cows, superintended by nine Highlanders, who were sitting on
the toprails discoursing in Gaelic. One of them was Jock Macdonald,
who was over eighteen stone in weight, too heavy for any ordinary
horse to carry; the rest were Macalisters, Gillies, and Thomsons.
The stockmen were convicts, and they lived with the Highlanders in a
big building like the barracks for soldiers. Every man seemed to do
just what he liked, to kill what he liked, and to eat what he liked,
and it was astonishing to see so little discipline on a station owned
by a gentleman who had seen service both in the army and in the
border police.

The blacks were at this time very troublesome about the new stations.
They began to be fond of beef, and in order to get it they drove fat
cattle into the morasses and speared them. This proceeding produced
strained relations between the two races, and the only effectual
remedy was the gun. But many of the settlers had scruples about
shooting blackfellows except in self-defence, and it could hardly be
called self-defence to shoot one or more of the natives because a
beast had been speared by some person or persons unknown. John
Campbell, at Glencoe, tried a dog, a savage deerhound, which he
trained to chase the human game. This dog acquired great skill in
seizing a blackfellow by the heel, throwing him, and worrying him
until Campbell came up on his horse. When the dog had thus expelled
the natives from Glencoe, Campbell agreed to lend him to little
Curlewis for three months in order to clear Holey Plains Station.
Curlewis paid ten heifers for the loan of the dog, and Campbell
himself went to give him a start in the hunt, as the animal would not
own any other man as master. But the blacks soon learned that
Campbell and his dog had left Glencoe unprotected, and the second
night after his departure they boldly entered the potato patch near
his hut, and bandicooted the whole of his potatoes.

When the sails were made, the two boats were provisioned with tea,
sugar, flour, and a keg of whisky; the meat was carried in the shape
of two live sheep, to be killed when required. The party consisted
of eight men, and each man was armed with a double-barrelled gun.
McMillan, McLennan, Loughnan, and Davy went in one boat, and in the
other boat were William Pearson, John Reeve, Captain Orr, and
Sheridan, who was manager for Raymond at Stratford. Sheridan was a
musical man, and took his flute with him. When everythi