were lost in the distance, while
fresh parties of natives came trooping in from all directions. The
question was, how to get rid of these people without bloodshed; and
when an attempt to move quietly forward had been disappointed, by the
Australians hastening on to occupy a thick piece of bush, through which
the English party must pass, at last, Captain Grey, advancing towards
them with his gun cocked and pointed, drove them a little before him,
after which, to complete their dispersion, he intended to fire over
their heads. But, to his mortification and their delight, the gun missed
fire, upon which the natives, taking fresh courage, turned round to make
faces at him and to imitate the snapping of the gun. The second barrel
was then fired over their heads, at which they were alarmed, and made a
rapid retreat, halting, however, upon a rising ground about 300 yards
off, and preparing in earnest for action, when they perceived that they
had suffered no loss. But since they had thus learned to despise the
weapons of European warfare, prompt action was needful to prevent fatal
consequences on both sides. The captain, accordingly, took his rifle
from the man who was carrying it, and directing it at a heap of
closely-matted dead bushes, about two or three yards from the main body
of the enemy, he drove the ball right through it; the dry rotten boughs
crackled and flew in all directions, and the poor savages, confounded at
this new and unfair mode of fighting, hastily dispersed, without any
loss of life having been sustained by either party.[40]

[40] A less serious but even more effectual method of dispersing the
natives, when they became troublesome, and would not quit the settlers'
camp at night, is mentioned by Mitchell. At a given signal, one of the
Englishmen suddenly sallied forth wearing a gilt mask, and holding in
his hand a blue light with which he fired a rocket. Two men concealed
bellowed hideously through speaking-trumpets, while all the others
shouted and discharged their fire-arms into the air. The man in the
mask marched solemnly towards the astonished natives, who were seen
through the gloom but for an instant, as they made their escape and
disappeared for ever.--MITCHELL'S _Expeditions_, vol. ii. p. 290.

On another occasion, not long after this encounter, and in the same
neighbourhood, the party of English explorers fell in with a native
carrying his spear and a handful of fish; he was l