This blackfellow's face was made up of hollows and protuberances ugly
beyond all aboriginal ugliness. I was present at an interview
between him and senior-constable Hooley, who nearly rivalled the
savage in lack of beauty. Hooley had been a soldier in the Fifth
Fusiliers, and had been convicted of the crime of manslaughter,
having killed a coloured man near Port Louis, in the Mauritius. He
was sentenced to penal servitude for the offence, and had passed two
years of his time in Tasmania. This incident had produced in his
mind an interest in blackfellows generally, and on seeing Gellibrand
outside the Colac courthouse, he walked up to him, and looked him
steadily in the face, without saying a word or moving a muscle of his
countenance. I never saw a more lovely pair. The black fellow
returned the gaze unflinchingly, his deep-set eyes fixed fiercely on
those of the Irishman, his nostrils dilated, and his frowning
forehead wrinkled and hard, as if cast in iron. The two men looked
like two wild beasts preparing for a deadly fight. At length, Hooley
moved his face nearer to that of the savage, until their noses almost
met, and between his teeth he slowly ejaculated: "You eat white man?
You eat me? Eh?" Then the deep frown on Gellibrand's face began
slowly to relax, his thick lips parted by degrees, and displayed,
ready for business, his sharp and shining teeth, white as snow and
hard as steel.
Pages:
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284