When We Arrived On The Scene I Found Godfrey Standing Sentinel Beneath A
Tree, In The Branches Of Which Stood
At bay a savage of fine proportions.
He had a magnificent beard, dark brown piercing eyes, splendid teeth, a
distinctly
Jewish profile, and no decorations or scars on his chest or
body. I shall not forget the colour of his eyes nor their fierce glitter,
for I climbed the tree after him, he trying to prevent my ascent by
blows from a short, heavy stick which I wrested from him, and then with
broken branches of dead mulga, with which he struck my head and hands
unmercifully, alternately beating me and prodding me in the face,
narrowly missing my eyes. If he suffered any inconvenience by being kept
captive afterwards, he well repaid himself beforehand by the unpleasant
time he gave me. And if it was high-handed treatment to capture
unoffending aboriginals, we did not do so without a certain amount of
risk to ourselves; personally I would far sooner lie down all night
chained by the ankle to a tree, than have my head and knuckles laid bare
by blows from dead branches!
After a time I succeeded in securing one end of the chain round the wild
man's ankle, and the other round a lower branch. Then I came down and
left him, whilst we unloaded and had something to eat. We had had a long
day of over ten hours continuous travel, and as the sun had long set we
decided to take no steps for water-getting until morning.
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