Two sawyers were at work in the Bush, having taken their arms with them. The musket of one was beside him; the other had carelessly left it upon a neighbouring log. The watchful Natives observed this carelessness, and managed, under cover of the scrub, to reach the place, and draw away the weapon. Its removal was noticed, and the two men immediately fled. Fortunately, they were able to retreat in safety under the protection of the remaining piece. In the height of the terror no single shepherd, though armed, was allowed to proceed to work. Two flocks were run together under the two shepherds; or, as it was often necessary in disturbed places, two shepherds were in charge of one flock; thus adding to the expense as well as anxiety of the unhappy sheep-master. Repeatedly has the owner gone forth to discover his servant murdered, and his sheep not only scattered but maimed or stolen. Those were not the royal days of squatterdom.
Such incidents remind one strongly of the struggles of the American colonists when they encountered the enmity of the Red Indian. Then the pine forest was cleared by the axe, with the gun slung over the shoulder. The Blockhouse was the village fort, to which in times of pressing emergency the inhabitants retreated from their malignant foe. Every river, hill, and township has its traditionary tale of horrors. For awhile, so imminent was the danger, that hope of permanent settlement of the country was well-nigh abandoned. There too, as in Tasmania, the outrages of the Aborigines could be traced in most cases to the frauds and cruelties practised upon the tribes by unprincipled Whites. There, too, as in the southern isle, indiscriminate attack and slaughter followed the perpetration of crime by the individual. The civilized colonists acted upon the same principle, and dealt wide blows as a return for the faults of the few. The Rev. Samuel Waterhouse found the same practice among the rude and cannibal Fiji islanders. The secret crime of one man is revenged upon the whole tribe. It was so among the New Zealanders. The same law existed among the ancient Israelites, and the English, Scottish, and Irish people. Even now, in too many instances, is society called upon to suffer for the misdemeanour of the individual.
The Martial Law produced no result, except that of satisfying the scruples of some who needed the authority of legality to
