f Drayton, and that
which is now much larger, Toowoomba, began to gather round two wayside
inns established for the convenience of travellers. Captain Wickham was
sent up to assume the position of Superintendent of Moreton Bay, which
thus became practically a new colony, just as Port Phillip was in the
south, though both were then regarded as only districts of New South
Wales.

#5. The Natives.#--In these early years the squatters of the district were
scattered, at wide intervals, throughout a great extent of country, and,
being in the midst of native tribes who were not only numerous but of a
peculiarly hostile disposition, they often found themselves in a very
precarious situation. The blacks swarmed on the runs, killing the sheep,
and stealing the property of the squatters, who had many annoyances to
suffer and injuries to guard against. But their retaliation oftentimes
exhibited a ferocity and inhumanity almost incredible in civilised men.

[Illustration: BOOMERANGS, OR KYLIES.]

The Government troopers showed little compunction in destroying scores
of natives, and, strange to say, the most inhuman atrocities were
committed by blacks, who were employed to act as troopers. On one
occasion, after the murder of a white man by two blacks, a band of
troopers, in the dead of night, stealthily surrounded the tribe to which
the murderers belonged, whilst it was holding a corrobboree, and, at a
given signal, fired a volley into the midst of the dancing crowd--a
blind and ruthless revenge, from which, however, the two murderers
escaped. On another occasion the shepherds and hutkeepers out on a
lonely plain had begun to grow afraid of the troublesome tribes in the
neighbourhood, and cunningly made them a present of flour, in which
white arsenic had been mixed. Half a tribe might then have been seen
writhing and howling in the agony of this frightful poison till death
relieved them. On such occasions the black tribes took a terrible
revenge when they could, and so the hatred of black for white and white
for black became stronger and deadlier.

#6. Separation.#--In less than five years after the removal of convicts
the district began to agitate for separation from New South Wales; and,
in 1851, a petition was sent to the Queen, urging the right of Moreton
Bay to receive the same concession as had, in that year, been made to
Port Phillip. On this occasion their request was not granted, but, on
being renewed about three ye