The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1879-04-01


regular watch and watch, at frst--four
sentinels, and every man sleeping with
his gun at hand"
Now, as IL was Dicks business to
tail fellow the cattle, five hundred
head, l advised him to have his musket
sawed off in the barrel, so as to be a
more handy size for using on horseback.
He took my advice; and Charley An
wills made very good job of 1t, SO that
he could bring 1t under his arm when
hanging at his back from rope sling,
and fire 1t with one hand. 1t was lucky
thought of 1t, as 1t turned out"
AT length the overseer fixed on
spot for station. 1t was very we'll for
water and grass, and very pretty view,
as he said but 1t was too near thicket
where the blacks would lay in ambush,
for safety. The old bushmen wanted
1t planted on a neck of land, where the
waters protected IL all but one side, and
there row of fence would have made
it secure"
"Well, we set to work, and soon had
lot of tall trees down. Charley put up
his forge, and his grindstone, to keep
the ak sharp, and changed with him.
Dick went falling the cattle, and the
overseer sat on log, and looked on.
The second day mob of blacks came
down on the opposite side of the river.
They were quite wild, regular mydLs;
but some of our men, with green
branches, went and made peace with
them. They liked our bread and sugar;
and after short time we had lot of
them helping to draw rails, fishing for
us, bringing wild honey, kangaroos,
rats, and firewood, in return for butter
and food SO we began to be less care
full of our arms. We gave them iron
tomahawks, and they soon found out
that they could cut out an opossum
from a hollow tree in half an hour
with one of our tomahawks, while it
took day with one of their own stone
ones"
"And SO the time passed very pleas
antly. We worked away. The young
men and girls worked for us. The chiefs
adorned themselves with the trinkets
and clothes we gave them, and fished
and hunted, and admired themselves in
the river"
Dick never trusted them; he stuck
to his cattle; he warned us not to trust
them, and the overseer called him O
blOod-thirsty, numbering blackguard
for his pains"
Zone day the whole party were at
work chopping and trimming weather.
boards for the hut, the blacks helping
as usual. L was turning the grindstone
for Charley Anvils and Dick was COM
ing up to the dray to get some tea, but
there was brow of hill between him
and us; the muskets were all piled up
in one corner. heard howl, and then
a scream-our camp was full of armed
blacks. When 1 raised my head, saw
the chief, Captain Jack, we called him,
with broad ak in his hand, and the
next minute he had chopped the over
seer's heard clean off in two minutes
all my mates were on the ground. Three
or four came running up to us; one
threw spear at me, which 1 half par
ried with a pannikin L was using to wet
the grindstone, but it fixed deep in my
hip, and part of it is, believe, there
still. Charley Anvils had an ak in his
ha nd, and cut down the first two fellows
that came up to him, but he was fioored
in a minute, with twenty wounds.
They were so eager to kill me, that one
of them luckily, or should not have
been alive now, cut the spear in my hip
short off. Another, young lad had
sharpened tomahawk for few days
before, chopped me across the head you
can see the white hair. Down / fell,
and nothing could have saved us, but
the other savages got the tarpauling off,
and were screaming with delight, plum
dering the drays, which called my
enemies off. Just then Dick came into
sight He saw what was the matter;
but although there were more than
a hundred black devils, all armed, paint
ed, bloody, and yelling, he never stop
ped or hesitated, but rode slap through
the camp, fired bang among them, kill
ing two, and knocking out the brains of
another. AS he passed by a top rail,
where an ak was sticking, he canght it
up. The men in camp were dead enough;
the chief warriors had made the rush