ANECDOTES OF THE NATIVES. 59 



them to the notice of the ladies. Like all savages, 

 they are treacherous, — for uncivilized man has no 

 abstract respect for truth, and consequently deceit, 

 whether spoken or acted, seems no baseness in his 

 eyes. I heard an anecdote at Perth that bears upon 

 this subject : — A native of the name of Tonquin 

 asked a settler, who lived some distance in the 

 interior, permission to spend the night in his kitchen, 

 of which that evening another native was also an 

 inmate. It seems that some hate, either personal, 

 or the consequences of a quarrel between their 

 different tribes, existed in the mind of Tonquin 

 towards his hapless fellow lodger ; and in the night 

 he speared him through the heart, and then very 

 quietly laid down to sleep ! Of course in the morn- 

 ing no little stir took place. Tonquin was accused, 

 but stoutly denied the charge. So satisfied, how- 

 ever, was the owner of the house of the guilt of the 

 real culprit, that had he not made his escape, he 

 would have been executed " red hand," — as the 

 border Avardens used to say, — by the man, the 

 sanctity of whose roof-tree he had thus profaned. 

 Tonquin afterwards declared that he never slept 

 for nearly a fortnight, being dogged from place 

 to place by the footsteps of the avengers of blood. 

 He escaped, however, with his life, though worn 

 almost to a shadow by constant anxiety. When I 

 saw him some years afterwards, I thought him the 

 finest looking native I had ever seen, but he was 

 apparently, as those who knew him best reported 



