im at arm's length; but to say that he seized
both their guns is beyond all credibility. The natives were sitting down
when the police arrived. How they could therefore find a wallet upon the
murdered man, I cannot conceive; since the natives never have their
wallets slung, except when moving; and it certainly is not probable, that
the man, in spite of the fright he is admitted to have been in, should
have thought of taking up his wallet.

"The wallet is said to have contained some sovereigns, taken from the
cutter Kate, which was wrecked some time previous to this affair, about
forty miles up the coast, and to have been one of those marked by the
police, at a native camp near the wreck from which the natives had been
scared away, leaving all their things behind. But if the murdered native
had taken the sovereigns, why were they not then in his wallet, or why
was the wallet not examined the day before when he was in town?
[Note 54 at end of para.] I think that there is little doubt that the
police found no wallet at all upon the native, and that they coined away
one of those found at the camp upon him, with a view to incriminate him."

[Note 54: There cannot be a greater act of injustice towards the natives
than that of applying the English law to them with respect to stolen
property. Any one who knows any thing of their habits, and the custom
prevalent amongst them, of giving any European clothing, or other articles
they may acquire, from one to another, must be fully aware how little the
fact of their being found in possession of stolen property is just
evidence against them. Articles such as I have mentioned, often pass, in a
very short time, through the hands of three or four individuals, and
perhaps even through as many tribes.]

"Another native, Charley, who was present when the said affair took
place, tells me, that the police sneaked upon, and fired at them, while
sitting round the fire; [Note 55 at end of para.] that he jumped up, and
endeavoured to make himself known, as a friendly native, by saying,
"Yarri (that is the name the natives have given to one of the police),
Yarri, I Charley, I Charley,"--but that the effect produced had been the
pointing of a gun at him, when of course he ran away. That any of the
natives returned, and poised their spears, he firmly denies; but accounts
for the murder, by supposing that the dead man made resistance, and
offered to spear his assailants. He moreover says, that Padl