[Editor: This article, regarding some Aborigines attacking some settlers, is an extract from the “Country post” section published in The Hobart Town Courier (Hobart Town, Tas.), 1 November 1828.]
Country post.
Pittwater, Oct. 27. — On Saturday last Mr. Walpole, son-in-law to Captain Glover, was in search of some cattle, about two or three miles from the hut on his stock farm, on the coast opposite Maria Island, in company with one of the servants; they had separated though at no great distance when he heard the man call out very loud.
Mr. Walpole went towards him, when he saw a tribe of natives attempting to surround him, two of them making a circuit to get beyond him discovered Mr. W. who deliberately waited till they came within 40 yards, and when in the act of throwing their spears, he fired and shot one dead on the spot. This probably saved both their lives. The man had a spear through his hat.
As they could not get the musket which the man carried to go off, they thought it useless to pursue them, and they returned to the hut, which they found plundered of every thing, all the clothes, and bedding, flour, sugar, tobacco, &c. gone, and the poor fellow who had been left in charge of the hut just escaped with his life, but another man who had gone out in the morning to bring in the working bullocks, has not since been heard of.
The bullocks were found in the afternoon on their grazing ground, about half a mile from the hut feeding very quietly, but no signs of the man. I think there is little doubt but he is murdered. His name is Bailey, formerly a servant to Mr. Humphrey.
Source:
The Hobart Town Courier (Hobart Town, Tas.), 1 November 1828, p. 2
Also published in:
Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (Sydney, NSW), 24 November 1828, p. 3
Editor’s notes:
&c. = an alternative form of “etc.”: an abbreviation of “et cetera” (also spelt “etcetera”), a Latin term (“et” meaning “and”, “cetera” meaning “the rest”) which is translated as “and the rest (of such things)”, used in English to mean “and other similar things”, “other unspecified things of the same class”, “and so forth”
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
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