A MATTER OF SALVAGE.

NZ Truth, Issue 78, 15 December 1906, Page 7

A MATTER OF SALVAGE.

% I (By HERBERT C. KENT.) | i Author of "The Order of Release," v New Chum," Etc., Etc

1 i . { jPU xwite untroubled by cultured fools \ ' Or the dense tha t fume and fret ; i For against the wisdom of all their schools, .?.-.■ .'} I would stake mine instinct yet. '':■;. { For the cynical strain m the writer's song, '; ■-.] Is this world, not he. to blame; ■ ! And rtl write as I think m the, knowledge y strong, } That thousands think the same. -.;} EENBY LAWSON. ..j CHAPTER IV. : * : - ; j A FIGHT AMONG THE BLACKS. ■>, OLD BEN'S SECRET. .*.' flarry had a great deal to think about ,'\l that night. For one thing he was very ul"1 clad, and suffering great hardships, then he V had a deadly enemy m Mullet, who so far •) ha,d all the best of it, as he was "crowing -I ©n his own dung-hill." He was also very tf «neasy about Topsy's gift. Was it gold j after all? If not, he had run a,.deal of risk ' for nothing, for he certainly, might have got away while the blacks were feasting, | »nd he had neglected to do so. But no, it must bo gold, there could be no doubt about .' that, and where that was found there must I be more, at any rate, he would stay a. little i longer and make diligent inquiries before > >wSio attempted to escape. ■ hero might have continued his waking Tfcams until right into "the morning, m at that moment a most awful shriek Int tie air, immediately followed by several -^nill thuds and loud curses from a man. The , came from' Mullet's gunyah, and ■ j Harry started to his feet, intending to in- '■'■ ♦ *esfcigate further, when ho was suddenly : J pulled back with a jerk by Teddy, who • j whispered— „-•,;] "Let 'em be, boss. Let 'em be. Agnes she } fot too much jabber. Mullet lick 'em." :■*'■] "Good lord, man," as the shrieks and thuds ' j (jot louder. "He'll kill the woman." ■I "Don't you go boss, or he'd kill you. He '■.J no like white-feller I bet." j When the noise subsided, the woman, who ; J Was bleeding profusely arid nearly naked, ] sushed out into the cleared space near the -\k"-j" ißre. She stood for about a minute m a ;■'.•■.' lialf-dazed state, and then, catching up. her !' fcaby, who had toddled after her, she dis--1 ••';■■.? appeared m the darkness with a scream '.'! which echoed through the forest. Mullet • '^ «hen came out of the "gunyah" with a "nul- .; 7> fcih" m his hand, the head of which was ;..m atudded with nails, and glared fiercely around, : v .£i His face was actually demoniac, and his eyes rl A glittered like those of a huge cat ; seeing no -- ;^ «ne he could vent his rage upon he sat down "•'% at the entrance of his humpy, resting the ■ : V? ftcad of the "nullah" on the ground, but re- "' j fining hold of the handle, ready to strike /■i $t anyonewbo should appear. '; i The first person who mustered up suffi«ient courage to approach the furious black • •; was his mate, Bendigo, who loudly upbraid- .' \ %&. him. • ■ : i : -i "I think it you plurry fool hammer Agnes /v'~| fell same that fella. She not Fraser Islander ■ T'J you bet. She South Sea Islander, put curse '\, ; :'i «n you quick and live. Bymby come an' i?is atick spear m some fella's neck. What for?" <:*'■] "Shut up, you Bendigo. By jingo I not - ? ';; atand a plurry lot of cheek. I split you down •'tj Kke a bullock if you jabber me," and Mullet '■^] sprang to his feet and seized a tomahawk, •■'■■-* Jwbich was sticking m an adjoining tree, "and ; X made towards the ctther as though to strike •','• fcim, while white froth spluttered from be"i 4ween his teeth. ; l Bendigo evidently thought that discretion i was the better part of valor, for he clunk .:! fcack into his own hut without another word, j ■ j On nrriving there he was met by a perfect i storm of vituperation, which flowed from the . i Kps. of his "missus," who concluded by : \ terdering him out to fight Mullet? at 6nce, .■l* and as he showed no immediate anxiety to : { do so, she attempted to drag him out. Not i fceihg successful, she left him, and turned on ! Mullet herself,, who was sitting quietly ; Hiratching. „'-.. ■. ■;'■} Springing at the latter like a tigress, she V". 1 lore strips from his face with her claw-like j i^ mails, before he fully realised the kind of ;J! anemy he had now to deal with, but quickly *7 fathering his wits together he dealt out to ■\ Sirs. Bendigo "one for her nob," .which comf tfletely put her out of action. Of warse, the husband could not calmly litaud by and see his missus knocked out Sike that, without having a say himself, so i-j &c also armed himself with a nullah, and \ approached Mullet, who was "spoiling for a v: . 1 t fight," and did not mean to be taken by .1 surprise a second time. Neither of the two *^i anen made the slightest effort to guard him/j self; they just whacked away at each other's Of*-. Biead, giving and taking alternate blows, ;. * antil the one' with the thinnest skull drop-, • J ped io the ground senseless. 'I As Mullet had taken precautions to stud ] Shis niilla with iron nails, point outwards, and ,'! bis opponent had not, it will be easily gues■l Bed that he won the battle "hands down," "? «nd without taking any notice of his prosi 4rate enemy ho calmly looked around for another opponent, but seeing no one he fcj turned m and went to sleep. •S No sooner was Mullet comfortably snoring . than King Pat appeared on the scene, grumbling about the "plurry fightin' " at night whey decent men wanted to sleep. Why ,;' couldn't they plurry well wait till daylight, when all hands could have a comfortable "go m." He never saw such plurry blokes m his plurry life to go and spoil a beautiful all-round scrap by letting two plurry men ■• have it out by themselves. Seeing no one ' about but Bendigo, who was completely v *bors de combat," the king gave him a \»evere kicking for his "plurry manners," -'n*nd then retired himself. | As I have already mentioned, both Mullet Bendigo were Fraser Islanders, but './heir wives were not, Agnes being a South •. w \2. woman, and Bendigo's "missus" a native > Northern Queensland. Of the nine men \ present m camp, three were Mrs. Bend's countrymen— one, Wattlebank, was I brother, and the other two were her grandfathers," although they were both '•^ounger than herself. It will thus be seen Jthat their ideas of relationship were some- / what mixed. f Agnes alone had no relations to take her ' part" which accounted for her departure "^ from among them. No doubt if she had i they would havei taken up the quarrel, and I the subsequent tragedy might have been ■' averted. Suddenly a stalwart black, who rejoiced ; In the name of Mick O'Reilly, stepped out ■ of his gunyah, and waving a boomerang m the air" demanded "olood." "Blood, blood! Fraser Island blood has been seen. No stop 'em now; keep 'em go- ' ing!" This meant that Mick was inviting his countrymen to rally round and "bang" the '•• northerners. The king poked his head out \ and shouted "Hooray!" Then all hands re- \ tired and went to sleep again; ')Ut the rior- ? therners, who feared a sudden attack from \ the islanders, soon woke up, and withdrew, ) with their families and weapons, into the i bush, and waited till daylight for the imf pending battle. 'I The Australian black, no matter what i tribe or district he belongs to, fairly loves a /* fight, and he does not go far to look for a f "casus belli." These tribal fights are as a rule brought to a head by the women, though, truth to tell, the men are always ready. Sometimes one woman strikes another's child; then, after the two women have finished with each olher— not before— tb* husbands have a "f-iondly go," which

frequently ends by one of them being maimed for life. Other times jealousy starts the ball rolling; nothing is too small to cause an upset. The writer has se>en every "colored person" on a "reserve" going for all he. or she was worth — screaming, , banging, tearing, and cursing— because one i "gin" told another to wipe her picaninny'ft ! nose. They revel m a good fight for its own sake alone, but this time they had genuine cause, as Fraser Island blood had been shed by a man of another tribe, or, m other j words, Mullet, who was an islander, had been struck by Bendigo, who was a northerner. The fact that the latter had been knocked "clean out," while his antagonist ' was unhurt, was not considered full satisfaci tion, so they must have a general melee bej fore peace could be restored. j The fire ..was allowed to go out, and all j Mullet's "crowd" crouched together, weaj pons m hand, waiting for daylight, while j tbe other side did very much the same a ! short distance away. The two little armies | meanwhile kept matters alive by loudly curs- ( i ing and challenging each other to mortal j combat. Needless to say, the women's | tongues were not allowed to get cramped ! for want of use, and Harry, who was once j more between the "devil and the deep sea," wondered, with a great wonder, where the "gins" found the words they made use of. It was a revetation to him; and while the battle was pending he tried to picture m his ' mind's eye what kind ,of a mission these people had served their time m, where such language could possibly be picked up. The northerner's principal weapon is the spear, which he throws by means of a "worn- . mera," but even the best throwers cannot kill or even maim with it at a greater dis- ; tance than 25 yards. % The Fraser Islanders were expert throwers of the boomerang, which fs a much more deadly weapon, and > can be thown further, but both tribes fell ! | back on the "nullai" when they came to ; close quarters. " "" \ As soon as day broke the action com- j menced with a shower of spears being thrown into Mullet's camp, but these were only received with a shout of derision, many of them being caught m their passage and • hurled back again. ; ' j After carrying this game on for some time - the two "mobs," accompanied by their women, rushed at each other, and the battle resolved itself into a number, of sine;!© combats, which were carried on with a considerable amount of ferocity, though it did not j last long, as the islanders beat their foes down by sheer force of numbers, and when . comparative quietness . followed chaos, the northern men were without exception ■ "spread out." They all came to later on, except one Peter Brown, N who was rather badly hurt, but even he retained sufficient ; strength to call his enemies "a b lot of j " m right-down good English, and m I this he was assisted by his wife, who waved ; the rags of her frock m defiance, and screamed out at the very top of her delicate voice, "Hooray for the bloomin' Prince o' Wales. He's the b It may be remembered that when H.R.H. the present Prince of Wales visited Brisbane some years ago, a number of aboriginals w.ere "planted" on arches'. in Georgestreet to welcome him. Probably the lady above mentioned was one of them, and equally probable the above sentence was the one used m doing it. It is to be hoped that the noise m the street prevented H.R.H. hearing it undiluted, or he might have' in T quired where they came from, and been shocked on hearing that they were "mission blacks."* As a rule the t aboriginal soon recovers , from liis-woTiiidsr^ateaa- he v rr£neiesf, : ; or is told, :thut? the- weapon - with • which he has been struck is "charmed," m which case he lies down and dies, turning a deaf ear to all encouragement, for tne Australian blacks, like the natives of many other countries, are under the influence of a mass of myths and legends, .and have implicit belief m the unseen. Harry West had been a quiet spectator of .the fray, haying perched himself on a limb of an adjoining gum-tree, wh-ere he ! could see comfortably all that was taking place, and at the same time duck out of danger when any flying missile came that way. It did not trouble him a bit who won, for, to use an Australianism, "he hadn't a bean on it," or, m other words, "his troubles who* won the boat race." When all was over he descended from his "coign of vantage" and assisted the women, whose frantic war cry had now changed to a long wail, to bind up the fallen warriors' wounds and patch up the broken skulls. For the latter purpose he thought that the best instruments he could use would be a hammer and some one and a half inch wire nails, but ha kept his thoughts to himself for fear of wounding the susceptibilities of his patients. After this "bit of a ruction" things went on 6moothly for a time, even the aggressive Mullet being less objectionable m his attitude; but whether this improved state of affairs was owing to the absence of his wife, or whether his appetite for "lash" was satiated, no one but himself knew ; but the .watch on Harry's movements lost none of its keenness; m fact, he could hardly stir without someone following him. One day he strolled down to the beach, accompanied only by Teddy, with whom he entered into conversation ; , and, after they had been talking for some time, he produced the lump of metal Topsy had given him, and, holding it out to his companion, asked "What do you think that is?" Teddy turned it over and over m his hand, and then tried to bite it; but as he could not succeed m making any impression on its hard surface with his massive teeth, he returned it. i "Don't know, boss. Can't chew 'im. Can't smoke 'im. "No good I think it, any- ; way." "Yes, it is good. It's gold." . "Gold! What that fellow?" "Why, it's the metal they make money of. Surely you know what money is?' "Yes, I know. I been school— Twenty pence one shilling, sixty shilling one pound. That's money isn't it Boss?" "H'm. Yes, I suppose so. That's the kind of money -that would suit me right down to the ground if I had a few pounds to change. Never mind about that. Did you ever see any stuff of that kind, here, on this island?" f "No. Where you get 'em?" | "From Topsy." j "All right. You ask 'em that fellow Topsy. ' This -seemed reasonable enough, and as Teddy seemed to "wash his hands" of the matter, arid Topsy was even now approaching, with a fishing-line m one paw, and a long stick m the other, they went to meet her, and Harry asked her «he same question. "Where did you get this stuff, Queen P" "What you gib?" her Majesty asked, by way of a preliminary for she scented out a barter which might be profitable to herself. "What you gib 'em come oa jabber. Quick an' live." "I've got nothing." "You gib" 'em that fella shirt," pointing to the only rag which Harry possessed to cover *This picture is not overdrawn. They were I Fraser Island blacks, and the above is a i fact.— Author. '

J the upper part of his body. He hesitated a. moment while Topsy grinned; full well he knew that she was hard as adamant, and he recognised when too late that the proper time to tackle her Majesty would have been when he had the tail of a "gohanha" or some such delicacy "up his sleeve." Now 6he had set her mind on the only garment he had possessed to keep the burning rays of the sun off his back, it was that or no information. "Come on," said the inexorable female. "Quick an' live.". I The poor wretched sailor commenced to I "peel off," while Teddy squatted on his haun- ; ches, and waited the completion of the "deal." As soon as the garment left the man's back Topsy seized it, and struggled furiously to get her head through one arm- | hole, finding herself unsuccessful she tried ! the other arm— no go— ln despair she tried to put it on upside down— equally no go. Dropping the dilapidated shirt on the ground, i she turned to our hero and squeaked out— | "No good I think it. Gib 'urn that fellow," pointing to his ragged trousers. But that was too much, so he picked up the shirt and fitted it on to the hag, who only seemed half satisfied even then. • "Now, where did you get this stuff, Queen?" ' "Old Ben gib urn, long time go," she answered reluctantly. So the two men turned to search for Old Ben, while the Queen went on her way grumbling, and intensely ! dissatisfied with herself for giving informaj tion of evident importance at bo cheap a j rate, but Harry did not look at it quite m ! the same light, for now he had to face Old I Ben, and if he turned out as hard to deal ' with, Be would either have to put off gairiI ing the required information to some time m the distant future, or else come away from the interview without clothes at all. They soon found the ancient and venerable Benjamin, and he answered the first few ■ questions Teddy put to him without payment; m fact he seemed quite' pleased at being asked questions which he knew no one else could answer. When Teddy had asked, and the old chap had answpred, the two broke into a lively argument^ .which soon became so loud that Harry feared a -breach of the peace. "What is the matter, Teddy?" be inquired. "Plurry old fool. I ask him about the stuff, an* he begin jabber about crobory. What for I crobory? I don't want 'im; I want 'im tell me wliere he get it,'; And Teddy squatted down m a states of disgust. -.■■■• Then the truth flashed across our hero s mind. The corrobore^ ; was of Ben's manu- 1 facture. It was about a ship' that had come • ashore m a gale; the crew were captured; and murdered, perhaps eaten— and the. piece of gold Topsy had given him may have been a portion of that vessel's freight. If. the old man's memory only held good he might be able, to tell: where the ship grounded. "Teddy, ask him where the big ship foundered a long time. ago. I mean the ship you were corroborying about." • After a little more "jabber" the old man dragged himself into a nearly upright posi- ; tion and, shading the rays of the sun from i his eyes with one trembling band, he point- j ed with the other to a ridge of rocks which , extended from the sandy beach some dis- i tance to seaward, and was now nearly; covered by the rising tide. Having done ; this he laid down on the ground again, and ' refused to tell any more, but just held out , his' open, withered hand and piped with a melancholy squeak—— "What you gib?" For among the blacks, as well as whites, "there abode these three— Faith, Hope, and Charity; but the greatest of these is Charity"— in the other fellow. But Harry had nothing to give, so the ; Old man continued to whine piteously until j tbe other two men passed out of hearing. | Our hero Was now satisfied that there had been a wreck many years before, and most likely that of a treasure-laden £hip. It must have been prior to the time when steamers began to usurp the place held by sailing vessels. In those early days most of the ships crossing the ocean were built of good British oak, and, no doubt, the bulk^of the gbid^sUVV.lftid— ! "alkacattdreni »t^thV^tqm of tne sea."' ■ . : . - Everything about the camp remained quiet for the next few days, that is, if a place can be considered quiet where a number of black women chatter incessantly.' The men went to and fro as usual, and the dogs yelped just as loudly as ever; but it must be confessed that the picaninnies behaved themselves much better than the same number of white brats would have done. Their mothers took care bf that, as, not having so many milliners' shops to look into, or so many fashionable garments to show "on the block," they had plenty of time oh hand to spank their kids (and train them up m the way they should go), and they did it systematically and regularly. The consequence was, that their children were not the utter and complete pest that the majority of white children are. Neither did these people, uncivilised and savage as they were, require "children's courts" or "Sobrabns." On the contrary, the parents were held responsible to the community for the children's behaviour, and if they did happen to be too feeble (which was rare indeed), volunteers were there m plenty to keep order. So the children grew up to respect their parents. . • The love and kindness shown to the "old folks" by the Australian aborigines is the one redeeming point which will, by God's mercy, save them when the final roll is called. And this happy state will have been brought about by judiciously spanking the brat when he was young, so that when he grew m years and stature he was able to . "pass it on to those who required it." | One of the principal characteristics .of the blackfellow is his invariable politeness to white women. This may seem paradoxical when I have already related how he throws tucker at his "missus" as though she were a dog, and compels her to carry all the heavy weights when they shift camp. Perhaps, the explanation is that the "gins" jabber and quarrel so much among themselves that their "lords" are compelled to keep them employed as much as possible. But be that as it may, I know very well that during the months I spent at Fraser Island mission, the men were always polite to white women, and my wife and the other ladies of the staff were much less likely to be insulted or annoyed by the blacks than they were by the white "riff raff" who came and went. (I am not referring to timber-getters, who were working m the district, as they were above reproach, or, of course, to the well-known retired police officer, who was always so kind and considerate to us all.) A group of natives would always stand aside and make room for a white woman to pass, and I am safe m saying that during the hundreds of times my wife or the jnatron entered the church, they never went up the steps without the assistance of the men who happened to be standing nearest, and if they had occasion to be outside after dark, going from one house to the other, there was always a black handy to carry the lantern or brush sticks aside from the path. The only time I ever had to carry arms for self-defence was when a number of, "mean whites" got into the Mission Reserve, and behaved m a manner that the lowest blackfellow who ever was born could not imitate even if he tried. That night I loaded a rifle to protect my wife and myself from the — wti'ite men. And be it known unto all men— *hey were aided and abetted by two white missionaries, who belonged to my own staff*. And yet we send missionaries among the heathen. *This statement is absolutely true, and particulars and names of persons connected with that and many other "peculiarities" of a similiir nature will be furnished by the author to any interested person. (To be Continued-*