History of the Australian BushrangersBoxall, George
History
History of the Australian Bushrangers
Boxall, George
Bushrangers -- Australia
Our tinder got wet and we were very cold
and hungry. Bill Cornelius said 'I'm so hungry I could eat a piece
of a man.' The next morning there were four of us for a feast. Bob
Greenhill said he had 'seen the like done before and it eat much like
pork.' Mathers spoke out and said it would be murder; and perhaps then
we could not eat it. 'I'll warrant you,' said Greenhill, 'I'll eat the
first bit; but, you must all lend a hand, so that we'll all be equal
in the crime.' We consulted about who should fall, and Greenhill said,
'Dalton, he volunteered to be a flogger. We will kill him.' We made a
bit of a breakwind with boughs, and about three in the morning Dalton
was asleep. Then Greenhill struck him on the head with an axe and he
never spoke after. Greenhill called Travers, and he cut Dalton's throat
to bleed him. Then we dragged him away a bit and cut him up. Travers
and Greenhill put his heart and liver on the fire and ate them before
they were right warm. The others refused to eat any that night, but the
next morning it was cut up and divided and we all got our share. We
started a little after sunrise. One man was appointed each day to walk
ahead and make a road. He carried nothing but a tomahawk. The others
carried the things. This morning Cornelius and Brown said they would go
ahead together and carry the pots. We had not gone far when the leaders
were missing. We went back to look for them, but could see no signs of
them. We said, 'They will go back and hang us all,' but we thought they
would not find the way, so we went on. We walked for four days through
bad country, till we came to a big river. We thought it was the Gordon.
We stopped a day and two nights looking for a place to cross. We felled
trees, but the stream was too strong and carried them away. Travers
and Bodenham couldn't swim, but at last we got over and cut a pole
thirty or forty feet long and reached it across, where there was a rock
jutting out into the river, and pulled them across. We got up the hill
with great difficulty, it was so steep. The ground was very barren on
the other side, and covered with scrub. We were very weak and hungry.
A consultation was held as to who should be the next victim. Bodenham
did not know anything about it, and it was resolved to kill him. Me and
Mathers went to gather wood, Travers saying, 'You'll hear it directly.'
About two minutes after Mathers said, 'He's done; Greenhill hit him
with the axe and Travers cut his throat.' Greenhill took Bodenham's
shoes and put them on, for his own were very bad. We ate only the
heart and liver that night. Next day we camped and dried the meat. We
travelled on for three days, and saw many emus and kangaroos, but could
not catch them. Mathers and me went away together, and Mathers said,
'Let us go on by ourselves. You see what kind of a cove Greenhill is.
He'd kill his own father before he'd fast for a day.' We travelled on
for two days more. We boiled a piece of the meat, and it made Mathers
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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