Obituary. 387 



Mr. Anderson, botanical collector to Messrs. Lowe and Son, at Sydney; and 

 from Mr. Allan Cunningham of Kew, the brother of the deceased. The fol- 

 lowing letter from the latter gentleman will be read with intense and melancholy 

 interest : — 



" " The last arrival of mails from Sydney has put the government in posses- 

 sion of the report of the officer of police (Lieut. Zouch, 4th regiment) who 

 had been sent in command of a party of mounted police, to the spot where my 

 poor brother was last heard of, with a view of ascertaining his fate. A copy 

 of the report (now before me) has been enclosed me by order of Lord Glenelg, 

 (Colonial Secretary) ; and from it, it appears that, after leaving Boree, on the 

 present western verge of the colony, beyond Bathurst, Lieut. Zouch and party 

 of troopers, accompanied by one of Major Mitchell's men, and a friendly native- 

 black, named Sand;//, proceeded to the n. w., towards the Bogan. On the third 

 day of their advance (viz. the 2d of November last), they fortunately met with 

 two blacks, who knew all the particulars of a white man having been murdered 

 on the Bogan : also the names and persons of the perpetrators of the deed ; and, 

 as they offered to accompany the party to the country where the murderers 

 were encamped with their tribe, Lieut. Zouch most gladly accepted their ser- 

 vices as guides ; and, on the evening of the sixth, the party, by their directions, 

 came upon a tribe consisting of upwards of forty men, women, and children, 

 who were bivouacing on the banks of a lake fed by the Macquarie, and called 

 the Budda. As no resistance was offered by these savages, they were im- 

 mediately invested, and taken prisoners. A few questions produced an ac- 

 knowledgment from them, that a white man had been killed by four of the 

 tribe, on the Bogan, three of whom they delivered up ; and the fourth, they 

 stated, was absent on the Big River; that is, the Darling. On searching the 

 bags of the tribe, the party found a knife, a glove, &c., which the three blacks 

 acknowledged they had taken from the white man, and which the man who 

 had been with Major Mitchell on his expedition, and now accompanied the 

 police, said he was sure had belonged to my brother. The details of the , 

 closing scene of my poor relative's life are dreadful in the extreme, and, to 

 those of his friends who had known his great benevolence of mind, his last 

 moments can be more readily conceived than described ! 



" The officer goes on to report, that the three murderers, on being taken 

 prisoners, admitted that, about six moons ago, they met a white man on the 

 Bogan, who came up to them, and made signs that he was hungry ; that they 

 gave him food ; and that he encamped with them that night. The white man 

 repeatedly getting up during the night, excited their suspicion; and, under the 

 apprehension that he would betray them into the hands of some enemies in the 

 neighbourhood, they consulted together, and soon came to the determination 

 to destroy him ; which they effected the following morning, by one of the 

 savages approaching him unperceived, and striking him on the back part of the 

 head, and the others rushing upon him with their spears. This must have oc- 

 curred about the latter end of April of the last year. 



" The officer adds : ' I then determined to proceed to the spot where the 

 murder was committed, which, I was informed by the blacks, was distant three 

 days' journey ; but, learning from them that there was a great scarcity of water, 

 I deemed it advisable to take only a small party, consisting of three troopers, the 

 man of Major Mitchell, and one of the prisoners (Burcemall) as a guide across 

 to the Bogan; leaving the remainder of the party,having the other two prisoners 

 in charge, under the command of Corporal Moore, to proceed to a station about 

 thirty miles distant from Wellington, there to await my return." Lieut. 

 Zouch and his reduced party were now conducted to a place named Curriu" 

 dine, where the black showed him some bones, which, he said, were those of the 

 white man they had killed; and pointed out a small portion of a coat, and also 

 part of a Manilla hat. Being thus convinced that they had reached the spot 

 where the very melancholy event had occurred, the officer and his little party, 

 with true Christian-like feeling, collected all the remains they could discover; 

 and having, in sad silence, deposited them in the ground, they raised a small 

 mound over them, and barked some of the nearest trees, as the only means in 



