as fine and fresh a s u m m e r morning as could be desired. T h e distance was measured, the pistols primed, and the m e n placed; but just as the fatal signal was about to be given, Snodgrass, w h o was always a victim to over-impatience, or ultra excitement on such occasions, so mismanaged his hair-trigger, that it went off too soon; so, instead of slaying his antagonist, he wounded himself in the toe, and came to grief. Ryrie, as a matter of course, could not think of behaving so unhandsomely as to shoot a m a n down, and forthwith flared up in the air. T h o m a s was immediately at work with the wounded patient, who, though literally prostrated, was found to have sustained no serious injury. There was no decollation of the stricken m e m b e r ; the nail was gone, the flesh slightly abraded, and the haemorrhage but minimum. S o m e lint and bandaging which the surgeon brought in his pocket soon m a d e the warrior right, and he was laid out on the grass, whilst the others, foiled in their fun, resolved to improvise a substitute of some kind, it did not matter m u c h what it might be. There were about a dozen present, and it is no exaggeration to say, taken as a whole, they were more than partially inebriated. They had c o m e there for a special purpose in which they were disappointed; but they were not to be done out of their morning, so there should be a shine, even if some of themselves were to die over it. Several suggestions were m a d e and put aside, until one drunken humourist hiccuped something in effect that as the captain's ammunition was nearly all there, they could not do better than back Dr. T h o m a s against a tree as a mark for some pistol practice. Thomas, w h o had a slight impediment in articulation, grew alarmed, and stuttered out a vehement objection. Though a great joker himself, he had no liking to be turned into an Aunt Sally of this kind and experimented on with bullets instead of sticks. A compromise wasfinallyeffected by T h o m a s consenting to allow a n e w bell-topper he wore to do proxy for himself, and upon this corpus nailed to a gum-tree they operated in rotation with the two hair-triggers, until the Smithian cartridges were exhausted, and the medico's head-gear well riddled. T h o m a s looked with a wry face upon his well potted tile, upon which it was not necessary to have a post mortem. T h e party now thought of returning home, and by the aid of a couple of stout, though unsteady arm-holders, the wounded .hero managed to limp, the principal figure in a grotesque procession which made its way in a condition of loud jollification to William Street, for not wishing to show at such an unfashionable hour at the Club, they turned into the " D e n " of old S a m previously described, resumed their compotations, and remained there until that period vaguely defined by the phrase known as "all hours." T h e two principals and the medico have long since "gone under." T h e seconds are still (1884) in the land of the living—one a settler in Queensland, another in Victoria, where he has served his adopted country in more than one capacity, and is generally accounted to be, if not the wisest, about the best fellow throughout all its length and breadth. A n d such is the story of the curious and dramatic incidents surrounding thefirst"affair of honour" in Port Phillip never before printed, and communicated to the writer by one of the two survivors.
THE HAWDON DUELLING PISTOLS.
History is silent as to what became of the brace of " bulleteers " referred to in the preceding sketch, and this is to be regretted, for as relics of a banished epoch they were almost as deserving of preservation as the Henty plough or the Fawkner printing press. But though the shooters have sunk into oblivion, it is a remarkable fact that the m a n w h ofirstutilized them in the colony, and on Her Majesty's service, too, is still "alive and kicking" in Melbourne. In 1837, M r . Joseph Hawdon contracted with the N e w South Wales Government to convey a mail overland to and from Yass-a portion of the route to Sydney; and the work, then an arduous and dangerous undertaking, was commenced on the 1st January, 1838. T h efirstmailman was John Bourke, a H a w d o n employe, and before starting the Joseph H a w d o n duelling pistols were placed in his hands as a means of defence against the aggressions of possible bushrangers and probable Aboriginal assailants. I have in m y possession an autographic account of Bourke's first three months' journeyings, and a marvellous narrative it is. H e continued overlanding in this work for a year, during which he rode eleven thousand miles, and must have had a charmed life to have escaped the innumerable dangers which
