armed with twelve foot spears except Musquito, who that day carried a waddy only. "They stood" says Radford in his evidence, "with their spears raised and all the points directed towards me and the deceased, Hollyoak," In their defenceless state, the only chance of life left the two shepherds was in flight, and off they set, but pursued by thirty or forty enemies. The first spear that was thrown pierced Radford in the side, and Hollyoak was very badly hit in the back the next instant. At this time Radford was ahead of his companion, but stopped a moment for him and withdrew the spear from his back, and then continued running at a tremendous pace, gaining ground every minute. But not so the other, who was overtaken and speared to death directly, the last words of the dying man that reached his companion being, "O my God, the blackfellows have got me." Radford though speared himself, still ran, and finally escaped them.
The murders of Mammoa and Hollyoak, who were both killed that morning, were accomplished with all the savage brutality usual with the aboriginal man of Tasmania, whose wrath, as said before, was seldom appeased by the death of his victim, and whose body he continued to assault, long after life had gone out. The condition of the corpse of Mammoa is particularly described by the witness who discovered it about eight days afterwards, as having been horribly dealt with—the head beaten almost to pieces—the body pierced by spears in thirty-seven different places, and then thrown into a waterhole; and such was the force with which they cast their weapons at the body that many broken spears were afterwards found scattered about the ground where he died.—(Gazette, December 3rd, 1824.)
The principal wituess, Mr. John Radford, who gave evidence at the trial of these savages, is still living at Little Swanport, not very far from the scene of the murders described above; and I think I am not far wrong in saying he has resided there ever since—a period of fifty-two years.
Of the death of Patrick McCarthy, for which the companion of Musquito (Black Jack) suffered, no particulars are preserved in the old Gazettes; nor of the murder of the stockkeeper, Thomas Colley, at Oyster Bay, for which the other two aboriginals, Dick and Jack, were executed. The Colonial Times of the 15th September, 1826, does indeed publish a detailed account of the execution of the two men last-named; but as the article contains nothing very interesting, I shall abridge the details. The elder one Dick, who seem to have had a very lively abhorrence of the executioner, of his entire apparatus, and above all of his office, which he quite understood, resisted the Sheriff's officers most
