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They would puzzle the savages greatly, of course, but I hope no ill consequences ensued; if they began pulling them about, or put them in the fire, the better to separate the wood and iron, two or three poor wretches might be killed or maimed for life, and their first recollections of the 'Quibra men, as Miago calls us, would naturally be anything but favourable.
Bennyyowlee, who, with his friends and supporters were encamped within a few yards of the other party, went up to Mugawit and ordered her to follow him to his Mya, or bark hut; this she declined doing, and he immediately speared her in the thigh. Miago now, as in duty bound, threw a quartz-headed spear at Bennyyowlee, which, if the latter had not most dexterously avoided, must have proved fatal.
Mulligo was a Ngotak and had two wives, Kokoobung and Mugarwit, both of the Ballaroke family, and neither of them deficient either in youth, or in such personal charms as find favour in the eyes of the natives. According to native custom however they of right, upon their husband's death, became the wives of Miago.
"Miago, when he was landed, had amongst the white people none who would be truly friends of his, they would give him scraps from their table, but the very outcasts of the whites would not have treated him as an equal, they had no sympathy with him, he could not have married a white woman, he had no certain means of subsistence open to him, he never could have been either a husband or a father, if he had lived apart from his own people; where, amongst the whites, was he to find one who would have filled for him the place of his black mother, whom he is much attached to? what white man would have been his brother? what white woman his sister?
Miago. This last sketch of native character may serve to place in a striking, yet fair light, the perplexing situation of the half-civilised blacks, the strong inducements for them to relapse into barbarism again, and, consequently, the difficulty that stands in the way of their being thoroughly reclaimed. It is impossible to do this better than in the very words of Captain Grey.
"I will state a remarkable instance of this: The officers of the Beagle took away with them a native of the name of Miago, who remained absent with them for several months. The next time I saw him was at Swan River, where he had been left on the return of the Beagle. He was then again a savage, almost naked, painted all over, and had been concerned in several murders.
At Perth we found our old shipmate Miago, and were sorry to observe that he was as great a savage as ever. He had got into considerable disgrace among his fellows on account of his having performed one of these feats of which he was so continually boasting on the North-west coast, namely, carrying away a woman. He was hiding about, in momentary fear of being speared by those whom he had injured.
"When Captain Wickharn and myself left the ship at Point Cunningham, in the hope of inducing the natives to return with us, Miago, hearing of the expected visit, immediately went below and dressed himself to the best possible advantage.
Not being able to persuade Miago to accompany us, he being too much engaged with his new wife, we enlisted the services of a native youth who generally went by the name of Tom, and left Gage Roads on the afternoon of April 4th. Off the west end of Rottnest a sail was seen, which we afterwards found, to our mortification, was H.M.S. Britomart, from Port Essington.
"We were considerably amused with the consequential air Miago assumed towards his countrymen on our arrival, which afforded us a not uninstructive instance of the prevalence of the ordinary infirmities of our common human nature, whether of pride or vanity, universally to be met with, both in the civilised man and the uncultivated savage.
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