description, I will give a short account of a quarrel among some Macleay River tribes during my stay there. Three young men belonging to the Yarra-Bandini tribe, which was also the name of our cattle station (as that locality was the head quarters of this tribe), had descended the river in a canoe to Verge's station, which is within the limits of the boundaries of the Calliteeni or Kempsey tribe. The object they had in view was to kill a Tryal Bay native, whom the savages had nick-named Cranky Tom from his comical hilarity; for it would appear that Cranky Tom had some time before killed one of the relations of these men in a fight, and they now determined to revenge his death. Poor Tom, who was my earliest acquaintance among the Tryal Bay natives, was stopping, with his 'gin,' Dilberree, near Verge's, without any suspicion of treachery, when he was suddenly confronted by his enemies. Having endeavoured in vain to protect himself with his shield, he soon fell, pierced with wounds, and his head was then cut off by his savage enemies, one of whom, named Henry, also took possession of the woman. This act of treachery roused the indignation of two tribes, the Kempsey or Calliteeni blacks, on whose ground the outrage had been committed, and the Tryal Bay blacks, to whom the murdered man belonged. On speaking to the chief men of the Yarra-Bandini tribe about this cowardly attack, they merely told me, in reply, that Henry and the other men were 'murry stupid' to act as they did, but that Cranky Tom was a 'murry saucy fellow,' and deserved what he had got. The Yarra-Bandini tribe were encamped, in the meantime, close to our stockyards. The first of their adversaries in the field were the Kempsey blacks, who came over one afternoon, and fought the Yarra-Bandini natives at our very doors. The battle was conducted in the most fair and open manner; each party drew up in two lines, armed with spears, shields, and boomerangs, and threw spear for spear for a considerable time before any damage was done. At length, a Yarra-Bandini black was slightly wounded in the forehead; and soon after a Kempsey native, whom the sawyers named 'Major Lovatt,' was transfixed with a spear, which apparently passed through his lungs. This concluded the fight. Both the hostile parties now mingled together in the most friendly way; and the Yarra-Bandini tribe was even more anxious than the other in their endeavours to alleviate the wounds of the dying man. My partner also rendered every assistance to him, but he expired in a few minutes. By a most extraordinary revulsion of feeling, the Kempsey blacks now became furiously enraged against the Tryal Bay tribe, whose cause they had just espoused so actively. Accordingly, under the pretence that an immense flock of ducks had settled on some lagoon down the river, the Kempsey natives, who are few in number, but more conversant with the customs of the whites than the others, succeeded in persuading some cedar dealers and sawyers at that place to lend them some muskets, which they loaded with slugs, and they then proceeded down the river in a boat. The Tryal Bay blacks, who were quite taken by surprise by this unusual manœuvre, were soon worsted, and several of them were wounded by the shot, but none killed. Matters now became more complicated, for one of the Nambucca Kiver tribes, being indignant at the treatment of their neighbours at Tryal Bay, took part in the quarrel. A week
