not as yet been attracted
here, so there was but little inducement for the escaped convicts
to meddle with them. There were, of course, some notorious
scoundrels, who seemed to murder for the pure love of the thing.
The worst of them, I think, was a fellow who went by the name of
Cockeye. What his real name was, I never heard.

"That man was a perfect devil; and was, for a long time, the terror
of the settlers. He never worked with other white men, but lived
among the blacks. Of course, in those days the police system was in
its infancy, and we had to rely upon ourselves. I had a narrow
escape, once, of losing my life, from him and his blacks.

"When I was about seventeen, I lived with my father and mother in a
station about fifty miles from Sydney, or as it was called then
Port Jackson. It was at that time quite an outlying station. We had
two convicts allotted to us, both of them honest fellows enough,
who had been transported for poaching or something of that
kind--anyhow, they were not old hands, and gave no trouble. My
father was a kind master, and we always felt that, in case of need,
we could rely upon them just as upon ourselves. In those days it
was next to impossible to get hired hands for, as there was plenty
of land for anyone to squat upon, comparatively close to the port,
the men who came out generally set up for themselves, at once.

"One day I had been out on horseback, to look for a couple of
bullocks which had strayed away; and was on my way back when, ahead
of me, I heard the cooey of the blacks. I didn't think much of it,
because they were common enough at that time, and a party had made
a sort of encampment at a stream, about a mile from the house; but
when, a minute later, I heard a gun fired, I guessed that there was
mischief.

"The sound seemed to come from away towards the right, where I knew
that one of our men was out, herding the bullocks; so I clapped
spurs to my horse, and rode in that direction. When I got near, I
saw the cattle running wildly about, and a mob of black fellows
among them. I could see no signs of our man, and guessed that he
must have gone down; and that I had best ride and warn them, at the
house.

"The blacks saw me, and started at a run in my direction, but I
soon left them behind. I was within a quarter of a mile of the
house, when a native yell burst out ahead of me, followed by two
shots. I rode on and, when I got near the house, saw a lot of black
fellows ro