RESCUERS UNDER FIRE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22056, 12 March 1935, Page 12

RESCUERS UNDER FIRE

MISTAKEN FOR ENEMIES

friendly black wounded

OLD PROSPECTOR'S PLIGHT

The story of how an old prospector in tho Kimberley Ranges, in Western Australia, prepared to make a last stand against what ho imagined to be a party of hostile blaokfellows was told by some prospectors who arrived overland at Mount Isa, Queensland, from Western Australia lately. The prospectors said that they saw a dead pack horse near the hills. Enlisting the aid of some friendly aborigines they followed the horse tracks for about 10 miles, when they found a riding saddle in a tree. Later the party came upon a second dead horse, from the rump of which slices of meat had been cut. The tracks of boots, which led from the dead horse, showed clearly that the man who owned the horses was very weak.

Two aborigines who were leading the party had rounded a small hill when suddenly they were fired upon. One aborigine fell with a bullet in his leg. Two prospectors who were some distance in the rear quickly went to the assistance of the blackfellows, and they, too, came under a fusillade of bullets. They managed, however, to carry . the wounded blackfellow out of the range of fire.

With the aid of field-glasses it was seen that the man the prospectors were trying to rescue and who was firing upon the party was sheltering behind a breastwork of stones on a hill. The prospectors were faced with the problem of how to let him know tbat they were friends. One member of the party went forward with a white flag, but as soon as ho came within range he became a target for the man's rifle and was forced to retire.

It was decided to form camp and wait until night, when one man could creep forward and speak to the old man under cover of darkness, lhis ruse was carried out, but thcro was no response, because the rifleman had vacated his position. Next morning the party came upon the man, who was well advanced in .years, lying under some rocks. He was rushed from several points, and was so exhausted that he was unable to use his rifle. When the man was revived he tokl his rescuers that he thought they were blackfellows who were trying to attack him. He said that he had been living on raw horse meat and his water supply was exhausted. He was nursed for several days. The prospectors left him in the company of some other prospectors they had met.