[Editor: This article, about an attack by a group of Aborigines against some white settlers on Sunday 3 March 1816, was published in The Sydney Gazette, and New South Wales Advertiser (Sydney, NSW), 9 March 1816.]
[Unpleasant accounts]
Unpleasant accounts are received from the farm of Captain Fowler, in the district of Bringelly, of the murder of several persons by the natives frequenting that quarter.
The above farm was occupied by Mr. Edmund Wright; whose account of the transaction states that on Saturday last the servants’ dwellings of G. T. Palmer, Esq. at the Nepean, were plundered by a groupe of 20 or 30 of the natives.
On Sunday four of Mr. Palmer’s men, namely Edw Mackey, Patrick M‘Hugh, John Lewis, and — Farrel, accompanied by John Murray, servant of John Hagan, Dennis Hagan, stock keeper to Captain Brooks, and William Brazil, a youth in the employ of Mr. Edmund Wright, crossed the Nepean in the hope of recovering the property that had been taken away the day before, and getting into a marshy flat ground nearly opposite Mr. Fowler’s farm, about 200 yards distance from the bank of the river, they were perceived and immediately encircled by a large body of natives, who closing rapidly upon them, disarmed those who carried muskets, and commenced a terrible attack, as well by a discharge of the arms they had captured, as by an innumerable shower of spears.
McHugh, Dennis Hagan, John Lewis, and John Murray, fell in an instant, either from shot, or by the spear, and William Brazil received a spear in the back between the shoulders, which it is hoped and believed will not be fatal. Some of the natives crossed the river over to Capt. Fowler’s farm, and pursued the remaining white men up to the farm residence, but being few in number they retired, and re-crossing the river, kept away until the day following (Monday last), when at about ten o’clock in the forenoon a large number, sixty it was imagined, crossed again, and commenced a work of desolation and atrocity by beginning to destroy the inclosures of the various yards.
The house they completely stripped, and Mrs. Wright, with one of the farm labourers, having secreted herself in the loft in the hope of escaping the cruelty of the assailants, their concealment was suspected, and every possible endeavour made to murder them. Spears were darted through the roof from without, and through sheets of bark which were laid as a temporary ceiling, from which the two persons had repeated hair breadth escapes. William Bagnell, who was the person in the loft with Mrs. Wright, finding that their destruction was determined upon, at length threw open a window in the roof, and seeing a native known by the name of Daniel Budbury, begged for their lives; and received for answer, that “they should not be killed this time.”
After completely plundering the house, they re-crossed the river, very dispassionately bidding Mrs. Wright and Bagnell a good bye! Mr. Wright’s standing corn has been carried away in great quantity, and all provisions whatever were also carried off.
Source:
The Sydney Gazette, and New South Wales Advertiser (Sydney, NSW), 9 March 1816, p. 2
Editor’s notes:
— = an em dash (or a variant number of em dashes) can be used in place of a person’s name, when the name is not known, or to ensure anonymity (sometimes using the person’s initial or initials, e.g. “Mr. Z——”, “A—— Z——”); an em dash is an extended dash (also known as an “em rule” or a “horizontal bar”), being a dash which is as wide as the height of the font being used; em dashes can also be used to indicate swearing or an unknown word
Capt. = an abbreviation of “Captain”
Edw = an abbreviation of the name “Edward” (also rendered as: Edw.)
groupe = an archaic spelling of “group”
inclosure = an archaic spelling of “enclosure”
Nepean = the Nepean River, a river in New South Wales, located to the west and south-west of Sydney; it was named after Sir Evan Nepean (1752-1822)
See: “Nepean River”, Wikipedia
without = (archaic) outside
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
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