171 
in quest of Prince Albert’s Lyre-bird. 
two more shots. Polly upon this threw down her load, and 
commenced howling and beating her head with a stone till the 
blood ran down her face. More shots were fired, and then a 
single shout, upon which Polly brightened up, and said that 
that was Davy's shout, and that he had succeeded in driving his 
enemies off. We next heard a wail for the dead , and Polly 
struck up a song. I advised her to take up her pack and come 
on, but she took no notice of me, and continued howling. How¬ 
ever, when I rode on, she followed, singing all the time, and so 
continued for about two miles, when she suddenly screamed out, 
and, throwing down her pack, rushed up to my horse and seized 
hold of my stirrup-leather. At the same instant fifteen blacks 
stood before us and stopped our horses. They all knew me, and 
I knew some of them. They said they had come to take Davy's 
gin, and that they would have her. One of the party, more 
excited than the rest, raised his spear to kill her, but hesi¬ 
tated to throw it for fear of striking my horse. They told me 
that Davy had shot Wallumbin Charlie dead, and wounded an¬ 
other of their men, and that Billy had nearly killed a third. 
Two of them then rushed upon Polly to drag her away. I drew r 
my revolver, upon which they let her go, and she came back to 
me and took hold of my leg. Upon this they left, saying that 
they would kill Davy and Billy, and all the tribe, when I had 
done with them shooting, but that they had no wish to offend 
me, and would wait until I was gone to another country. [All 
the tribes round knew that I was going to leave the Richmond.] 
This adventure made it late before we reached the Byangully 
camp. It was nearly dark when we arrived, and we observed 
at some distance that Davy and Billy were there before us and 
had made a large fire. When we came to the camp, Davy re¬ 
lated the great battle they had fought, saying that they had 
fallen in with thirty Tabbo blacks, and, on hearing them at 
some distance off, had charged their guns with ball. [This I 
had given them in the morning for their protection, knowing 
the feud that had existed between the tribes for some time 
previous.] On their approach, Davy had fired and killed Wal¬ 
lumbin (the chief), and Billy had mortally wounded another 
man; the rest had fled away, some being wounded. Davy and 
Billy were in great glee at having gained the victory, and 
n 2 
