He was a splendid horseman, had long limbs like
King Edward Longshanks, and was in the habit of making dashing
excursions with a couple of troopers to take cursory views of the
country. He set out in the month of May, 1844, and was introduced to
the settlers in the following letter by "a brother squatter":
"Gentlemen, look out. The jackal of your oppressor has started on a
tour. For what purpose? To see the isolated and miserable domiciles
you occupy and the hard fare on which you subsist? No! but to see
if the oppressor can further apply the screw with success and
impunity. You have located yourselves upon lands at the risk of life
and property, paying to the Government in license and assessment fees
for protection which you have never received, and your quiesence
under such a system of robbery has stimulated your oppressor to levy
on you a still greater amount of taxation, not to advance your
interests, but to replenish his exhausted treasury. Should you
strain your impoverished exchequer to entertain your (in a family
sense) worthy superintendent, depend upon it he will recommend a
more severe application of the screw. Give him, therefore, your
ordinary fare, salt junk and damper, or scabby mutton, with a pot of
Jack the Painter's tea, in a black pot stirred with a greasy knife."
Mr. Latrobe and Sir George bore all the weight of public abuse, and
it was heavy.
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