cks had pillaged off the dray on
the day of the murder.

Sub-Inspector O'Connor was a cultured Irish gentleman. Being possessed
of a private income, he would provide money prizes for shooting amongst
his troopers, and despite being only possessed of the old Snider rifle,
they quickly developed into good shots. Probably this and their known
capabilities in tracking induced the Victorian authorities to
requisition their services to track the noted Kelly Gang bushrangers in
1878. Mr. O'Connor and his boys, with Constable King, from Maryborough,
were at Glenrowan when Ned Kelly was taken prisoner, and the remainder
of the gang burnt in the public house.

[Illustration: NORTH GREGORY HOTEL. ROBT. FITZMAURICE, LICENSEE. 1879.]

On reaching Cooktown I again loaded my three teams for Maytown,
returning to Palmerville empty, where I sold one of my teams. On the
trip my rheumatism became so bad that I determined to take a trip to
Sydney, leaving my teams to camp during the wet season now commencing,
in charge of one driver and the black boy.

I left Cooktown in the E. and A. Company's s.s. "Singapore" in December,
1875. On board I made the acquaintance of Captain Pennefather, lately
Comptroller of Prisons, who, at that time, had a fleet of boats at
Thursday Island, engaged in pearl fishing. On arrival at Townsville,
John Dean (late M.L.C.), came aboard, and we renewed an acquaintance
formed some years before when he was butchering at Townsville, and where
I had purchased steers from him.

It was my first trip on the coast, and with fine weather, I was
delighted with the beautiful scenery. Owing to the early rains the
numerous islands were clad in their richest verdure, especially did the
Whitsunday Passage appeal to me. Most of the islands in the passage were
inhabited by aboriginals, who made a practice of coming out in their
canoes to the steamers, picking up food, etc., thrown to them from the
ship. One of our crew threw out a loaf of bread, which was attached to a
piece of rope. A blackfellow and his gin in a canoe close by the ship
caught the loaf, but the moving of our boat tightened the line, which
pulled him out, his canoe being capsized, and he and his gin were
struggling in the water. However, as they were good swimmers, they soon
righted their canoe with the loss only of the loaf of bread. During the
trip lunch was spread daily under the awning on the top deck. This was
much more pleasant than down in the stuffy c