Life and Adventures of William Buckley/Chapter V
CHAPTER V.
"Ev'n the low hut—poor shelter—while he slept,
Shook in the earthquake, or the storm, or rain:
Thus, sick at heart, the Exile stood and wept,
O'er thought and care, and hope and toil, in vain."
Having told this horrible tale, let us now return to our halting place at Moodiwiri, when, after a long time another tribe joined us, and a dispute arose about surrendering a woman who had been carried away. The man who had her with him refused to give her up, so she was forcibly taken from him and brought to the hut I was in, very much to my dissatisfaction. I was greatly annoyed at it, because I thought the matter would not end there, and so it turned out; for when the native from whom she had been taken, found she was gone, he resolved on vengeance, and with this view, when we were all asleep, he came to our hut and speared the man of whom he was jealous. He pierced him to the ground, right through his body. Hearing the noise occasioned by this assault, I gave the alarm, but he was gone, taking with him the woman. The poor fellow's brother who was wounded, and myself, endeavoured to draw the spear, but could not, even by twisting it round, it being jagged; at length a woman succeeded, but although everything was done to save him, he died in a very few hours. The next day he was buried, or rather suspended on the branches of a tree as before described, his mother making horrible lamentations, and burning her body all over with fire-sticks. The next day the men set off to find the murderer, but not succeeding, they returned a little before dark.
A short time after this affair we shifted our quarters, and, when on a hunting excursion, accidentally fell in with the tribe to which he belonged, and a very desperate fight ensued. As is the case with them in such matters, when the parents cannot be punished for any wrong done, they inflict it upon the offspring. So now, the savages having got hold of a child of about four years of age, which this man had had by the young woman before referred to, they immediately knocked it on the head, and having destroyed it, they killed the murderer's brother, also spearing his mother through the thigh, and wounding at the same time several others; so that vengeance was heaped upon him and his tribe in a most dreadful manner. However, the man himself having escaped, he, with others, went in the night to the hut of the savage who had killed his brother, and speared him dead; having done which, they cut the most of the flesh off his body, carrying it away on their spears to mark their triumph. The next day and night there was a continued uproar of dancing and singing, to notify their joy at these horrible events; during which, the mangled remains of the man were roasted between heated stones—and they eat part of them, and no mistake; for I saw them join in the horrible repast, and was requested to do so likewise, which of course I refused to do, evincing the greatest disgust at their proceedings.
Having been rescued from death by starvation, it is only natural that I should, from a feeling of gratitude, desire to save the natives from so great a reproach; but the truth must prevail, and that many of the natives inhabiting this part of the continent of New Holland are cannibals, under particular circumstances, cannot be doubted.
During their savage and brutal repast, I was told it was their intention to serve every one of the murderer's tribe in the same manner.
After this affair, we continued wandering about in a similar way, from place to place, joining one tribe, then leaving it for another, and so on, nothing particular occurring. At length we pitched our huts upon the borders of a lake or lagoon, with a long name, it being called Koodgingmurrah, the name they give to a root growing thereabouts. At that place another tribe joined us, and in a very few days another skirmish took place, and, as usual, it was all about the women. In this fight I was very nearly killed by a boomerang, which split my shield in two. It appeared not to have been intended for me, but for my supposed brother-in-law. The man, in spite of my intercession, was punished very severely for having thrown it; for which, however, he professed great sorrow. Having been slightly wounded in the hand, and the blood flowing, the women came crying, and bound it up with a piece of rug, tying it round with opossum sinews. The next morning we went to the other side of the lake, where we remained many months.
Another halt—let me then make the best of it, by relating something more about the habits of my Aboriginal friends: the wild uncivilized inhabitants of the forest, the uncultivated children of nature; thousands of whom live unknown, and die unpitied.
All those I met with, excepting in times of war, or lamentation, I found to be particularly fond of what they consider music, although they have no kind of instrument except the skin rug, which, stretched from knee to knee, they beat upon, others keeping time with sticks. So passionately attached are they even to this noise, that they often commence in the night, one family setting them on, until at last they one and all become a very jolly set, keeping it up in one continual strain until daylight. I have often wished them and their enchanting enlivening strains on the other side of the Continent, with the queer old conjuror who manages the props already mentioned, to whom I must however avoid alluding more particularly.
They have a great aversion to the use of water, unless for the purposes of drinking, and bathing in the summer season, so that their washing processes are not very labourious or extensive. Nature, as it is, reigns in all her glory with them, without artificial assistance. My gentlemen, and lady friends, as may be supposed, knew nothing about tailors, and dressmakers, hairdressers, or boot and shoe makers; they were as ignorant in all such matters as Eve or Adam. They, however, take great pains in greasing and painting themselves in the most fantastic manner. Their style of shaving is not the most agreeable, for when the beard is nearly full grown they singe it with a fire-stick, or pluck it off with a muscle-shell. They have a great aversion to grey hairs, whether in the head or beard. The women pluck them out whenever they appear on their husbands or their own heads, until old father Time gets the better of them at that work. They are very fond of ornaments—the women especially—and in their manufacture, are very ingenious. Their head-bands are netted like silk purses, and they do this kind of work without any needle or other instrument—using their fingers only. They make these bands as even as it could be done by the most experienced person with silk or thread, leaving a piece at each end to tie round the forehead, colouring them with ochre. Their neck ornaments are made like silk velvet guards. Upon these are strung a great number of pieces of shells, and of the teeth of the kangaroo, adding too, the feathers of the swan and emu; the strongest of which they split in the middle, in order to make them more pliable. Many of the women have rings made out of the bones of birds suspended from the inside of their nostrils, and the men have a small straight bone with a sort of knob at one end. Those who have the most ornaments are considered the most fashionable and attractive.
The baskets I mentioned before are made of rushes and grass, dried and split; and so nicely are they turned out of hand, as to have the appearance of those manufactured in India; but they are much more durable. No person could suppose they were the handywork of an uncivilized people. To return.
We remained at the opposite side of the lake, until the approach of spring. Here they made their food principally of the large ants called the kalkeeth, which are found in hives within hollow trees. In order to ascertain where they are, the trees are struck with the tomahawk, and, at the noise, they show themselves at the holes. An entrance for the hand is then made, and so they are taken out and put into baskets, being, at the proper season, as fat as marrow. These creatures are prepared for eating, by placing them on slips of bark about three feet long and one foot wide, and so, burnt, or roasted. It is only for about one month in each year they can be had, for after that time they are transformed to large flies, and then fly away to die, or again change their shape and nature.
Having finished this ant hunting and eating expedition, we shifted our quarters; but before I go any further I must say something about their tomahawks; which, perhaps, as a very important instrument, ought to have been mentioned in an earlier part of this narrative. The heads of these instruments are made from a hard black stone, split into a convenient thickness, without much regard to shape. This they rub with a very rough granite stone, until it is brought to a fine thin edge, and so hard and sharp as to enable them to fell a very large tree with it. There is only one place that I ever heard of in that country, where this hard and splitting stone is to be had. The natives call it karkeen; and say, that it is at a distance of three hundred miles from the coast, inland. The journey to fetch them is, therefore, one of great danger and difficulty; the tribes who inhabit the immediate localities being very savage, and hostile to all others. I was told, that it required an armed party of resolute fighting men, to obtain supplies of this very necessary article; so that the tomahawk is considered valuable for all purposes. They vary in weight from four to fourteen pounds; the handles being thick pieces of wood split, and then doubled up, the stone being in the bend, and fixed with gum, very carefully prepared for the purpose, so as to make it perfectly secure when bound round with sinews.
A messenger now came from another tribe, to tell us they would be glad to see our party near a river they called Booneawillock—so named from a sort of eels they call Boonea—with which that stream abounds. It was very much swollen, in consequence of heavy floods, so that we could not cross it, to join our friends; we therefore pitched our huts on the other side. Many parts of that river are rocky, leaving but an inconsiderable depth of water, into which the eels get in great numbers; indeed so numerous were they, that we caught them in dozens. These eels appeared to be very sagacious, but not so much so as to avoid our fishing parties; for although they would shoot away into deep water at the falling of a star, or any extraordinary noise, yet they would come to our fishing torches and allow themselves to be taken very placidly.
When the flood in the river—which had been occasioned by very heavy and continuous rains—had subsided, we passed over, and hutted ourselves on the other side. Another tribe soon after joined us, amounting to about one hundred men, women, and children. I should here say, that the eels mentioned, seemed inexhaustible at this place, those of the smallest kind being the most numerous. They are light blue on the back, with white bellies; these the natives call the Mordong; and the larger kind, the Babbanien; the latter being brown on the back, with white bellies.
The tribe which arrived the last, only remained a few days, when another fight occurred, again about the women—one of whom was killed, and several severely wounded: they then left. We also shifted our quarters a short time after, and kept up the old fancy of wandering about; not exactly from "post to pillar," but from one hunting ground to another, seeking variety of food, from fish to flesh, from roots to anything available; for the natives are, in truth, a rambling lot, never content—unless sleeping, and then dreaming of Corrobberrees, and fights, and mischief. In one of these excursions, one of our men was bitten by a snake whilst stepping over a fallen tree, of which bite the poor fellow died immediately. As he was one of the principal men of the tribe, his death caused great sorrow, and he was buried; or, rather stowed away in the branches of a very high tree, with all the honors suited to his value, as one of this very estimable community, of which I had, involuntarily, become a member.
Time passed on, and a variety of circumstances occurred to separate us, so that I was at last left with my supposed relations, and only two or three other families—each living in our separate huts.
One day we saw a large party of natives coming towards us, but they passed on to the back, at a distance; and, when there, began to polish themselves up with clay, and ochre, as if for a fight; it occasioned us great alarm; but we hoped our defenceless position would induce them to treat us mercifully. There were about sixty of them, and they soon undeceived us as to their intentions; for they came first to the other bank of the river, shaking their spears; and then crossing over, attacked us so furiously, as to give the women and children only time to attempt escape. My old friend, and supposed brother-in-law, had a spear sent right through his body, and then they hunted out his wife and killed her dead upon the spot. The savages then came back to where I was supporting my wounded friend; who, seeing them approaching, sprang up, even in the last agonies of death, and speared the nearest assailant in the arm. My friend was, of course, dispatched immediately, with spears and boomerangs; as was a son of his, who was with us at the time. Strange to say, not one raised his hand against me; had I done so against them, I must have been sacrificed instantly; for what could I do, being only one against so many?
The cause of this sudden unprovoked cruelty was not, as usual, about the women, but because the man who had been killed by the bite of the snake belonged to the hostile tribe, and they believed my supposed brother-in-law carried about with him something that had occasioned his death. They have all sorts of fancies of this kind, and it is frequently the case, that they take a man's kidneys out after death, tie them up in something, and carry them round the neck, as a sort of protection and valuable charm, for either good or evil. They took the son's life because he had a daughter, who he had promised to the man who killed him, and had afterwards given her to another.
I should have been most brutally unfeeling, had I not suffered the deepest mental anguish from the loss of these poor people, who had all along been so kind and good to me. I am not ashamed to say, that for several hours my tears flowed in torrents, and, that for a long time I wept unceasingly. To them, as I have said before, I was as a living dead brother, whose presence and safety was their sole anxiety. Nothing could exceed the kindness these poor natives had shown me, and now they were dead, murdered by the band of savages I saw around me, apparently thirsting for more blood. Of all my sufferings in the wilderness, there was nothing equal to the agony I now endured. My feelings made me desperate, so that when a tall powerful fellow came to the hut some time after, to demand my friend's spears, I refused, in fierce language, to surrender them, so that he desisted; ordering me however away, with a quantity of fish, and his rug, to where his wife and family were, telling me to wait there until his arrival; at the same time, assuring me of his good-will and future friendship. These I did not choose to rely upon, and so, after having arrived at a convenient distance from the scene of these savage murders, I resolved on making my escape. With this view, I tied my spears together, and put myself in light marching order, rolled up my rug as tightly as possible, crossed the river, and made for the bush; going in another direction to that which I thought it likely the savages would follow in pursuit.
After what I have stated as to their cold-blooded murders, I may surely call them savages, although, as we have seen, there are many kind-hearted creatures amongst them.
When I got about four miles, I unexpectedly fell in with a tribe I knew, to whom, my hurry and fright was a source of great anxiety. I told them all that had happened, on hearing which, they immediately prepared for vengeance on the murderers, for the young man was amongst them to whom my old friend's son had given the girl, instead of the man who had so barbarously murdered their father. Before they set off, they directed me where I should find them after the expedition they were going upon was over; so I started for the place appointed, near the Barwin River. The next day I swam across that river; taking with me my spears, and rugs, and fire-stick, and before night, set up my hut in a place from whence I could view the country all round. Before I lighted the fire, I made a turf and bark fence all about where it was to be, so that the flame should not be seen, for I was naturally in great dread of being overtaken. In this way I lived a few days, waiting for my friends. At length, one evening, I saw a light coming across the plain in my direction. This occasioned me great alarm, as I did not suppose the friendly tribe would travel in the night; so I put my fire out, hid my spears and fish, and concealed myself amongst the high reeds growing in the neighbourhood. After a time I heard female voices, and then one of them say, "where can he be gone?" some surmising one cause, and some another, for my absence. This satisfied me that all was right, so I approached, agreeably surprising them by my appearance. They were five young women belonging to the last party we had met with, who had made their escape, in consequence of another great fight which had ensued between my old friends, and the tribe who had killed my protectors. They told me, three men of the hostile party had been killed, and that they had burned the bodies of my said-to-be brother-in-law, his wife, and his son, to prevent their enemies from mangling them; and, that if the women had not left, they would have been taken away by force by the opposite party. They, poor creatures, were dreadfully hungry and fatigued; so I gave them all the food I had and kept them in my hut until the morning, when two of them left, the other three remaining for several days longer, waiting for their friends. Finding they did not come, according to their appointment, they then went away also.
Having reason to think something had occurred to prevent their arrival, I returned to the scene of the brutal massacre; and finding the ashes and bones of my late friends, I scraped them up together, and covered them over with turf, burying them in the best manner I could, that being the only return I could make for their many kindnesses. I did so in great grief at the recollection of what they had done for me through so many years, and in all my dangers and troubles.
My next move was back again to the hut I had left on the plains where the women had found me, and the following day the others came according to their promise. They endeavoured to persuade me to join them permanently, saying they would protect me; that, as I was alone I should certainly be killed; but I refused, having no faith in their professions, and being sick at heart, so shortly after witnessing all these atrocities. After staying a short time at this spot, they left me, crossing over the river, and when they were out of sight, I packed up my traps, and started in an opposite direction, going towards the sea. When at a place called Mangawhawz, where there was a well of fresh water and plenty of all kinds of fish, I put up a hut, and remained there several months alone. I had now passed so many years in this sort of way—more I should think than five-and-twenty—and had got so much accustomed to the kind of life, as to have forgotten the use of my own language, and began to be careless about every thing civilized, fancying I could never return to a better kind of existence, or to the intercourse of any other society than that of the tribes, if I was again forced into communication with them. I had ascertained from the natives long before, that the Calcutta had left the bay, and that the first settlement had been abandoned. I often looked towards the sea, thinking I might observe some vessel passing; but no, not one; for at that time there was little voyaging round the coast,—South Australia, and the other settlements, not having been formed, and ships from Sydney keeping well off the land, few of them passing through the Straits at any time. Although so desolately placed, I, for a long time, fancied myself comparatively happy, and that I could gladly have ended my days there. If I had had books they would have been totally useless, having forgotten all the little knowledge I had learned in my early days; therefore I could only seek my food,—eat, drink, and sleep; but how I could have passed so long a time in such a way, is to me now a matter of bewildering astonishment. It is related in the fabulous history of Robinson Crusoe, that he was fortunate enough to save a Bible from the wreck of his ship, and by that means consoled and benefitted himself; but I, the real Crusoe, for so many years amongst savages, in the then unknown forests and wilds of the vast Australian Continent, had no such help to my mind, and I beg the humane reader to reflect on this circumstance with feelings of kindly sympathy—for mine was, in truth, a sad existence. I was indeed a lone man, without any other resource than an entire reliance upon the great God, who had so wonderfully preserved me; and to whom, I say again, I did not forget to pray earnestly and fervently, for health, sustenance, and protection.