Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1879 — THEBLACK TRACKERS. [ARTICLE]

THEBLACK TRACKERS.

How the British Turn Native Against Native in

The colony of Queensland, though one of the most recently established, possesses one of the largest territories in Australia, over the unsettled portion pf which roam the aborigines of the country. They belong to the Papuan portion of the negro family, and are among the lowest of mankind in mental capacity and physical formation. Very little effort has been made to civilize them, because experience has shown that they are almost incapable bf living a civilized life. - They wander in smalttribes, subsisting on roots and teh lowest forms of animal life. Their weapons are the spear, boomerang and nullah-nullah. The wealthy squatters (the term squatter in Australia is a title of and distinction) moving into the interior of the country, pastures his sheep and cattle upon the land, and now and then some wandering blacks appropriate what they w’ant. lul the northern portions of the colony’ the blacks capture, kill and eat people. Gold mining is carried on there Extensively, and there are thousands of Chinese engaged in the work. These go out in small parties to work or travel to and from alluvial diggings, and are often speared and eaten by the natives, who prefer a Chinaman to a white man. In the more settled districts? blacks frequently commit offenses jof a slight character. In all these Cases it has been found difficult for white men to arrest the natives, who | know thecountry better than they! and could subsist far easier in its trackless wildernesses. {Whites occasionally perpetrate serious offenses, and to avoid* punishment escape to the vast unexplored tracts tlftt lie beyond the- settled districts, in tht> hope of reaching some other colony where they could find security from arrest. To capture offending blacks or escaping whites, the Queensland Government established the native police force, or Black Trackers, ?as they are more generally termed, I They are selected from tribes as far away as nos sible from the locality in which they are designed for work, taken to a police station in some\small towii, taught to ride and handle a revolver. When there is any need for their services they are drafted to the place at Once. They are employed to track white men who have lost their way or Who are attempting to escape from justice. In this service they are valuable aids to the authorities. Like the Indian, they pdssess the power of tracing footsteps w’hich are indiscernable to other men. They follow’ them with the tenacity of the bloodhound, and many a horsethief and murderer has been brought to w the bar of justice by their efforts, while hundreds bf lives have been saved by their persevering search, for “lost in the bush” is an Australian phrase, almost synonomous with a horrible death by thirst and starvation. There is another work performed by the Black Tracker, and one in which he is constantly engaged. Australian journals frequently contain items to the effect that some officer went out with a party of native police and dispersed a mob of blacks. To one who does not understand the peculiarities of the Queensland police this item is unintefligibie; simply means that these black butchers;murdered every man, woman and child they could find. “To disperse” means to massacre. It is not very long ago that some cattle were stolen from a station about 200 miles from Bowen, and about sixty aboriginals —men, women and childern—were all butchered by these black fiends, because they were in the neighborhood. Three Chinese, on their way from Cook town to the Palmer river diggings were speared and eaten by the blacks and several days afterward about twenty natives were slaughtered by the black troopers. “ When a little girl was killed and eaten near Townsville, the natives fell like leaves in autumn. It may be asked if these people do not resort-to firearms. Strange to say, they do Neither do they seem to understand the use of them until it is proven by the death of many of their men. When first brought in contact with the trackers they had no fear of the revolvers and carbines, but?rushed wildly to certain death. On sion, when a number of them had been killed, some of the remainder took refuge in the trees, imagining that the firearms could only send its bullets along the ground, and that they were as safe among the branches as the bird from their own boomerang. They have never adopted the weapons, however, though they could easily do so for the same class who have furnished the Indians with firearms could supply them. There are many small towns into which they are not allowed to go, partly because they dress as nature dressed them, but principly on account of their treacherous character. Driven away from white men in this way, and treated with insult an d’in jury whereever met, it is not very surprising that they occasionally spear and carry off sheep and cattle, or kill And eat men whom they meet. Whenever these outrages occur, word is? sent to the police authorities and the;Black Trackers are turned'loose in charge of a white man to disperse the natives. The black trooper detests his less fortunate brother of the wilderness, and shows no mercy. He pursues them day after day for hundreds of miles and shoots them down one and all, when he gets the chance. It frequently occurs that one party of natives commit the outrage while another party are destroyed for doing it. A party is reported to be in a certain vicinity and the trackers are ordered out. Their aim is to punish the perpetrators of crime, but they combine the powers of Judge, jury and executioner. The white men who lead them are frequently as bloodthirsty as them sei ves, and often excel them In acts of wanton cruelty, as will be seen from the follow-

ing account of the destruction of naappeared in a late number of the Queensland Patriot, a daily journal published at Brisbane, the cap it of the colony:

One native police officer, no longer m the service, had a mob of blacks driven into a water-hole. His troopers had the water surrounded, and there was no escape for the miserable blacks. One by one the despairing wretches were shot as they rose to the surface of the water to breathe, each marksman knowing that his shot was successful by the dull thud of the bullet as it buried itself in a human brain. The officer stood by, and at last felt that he would like to take a personal share in the work. Stripping to his shirt, and with a tomahawk in his belt, he entered the water, and with demonstrations of peace induced one of the surviving wretches to approach closely. When the black Was near enough, the white savage whipped out his tomahawk and buried it in his Victim’s brain. The water-holes here spoken of are places to which the natives resort to quench their thirst. They are often constucted by the proprietors of large estates, but are more more frequently the work of nature. The Black Trackers know these places well, and they also know that the natives must come to them for water. When out in search of blood they frequently wait about

these waterholes for days, slaughtering unsuspecting natives who come near. They very rarely if ever take prisoners, simply destroy the people like so many wild animals. White men are found ; who boast of the number they'have killed, and a man near Somerset, Cape York, has a fence about his premises, each post of which is surmounted by a human skull, which, he claims, represents a native whom he has shot. The Black Trackers mark their rifles, each mark indicating the death of an aboriginal. On some of them there is no room for any more marks. It is not only in the thinly settled districts that these deeds of blood dccun but also in the vicinity of towns of from 500 to 2,000 people. By law’ the natives areforbidden to enter these towns, nearly all of which are upon the sea coast. They come, however, to gather such offal as they can on the oinskirts of the town. The slightest theft is then sufficient to send the black trooper out, and woe betide the wretches whose safety has not been secured by flight, C Neither age nor sex is regarded. The babe at the breast, the gray-haired crone, the maiden and the man in his prime are all regarded alike, and shot down. The black troopers delight in the work, and never seem to tire of it. They hate and despise blacks of other tribes than their own; and coming, as they do, hundreds of miles from the scene or. their labors, have no affinity, with those of their race about them, and do their work without a thought save of destroying those whom they are ordered to attack. hT These disgraceful proceedings have attracted considerable attention during the past year, and petitions have been > presented to the Queensland Parliament, praying for the disbandment o the native police. One Parliamentary Committee has investigated and reported upon the matter, their report furnishing one of the most sickening details of crimes and that could possibly be imagined.—[San • Francisco Chronicle.