Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central Australia And Overland From Adelaide To King George's Sound In The Years 1840-1: Sent By The Colonists Of South Australia By Eyre, Edward John
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It Was Now Half Past Ten, And I Headed The Horses
Back, In The Direction In Which I Thought The Camp Lay, That I Might Be
Ready To Call The Overseer To Relieve Me At Eleven.
Whilst thus engaged,
and looking steadfastly around among the scrub, to see if I could
anywhere detect the embers of our fires, I was startled by a sudden
flash, followed by the report of a gun, not a quarter of a mile away from
me.
Imagining that the overseer had mistaken the hour of the night, and
not being able to find me or the horses, had taken that method to attract
my attention, I immediately called out, but as no answer was returned, I
got alarmed, and leaving the horses, hurried up towards the camp as
rapidly as I could. About a hundred yards from it, I met the King
George's Sound native (Wylie), running towards me, and in great alarm,
crying out, "Oh Massa, oh Massa, come here," - but could gain no
information from him, as to what had occurred. Upon reaching the
encampment, which I did in about five minutes after the shot was fired, I
was horror-struck to find my poor overseer lying on the ground, weltering
in his blood, and in the last agonies of death.
APPENDIX.
DESCRIPTION OF SOME NEW AUSTRALIAN ANIMALS.
BY J. E. GRAY, ESQ., F.R.S.
I. It was formerly believed, that all the Mammalia inhabiting the
Australian continent, but the wild dog, were marsupial; but as the
natural history of the country is better known, we are becoming
acquainted with nearly as many native non-marsupial beasts as there are
marsupial; but they are certainly, generally, of a small size, such as
bats, mice, etc., as compared to the kangaroos and other marsupial genera.
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