n throughout its progress. The
services of other more intelligent natives might easily have been
obtained, having been proffered by many in the settled districts, but
Piper from having been with me before, was preferred as a matter of
course. He had not improved in speech or manners during the long interval
of ten years that had elapsed since our former acquaintance, although
during that time he had visited Adelaide, Sydney, Moreton Bay, the river
Hunter, etc., etc. From the day on which he had joined the party on this
last occasion, he had been allowed a horse, saddle, doublebarrelled gun,
clothing, and the same rations as the other men, blankets, place in a
tent with the men, etc. Unlike most other natives, he was a very bad
shot, and very awkward about a horse; it was impossible to obtain any
clear intelligence from his countrymen through him as interpreter; he
went very unwillingly about doing anything. He had drawn his rations and
those of the two young natives separately from the men's mess the week
before this, on the plea that they did not obtain their fair share; he
was thus premeditately preparing for his clandestine departure,
foreseeing that on the Saturday, when rations were issued, he could thus
obtain a week's provisions in advance, without suspicion. He also had it
in his power, like a true savage, to take the lion's share from the other
two, in thus drawing rations apart from the men's mess. He had heard of
the gins who had made the conflagration having retired towards the
cattle-stations on the Macquarie. Here, then, while other men were
actively at their work,--blacksmiths, carpenters, bullock-drivers,--this
man, who was as well fed and clothed as they, carried on a horse to boot,
and doing no work, was the only dissatisfied person. Me, whom he called
his "old master," he would heartlessly leave, without a native guide,
just at the time when such guides were most required. The only difficulty
I felt on this occasion was how to secure the services of the two others,
and yet dismiss him. He had just received a week's ration in advance, and
he was baking the whole of the flour into bread. I sent to have him
instantly seized, and brought with the dough and the other native,
Yuranigh, before Mr. Kennedy and myself, as magistrates. He denied the
intention to decamp. The other declared he had proposed to him to leave
the party and go in search of gins, and that he could not understand him;
that he was afraid t