Page:The aborigines of Australia.djvu/123

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THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALIA.

suggested itself to the mind of the Governor that it was not desirable that the captive should be thus entirely sequestered from the companionship of his old and more congenial associates. It was seen, on the contrary, that it would prove consoling to the mind of the latter, as well as materially facilitate the end in view, if another black could be procured for training at the settlement. Accordingly it was resolved to capture another, and this resolve it was which led to the seizure of Cole-be. The manner in which this feat was accomplished differs somewhat from the mode of Binnelong's seizure. A party were ordered to hover about the outskirts of the town at all hours of the day and night, in readiness to seize the first black who made his appearance — an occurrence for which they were not likely to wait long, as several blacks were accustomed to visit the stockades at all hours by stealth, either actuated by curiosity or bent on an errand of plunder. The first who presented himself was the luckless Cole-be. He was the chief of one of the tribes, and the friend of Binnelong, and had probably been loitering about the town for the purpose of having a stolen interview with the latter, with a view to effecting his deliverance. In this, however, if it were his design, he not only signally failed, but literally ran his own head into the snare, for the kidnapping party, suddenly springing up round him, threw a halter round his neck, and in this manner conveyed him, overwhelmed with terror, before the Governor. He was "ornamented with an