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to me to prevent my going down, as the hints all had reference to something to take place in this neighbourhood. I met his messenger, but we passed in the dark last night without communication, so I returned here to-day, and find (at least as far as I see yet) that the matter is altogether among themselves. They have had a fight near this, but, as usual, it has ended in nothing. Men were present from 40 miles distance, but the whole thing looked more like schoolboys playing at prison bar than any deadly battle. I expected that some of the men from York who had been concerned in the murders there would have been present, and had intended to follow them when they had separated from the others, and endeavour to come up with them; but I think they have taken the alarm and have kept aloof. My old friend Nejal was among them, and very active as a peacemaker.
Thursday.—A little girl of Gear's (a native) had been left by him in the barrack for safety, and one of the natives came to her and said her father had sent him for her, and she had not gone far when three men rushed out from a thicket and drove their spears into her. One spear went in at the collarbone, and out at her back, and this manly feat is the result of the whole battle. In the midst of the fight yesterday old Gear came running up to me where I stood looking, to say that the man who killed J—'s pigs was there, and why did I not take him out of the way, as he was his particular enemy? A native was brought before me to-day, in custody, on a charge of stealing a bag of flour from the mill. I sent him off to Fremantle gaol, under the escort of the constable and a soldier.
Friday.—You could hardly believe that the little girl above alluded to is alive yet. I went to see her to-day and gave her some castor oil. One spear went through the lungs, and the air whistled in the wound (as they describe it), for the wound had closed when I saw it. But they say the barb of the spear is still in the body; if so, and that it is among the
