the blacks had taken away the blankets during the day and inflicted a fresh wound on old Stubbs' head with a hand axe. The police sergeant, who was half drunk, became very abusive towards me, so much so that he said that it would be better if I were not in the settlement.

( 106 ) March 30th, 1842.
Driver, Bishop and myself rode back to the city via Talalla. In the former place we found poor Stubbs with his head bandaged and generally very weak. He testified in his sworn testimony that the natives came twice on the day of the murder; The first time they threw fifteen spears at Fastin(g)s without hitting him, whereupon he threw them a loaf of bread and Biddle allowed them to dig up potatoes, which they roasted not far from the house. About an hour later they came back again and speared Fastin(g)s, who had once again come out of the hut to them, in the groin. The latter then ran into the hut and Biddle fired a pistol without hitting it, the same was the case with his shotgun, which came in pieces so that it could not be reloaded, and Fastin(g)'s shotgun would not go off. Now he went out himself and shot two black men ( 107 ) close to the hut with his double-barreled shotgun, whereupon he ran back in. Since there were no guns loaded, the natives surrounded the hut, took off the linen roof at one end and speared them one after the other. First Biddle fell, then he himself without losing all sense. Fastin(g)s, who had been standing idle in a corner from the start, was repeatedly pierced with a pitchfork, leaving him in terrible pain and begging Tubbs to shoot him. Finally, the blacks found old Mother Stubbs, who was hiding under the bed, and killed her with a pitchfork, although she had long begged for her life from a native who was well known to them and who was often fed by them, named Little Jemy (Ngarbi*), always crying out: „O Jemy! Oh Jemy!“ The evening when we got home, they had just finished burying the body, so we had to accompany them to the grave straight away. When the funeral service was over Mr. Driver asked me ( 108 ) if I had any objection to performing the service on such occasions, I said "No", to which he replied that they would have thought that I would refuse.

March 31st, 1842.
Mr. Driver wished me to bring some natives into town to guide the proposed expedition. I therefore rode with Innes(105) to Wadnelli and brought 12 black people with me, all of whom seemed to be outraged by the murder that had occurred.

April 2nd.
At 8 o'clock in the morning the party set out, consisting of 8 people on horseback and 6 natives, Munta*, Illa, Tunba, Yumba, Tubu* and Yuta*. They took us past the green hill in a north-westerly direction to Wirrinyata*, partly because they thought the murderers had retreated deep into the interior out of fear, partly because a fresh trail led there, and partly perhaps because they wanted to fry their kangaroo, which our dogs had caught for them. [Mr.] Driver alone believed that they had our best interests at heart and were trying to lead us away from the murderers; He became