Southern Australian (Adelaide, SA : 1838 - 1844), Friday 30 July 1841, page 4


DEPOSITIONS.

Western Australia, Government Resident's Office,

Albany, 10th July, 1841.

I do hereby certify that the annexed deposi-tions of E. J. Eyre, Esquire, of Adelaide, and Wylie, an aboriginal of Albany, were taken at this office, and are true copies of those deposited

in this office.

J. N. PHILLIPS

Government Resident, Albany.

Colony of Western Australia to wit.- The de-position of Edward John Eyre, of Adelaide, taken this 8th day of July, 1841, before me Peter Belches, one of her Majesty's Justices of the Peace, in and for the Colony of Western Australa,

saith :

That on the 25th February, 1841,I left Fow-ler's Bay, with a party consisting of an overseer named John Baxter, an aboriginal native of King George's Sound,known by the mme of "Wylie," and two aboriginal natives of the Colony of New South Wales, known by the name of "Joey" and " Yarrey" with a view to proceed overland to

Western Australia. That at the time of our de-

parture from Fowler's Bay the party were pro-vided with provisions calculated to last for nine weeks at a rather limited allowance per week,

but that from the barren and arid nature of the

country we had to traverse, it soon became evident that our journey would occupy a much longer period than I had calculated upon: that it consequently became incumbent upon me to reduce the allowance of provisions to the whole party to a very low scale a few weeks after com-mencing our undertaking: that from the long con-tinuance of this desolate region, and the conse-quently reduced condition of our horses, delays became more necessary to recruit the horses, whilst our small stock of provisions, though hus-banded with extreme frugalty was rapidly disap-pearing, until at last it became imperative upon me to have one of the horses killed as a supply of food to the party on the 16th April.

That the meat of the horse thus killed was

issued in daily rations of five pounds each of solid, raw flesh or four pounds of solid cooked meat being more than double the quantity consumed daily by myself or the overseer : that on the 22nd day of April I discovered that the native boys had been in the habit of stealing the provisions during the night for many days past, and on the day in question, to punish them, I deducted from their days' allowance the quantity that had been stolen during the previous night, and which I ascertained to be four pounds weight. Imme-diately after breakfast all the three boys set off to leave the party and endeavour to reach King George's Sound alone. I did not attempt to de-tain the two elder boys, but would not allow the younger one, named " Yarrey," to accompany them, as I imagined him only to be misled by the others. The two elder boys proceeded on their route to the westward, along the coast; but on the evening of the 25th they again made their ap-pearance at my camp, after an absence of four days, expressing contrition for their misconduct, and begging to be received again into the party, as they had found it impossible to procure either food or water for themselves in the direction they had gone. They were freely forgiven, and re-ceived into the party again, proceeding onwards with it on the 27th April. We were now about to traverse a country in which we knew there was little probability of water being found for many days. This circumstance, added to the scanty quantity and very inferior quality of the food we were able to procure for our horses, made it abso-lutely necessary that those animals should be watched every night to prevent their rambling.

This was a most important duty, and one which was invariably performed, with the exception of one night, by myself and the overseer alternately. On the night of the 29th of April I was engaged in this duty, having left the overseer and the the three native boys to go to rest at the camp. About the hour of 10 P.M. I was looking towards the camp, which was scarcely distant a quarter of a mile, when I was startled by the flash followed by the report of a gun. I immediately called out, but received no answer, and at once hurried towards the camp. About one hundred yards from the camp I was met by the native Wylie, calling out "Oh dear, oh dear," and asking me if I had heard the report. Upon reaching the camp a few minutes after the shot had been fired, I was horror-struck at beholding my unfortunate overseer extended on the ground, and apparently lifeless, a few yards in advance of where he had been sleeping, whilst the camp was deserted by the boys "Joey" and " Yarrey." Having ascertained that poor Baxter was insensible, and in the last convulsions of death from a ball wound below the left breast, I turned round to procure my gun and reconnoitre the camp. Te my amazement I found our small stock of provisions had been plundered, and all the serviceable fire arms, consisting of two double barrelled guns, had been taken away, with some amunition. Finding my unfortunate fellow traveller was beyond all human aid, I left the appalling scene and proceeded with the boy "Wylie" to watch the horses during the remainder of the night, since the only chance of saving our lives, depended upon preventing these animals from rambling. They had already been three days without water, and we had still a hundred miles to travel before there was the slightest pros-pect of any being procured. Upon the morning of the 30th April, after examining our stores

left, I ascertained that about twenty pounds of bread, a one-gallon kegof water, and a few other things, belonging principally to the overseer, had been taken away by the two boys, in addition to the two double-barrelled guns and ammunition.

The melancholy occurrence above described took place on the summit of the high cliffs bound-ing a portion of the Great Australian Bight, and situate in about longitude 125 0 4' east, and about latitude 32 0 30' south. The night on the 29th was clear and moonlight, with a cold frosty

air.

The two boys "Joey" and "Yarry" have been living in my service for a great length of time, and have been treated with the greatest kindness. I have never seen the overseer ill use either of them, nor do I think he was unnecessarily strict in exacting the very little service the boys were required to perform. And I can in no way account for the inducement that has led them to the perpetration of so fearful a crime, unless that, impelled by a desire of gratifying their appetites,

they had stolen the provisions, with a view of

leaving the party and endeavouring to return to Fowler's Bay, where they were aware a consi-derable supply of provisions had been left to fall back on in case of need, and that upon the overseer's awaking whilst they were in the act of plundering the camp, one of the boys had fired upon him to prevent his interference. This im-pression is strengthened from my having found the poor man stretched upon the ground upon his breast, with nothing but his shirt on, and only a few yards in advance of where he had been sleeping. At the same time, I fear much that the violence was premeditated in the event of the man's awaking; and my conviction is, that the gun had been deliberately loaded for that purpose prior to the robbery. This conviction rests upon the circumstance of my having found two loose cartridges near the fire where the boys had lain down, together with the ramrod of the rifle, which had been taken out for the purpose of charging one of the double-barrelled guns, as its own ram-rod was too short for that purpose. The latter had also been left upon the ground as useless. These were found when I first came up to the camp, and so short a time had elapsed between the firing of the shot and my arrival at the place, that they could not have been made use of for the purpose of reloading after having shot the poor

man.

Upon the morning of the 30th April I proceeded on our route ten miles, and then encamped until

the afternoon. Shortly before sunset, and whilst about to proceed again upon our route by night, the two boys made their appearance in the distance, having tracked us up during the day. I endeavoured to get near them, but they would not let me approach at all,retreating and dodging among the bushes as I advanced, but incessantly calling out to " Wylie," for the purpose, as I imagined, of inducing him to leave me and join them. The elder boy, " Joey," had my double barrelled gun with him at the time. Finding I could neither come near them nor procure any of the property they had stolen, I proceeded on-wards on our route to the westward, accompanied by "Wylie."I have never seen or heard anything

of the two boys since that period, and make no doubt but that they would endeavour to retrace their steps to Fowler's Bay, for the sake of the provisions we had left there.

EDWARD JOHN EYRE.

Sworn before me at Albany, King George's Sound,

this 9th day of July, 1841.

P. BELCHES, J.P. J. N. Phillips, Government Resident.

Colony of Western Australia, to wit.-In-formation of *' Wylie," taken before one. Peter Belches, one of her Majesty's Justices of the Peace in and for the Colony of Western Aus-tralia, taken according to the Act of Victoria No. 8. this ninth day of July, 1841 :

I left Fowler's Bay with Mr. Eyre and an other white man called Baxter, also two black lads named "Joey" and "Yarrey," belonging to the Sydney country. Mr. Eyre told me when we left Fowler's Bay that we were to walk to King George's Sound. After we had been walking a long distance "Joey" and "Yarrey" often told me that we should never get to King George, as we should die in the bush, and wished me to leave Mr. Eyre and return with them to Adelaide. One night Baxter, "Joey," "Yarrey," and myself were sleeping at the camp when Mr. Eyre was away some distance, watching the horses, which he used to do in turns. After I had been asleep some time, I was awoke by the noise of a gun having been fired. I jumped up, very much

frightened, and ran to Mr. Eyre, and called out to him "have you heard the gun?" He was then running towards the sleeping place, and asked what was the matter. We went imme-

diately to the tent, where we saw Baxter lying on the ground, breathing heavily; he was wounded in the breast, where a ball had entered; he never spoke after our arrival at the tent; in a short time he was dead. "Joey" and " Yarrey" were gone from the camp before Mr. Eyre and myself got to it, and they took with them five dampers, some tea and sugar, a keg of water, two double-bar-relled guns, some ammunition and cartridge-box. also our tobacco and pipes.

We immediately, after finding what had been done, left the place, and went forward for King George's Sound. On the following day we saw "Joey" and "Yarrey'' following us: "Joey" had a double-barrelled gun with him ; "Yarry" had also one. I heard them crying like a native dog. Mr. Eyre tried to get them close to us, but they ran away among the bushes, and we never saw anything more of them, and proceeded on our way to King George's Sound.

Declared before me at Albany, King George's

Sound, this 9th day of July, 1841.

PETER BELCHES, J. N. PHILLIPS, Government Resident.