Page:The aborigines of Australia.djvu/162

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EVIDENCE OF THE MASSACRE.
149

the hut and must have heard it. Kilmeister, directly after the party went from the station, went in the same direction, and brought back the horse he had left behind. The smoke was up from the creek—up the ranges; never went to the place; I did not like to go; Davy went, and he came back; Kilmeister was away in the middle of the day; he said the horse was knocked up and not able to walk; I saw him; he could catch him anywhere. I saw the smoke pretty well all day; at first there was a great smoke; in the after part of the day there was not much. I was there when Mr. D——— came. Kilmeister was at home when the police were coming; in the morning after they went away a piece of a broken sword was found; I saw no blood on it; it did not belong to my station. When the police came Kilmeister was at home, and said, 'For God's sake mind what you say, and not say I went with them, but in a quarter of an hour after them.' They brought back no black gin they saved; the gins they left, and the two boys and the child, I sent away with ten blackfellows who went away in the morning; the same evening the ten blackfellows came back, whom Foster had taken away in the morning, and I turned them (five) away along with those ten; I sent them away as I did not like to keep them, as the men might come back and kill them."

Whatever cause of complaint the settlers may have had, and however much may be conceded to them on the ground of provocation, here is a circumstance,