Adec Preview Generated PDF File - The Sydney eScholarship ...

attempt at concealment of them, but rather prided themselves on
their possession.
Some of the scenes that then took place are thus described by our
special correspondent:- Men, or rather monsters, on horseback,
armed with bludgeons and whips, with fiend-like fury, securing the
unfortunate creatures by taking hold of their tails and pulling their
heads so that they came with their backs to the horse and their
heads upon the saddle, and then cutting or rather sawing them off,
and leaving them to the fury of the others who surrounded them.
One unfortunate Chinese boy went down upon his knees, the tears
ran down his cheeks as he lifted his hands and pleaded for mercy: a
ruffian, with a bludgeon sufficient to kill a giant, with one blow felled
him to the ground. Another unfortunate creature, a cripple, was
trying to crawl away into the bush - he could not walk - and
endeavouring to take a blanket; it was ruthlessly torn from him, and
carried to a fire where their property was being consumed. Here
was to be seen another propped up against a tree, his forehead laid
open, and the blood running down his face - truly terrible to behold.
But these details are sickening. I have only mentioned what came
under my own notice. Were I to narrate only a tithe of the atrocities
committed that day, that have been communicated to me, it would
fill a volume. Mr. Henley, the Chinese interpreter, in a letter he has
addressed to the Governor, detailing his view of this outrage,
mentions the following:- A European woman with three small
children, who is the wife of a Chinaman, was sitting in her tent
rocking her baby in the cradle. The lawless mob burned down her
tent , and the cradle wherein he infant was sleeping. Her own and
children's clothing were torn to pieces by a lot of vagabonds, who
counselled together for the violation of the woman and the murder
of the children, but were prevented by the timely interference of
some of their number less hardened than the others.' (Sydney
Morning Herald, 20 July 1861, quoted by Crowley, 1982, vol 2:434­
436)