Murder of Capt. Beevor and Mrs. Easton

There are many references to Capt James Rigby Beevor in early histories. Rodney Cockburn has collected these together in his "Pastoral Pioneers," for which it is gathered that Beevor must have been in South Australia in 1839. "Previous to migrating to Adelaide, he served in a regiment of Lancers throughout the Spanish war under Sir de Lacy Evan and General Anthoney Bacon, whose wife was Lady Charlotte Bacon, grandmother of Mr. Harry D. Young, M.P."

Bull describes him as "most amiable and gentlemanly man."

It was reported that one of his (Beevor's) men had accidentally shot a black. Whether this was the cause is not apparent but shortly afterwards, he decided to form a station at Port Lincoln, taking his sheep thereto, overland, or as Cockburn said, passing "from the frying pan into the fire."

Beevor assisted with the relief and protection party sent to aid Inman and Field, bringing sheep and cattle overland from the eastern Colony to Adelaide. Hailes stated that Capt. Beevor headed the volunteer party which assisted to chastise the Milmenura murderers of the crew of the Maria, down the Coorong way.

For a militant man, the description of a military man is interesting. Tolmer stated that Beevor was of a remarkably quiet, unassuming and kindly disposition. At one time Beevor lived at Mount Barker with the "admiral," a relative. Probably Mount Barker may have been used figuratively as covering the Mount Pleasant district. The Commissioner of Police (Mr. Dashwood) said he was "a gentleman of great respectability," also a very old colonist and at the end had a sheep station about 50 miles from Port Lincoln.

BEEVOR FOUND DEAD

On the morning of May 3, 1849, the partner, A. B. Lodwick (there are many ways of spelling this name) took the sheep out to pasture, leaving Beevor at the hut at Tornto, with three native men (Yenga, Yaltulti and Neentilta) one woman (Yabmanna) and a native boy. The last mentioned had been acting as a servant for some time. The partners had no white employes, and it was said that they lived on good terms with the natives. Tolmer said that Beevor was engaged that day making a rough bush chair, while Hailes said he was chopping firewood. About noon Beevor sent the boy to drive in the mare, the other natives remaining at the hut. The boy had some trouble in catching the mare, so it was some time before he got back, and when he did it was only to find Beevor dead, the hut ransacked and the other natives gone. Tolmer did not give a good account of the native boy's actions, which will be dealt with in the evidence at the trial, but the slight difference is immaterial. Lodwick returned in the evening and found Beevor dead at the door. Two spears had passed through him. There were no marks of any scuffle, and a loaded gun was inside the hut.

DIFFERENT VERSION

Hailes' description is somewhat different, for he recounts that one of the natives stealthily approached and split open his head with an axe, and elsewhere Hailes said that Beevor suffered a violent and painful death inflicted by the axe. It must be remembered that Beevor was a great friend of Hailes, but at the same time it must be realised that Hailes, when he made those remarks, was writing a series of picturesque reminiscences for a newspaper. Tolmer's own description is rather different, for he says that the party of natives was guided by a youth whom Beevor had treated with the utmost kindness, and regularly kept at the station. The youth was the first to throw the fatal spear from behind the corner of the hut. The natives then robbed the hut of as much flour, tea, sugar, tobacco and so as they could carry away. If some other native is substituted for the youth, doubtless Tolmer would not be far out. The native boy gave the alarm and helped to search for the murderers, and gave evidence at the trial.

As previously remarked it was firstly assumed that the murder was an act of revenge, but now Tolmer gives another and more probable reason, for he said that only a few days prior to the murder about a ton of flour and a large supply of other stores had arrived from port Lincoln, which knowledge must have been communicated to the rest of the tribe, who planned the horrible outrage. This released the natives from the charge of revenge. Prior to receipt of Tolmer's latest version, the Commissioner of Police in his quarterly report wrote :

"The supposition of their (the poisoning of natives and the murder of Beevor) being connected, is also strengthened by their known and natural propensities to retaliate and revenge the wrongs sustained by the members of their own tribe, and if eventually proved to be correct tends to point out the imprudence, to say the least of it, of resorting to unlawful methods of punishing the aborigines, a practice rendering the innocent on both sides liable to the consequence of the sins of the guilty."

On May 8, 1849, the Governor Resident advised the Colonial Secretary that he had received word on the 4th of the murder. Owing to the state of his health precluding him from holding an inquest, he asked W. S. Peter, J.P., to make an investigation, which he did. The depositions of Lodwick, Rigby and a native lad were taken, and sent with the letter. It was stated that Corporal Geharty was out with a party of police, and the Government Resident had great hopes that the well-known zeal and activity, combined with the knowledge of the country and habits of the natives possessed by Geharty, would result in the capture of some of them.

OFFICIAL COMMENT

Later on the Government Resident, commenting on this murder, wrote : — The cause of the outrage appears to me to have arisen from an injudicious reliance on the trustworthy and forbearing character of the natives. Their forbearance especially is kept in constant exercise by the sheep-farmers, who appear to suppose that their moral perceptions should be sufficiently vivid to deter them from going wrong although at the same time they are to be starved out of their inheritance and allured by the presence of large supplies of provision insufficiently protected. The report of this murder reached Port Lincoln on the morning of May 4, and immediate steps were taken to arrest the offenders, if possible. (Lance) Corporal Geharty was placed in charge of the pursuit. The Commissioner of Police gives an account of the chase :

" The character of the surrounding country, consisting of dense scrub, through which it was scarcely possible for Europeans to pass, and the stony ground always resorted to by the cunning savage on occasions of this kind, rendered the unwearied exertions of the police fruitless."

The police found in a hole at the back of the hut two parcels of flour and some clothing, which the native boy recognised as that worn by Neentilta and the lubra. All the blankets and about 5 cwt of flour were found to have been taken from the hut.

MRS. EASTON'S DEATH

The evening of May 7 saw the police preparing to camp for the night at one of the outstations belonging to Mr. Vaux, near Lake Hamilton, after a fatiguing search. To their consternation information was received that Mrs. Anne Easton, the wife of a shepherd residing about two miles from Vaux's (probably E. B. Vaux) head station had been murdered. Subsequently the husband stated that he had left his wife in bed on Monday, May 7, and gone to the head station. He told her to utilise a native, Neentulta, and his wife (probably there were two native women) who had been at the hut the previous evening, in cutting grass for filling up the bed tick. On his return in the evening he found, the wife dead on the floor, having been speared in several places, and otherwise abused, and the grass which was to have been cut, outside the hut door.

The late Mr. D. Myers in his reminiscences said : "To the west near Lake Hamilton, stands besides the main road, a lone chimney. At this hut many years ago a woman was murdered by the natives." From this, residents of the district should be able to locate the site of the murder. We know the type of man Geharty was. No time was lost; forthwith the party repaired to the hut. The lance-corporal entered the hut saw the body lying on a bed place, dead, a child six weeks old lying by her side, naked and unharmed, but exhausted with crying. It appeared the mother was dressing the baby when she was attacked. Three spears had entered her breast, another had passed through both cheeks and one was in the back of her neck. There was also, a bruise on the left thigh, apparently inflicted by some heavy instrument. Particular attention is drawn to the wealth of details as to the injuries inflicted : this aspect has an important bearing when considering the mythical Waterloo Bay massacre and Hamp's death. Even the Commissioner of Police used his vitriolic pen in giving minute details. "It is difficult even to imagine a more barbarous act," he wrote "so cruelly to deprive of life a poor helpless women, with an infant at her side, with no apparent object in view, save rifling the hut, which she could not have prevented — equals in atrocity anything recorded in the most dismal page of history."

Another Instalment Next Week.