returned to that place. Knowing it would be useless for me to attempt any discovery after this event, I went on board again, and returned to Melbourne also. It was an inexcusable murder, for there was not the least reason to believe that the poor people who had been so mercilessly sacrificed, had had anything to do with the death of either Mr. Gellibrand or Mr. Hesse, neither was it known at that time whether they were dead or alive. This affair gave me great pain, because, from my long association with the natives, I thought such destruction of life anything but creditable to my countrymen; but on the contrary, that they were atrocious acts of oppression.
From that time all search after the unfortunate gentlemen ceased, but enquiries were still continued, unfortunately without effect. In Mr. Gellibrand, I lost a very good and kind friend; his humane considerations for me will never be forgotten; and amongst other evidences of this feeling, he had given me the horse which, as I have just said, was so brutally mutilated.
About this time, an absconder from Van Diemen's Land was apprehended, and ordered by the Magistrates to be returned to Launceston; and I asked permission to take charge of him to that colony, which request was acceded to, as I was a Constable. Having delivered the prisoner to the Gaoler at Launceston, I went into the country for a few days to visit an old shipmate, whose name it is not necessary to mention, and then returned for a passage back again, according to the, orders I had received.
