Trials of Native Murderers

With the return to Adelaide on November 30, 1842, of Major O'Halloran, Mr. Hawker, four policemen and two aboriginal prisoners (Nultia and Moullia) the work of subduing the natives was not completed. For some little time arrests were made, but by the more peaceful process of the law. Neither were the natives in the immediate vicinity of Port Lincoln subdued. The search for the lost Dutton will reveal that the natives were still inclined to contest the powers of the whites.

Two instances are related that stations were raided, and the White brothers, not caring to combat the natives as well as the character of the country, left the Peninsula for better country north of Adelaide. The shepherds in charge of sheep belonging to the late Mr. Biddle were driven away from Brown's station by the natives and arrived at Port Lincoln on February 27, 1843, indicating that the natives were still troublesome. About the same time as this event, the White brothers were evacuating their station, and the court book records that Mr. White left finally by the King Henry on February 14, I843.

Mr. McEllister's station was again raided about May 10, I843, when the natives threw large stones on the hut. Presumably arising out of the raid on Dutton's station, Moorpa, a native, was charged at Port Lincoln Court on February 28, 1842, and subsequently tried at the Supreme Court on July 9, 1842, with stealing sheep and assaulting shepherds. He was found guilty and the death sentence was recorded, which was apparently commuted, as he returned to Port Lincoln on April 28 1845. Moorpa and Moullia were returned at the same time.

Another native, Nante, was charged at the Port Lincoln Court with larceny, and was sentenced at the Supreme Court in July, 1842, to three months' imprisonment and to be publicly whipped. On May 26, 1842, the lieutenant charged Nurka with stealing a greatcoat from Pillaworta. He was committed to Adelaide for trial. The same offender was charged with stealing a bag of flour the property of the late Mr. Brown.

BIDDLE MURDER

On November 11, 1842, the records show that Charles Tubbs charged Nultia (alias Buckandeer) and Moullia with the murder of Mr. Rolles Biddle and others. The case was adjourned until the 23rd, when both natives were committed for trial. Both prisoners admitted being present, but denied having committed the murders. The sheriff's deputy (Mr. Ashton) brought back these two prisoners on April 1, 1843, and Nultia was executed on the 7th at Mr. Biddle's station. Mr. Ashton returned to Adelaide on the 10th of the same month.

The reason is not apparent why Moullia was taken to Port Lincoln with the condemned native. He was returned to Adelaide, and kept imprisoned until 1845, when he was released at the earnest solicitation of the Government Resident. The Colonial Secretary's letter dealing with the release is dated April 23, 1845. It was on the same day that His Excellency the Governor (Capt. George Grey), with Godfrey Thomas, R. R. Torrens and George French Angas, left by the cutter Janne and Emma for Rivoli Bay, Kangaroo Island and Port Lincoln, so it was appropriate that the Colonial Secretary should write : "His Excellency is of the opinion that no more fitting opportunity than the present for the release of Moullia could offer itself.''

The captain of the boat was not to be paid passage money until the Government Resident certified that the natives had been well treated aboard. The Governor and his party with the exception of G. French Angas returned to Port Adelaide on May 4. In company with Moorpa, Moullia was returned to Port Lincoln under the care of the Protector of Aborigines, arriving there on April 28, 1845. The Colonial Secretary in advising the Government Resident wrote: "His Excellency directs me to request that you will inform the aborigines at Port Lincoln that your representations on behalf of the prisoner and, together with the favorable report which you have made of their general conduct, have induced the Governor to pardon Moullia." The Government Resident advised the Colonial Secretary that the Governor's instructions respecting the released natives had been fully carried out.

STUDY OF PRISONERS

On May 12, 1843, Matthew Waygood (probably successor to Hugonin) charged Narraby (alias Jemmy) with murdering Elizabeth Tubbs on March 29th. He was committed to Adelaide for trial. This prisoner named Ngurpa, Multa, Yaki, Kingulta, Mirka, Wanda, Ngaki, Pilga, Punga, Pamba, and Milli as the murderers of Mr. Biddle and employes. In view of the preceding entries, it is difficult to understand the following account by Hailes. Nultia was executed prior to the arrest of Narrabie. I wonder if Narrabie has been written in error for Moullia, and that Moullia was not hung.

Hailes records that two natives named Narrabie and Nultia, were ar-rested and subsequently tried in Adelaide as participants in the murders of Biddle, Fastins and Mrs. Tubbs. They were convicted and executed on the site of the desolate homestead. Others of the tribe were subjected to minor punishment. The two convicted natives were under Hailes's observation for several days, and his remarks about them will well stand repeating : —"They were brothers, and probably twins so alike were they in features and figure, that although I could distinguish one from the other when both were present, to the last I was puzzled, at the sight of either singly to declare which prisoner stood before me. Canova or Chantrey, had either condescended to carve in ebony, could not have produced more exquisite miniatures of the human form, for they were very small. Their hands and feet especially were beautiful. That most important feature or collection of features, the head, presented nothing repulsive or sanguinary. Their foreheads were well formed, their teeth faultless as ivory, and their large lustrous eyes, if they failed to express acquired intelligence, were nevertheless full of human feeling and pathetic meaning."

" I had frequent conversations with them, and whenever we talked of their approaching doom, as we generally did, their eyes filled with tears. They were always calm and gentle in their demeanour. No indication of ferocity manifested itself from first to last, and I am certain it was no clement of their nature. The statement which they made to me I fully believe. It was one, whose admissions justified their punishment, without fixing on them any prominent responsibility in regard to the atrocity committed. They were neither the plotters nor active perpetrators of it, yet nevertheless implicated in the foul outrage in common with all the tribe. As often happens among men of lighter colour, the greater criminals escaped, while some of the less guilty suffered."

EVIDENCE OF TUBBS

The trial of Ngarbi (alias Little Jemmy, probably referred to elsewhere as Narrabie or Narraby) and some of the evidence from the depositions, is recorded by Alexander Tolmer. The evidence of Charles Tubbs (Tolmer speaks of him as Stubbs) was epitomised as follows : —

"On the 28th March about one o'clock, I saw thirty six blacks come up to the hut. Mr. Biddle, Fastins (called by Tolmer Fastings) and myself and wife were at dinner. Suddenly we heard a 'Cooee,' where upon we all went out, except my wife. The prisoner was one of the blacks. He said 'Charley'; I replied ' Yes, is that you, Jemmy ?' He said ' Yes.' I spoke to him twice. The blacks at this time were digging up potatoes in the field close to the hut. Prisoner was one of them. There were two huts, about sixty yards apart. One was my master's, which the blacks robbed of everything, after which they rushed towards our hut, so that we could not keep them back, and commenced throwing spears, which struck a dog."

"They then went away, and returned in about an hour. We heard a cooee a second time, and again went out, when a spear was thrown at Fastins, by a native who had sneaked round the hut. He cried out, ' I am speared.' I took the spear out of his thigh. Mr. Biddle then went up and shot the black and called my attention to two other natives who were throwing spears at me. They were thirty yards off, and I shot them both. I then gave my master the gun to reload."

"I remained outside till I had four spears in me, then went into the hut and shut the door. The blacks then threw spears through the window, one of which struck Mr. Biddle on the left side. He said ' O, Charles ! I am a dead man.' I pulled it out and as I did so, he fell on his face and never spoke after. One of the natives fetched a prong (pitchfork?) and stabbed it into Fastins who was on the ground."

"The natives then rushed into the hut and drew out the bedstead underneath which my wife had crept and seized a pair of shears (sheep shears?) that were hanging there and stabbed her with them. I could not see for blood, but heard my wife cry out 'Oh, Jemmy! ' and heard something run into her. I know it was a pair of shears, because I afterwards saw the wounds. The shears were open. They then opened my wife's boxes and took her clothes away, and left, first setting fire to the brush fence, and making a noise for some minutes. The prisoner was foremost when the natives came a second time."

CONDEMNED MAN APATHETIC

Ex-policeman McEllister said , he went on March 26 to Mr. Biddle's place, to bring in the bodies. Mr. Biddle's house was torn to pieces. He found the bodies at the mens hut. Mrs. Tubbs was dead ; she was lying with her head on Fastins' stomach. Her head appeared to have been cut with an axe, and part of her hair was torn off. The wounds in Mrs. Tubbs body were apparently made by a sharp instrument, like shears. He saw Tubbs at White's station, eight or nine miles off, the same night. He was very bad, and had his face covered with a cloth. The fence had been fired near the hut. A verdict of guilty was returned and death sentence passed, which was carried cut at the entrance to the local gaol on August 1, 1843.

Tolmer says Ngarbi showed the same outward apathy as those of his race executed on a prior occasion. The Adelaide "Observer" July 22, 1843, states that Ngarbi was charged with the murder of Mrs. Tubbs, and sentenced on July 20 to be hung on August 1. From this it is certain that Little Jemmy was not executed at Long Ham. The Little Jemmy of Waygood was Narraby, and of Tolmer Ngarbi. The question may be naturally asked, how many natives were acknowledged to have been killed by the whites? The accounts are so conflicting that it is impossible to say. And at the present stage of my researches the same answer would have to be given as to the number of natives executed or who received minor punishment. Hailes wrote regarding conflicts between whites and blacks generally : "The causes of misunderstanding are trivial . . . and while the aboriginal atrocities are made known in all detail, the white provocation and reprisals remain to a considerable extent secret."

(Another Instalment next week.)