aggressive overtly, but would rather attempt a surprisal; in which case he determined, as soon as his opponents showed themselves, to take upon himself the offensive. As the harass, however, of a perpetual watch would not onlyinconvenience him, but weaken his already too small force, he bethought him to acquaint his neighbours of his position, and beg their assistance. His first care, then, was to apprise all his men on the station of the intention of the blacks, and to provide them with fire-arms, so far as his stock admitted, charging them to use every vigilance to prevent the approach of any of the aborigines, and to shoot them if they came within range of their guns.
On the evening of that day, acting under the advice of Jemmy Davies, Mr. Rainsfield posted himself, and two of his men, in the bush near the house, where he expected the blacks would be lurking if they visited the station at all; and not long after night-fall he became sensible of the stealthy approach of some of the natives. Rainsfield and his men had secreted themselves so as to elude even the keen vision of the aborigines, at the same time that they themselves could discern, as plainly as was practicable in the darkness, the crouching formsof the reconnoiterers. The party in espionage watched their victims until they approached sufficiently near to enable them to distinguish their dusky outlines, and then they simultaneously discharged the contents of their three pieces into their very midst.
The report was instantly followed by more than one yell, and at least one body was heard to fall heavily to the ground, when the next moment a shower of spears rattled amongst the trees and bushes where the party lay concealed. Rainsfield and his men remained perfectly motionless, not daring to venture another shot; for they knew well that every native had already shielded himself behind some tree, and was watching for a repetition of the fire to guide them whence to aim their own missiles. By remaining in his quiescence Rainsfield was aware he was safe; for he knew the blacks would not trust themselves to a closer investigation of the quarter from whence emanated their destruction. Of the two watching parties the blackswere the first to withdraw, after discharging another random volley of spears, and taking with them their dead or wounded. When Rainsfield was convinced of their departure he came out from his hiding-place, and returned to the station much pleased with his adventure, and, arguing from the nature of the reception the blacks had met with, that they would considerably cool in their ardour for any further visitation of his premises.
The other inmates of Strawberry Hill were too much occupied with their attention to Eleanor, and too much engrossed by their anxieties for her welfare to be conscious of the occurrence we have lately described; for when the doctor arrived with William from Alma she was in an exceedingly dangerous state, and it was not until the day following the encounter that the son of Galen considered himself warranted in taking his departure, and leaving his patient to the care of her own friends. Eleanor's state was still precarious, and though the fever was sufficientlysubdued to relieve her friends of alarm, her nervous system had received a tremendous shock. Added to her corporeal sufferings she had to endure mental agonies of a far more acute description, which kept her prostrate, dispirited, and almost unconscious, while her friends ministered with affectionate hands to her every want. Days thus passed over with only shadows of improvement; and William, who at first returned home leaving his sister at Strawberry Hill, came back and brought her away from the bedside of her friend.
As Mr. Rainsfield had anticipated, the blacks entered no further appearance after their first night of reconnoitering; and, though the watchfulness of himself and his men was unabated, he began to entertain less fears of their carrying out or even attempting their premeditated design. All the men on the station were now well armed, and were quite capable, acting in unison, of repelling the attack of a whole host of natives should theymake the attempt. At least so thought Rainsfield and hisemployés; for their first success, and the subsequent respectful distance that the blacks had maintained, engendered a sense of security in their minds.
How many has this very feeling ruined, and will continue to ruin for succeeding ages, who can tell? "A sea of troubles" is incidental to our existence, and the dark prognostic that rises on our mental horizon, heralding the approach of some destructive blast, is too often unheeded by us until it has swept over our devoted heads. While the necessary precautions to avert the coming danger have been either neglected or postponed under the impression of false security we have fallen victims to our own procrastination; and as the withering blast howls in its fury as it settles its incubus form upon our spirits, we mourn our own inertness, when timely exertion would have saved us from the calamity. We will not say this was exactly the case with Mr. Rainsfield, though after a few days ofunceasing watchfulness without any other molestation taking place, he began to relax in his vigilance, and was imitated by his servants. He already looked upon the blacks as cowed and vanquished, and entertained very little apprehension of another visitation, though at the same time he was not altogether at ease considering that they still remained in his vicinity with the avowed purpose of attacking the station.
The idea had struck him that he could report to the authorities the attack already made by construing what might have been an intention into an act itself, as also the determination of the blacks to renew it, and their location in his neighbourhood in a hostile and warlike spirit. He would then be enabled to claim the protection of the police; but, what would be more to his purpose, he would be enabled to obtain a warrant for the apprehension of the ringleaders of the perpetrated and intended breach of the peace. Armed with such a document he could make use ofit to visit their camp; while he was aware, from his knowledge of the blacks, that the only result of the farce would be a rupture with them, but by its means he would gain the opportunity he desired, viz., of driving them from the country.
That such a farce as the administration of justice, or rather the enforcement of the law, in one proscribed form on the savage should be permitted to exist is deeply to be deplored. To punish the ignorant aboriginal for the sins we have either taught or compelled him to commit, without his having any knowledge of their nature, is sufficiently iniquitous to require no comment; and to expect him to conform to laws of which he has no conception, and which are contrary to his natural instincts, is equally absurd and unjust. But such is the case: the aboriginal is supposed to be a British subject in all but the privileges pertaining to those favoured individuals; and if he commits any act contrary to the code of our justiciary he is made amenable to our lawsand judged accordingly. Mr. Rainsfield was as well aware of this as any one, but it mattered not to him. All he desired was to possess some recognised authority for his molestation of the natives, while he was nominally in the performance of a duty, though in reality shielding himself under the protection of the law in the committal of an unjustifiable aggression. That he would receive an order to obtain the assistance of the native police he had no doubt, though he did have misgivings as to their services being forthcoming. He little cared, however, if they were so; in fact, it would suit his views better than if they accompanied him, as he would prefer not to be annoyed with the supervision of police, even though troopers, and they only blacks. He could obtain sympathy, he thought, from his friends, and collect a small body of volunteers that would aid him in his operations far more effectually than police. Thus he hatched a scheme that had for its object a trap in which to catch the unwary blacks; so that, by someshow of resistance, he would be warranted in taking the law into his own hands in self-defence for himself and his friends and to enter upon their crusade of extermination. Such was the offspring of Rainsfield's mind: a laudable undertaking worthy of the cool-blooded monsters of antiquity.
The rains, of which we spoke in the last chapter, had by this time set in, and Rainsfield watched the rising of the Gibson river with some degree of satisfaction. Knowing the blacks to be encamped on the other side, he looked upon a flood as an insuperable barrier to their advance, and an impregnable circumvallation to his own station; therefore he had no fears of an attack while the water maintained its height, and he determined to choose that opportunity for carrying out the preliminaries of his plot.
He explained so much of his plans as he thought necessary to his wife, including, of course, his object in leaving her, and attempted to allay her fears, if she had hadany, by assuring her that it was impossible for the blacks to cross the river in its then state, while long before the flood settled he would collect such assistance as would not only protect them from any attack but enable him to drive their annoyance to a safe distance. Mrs. Rainsfield, however, entertained no fears, notwithstanding the monitory aspect of affairs around her. She had long accustomed herself to look upon her husband's operations against the unfortunate natives as not only harsh but cruel and unjust; and she lamented his proneness to seize upon every opportunity of treating them with severity. Believing them to be ill-used, and at the same time inoffensive, she saw no cause for fear, and therefore did not participate in her husband's alarm and felt no uneasiness in his meditated absence.
Mr. Rainsfield, though he thought very little, if any, danger was to be apprehended, deemed it expedient for his wife and family's safety to use some precaution, and thereforefor their protection requested Mr. Billing to take up his abode in the house. He gave him strict injunctions to keep the place well secured against the possibility of any ingress, and himself always in possession of a relay of arms, which he was to use without any hesitation if a black presented himself within range of his fire. Giving similar instruction to the remainder of his men he took his departure.
His first step was to proceed to Alma and make a declaration before a bench of magistrates to the effect that the blacks had already made an attack upon his premises, and were still in considerable force in his neighbourhood, to the imminent peril of his life and property; and that the said party was headed by a half-civilized black named Barwang. Upon making this affidavit he at once obtained what he desired, viz., a warrant for the apprehension of the ringleader, Barwang, and all others who might either commit or incite other of Her Majesty's subjects to commit a breach of the peace. Healso procured the promise of assistance from what portion of the native police could be collected, who would be stationed at Strawberry Hill for his protection, until such time as the blacks should be quieted. Succeeding thus far he then proceeded to Brompton to enlist the services of Bob Smithers, knowing well that few arguments would suffice to induce him to engage in a work which was exactly to his tastes. He found him at home, and, after the ordinary greetings had been passed, and Bob's asking him what brought him from home, he entered upon the subject of his mission by replying: "I want your aid, Smithers, to chastise those infernal blacks, for they are at me again. I have beaten them off once, but I believe they are only now prevented from attacking me in full force by their inability to cross the Gibson from their camp. See here I have got a warrant for the apprehension of their chief, so that will be sufficient authority for us to carry out our own plans."
"All right, old boy," exclaimed Bob, as he gave his friend a proof of his exuberance and readiness to join him by administering a playful poke in the ribs; "I'm your man. I am fully convinced we shall never live in peace until those d—d blacks are exterminated. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to shoot every mother's son of the dogs; so, by Jove! you may depend upon my lending you a hand."
"I do not believe, either," said Rainsfield, "that we shall ever enjoy any degree of quietude until we have suppressed the wretches. It is no use our looking to government for protection; we must take the administration of the law into our own hands and punish them ourselves. But to effect this we ought to make it a common cause, and all work in unison for our mutual protection."
"Just so!" said Smithers; "I perfectly agree with you."
"I've long thought of the plan," continued Rainsfield, "to form ourselves into a confederationfor that purpose; but owing to the absence of the blacks for some months past I have allowed it to escape my memory. Now, however, I think, is a time that some such measure should be adopted, for if these depredations are not speedily checked the blacks may be going to such extremes that our position in the country will become untenable."
"I am quite of your way of thinking," said Smithers, "and so I know are many others. I am confident Graham would assist you in a minute, and so would Brown, and many others round us. I'll tell you what; if you like I'll just go round to a few of them and bring them over to your place, so that if you return home now, and keep the black scoundrels in check for a day or two, until I get my forces collected, we will give them a lesson which they will not forget in a hurry; that is, if any of them survive to have any recollection."
Diabolical as was the intention implied inthis threat it fully accorded with Rainsfield's own desire and determination, and he readily fell into the views of his colleague, who at once started on his recruiting expedition, while Rainsfield, in high fettle, the following morning took his ride home. On this journey we will leave him for the present while we glance at the events in progress at another scene of our narrative.