Old Melbourne Memories: Second Edition, RevisedBoldrewood, Rolf
History
Old Melbourne Memories: Second Edition, Revised
Boldrewood, Rolf
Frontier and pioneer life -- Australia -- Melbourne (Vic.); Victoria -- Description and travel; Victoria -- Social life and customs
As they stood before me I had a good opportunity of observing their
general appearance. Buckup was a fine-looking fellow, six feet high,
broad shouldered and well proportioned, with a bold, open cast of
countenance, set off with well-trimmed whiskers and moustache. He was a
crack hand with the gloves, I heard afterwards, and so good a wrestler
that he might have come off in a contest with Sergeant Francis Stewart,
sometimes called Bothwell, nearly as satisfactorily as did Balfour of
Burley. Tallboy, so called from his unusual height, probably, was a
couple of inches taller, but slender and wiry looking; while Yapton was
a middle-sized, active warrior, with a smooth face, a high nose, heavy,
straight hair, and a grim jaw. I thought at the time he must be very
like an American Indian. The others I do not particularly recall, but
all had a smart, serviceable look, as they commenced to unsaddle their
horses and pile their arms and accoutrements, preparatory to making camp
in a spot which I had pointed out to them.
They spent the rest of the day in this necessary preliminary, and by
nightfall had a couple of mia-mias solidly built with their backs to the
sea wind, and neatly thatched with tussac grass from the marsh.
During the afternoon Buckup held consultation with me, Joe Burge, and
Old Tom, at the conclusion of which he professed himself to be in
possession of the requisite information, and decided as to future
operations.
Next morning, early, the white troopers and the blacks started off for a
long day in the Rocks, on foot. It was almost impossible to take horses
through that rugged country, and the police horses were too good to be
needlessly exposed to lameness, and probably disablement. Long
afterwards a trusty retainer of mine was betrayed into a hardish ride
therein after an unusually tempting mob of fat cattle and unbranded
calves, which had escaped muster for more than a year. The shoes of the
gallant mare which he rode came off before the day was done. He was
compelled to leave her with bleeding feet a mile from the edge of the
smooth country, bringing out the cattle, however, with the aid of his
dogs. Next day we went back to lead her out, but poor Chilena was as
dead as Britomarte.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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