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Updated: May 24, 2025
These resolutions having been passed, the whole assembly came to the governor to inquire whether he told the truth, when he said that he was not personally angry with Peerat's family, and that they should not be killed; and being satisfied upon this point, they all proceeded together in search of the offending parties.
Previously however to my quitting the town one gentleman joined me, and thus reinforced we started on Peerat's tracks; these we followed for about seven miles in a west by north direction from the settlement, when we suddenly saw the bush set on fire and thus became aware of our proximity to a party of natives.
Tooleegatwalee and his friends the object of my mission; I told them that Peerat's wives and son had stolen potatoes, that I had come out to make them prisoners, that if they were given up to me they should only undergo the regular punishment for petty theft; but if they were not delivered over that I would stop the regular allowance of flour which was issued to all the natives every two months, thus punishing them all; and that I would moreover return home, and then come out with a party of soldiers and fire upon Peerat and his party wherever I found them.
Peerat threw back his skin to give his arm fair play, and then, brandishing his meerro, was going to hit her a tremendous blow upon the head, which must have laid it open. The poor girl stood with her back towards her husband, trembling and crying bitterly. I caught Peerat's arm, picked up a little switch from the ground, and told him to beat her on the shoulders with that.
While things were in this confusion the governor went alone to Peerat's fire, and seized his little boy, Dal-bean, but could see nothing of the wives, who were, most likely, busy digging roots for the family. The boy was told that if he moved he would be shot, a threat which kept him very quiet; but Peerat soon found out what had happened, and came running after them.
Accompanied by four natives only, the governor pressed forward, following Peerat's tracks for about nine miles in a direction where the Bush had been set on fire by the natives, until he met with some of these, who were solemnly informed of the theft and of the names of the criminals, whom he had come to take prisoners; if these were given up, it was promised that they should undergo only the regular punishment for petty robbery; otherwise, the usual allowance of flour, which was issued to all the natives every two months, was to be stopped; and it was threatened that a party of soldiers should be brought out to fire upon Peerat and his party wherever they might be found.
Peerat did not bring in his wives, and to all the solicitations which were offered me on the part of the natives for the release of my little prisoner I answered that, when Peerat's wives were brought in and given over to the hands of justice, I would punish the boy and release him; but if the other delinquents were not given up I should conceive it to be a sign that the natives were not satisfied with my decision, and therefore send the boy on to Swan River to be tried.
By the help of an intelligent native, the tracks of three persons were found in the garden that had been robbed, and the footsteps were pronounced to be those of Peerat's two wives, and his son Dal-bean. These had all walked off into the Bush, meaning, probably, to avoid suspicion, and to wait till the affair had passed quietly over.
I however refuted this evidence by mentioning the fact of his footmarks being in the garden. They then urged that Peerat's second wife had also been engaged in the theft, and that she was just the size of the boy; this however again was over-ruled from the fact of her footmarks having been also seen there.
All native altercations are vociferous and noisy in the extreme, and are usually accompanied with a great deal of running and leaping about and quivering of spears; these circumstances I now took advantage of, and, whilst the others threatened to spear one another in all imaginable places, I wended my solitary way towards Peerat's fire, where I discovered Master Dalbean, but could see nothing whatever of the ladies, who, I presume, were absent digging roots.
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