Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/230

156 NO SURVIVORS DISCOVERED. were found. The native women, when questioned, said that the white people had parted into two companies, one of which crossed the Coorong. They said that some of the natives rushed upon them and held them while others beat them on the head with clubs until they were dead. The expedition having arrived at the head of the Lake Albert peninsula, scoured the whole of it, so that if any survivors of the wrecked party remained they might he discovered; but the only result was to terrify the blacks and drive them to take refuge in the great beds of reeds by Lake Albert. No further traces being discoverable, the members of the expedition turned their faces towards Encounter Bay, and arrived at the Elbow, whence the men of the force were dispersed to their homes. This account of the wreck of the Maria perfectly agrees in the main particulars with that which the natives themselves give. Not one person is known to have escaped from the natives. The discrepancies between the natives’ account and that given above only refer to the number of natives executed, which the report says was four—two shot and two hanged; the natives say it was six. The report states that twenty-six persons were massacred; the natives say twenty-five, as one woman got across the Murray mouth and escaped. Of this we have no other evidence. The natives’ account states that the shipwrecked party was guided down the Coorong until they reached the part opposite Lake Albert, where they were induced to separate, and then murdered. The place of burial and persons found exactly agree with the account given to the writer by a woman who helped to bury them. A great deal of discussion took place in the papers at the time as to the wisdom and legality of the execution of the natives, and His Excellency Governor Gawler issued a solemn Minute of Council vindicating the expedition. Time, however, has proved that a wiser course could not have been adopted than the prompt punishment of such an atrocious massacre.