shoot him, and holding both hands before his face retreated hastily backwards. Rogers fired but missed him, when he turned quickly round, and ran rapidly down to the sea. Sydney neither fired nor meant to fire, for by this time he began to think there was something not right. But Tucker's thirst for blood was not yet slaked, and noticing Sydney's hesitation, and that Jack was escaping, snatched the rifle from his hand Taking his usual steady aim at his victim, the bullet passed into the back of his head, and he ran no further.
"'Limaganna escaped, but the boy clung to the woman, and implored her not to let him be killed. Tucker, whose vengance was now appeased, looked at him mildly, and by kind words and some presents calmed his fears, and allowed him to rejoin his people, who were withdrawing, and the sealing party left to recommence work.'
"Sydney was very angry with Tucker for what he had done, and has often told me he was very sorry ever after that he was accidentally present at these murders, even though he took no part in them.
"Limaganna, and also a brother of his, were both shot in some farm fight at Break o'Day Plains, in 1830; and the next year, the boy now about 15 years of age, was made prisoner by me along with some other natives of Musselrow River, and was sent to the aboriginal establishment in the Straits."
Mr. Alexander M'Kay, from whom I received the outline sketch of the above narrative, is now a settler at Peppermint Bay, D'Entrecasteux Channel, where he has resided more than 30 years. He is about 68 years old, but hale and strong in an uncommon degree, the natural consequence of a life of activity, and a constitution that has never been abused by unhealthy indulgences. I have known him well for about three and forty years. We are very old bush chums, and have walked some thousands of miles together; and I can say truly of him that he is the best bush companion I have ever had. Full of anecdote, no one knows more of the old times than he, and as no one has ranged the colony more than M'Kay, (between 1825 and '40) his local knowledge is extensive. He was in early life one of the first employes of the Van Diemen's Land Company, as explorer at one time, and master of one of their crafts at another, for he was a sailor by profession. From the service of the company he passed into that of the Aboriginal Mission under Robinson, to whom he rendered important services. But conceiving himself to be neglected by his chief, he threw up his engagement.
