^"^^^ M O Y A R R A
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES

 
 < 
 
 o 
 
 Si 
 
 7.
 
 M O Y A R R A 
 
 an Hustralian Xeocnb 
 
 ' IN TWO CANTOS. 
 
 BY 
 
 YITTADAIRN^ 
 
 ^, e 
 
 Heme stun : Jmtnani nihil a mc alicjuivi piito. 
 
 , t 
 
 I 
 
 LONDON 
 E. A. PETHERICK & CO., zz Paternoster^^^^ 
 
 AND AT 
 
 MELBOURNE AND SYDNEY 
 189I
 
 Richard Clay and Sons, Limited, 
 london and bungay.
 
 ■7-f 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 '^ Page 30, line 14, after "this" insert "ill."
 
 MOYARRA, by " YITTADAIRN. ' 
 
 Sir Frederick Barlee (who was Colonial Secretary of Western Aus- 
 tralia for about twenty years) wrote to the Author of " Moyarra " 
 —5th April, 1873 — 
 
 " I write one line to thank you for the pleasure you aflbrded me 
 in the perusal of ' Moyarra.' I really enjoyed it, and read it several 
 times ; and to those who know anything of the character of the 
 Australian aborieinal, there is nothing overdrawn or far-letched. 
 
 F. P. Barlee." 
 
 PR 
 
 " MOYARRA 5.:^>/9 
 
 Experimini ^ ' 
 
 In utramque partem ingenium quid possit meum. 
 Si nunquam avare pretium statui arti mes 
 Et eum esse qujestum in animum induxi maximum 
 Guam maxime servire vestris commodis ; 
 Exemplum statuite in me, ut adolescentuli 
 Vobis placere studeant potius quam sibi. 
 
 Written with the foregoing heading, more than 
 half a century ago, and intended for pubHcation in 
 England at that time, the following Legend is now 
 printed in order that the writer may present copies 
 to friends. 
 
 Few changes are needed in the prefatory words 
 which were prepared for it in the early half of the 
 nineteenth century. Most of them are as applic- 
 able now as they were then ; and, written under 
 impressions fresh and youthful, they may still fitly 
 introduce my rhymes. 
 
 '' No one has, so far as I know, attempted to 
 depict the simple lives of that race which is now 
 
 976886
 
 6 MOYARRA 
 
 so fast melting away before the ardour of the white 
 man's progress in the AustraHan bush : — soon none 
 of the natural heirs of the soil will remain ; and, 
 even now, their primitive life is comparatively- 
 unknown to the majority of their invaders. 
 
 " I would fain do honour to those artless qualities 
 which have often been my sole social amusement 
 when, week after week, I have sojourned in the 
 bush, with no other companion than my faithful 
 Australian, my dog, and my horse ; and I bear 
 willing testimony to the fidelity and cheerfulness 
 which have sometimes made me think my sable 
 companion a pattern worthy of imitation by many 
 of his white and contemptuous supplanters. 
 
 " Gratitude, therefore, is one motive which induces 
 me to publish ; and if I fail to give pleasure to my 
 countrymen they may yet perhaps, for the sake 
 of the motive, excuse the awkwardness of the 
 deed. 
 
 " For the truthful air of the poem I ought easily 
 to be able to vouch ; it was written (or rather com- 
 posed and jotted down subsequently at intervals) 
 when I was in daily communication with the un- 
 fortunate race of which it treats ; and I now pre- 
 sent it as originally written rather than interfere 
 with it in a manner which might prejudice its faith- 
 fulness as a representation."
 
 MOYARRA 
 
 I. 
 
 In that far isle which, long unknown, 
 Confesses now Britannia's throne, 
 The sun who flings his genial ray 
 O'er every clime from day to day. 
 Beheld one born to that dark race 
 Who hail the woods their dwelling place. 
 
 The opening buds upon the trees 
 Were gently waving in the breeze ; 
 The flowerets round, of every hue, 
 Bent with full drops of morning dew ; 
 The feathered choir to greet the day 
 Poured forth their merry roundelay ; 
 The robin with his blood-red hue, 
 The warbler of cerulean blue.
 
 MOYARRA 
 
 And all the variegated kind 
 
 That haunt the grove or ride the wind, 
 
 All — all conspired with tuneful lays 
 
 To hymn their great Creator's praise ; 
 
 Nature, and nature's voice were glad — 
 
 While man — doomed man — alone was sad. 
 
 But it is past, — one pilgrim more 
 Shall wear the chain his fathers wore : 
 He, too, affection's bonds shall nourish, 
 While yet, alas ! their cause may flourish ; — 
 And, when those links are rent in twain, 
 He, too, shall find the broken chain. 
 Which once had cheered his happier daj', 
 Corrode his inmost heart away. 
 
 And is this all ? And do we cherish 
 The flower that must to-morrow perish ? 
 And is our earthly term so brief 
 Of bliss, so permanent of grief ? 
 Affections blighted and decaying, 
 Hope once how bright ! but still delaying ; 
 Where'er our wanderings, shall show 
 This life a pilgrimage of woe.
 
 MOYARRA 
 
 II. 
 
 Moyarra lived a reckless child 
 
 And deemed, albeit a savage, wild : 
 
 His mimic spear was early sped 
 
 Far o'er each wondering comrade's head : 
 
 The eucalyptus on the hill 
 
 Was silent challenge to his skill: — 
 
 Did torrents deck the mountain's side, 
 
 Moyarra stemmed the foaming tide : — 
 
 If spies went forth to circumvent 
 
 The neighbouring tribes on plunder bent, 
 
 Moyarra clasped his hands in prayer 
 
 That he, though young, th' exploit might share. 
 
 III. 
 
 Long years have passed ; those rites ^ are done 
 
 Which, handed down from sire to son. 
 
 Still from that wandering people claim 
 
 Obeisance to religion's name : 
 
 Their temple is the earth, air, sky, 
 
 And through the gorgeous canopy 
 
 The moon, their priestess, wades in light — 
 
 While round her path, in order bright,
 
 lo MOYARRA 
 
 The stars, her ministers, array 
 Their gleaming ranks until the day, 
 Returning, chase their fires away. 
 
 Around, in frowning grandeur, stand 
 The forest patriarchs of the land ; 
 In sullen sanction of the hour 
 They wave beneath the West wind's power, 
 Till the whole grove, with yielding grace, 
 Murmurs around the sacred place. 
 
 Moyarra felt his being thrill 
 Within him, as by magic spell ; 
 Like lightning, through his sanguine frame 
 As the electric transport came, 
 In fuller tide his life-blood ran ; 
 He knew — he felt himself, a man. 
 
 Then, by those lights which o'er him sparkled, 
 And by the woods which round him darkled. 
 By the blue arch extended o'er him, 
 And by the sacred rites before him. 
 He vowed to that dear mother earth 
 Which gave his ancestry their birth 
 To wage, till life's extremest close, 
 Unyielding v^arfare 'gainst her foes. 
 
 His conscious step, his haughty bearing
 
 MOYARRA II 
 
 Bespoke a spirit proud and daring ; 
 The flashing of his eye confessed 
 The courage manthng in his breast. 
 
 The hoary warriors round him smiled 
 Approval of his fervour wild ; 
 Recounting deeds themselves had done 
 Ere yet their bloom of youth had flown. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Rise, Mytah ! the graceful, and list to thy lover ; 
 The day is declining, my toils are all over ; 
 Fresh spoils from the stream and the forest I bring, 
 And flowers wet with dew of the fragrance of 
 Spring. 
 
 As the young blade of grass to the swift kangaroo 
 So dear to me, Mytah, one kind glance from you : 
 As the flowers love the dew-drops which nightly 
 
 they sip, 
 In thy smiles I would revel, and feast on thy lip. 
 
 Then haste thee thy faithful Moyarra to cheer 
 With the sound of that voice which is sweet to 
 mine ear ;
 
 12 MOYARRA 
 
 And the name of my Mytah shall ever remain 
 The home of my thoughts, and the theme of my 
 strain. 
 
 Ere the song had ceased the maiden's breast 
 Was throbbing with tumultuous passion, 
 
 And at its close she gently rose 
 And glided to her lover's station. 
 The hurried air of wild despair 
 
 That o'er her face a tremor threw, 
 The glossy orb that would absorb 
 
 Ere he the falling tear might view — 
 In eloquent language have conveyed 
 A tale of anguish and of dread : 
 And when she oped her lips to name 
 The grief which thus had racked her frame. 
 The impatient lover madly hung 
 Upon the accents of her tongue ; — 
 Convulsive clenched within his hand 
 More firmly his unfailing brand, 
 As though the foe were now in sight 
 On whom to wreak his wrath in fight.
 
 MOYARRA 
 
 V. 
 
 " Moyarra, I have trembled here 
 In agony of doubt and fear — 
 Mistrusting e'en thy constant heart ; 
 Hear but the cause — thou wilt not start. 
 
 Thou know'st Muntookan (of the race 
 For whom the hills are dwelling-place) ; 
 Before our gathered tribe, this morn, — 
 E'en now I shudder : — he hath sworn 
 That, ere to-morrow's speeding rays 
 Are quenched in darkness, he will seize 
 Thine own loved Mytah for his bride." ^ 
 
 " Perish the thought ! " Moyarra cried — 
 " Nay, hear my tale," she gently said ; 
 " But late the tribe have onward strayed ; — 
 E'en now, perchance, they seek for me, — 
 Oh ! bliss ! that I have met with thee ! 
 I knew, I feared thy soul of flame 
 If sudden to the camp you came ; — 
 I thought my o'er-strung heart would break "- 
 '• Nay, weep not, Mytah ! this is weak : 
 Am / not here thy cause to try 
 With him who thus hath dimmed thine eye ?
 
 14 MOYARRA 
 
 Am I not here thy foes to chase 
 As thus the tear from thy dear face ? 
 Methinks the caitiff I could bless 
 Who drove thee thus to my caress ; 
 Who quelled for me those vain alarms 
 Which held thee from my longing arms." 
 
 The dark blood mantling in her face, 
 The maiden flew to his embrace ; 
 Her head upon his breast reclining, 
 Her swimming eyes the while declining, 
 She lent his tale a willing ear, 
 And sighed, assenting to his prayer. 
 
 The night-enamoured cuckoo's call ^ 
 Aroused them from their pleasing thrall, — 
 One raptured glance around he took. 
 Then silence thus Moyarra broke : — 
 
 " Such was the night, and such the hour 
 My country to defend I swore ; 
 That oath I've sacred kept, and now 
 I pledge me to a tenderer vow. 
 Ey those all-hallowed rites I swear, 
 Whose mysteries not thyself may'st share, 
 While yet within these throbbing veins 
 One feeble pulse of life remains.
 
 MOYARRA 
 
 Thee as my dearer self to cherish, 
 For thee to Hve, with thee to perish. 
 
 But haste thee ; — ere to-morrow's sun 
 My native valley must be won : 
 Once-there, all danger we'll defy 
 To dim our hopes, or cloud our joy." 
 
 He said, and o'er the maiden threw 
 A furry robe which half concealed 
 Her graceful form, and half revealed 
 Its moulding and proportions due. 
 
 The mantle which a gift he brought 
 From wild beasts' skins himself had wrought. 
 
 The glimmering moonbeams faintly showed 
 Where lay the dreary, winding road ; 
 B^it still his way through brake and fen 
 He followed on with watchful ken. 
 With faltering step, and anxious mind 
 Dark Mytah traced his steps behind. 
 
 VI. 
 
 " Brethren ! full long the sun hath set,- 
 That brain-sick girl appears not yet. 
 If more she dallies thus — — ; howe'er,
 
 l6 MOYARRA 
 
 The exerted voice she yet may hear." 
 The savage called, and a wilder cry 
 Ne'er thrilled upon Tartarean gloom, 
 Wrung from a soul in agony : — 
 You'd deem a voice from out the tomb 
 Alone could wake that echo shrill 
 Responsive from the neighbouring hill. 
 
 No voice replied. In baffled pride 
 Muntookan laid him by the side 
 Of the embers dim, which fitful showed 
 The swarthy forms around that glowed. 
 
 The sraunt white stems of the trees around 
 Moaned in the breeze with solemn sound : 
 The hoarse frog croaked in dismal tune 
 From the weedy shore of the near lagoon ; 
 The mournful note of the cuckoo seemed 
 To wail a crime yet unredeemed, 
 As nightly here, exiled from home 
 The ghost of the spring bird wept its doom : 
 The hungered dog in the distant dell 
 Discordant howled with painful yell. 
 
 But darker than surrounding shade, 
 Than the gloomy sounds by night conveyed. 
 The mingled tide of wrath and pride
 
 MOYARRA 17 
 
 That raged within Muntookan's breast ; 
 
 " So lightly prized ! my love despised ! 
 
 And who to me preferred ? 'Twere best 
 
 He shun my path. The rifle bird * 
 
 To whom the serpent glides unheard, 
 
 Not surerrues the fatal spring 
 
 When vainly flaps its struggling wing 
 
 Than he shall rue the luckless hour 
 
 He trifled with Muntookan's power. 
 
 If curse availeth, mine shall cling 
 
 Worse than the soul's imagining. 
 
 Ye powers who rule the midnight air,^ 
 
 Fell spirits ! Hear, and grant my prayer! 
 
 His be the seared and lifeless heart 
 
 Jiist skilled to view its joys depart, 
 
 But sunk in hopelessness to save 
 
 Its dearest blossom from the grave ; 
 
 Till nerveless, sapless as the oak 
 
 Scathed by the livid lightning stroke, 
 
 Fostering the canker which destroys. 
 
 His heart's core wither ere he dies." * 
 
 * When a man sunk into atrophy which the tribe could 
 not account for, it was customary to attribute his destruction 
 to the evil influence exerted against him by the magical arts 
 of a wise man in a hostile tribe. 
 
 B
 
 i8 MOYARRA 
 
 VII. 
 
 Ere yet the day's returning beam 
 Had crimson-tinged the distant hill, 
 Or, glancing on the bubbling stream 
 Lent joyous lustre to its rill. 
 The chieftain rose, and gloomy strode 
 Through twilight grey his lonely road. 
 
 Morn came ; around their watch-fires mustered 
 The warrior chiefs : the children clustered 
 In playful groups ; in mimic war 
 To combat some their brethren dare ; 
 Quick wielded by the dexterous hand, 
 The club a fresh-peeled myrtle wand ; 
 The well- poised reed a spear supplies. 
 While high, in rapid circles, flies 
 The crescent toy whose airy flight ^ 
 Full oft attracts the wanderer's sight. 
 
 Rapt in the counsels of the band 
 One fondly clasps his father's hand, 
 Each intimation of his will 
 Quick to receive and to fulfil.
 
 MOYARRA 19 
 
 VIII. 
 
 The sun had set ; but, tremulously, 
 
 His rays yet gilt the western sky ; 
 
 The stars with milder radiance shone 
 
 Beset with lustre not their own, 
 
 And faintly gleaming seemed to mourn 
 
 The light of which their spheres were shorn. 
 
 But in the east the azure sky 
 
 Wore purple of the deepest dye, 
 
 Save where the silver queen of night 
 
 Soothed its blue shade to tender light. 
 
 The stars in bright succession sprung 
 To light and life, and from them flung 
 That gentle influence which instils 
 Its power upon the soul, and fills 
 (Ah ! sad but pleasing melancholy) 
 The heart with musings high and holy. 
 
 Yes ! this the hour in mercy given 
 To wean the world- worn heart to heaven ; 
 In aspiration rapt sublime 
 We commune with all space, all time ; 
 In unison with the infinite whole 
 
 B 2
 
 20 MOYARRA 
 
 The heart accords to nature's soul 
 Of which it beats a fervent pulse 
 That time nor danger can convulse. 
 
 And if there be a dull alloy 
 To dim the gushing of our joy- 
 It is that we must turn again 
 To smile, to weep, to herd with men 
 
 Who, swayed by passions which they share 
 With brutes by nature, day by day, 
 Contented, hug their bonds of clay ; 
 
 Their sordid chains still let them wear ; 
 Be ours the bliss ; their punishment 
 Companion with their crime is sent ; 
 To see, and not to feel such joy 
 May well avenge their apathy. 
 
 Ideal dreams of days gone by 
 
 Illume our night of lethargy, 
 
 And quelling dull mortality 
 
 Float o'er the enraptured brain. 
 
 When those bright spirits ranked on high 
 
 Whose beaming effluence gems the sky 
 
 A mortal penance doomed to try 
 Adorned this world of pain : 
 
 The fame to which they dared aspire
 
 MOYARRA 
 
 Shines through all time a beacon-fire 
 To light the enterprising few 
 To their celestial portion true 
 Which, in the dreariest hour can build 
 Hope, all ephemeral ills to gild. 
 
 Do patriots' laurels earn our praise ? 
 Through the far mist of ancient days 
 Gleams a long line of Greece's martyrs 
 Who perished to defend her charters. 
 Their epitaph their country's groans — 
 Their fame a world's approving tones. 
 
 Doth wisdom claim our reverence ? Ages 
 Yet mourn the loss of ancient sages. 
 And wisdom's goddess, drooping, flies 
 To plume her pinion in the skies. 
 
 Bend we at Poesy's sacred shrine ? 
 Oh ! thou, Maeonides divine, 
 Before whose throne the boldest falters 
 Ere he approach the Muses' altars, 
 Shed but one feather of that pinion 
 Which gaining thy sublime dominion 
 Gave thee to soar the upper air 
 And dwell in instellation there ; 
 Oh ! for the faintest colour given
 
 22 MOYARRA 
 
 To tint thy page with hues of heaven ! 
 Ah ! no ! for thee reserved alone 
 Thy fire, and unapproached thy throne ; 
 Thus Nature vows thy rights to guard, 
 Her earliest — her Grecian bard. 
 
 IX. 
 
 In frequent bands, the tribe, returning, 
 Bore home the produce of their toil, 
 And o'er their watch-fires brightly burning 
 
 Prepared for food the welcome spoil : 
 Then, gathering to the wild repast 
 The joke and mirthful taunt flew fast ; 
 Not there the courtly, wreathed smile "^ 
 With eye that dubious gleams the while, 
 And features tutored to beguile, 
 The mirth that nature felt, restrained : 
 Flashed many a dark and glittering eye, 
 Dusk faces were dissolved in joy. 
 And yielding to its subtlety 
 Wantoned in gladness unrestrained.
 
 MOYARRA 
 
 X. 
 
 The moon's chaste orb shone clear and cold ; 
 
 Each emerald blade in the grassy glade 
 Sparkled with gems of nature's mould ; 
 
 The fitful shade by light clouds made 
 Checking the smile the moon sent down, 
 And lending the scene a transient frown, 
 
 Gave to the eye the only token 
 
 That night's mild charm might e'er be broken, 
 
 And looking aye tranquillity 
 
 Partook of mutability. 
 With wary glance and noiseless tread 
 * A swart form from the tall trees glided, 
 A moment paused — as if in dread, 
 
 Then to the nearest watch-fire strided : 
 It was Muntookan : brief reply 
 Explained the seeming mystery. 
 " The fugitive Mytah " he had " traced 
 From brake to fen, from waste to waste." 
 
 " Did Mytah wander then alone ? " 
 " Alone ! No — there was with her one ; — 
 Vengeance I vowed when on his path,
 
 24 MOYARRA 
 
 And dearly he shall bide my wrath," 
 
 " Who ? who ? " " Moyarra. Both I tracked ; ^ 
 
 But 'tis enough ; I know the fact ; 
 
 And for the rest, my deeds shall prove 
 
 That hate most deadly sprung from love." 
 He ceased, and by the fire reclined, 
 
 Sought in sweet sleep to soothe his mind. 
 
 The silent chiefs around withdrew 
 
 Their several pleasures to renew. 
 
 Not theirs the prompt officious zeal 
 
 To probe the wound it cannot heal, 
 
 Question on question hurrying 
 
 To fan the flame that grows within : 
 
 By nature prompted they restrain 
 
 From tasking Sorrow to explain. 
 
 And leave to Time those wounds to soothe 
 
 Inflicted by Care's arrowy tooth. 
 
 XI. 
 
 Unconscious of a joy denied, 
 And at the wish each want supplied. 
 Dark Mytah with her lover passed 
 Hours which were all too sweet to last.
 
 MOYARRA ■ 2 
 
 Those gentle feelings which alone 
 Are found where Love upbuilds his throne, — 
 Which can to trifles light impart 
 Grace unattained by measured art, 
 And, fill the soul with delicate sense 
 Of bliss, pervading and intense, — 
 Each moment ruled with grateful sway 
 Hearts which but throbbed such power to obey 
 
 Yes ! if unnamed desires to guess, 
 To soothe the weary in distress, 
 Each fancied evil to beguile 
 With cheerful song or playful smile ; 
 Expected joys to antedate. 
 To treasure brightest hours of fate. 
 And ever with remembrance dear 
 Suppress the sigh or starting tear ; — 
 Yes ! if such life be love — 'twas proved 
 By Mytah and the one she loved. ^ 
 
 Aye ! ye may smile whom fickle chance 
 Endows with wealth and arrogance ; 
 Who deem that true love doth disdain 
 To quit refinement's courtly train. 
 But know ! Love triumphs more in such 
 Harmonious response to his touch
 
 26 MOYARRA 
 
 Where hearts with mutual fervour beat, 
 Where hps with unchecked fondness meet, 
 Than when to transient rules of art 
 Fashion would mould the struggling heart. 
 
 XII. 
 
 Nor wanted they the joy of amity. 
 
 Koreungat claimed that social tie. 
 
 Koreungat and Moyarra grew 
 
 Alike in strength and friendship too ; 
 
 And now, together to the field 
 
 They sallied forth with spear and shield : 
 
 Together to the river went 
 
 To rob the watery element ; 
 
 And when, encumbered with their prey, 
 
 Homeward, at eve, they bent their way, 
 
 The tones of Mytah's voice were heard 
 
 Caroling like a summer bird, 
 
 As forth she bounded o'er the plain 
 
 And blithely hailed them home again. 
 
 Then would she urge the friends to tell 
 How, or by whom, their victim fell ; 
 And with quick jibe and mock contempt
 
 MOYARRA 
 
 Taunt him who failed in his attempt. 
 
 Full often from the neighbouring stream 
 She caught unhoped repast for them ; 
 Then, spreading out her little hoard, 
 Waited the coming of her lord, 
 And joyed to see the fond surprise 
 That glistened in his wondering eyes. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 " Kofeungat ! seest thou not ? that light 
 That ever wont to shine so bright — 
 
 Sure, no mischance " upon his tongue 
 
 With faltering tone the accents hung. 
 
 Hapless Moyarra ! 'tis too true ; 
 The fire that nightly beamed for you. 
 Trimmed by the fostering hand of love, 
 No longer glimmers through the grove ; 
 The hands that nursed it, clasped in woe, 
 Plead vainly to the insulting foe ; 
 The eyes that ached for thy return 
 Beneath the victor's thraldom mourn ; 
 The heart in which thou wert enshrined, 
 Which in thine absence ever pined,
 
 28 MOYARRA 
 
 Shrinks, languishing as a bh'ghted flower 
 Beneath the taint of lawless power. 
 
 He staggers on, his vision swims, 
 Fail in their task his struggling limbs ; 
 But on, with desperate energy 
 He reels, the unwelcome truth to see : 
 He nears the spot of past delight, 
 Hence doubly charged with woe to-night ; 
 One glance sufficed the tale to own — 
 The idol of his heart was gone, 
 And lie dejected — and alone. 
 He spoke not, but his lips compressed, — 
 The throb convulsive of his breast — 
 The expanded nostril — gathered brow 
 Shading the glittering orb below, 
 Whose fiery and insatiate glow 
 Seemed avaricious of a foe — 
 His nervous hand's impatient grasp 
 His weapon seeming now to clasp — 
 All told, though now controlled his ire 
 Within it raged with fiercer fire. 
 
 Meanwhile, at distance from his friend, 
 (Not friendship now a balm could lend) 
 Koreungat, gloomy, turned to know
 
 MOYARRA 29 
 
 The guilty author of his woe. 
 
 The trembling women who had been 
 Powerless condemned to view the scene, 
 Yet awed by memory of their fears 
 With converse mingled frequent tears. 
 
 Two gl6omy warriors from the wood 
 To Mytah, fierce and sudden, strode ; 
 Dismayed, Muntookan's form she viewed 
 And fled, but swiftly they pursued : 
 The rest, as clouds by winds are shattered, 
 As kangaroos by dogs are scattered, 
 For safety tried each well-known path 
 Intent to shun the spoiler's wrath : 
 And, fearful of Muntookan's force, 
 Ntone knew, none guessed his homeward course. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Ere yet the tale was at an end 
 Koreungat stood beside his friend ; — 
 " Moyarra ! this a time for grief! 
 While Mytah's woes demand relief? 
 Know'st thou Muntookan for the foe 
 Who claims thy bride and dooms thy woe ?
 
 30 MOYARRA 
 
 Shes lost ! 'tis now thy task to prove 
 Moyarra worthy of her love." 
 
 " Full well I know my future life 
 A stern, I hope successful strife : 
 Yes ! o'er the vengeance of my soul 
 The foe, at least, has no control ; — 
 My ruined hopes, my blighted heart 
 I owe to his malignant art. 
 The single passion left mature 
 Shall wreak on him a reckoning sure : 
 But 'midst the pangs my heart that tear 
 One reigns and will not comfort hear ; 
 I — fondly proud — in folly bold, 
 I — I should have this foretold." 
 
 " Nay, nay, Moyarra, say not so, 
 Too well his vantage took the foe ! 
 What nightly watch, what course by day 
 Shall screen from us his backward way, 
 Were he protected by the barrier 
 Of each his tribe's most chosen warrior 
 Thy wrath would for the recreant doom 
 That vengeance which shall surely come : 
 What marvel that Muntookan too" — 
 
 " Enough, enough, all this I know,
 
 MOYARRA 31 
 
 But when I think upon my bride 
 But this morn clinging to my side 
 And now — alas ! in such reverse 
 When e'en her memory is a curse ! — 
 Who-could, with calm dispassionate view 
 Say, thus and thus I ought to do ? 
 Go ! prate to others of relief 
 Who ne'er have known like mine a grief. 
 Yon never lost a Mytah ! No ! 
 You never knew like mine a woe. 
 How canst thou my bereavement tell .'* 
 His triumph — ha ! thou speakest well ; — 
 I see, I see her at his side ; — 
 Henceforward Vengeance is my bride." 
 
 % 
 
 XV. 
 
 Assembling at Moyarra's call 
 The dusky chiefs around him throng; 
 
 Waiting his speech, in silence all 
 As at the close of funeral song. 
 " Brothers ! have any heard strange sound, 
 Or seen strange footsteps on the ground ? " 
 Each viewed askance his neighbour's face,
 
 32 MOYARRA 
 
 As eager there some hope to trace ; 
 
 Each eye, with self-accusing glance 
 
 Reproached its master's negligence : 
 Not e'en the oldest chieftains spoke 
 But mournfully their grey hairs shook, 
 Reluctant then to trust the voice 
 With words that could not bid rejoice. 
 
 While all in doubt and sorrow hung 
 The youthful Warrawe 'mongst them sprung 
 (His tale reserved till reverenced age^° 
 Disclaimed its prior privilege). 
 " Three travellers' tracks I viewed to-day ; 
 It seemed they journeyed hence ; the way 
 I well remember to the spot." 
 Further narration needed not. 
 Moyarra seized a burning brand — 
 Koreungat, Warrawe, all his band, 
 (Though many a proffered arm w^as there. 
 And many a heart beat high to share 
 The adventure, if perchance their aid 
 Might minister to Moyarra's need). 
 
 They reached the spot and quickly made 
 Their fire beneath the tall trees' shade : 
 But while his comrades sunk to rest,
 
 MOYARRA 33 
 
 Moyarra could not calm his breast. 
 
 Ye who have seen a cultured mind 
 Range wild, by no restraint confined, 
 And at each thwarting of its will 
 In recklessness plunge deeper still ; 
 Think, then, what passions rent the heart 
 Of one not schooled by rules of art. 
 A child of impulse, he had been 
 Till now, spectator in life's scene, 
 And thus to play such bitter part 
 Wrung sighs of anguish from his heart. 
 
 He sunk to sleep, but 'twas to reap 
 Fresh torture from a feverish dream. 
 
 His bark was gliding down life's stream, 
 Racked gently by the ambient tide ; 
 A guardian angel by his side 
 Seemed round an atmosphere to shed 
 Hallowing the scenes through which they sped ; 
 For them the varied shores of life 
 With aye-enduring bliss seemed rife ; 
 Each hour owned hues too bright to last 
 Yet each was rival of the past. 
 
 Alas ! he little knew the wave 
 Whose gentle dalliance rose to lave
 
 34 MOYARRA 
 
 His bark with undulating motion 
 In joyous mask beguiled the task 
 Which bore him to the restless ocean ; 
 Where, shuddering at the billows' roar 
 Vainly he seeks the varied shore. 
 
 His faithful spirit from his sight 
 Fades, wrapt in shades of dubious night : 
 He asks in vain the heaven o'erarched, 
 A sulphurous glare its hues hath parched ; 
 And vapours dim are gathering fast : 
 
 The cloud-winged thunderstorm unfurls 
 Its gloomy pinions to the blast ; 
 
 Each lurid mass at random hurls 
 The lightning's intermittent light 
 Whose ghastly vision quails the sight. 
 
 His bark reels through the trackless foam 
 Staggering beneath the wild waves' shock : 
 
 Is there no hope to avert his doom ? 
 No way to shun th' impending stroke ? 
 The vengeful demon of the storm 
 Seemed now endowed with palpable form : 
 Like an eagle he swooped from his airy height; 
 The blood of his victim ran cold at the sight : 
 He shrunk from the breath of the sable plume
 
 MOYARRA 35 
 
 Which o'er him was hovering instinct with 
 
 gloom. 
 Like ice was the chill of the deadly dews 
 That infected his brain with a poisonous juice, 
 Rendering it feeble and languishing : 
 He felt the cold torpor of death's touch cling 
 To his quivering flesh, as each fixed clammy- 
 limb 
 Was numbed by the spell of that spectre dim. 
 
 The throb of his pulse waxes faint in his 
 heart — 
 
 Shall it cease .'' With a sudden and desperate 
 
 start 
 The chains of his slumber he rends asunder : — 
 W^as that lightning a vision, illusion that thunder ? 
 
 Calm, overhead, the clear blue sky 
 Replete with thousand isles of light 
 
 Met the wild wonder of his eye 
 And soothed the fever of his sight. 
 Lulled in repose, all nature lay 
 Resigned to night's benignant sway. 
 
 But the beaded drops of terror hung, 
 On his hot temples ; still among 
 
 C 2
 
 36 MOYARRA 
 
 His throbbing veins the curdled blood 
 Struggled to gain its equable flood. 
 His scattered senses he recalls — 
 Alas ! that inward gaze appals ! 
 Though bright above the stars may shine, 
 Dark still is all his breast within : 
 He woke to find the phantom of his brain 
 Too true an emblem of his real pain. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 While yet the day's reviving light 
 Contended with the shades of night, 
 Winding its radiance with the twilight grey, 
 The friends resumed their tedious way ; 
 With patient gaze from print to print 
 Following the foeman as he went. 
 Where, soft, the earth's retentive breast 
 Preserved the footfall as impressed, 
 Elate with hope, they bounded on : 
 Mid rocks, with scanty moss o'ergrown, 
 Erewhile they journeyed, and they cursed 
 The soil whose barren bosom nursed 
 No fragile herb whose wounded stem ^^
 
 MOYARRA 37 
 
 Might claim a mutual wrong with them. 
 
 Like greyhounds panting in the leash 
 They linger, till, obtained their wish, 
 The obdurate obstacle they pass 
 And wind the trail o'er the prostrate grass. 
 
 Ha ! whither now .-' With heads erected 
 Headlong they rush, — the track neglected : 
 And see ! on yonder gentle slope, 
 Where the forest weaves its verdant cope, 
 
 What smoke curls faint its ashy wreath 
 
 Swayed by the morning's gentle breath ? 
 They reach the spot : — but vain that glance. 
 Vain that keen eye of vigilance : 
 Around that too delusive fire 
 No victims wait to glut their ire. 
 
 Blest be the forest's friendly guard 
 Waving wide shelter o'er the sward : 
 Here, still the glistening dewdrop slept. — 
 There, rudely by the foeman swept, 
 A darker hue the green turf showed. 
 And marked the way the spoiler trod ; 
 See ! prostrate from his recent tread 
 Each blade yet strives to rear its head.
 
 38 MOYARRA 
 
 The omen, seen with keen delight, 
 
 Inspires new vigour for the fight. 
 As, on some mountain's shaggy crest 
 A rock, for ages fixed to rest, 
 (Which there, a silent moral, long hath stood 
 Firm 'mid the changeful honours of the wood) 
 Now, loosened from its pinnacle. 
 With horrid rumour fills each dell ; — 
 Slow creeping first, with sluggish course, 
 Each bound augments its hurrying force ; 
 And now, alternate, hurled on high. 
 It seeks communion with the sky ; 
 Now plunging downward, ploughs the earth, 
 Goring the womb that gave it birth ; 
 Limbs, scattered wide, its track adorn 
 Strewn 'neath their parents' stems forlorn. 
 
 Sad relics ! witness bearing long 
 Themselves how weak, their foe how strong, 
 Who rolls, remorseless, on his way 
 While frighted echo shrieks dismay — 
 
 So, now, the friends impetuous still, 
 Rebuffed, not daunted in their will, 
 Rush on, their vengeance to fulfil.
 
 MOYARRA 39 
 
 XVII. 
 
 On ! on ! — behold the foe ! their speed 
 
 Shames all past efforts ; — every nerve 
 To straining, ministers to their need 
 
 When most its sacrifice may serve. 
 Rapid, they gain : the conscious foe 
 Now, first, his danger starts to know : 
 With fiercer gesture, feller tone, 
 Hi's trembling prey he urges on : — 
 
 She, witless of the succour nigh 
 Tasks her reluctant strength to fly : 
 Now, now, Moyarra ! let your need 
 Add wings to favour yet your speed. 
 
 Yet, look back, Mytah ! as a flower 
 Beneath the pitiless thunderstorm 
 Droops, laden with the dropping shower, 
 So yielded Mytah's fainting form : — 
 Her fate how different ! from her fall 
 
 No gentle breath can bid her rise : — 
 Life's sunshine never can recall 
 
 The light of life to her dark eyes. 
 Muntookan paused — and backward cast 
 One glance — a moment, and 'tis passed —
 
 40 MOYARRA 
 
 Yet, in that glance, a quenchless hate, 
 Lost but with life, was concentrate, 
 Glaring as, Gorgon-like, endowed 
 To freeze the reckless gazer's blood. 
 
 He laughed — a laugh that fiends might use. 
 Deriding man's ephemeral views : 
 One hand he wreathed in Mytah's hair ; — 
 Whirled then the tomahawk in air ; — 
 It glittered — sunk : — a thrilling shriek 
 Its mission served too well to speak : 
 With grim delight the savage drew 
 His weapon wet with gory dew — 
 Waved it, exulting, o'er his head, 
 Then through the wood's wide shelter fled. 
 
 Moyarra saw not ; for his eye 
 When flashed the fateful axe on high 
 Convulsive closed in dizzy trance : — 
 Vain hope ! to dwell in ignorance : 
 That thrilling cry the air that rent 
 To his prophetic heart hath sent 
 The curst conviction that his fate 
 Is sealed, and he now desolate.
 
 MOYARRA 41 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Ill hours with bitterest anguish fraught 
 Hope courts each vision fancy-wrought ; 
 Each aid, though fragile as the reed 
 That mocks the drowning supphant's need. 
 Though Reason's monitory call 
 May warn us from delusion's thrall, 
 Hope, like the rainbow's lovely form, 
 Waves its bright hues to mock the storm, 
 Luring from earth our dull regard 
 
 Like Icarus on high to soar ; 
 Alas ! like his, too, our reward : 
 
 * The pleasant paths of earth no more 
 To trace ; in the ocean of despair 
 Wailing the loss of visions fair 
 Whose fairy scenes, that charmed the sight, 
 Rose but to whelm in deeper night 
 The trusting heart that fain would think 
 They wooed it from destruction's brink. 
 
 Alas ! when sorrow's bitter cup 
 The hand of fate hath lifted up, 
 What mortal hand hath power to fling 
 
 The pestilent potion to the wind .''
 
 42 MOYARRA 
 
 From Nature's stores can wisdom wring 
 An antidote to soothe the mind ? 
 
 No ! as the deadly adder's fang 
 
 On corporal sense inflicts a pang 
 
 Whose rankling venom subtly glides, 
 
 Empoisoning life's crimson tides ; 
 
 So, when of sorrow's bitter draught 
 
 The shuddering heart hath, loathing, quaffed, 
 Sinks each enervate faculty 
 
 As paralyzed beneath a spell 
 Concentrate of malignity, 
 
 Potent as if on earth th' archfiend 
 Thus wrung a fealty from mankind- 
 Triumphant in the petty hell 
 That rends each victim's proper mind, 
 
 XIX. 
 
 " The foe 'twere folly to pursue 
 His native hills are now in view ; 
 And Mytah stretched upon the plain 
 Bedews the earth with crimson stain." 
 
 To her Moyarra madly sped ; 
 
 With faltering hand he raised her head
 
 MOYARRA 45 
 
 " Mytah ! my Mytah ! "—languidly 
 
 Quivered the dark fringe of her eye ; 
 Heaved her shut lips with tremulous motion 
 'Neath gentle winds as stirs the ocean. 
 
 In vain— her eyes no lustrous glances dart, 
 No tuneful notes her trembling lips impart ; 
 But for those panting sobs for breath 
 You'd deem her frame resolved in death. 
 
 Such scene was not for words ; nor now 
 Griefs dalliance did the time allow ; 
 The shallow streamlet's scattered spray 
 Each pebble marks that checks its way ; 
 The unruffled river's surface hides 
 T^he rocks o'er which its mightier current glides. 
 
 In silent grief the warriors bare 
 The unconscious object of their care ; 
 Fearful to harm, with reckless touch. 
 That form already scathed too much. 
 
 Who ever knew of love the pain, 
 Till grief had bound him in its chain .'* 
 Oh ! 'tis grief alone that proves 
 The heart that deeply, truly loves. 
 
 In the fresh dawn of life's young spring 
 When varied joys each m^omcnt wing ;
 
 44 ' MOYARRA 
 
 False shapes, the parasites of the hour, 
 FHt round, in impotence of power ; 
 These, when Hope's buoyant yearnings are 
 A dower all care to drive afar, 
 Their various blandishments essay 
 Revelling in plenitude of sway. 
 
 Lo ! when the gloom of autumn's shades 
 The atmosphere of life invades, 
 Where flock these birds of vagrant wing ? 
 
 Fled to adorn some recent spring, 
 Their votary seeks in vain to trace 
 Their path through viewless realms of space 
 Himself in desolation of the mind 
 By all but Faith and Hope resigned. 
 
 Then claims his empire real love ; 
 Sorrow but lures him to dominion : 
 
 The dove hath wings, but doth the dove 
 Desert his mate to prove his pinion ? 
 
 XX. 
 
 Though social charms awhile may soothe 
 To short forgetfulness of truth,
 
 MOYARRA 45 
 
 From them the heart to solitude 
 Recoils in silent grief to brood 
 O'er passions dead and pleasures fled ; 
 WouM we could grieve their flight alone ! 
 Alas ! when keen-eyed Hope hath flown 
 (Our herald once to realms unknown), 
 When smiling Joy his station quits, 
 There Care in grinning mockery sits. 
 
 Reversion sad ! at Hope's command 
 'Twas bliss to image forth a brighter land. 
 But, bound in Memory's fast-compelling thrall 
 E'en while we loathe, the frenzying cup we drink, 
 Helot-like, shuddering on the act to think 
 That conjures to our mind's distempered sight 
 The melancholy ghosts of past delight, 
 The ruthless denizens of reflection's night ; 
 Night which can make time past a settled gloom , 
 Past joys a curse, and Memory but their tomb. 
 Alas ! in such a world, where all is frail, 
 What lot must aye be ours but to bewail ? 
 
 END OF CANTO I.
 
 NOTES TO CANTO I. 
 
 ' (p. 9) Long years have passed ; those rites are done. 
 
 The ceremonies of the Austrahan savages have been so 
 often, and in some respects so truly, spoken of by travellers, 
 that I need not here detail them. Allusion to some of their 
 principal characteristics will perhaps suffice. 
 
 The scrupulous care which conceals from women and 
 children all knowledge of the occurrences at these ceremonies 
 cannot be over-rated. 
 
 The punishment due to a revelation of these mysteries is 
 death. 
 
 This statement can hardly be considered inconsistent with 
 the fact that some white men have been made acquainted 
 with them. The initiation has invariably taken place under 
 promise of secrecy, and the information thus given is so 
 much out of the bounds of local tradition that the Australian 
 might fairly, and actually did, look upon such a revelation 
 as unforbidden by his country's jurisprudence. Thus, when 
 the English took possession of New South Wales, Governor 
 Phillip and his principal officers were made acquainted with 
 the ceremonies, as soon as they had established friendly 
 relations with the tribe at Port Jackson. 
 
 But I have known no instance of a native revealing to his 
 own class any of the mysteries which he is forbidden to
 
 MOYARRA 47 
 
 speak of, and if it were not that the tribe from which I 
 obtained information is now extinct, I might perhaps be 
 chargeable with a breach of confidence, even though at 
 different times and places other white persons have been 
 similarly confided in. 
 
 Some of the rites may be glanced at in this note. 
 The circle, 'so universal an emblem of eternity ; the 
 sinuous line of beauty ; and, above all startling to the 
 Christian observer in Australian woods, the Cross — are to be 
 found amongst the ceremonial emblems used at the places 
 where youths were initiated. Those spots no women or 
 children were permitted to visit. 
 
 The footprint (an ancient Aztec sign) is in request at 
 Australian ceremonies. The [quartz-crystal, once revered 
 in parts of Europe, and used in incantations or impostures, 
 was an object of mysterious reverence among Australian 
 tribes ; and, moreover, they were assured that some of their 
 wise men were possessed by the spirits of various animals 
 which inspired them with characteristic passions and powers. 
 Whencesoever the tribes had migrated to Australia, they 
 carried with them relics of astronomical knowledge. All 
 the larger stars had names, and by the position of the 
 Pleiades they accurately calculated the approach of summer. 
 Not only as regarded sight, but also in sounds, there was 
 a freemasonry of acquisition by the Australian when initiated 
 by the tribe. 
 
 Peculiar songs, a peculiar call (or cooey) with its peculiar 
 answer, and much mysterious lore were imparted to him. 
 So stern was the law imposing secrecy that on one occasion 
 a native lost his life rather than participate in a breach of 
 confidence. 
 
 Fine specimens of rock-crystal were treasured and
 
 48 MOYARRA 
 
 venerated. There were of course districts in which no such 
 crystals abounded, but they were obtained by barter or as 
 presents from other tribes, and were carefully enveloped in 
 twine made from the fur of the opossum. In 1835 a white 
 man seized one of these, and showed it to a native woman 
 in the presence of the man whom he had despoiled of it. A 
 black was ordered by the tribe to punish the crime, and he 
 slew the criminal. 
 
 A missionary, Rev. Mr. Threlkeld (author of an Australian 
 Grammar), attended to interpret in a court of law for the 
 obedient executioner. Mr. Threlkeld reported to the 
 Government, " Charley was found guilty of murder, which 
 he did not deny even when arraigned, but pleaded the cus- 
 tom of his nation, justifying himself on the ground that a 
 talisman named Murramai (the crystal) was taken from him 
 by the Englishman, was pulled to pieces by him, and shown 
 to the black woman, which, according to their superstitious 
 notions, subjects all parties to the punishment of death, and 
 further that he was deputed, with others, by his tribe, to 
 enforce the penalty which he too faithfully performed," 
 
 Threlkeld attended at the scaffold the man who fell, 
 Spartan-like, in obedience to his country's laws. Threlkeld 
 wrote, " he kneeled and prayed ; we ascended the gallows ; 
 he stood firmly, saying, ' I am now cast away for death,' and 
 repeated the prayer, ' Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.'" 
 
 The "conflict of laws" sorely exercised the patience of 
 Threlkeld. He represented, on another occasion, that it was 
 anomalous that a black man should be tried in an English 
 Court for killing another black, inasmuch as, if " acquitted, 
 he must again stand trial amongst his own people " ; and, 
 moreover, in the English Courts no black was allowed to 
 give evidence.
 
 MOYARRA 49 
 
 The close resemblance of observances of their rites by 
 various Australian tribes, even where the languages or dialects 
 widely differ, is worthy of remark. 
 
 2 (p. 13) "he will seize 
 
 •> Thine own loved Mytah for his bride.'' 
 
 The custom which sanctions the forcible abduction of 
 native women widely prevails, but has often been erroneously 
 represented as a necessary condition. 
 
 This is an error. Marriages were often the sequel of an 
 affiancing of many years' duration, and were peaceful and 
 happy. On the other hand, despite any affiance, the strong 
 hand- of a warrior frequently seized upon an unwilling bride, 
 and was exerted to retain her, in defiance of friend or foe. 
 
 ^ (p. 14) " The night-enamoured cuckoo's call." 
 
 The Australian cuckoo of the colonists is only heard at 
 night. There is an Australian bird, of the parasitic order, 
 which casts upon other birds the care of its egg and young, 
 but it is not known by the name of " cuckoo," which is given 
 to the night-bird whose call reminded the early colonists of 
 the notes of the English cuckoo. 
 
 ■i (p. 17) "the rifle-bird 
 
 To whom the serpent glides unheard." 
 
 The rifle-bird which inhabits secluded places, is peculiarly 
 liable to the attack of snakes which also frequent them. 
 
 ^ (p. 17) "Ye powers ! who rule the midnight air." 
 
 The religious rites of the Australian tribes, identical as 
 they were in many respects throughout the vast territory 
 over which they were scattered, may be accepted as proof 
 that though their ideas of the supernatural were vague when 
 
 D
 
 50 MOYARRA 
 
 Europeans arrived amongst them, those ideas had been 
 handed down from a time when their ancestors had a more 
 definite creed. „The symbols in use seemed to be relics of 
 a behef of the past ; not modern inventions, appearing 
 locally and with widely varying developments. 
 
 Of prayer they knew nothing, although they believed in 
 supernatural powers. They had traditions of danger in 
 darkness, and many tribes had fear of the depths of un- 
 fathomable water in which some devouring monster was 
 supposed to abide. This may have been (among tribes in 
 the interior) the result of tales of sharks or of crocodiles 
 which abounded on the coast or in rivers. 
 
 There were gloomy forests which they feared to penetrate 
 at night ; but if any warlike danger was imminent, the 
 natural drove, out the supernatural fear, and they would 
 thread the gloom with resolution. 
 
 ^ (p. 1 8) " The crescent toy whose airy flight." 
 
 About the boomerang (such was the tribal name for the 
 implement at Port Jackson, where the English first settled) 
 the most absurd notions still prevail in England. The 
 settlers applied the term to all the curved missiles used by 
 the natives. The natives had a different name for each 
 variety of their curved missiles. The boomerang which 
 returns to the thrower was only a plaything, and was never 
 used in war ; nor, unless the native had no other missile at 
 hand, even to throw at birds. 
 
 The massive war-weapon (called among the colonists by 
 the inappropriate name given to the returning plaything) was 
 specially fashioned so that in its hurtling and bounding 
 course it should go straight to the enemy. It could not 
 return. Its shape and the warps which were given to it
 
 MOYARRA 51 
 
 compelled it to go straight forward. Similarly the smaller 
 weapons thrown at birds or game of any kind went straight 
 to their object. These could be thrown quite two hundred 
 yards without touching the ground. 
 
 The toy, called "barracun" in the tribe with which 
 the writer was best acquainted, was fashioned with much 
 art. The side which was undermost during the flight of the 
 implement was flatter than the other side. The thickest 
 part of the blade was about one-third of the distance from 
 the edge of the convexity ; and there were no less than four 
 warpings of each half of the implement. These were pro- 
 duced, by careful warping. The implement, when shaped by 
 the tomahawk with care, was placed over warm embers. 
 The heat" made the wood plastic, and the maker then warped 
 the implement, tested its flight in some open space (it was 
 dangerous to throw the light implement among trees, for 
 its rotation was so rapid and its course so swift that contact 
 with anything hard almost certainly fractured it), and, if 
 necessary, warped it more, until he had brought it to such 
 perfection as the particular wood permitted. Differences of 
 specific gravity in various portions of the wood necessitated 
 differences (in degree, though not in principle) in the 
 warping. 
 
 There were several varieties of the weapon thrown at 
 game, and each variety had a different name. 
 
 The following ludicrous mis-statement about the boom- 
 erang appeared in the United Service Jour?ial in June 
 1833:- 
 
 " When used as an offensive weapon it is usually thrown 
 with the convex side outwards, but when intended to return 
 it is held in the reverse position ; although it will probably 
 act in either direction if properly handled.'' 
 
 D 2
 
 52 MOYARRA 
 
 The writer proceeded to explain mathematically how such 
 results might be brought about. 
 
 If he had known that no Australian ever threw a boom- 
 erang '' with the convex side outwards " and that the 
 boomerang of war, " used as an offensive weapon," was so 
 constructed that it was impossible for it to return to the 
 thrower, he need not have " cudgelled his brains " to account 
 for that which had no existence. 
 
 In the Sydney Gazette of 1804 it is recorded that at a fight, 
 witnessed by the whites, Dungaree "distinguished by his 
 remarkable courtesy," threw a war-boomerang with such 
 force that, striking at some distance, " the right arm of one 
 of his opponents, it actually rebounded to a distance of not 
 less than seventy or eighty yards, leaving a horrible con- 
 tusion behind, and exciting universal admiration." 
 
 " (p. 22). " Not there the courtly wreathed smile." 
 
 Those who have only contemptuously or cursorily observed 
 the habits of the Australians can scarcely imagine how gay 
 and good humoured they could be. Those who have really 
 gained their confidence will admit that the simple black was 
 at once the blithest and most cheerful companion. 
 
 8 (p. 24). "Who? Who? Moyarra!" 
 
 The perceptions of the Australians were so keen that this 
 line implies no exaggeration. Expert trackers knew at a 
 glance whose footprint they met, if they had had previous 
 opportunities of becoming acquainted with it. 
 
 ^ (p. 25). " By Mytah and the one she loved." 
 
 Maugre all the accounts, and I regret to say the true 
 accounts which have been given of the vile subjection to
 
 MOYARRA 
 
 53 
 
 which women were reduced among the tribes, there were 
 instances which justify the statement in the text. 
 
 The vignette on the frontispiece is a reproduction of a 
 drawing from life by the late Sir Thomas L. Mitchell, 
 explorer;' and Surveyor-General of New South Wales. 
 
 ^** (p. 32). "His tale reserved till reverenced age." 
 
 The respect paid to old age was universal. In opposition 
 to the theory of the case, however, the respect diminished 
 rather than increased with the increasing age and infirmities 
 of its object. 
 
 Befpre a very infirm old man died he was neglected by 
 the majority of the tribe ; but it must be remembered that a 
 decrepit man could not accompany them in their wanderings. 
 
 As cannibalism was the exception, and not the rule among 
 Australian tribes, the lonely creature, unable to journey with 
 his people, was not exposed to danger from assault. 
 
 I once knew an active lad forego his desire to accompany 
 the tVibe, and remain with his infirm grandfather to minister 
 to his wants.
 
 CANTO II. 
 
 I. 
 
 'Neath the fragile mimosa dark Mytah was laid, 
 Where the care of her lover a soft couch had made, 
 The leaves, in a delicate tracery woven, 
 Formed a bower by the sunlight that never was 
 
 cloven. 
 Though, confessing his ardour, they glowed in 
 
 his beam 
 Till the bright parroquet on the bough one might 
 
 deem 
 An emerald blossom its branches that graced, 
 Were it not for the star-flower that nature had 
 
 placed. 
 Fit bloom 'mid such verdure, to deck that bower 
 As the stars gild their blue dome in midnight 
 
 hour.
 
 MOYARRA 55 
 
 'Twas there where hours of rapture past 
 Still o'er the spot their influence cast, 
 Where every herb that round her grew 
 Fldtirished familiar to her view, 
 Soothed by the thought of time gone by 
 That Mytah wished in peace to die ; — 
 There, when her fast-receding breath 
 Might yield her to the tyrant Death, 
 In solitude she wished to lie. 
 
 She knew 'twas fancy ; yet, 'twas sweet 
 To think the earth she oft had trod 
 And wandered o'er with careless feet 
 Would shield her with its sheltering sod. 
 
 If feeling yet pursued that state,^ 
 That gloom which all must penetrate, 
 'Twould soothe her lonely heart to know 
 The accustomed trees around that grow ; 
 
 The frail mimosa o'er her bending 
 Its feathery foliage of emerald green 
 
 Seemed sensitive of the aid 'twas lending 
 To shroud her closing scene ; 
 And 'twas a pleasing melancholy 
 To think when soon the tree must die, - 
 O'er her lone grave 'twould seem to show
 
 56 MOYARRA 
 
 A sad companionship of woe. 
 
 A little, too, she strove to wean 
 Moyarra from his desperate mien ; 
 And when, at times, from her was wrung 
 
 A sigh she could not all conceal, 
 She fain would say her tremor sprung 
 
 From thinking on the future weal 
 Of him she left behind to grieve. 
 
 Alas ! what fraud can Love deceive .-' 
 Close to her dying couch he clung 
 And o'er her wan form hung, 
 While every pang her heart that rent 
 Seemed as electrically sent 
 To prey upon his heart. 
 As though of her he was a part 
 And the same life informed each frame ; — 
 Yet, as the moth still courts the flame 
 Though each approach invite swift ruin, 
 So now, his eager gaze renewing. 
 Entranced Moyarra stood, as though 
 He loved such martyrdom of woe, 
 Feeding the canker in his breast 
 Which knew nor hope, nor rest. 
 
 His soul was centred in his eye,
 
 MOYARRA 57 
 
 Searching as if it would deny 
 
 The too appalling certainty. 
 
 Turn ! turn ! Moyarra ! from the sight, 
 
 Thy glance is powerless as thy might. 
 > 
 
 Who hath not felt, when Death was near 
 And all he loved lay on the bier, 
 That icy chill, that deadly calm. 
 That calenture that gulls the sense, 
 Shedding disease, but feigning balm. 
 
 Like the stillness ere the storm 
 Bursts in its wild magnificence 
 
 And the lightning springs from its form ? 
 Ganst thou tell where that lightning vanished, 
 Or where the spirit Death hath banished .'' 
 
 The sorcery of that hour, confessed, 
 Weighs heavily on the gazer's breast 
 As the miasma's deadly dews 
 O'er the languid frame their power diffuse ; 
 Felt, though unseen, yet all-pervading 
 The soul, which recks not the invading 
 Till, sunk beneath the treacherous thrall 
 Flung o'er us by Death's gloomy pall, 
 With stupid stare we view
 
 58 MOYARRA 
 
 The clammy features' livid hue : 
 
 Is that the idol of our heart ? — away ! 
 
 'Tis but its mockery in clay, 
 
 II. 
 
 The priests of Death be Disease and Fear ; 
 They attend his footsteps everywhere ; 
 While gentle Hope, with dewy eyes 
 
 And dizzy search, would pierce the shade 
 Which, like a mist, doth all pervade 
 
 Around the temple of sacrifice. 
 Turn, frantic one ! that filmy veil 
 Is but diaphanous of ill : 
 Fold after fold awhile withdrawn 
 As night-glooms at th' approach of dawn 
 The fitting time the priests await 
 Their impotent prey to immolate: — 
 
 'Tis done — the blow is sped — 
 
 Horror around is shed — 
 Hope, exiled from the heart of man, 
 Resigns her seat to Terror wan. 
 
 Out on thee, man ! thy pomp, thy show. 
 But swell the triumph of thy foe : —
 
 MOYARRA 59 
 
 Thy funeral obsequies nothing are 
 But trains to grace his conquering car. 
 Go to thy chamber ! wail the doom 
 That on thyself must one day come. 
 ■Gods ! shall the Egyptian harlot shame the globe 
 ^ Who nobly dared to die 
 Ere tricked in gorgeous robe 
 
 She'd grace a Caesar's pageantry .'' 
 
 III. 
 
 Yes, weep Moyarra ! not for thee 
 
 That face, now sealed in dim repose, 
 *Shall wake to soothe thy misery 
 
 And wean thee from oppressing woes. 
 Wreathed in the cold embrace of Death 
 
 Thy bride from thy fond clasp is torn, 
 And yielding languidly her breath 
 
 She sinks forlorn : 
 The teeth of pearl, which did surround 
 
 The portals of that mine whence sprung 
 The spells by which thy soul was bound 
 
 When thy enchantress sung — 
 Arrayed in grim defiance, woo
 
 6o MOYARRA 
 
 No longer thy distempered view : 
 The ringlet curls which wont to stray 
 Adown those cheeks in wreathed play, 
 No longer weave their witching maze 
 Ensnaring thy rapt gaze, 
 But, like the bruised tendril, cling 
 
 Lifeless and withering : 
 Still, in their last act merciful. 
 They shroud from thee those orbs, now dull, 
 Whose twin-born beams with grateful ray 
 Once cheered, with added light, thy day. 
 
 Yet gazest thou ? fond fool ! desist : 
 Like thee have thousand thousands striven 
 
 The spectre in his course to arrest 
 Whose mystery is yet unriven : 
 And still, as to the rapid driven 
 The mighty river's ceaseless swell, 
 Of which no drop returns to tell 
 The thronging myriads ivJiere it fell, 
 But plunges to the drear abyss — 
 Thus much alone revealed " It is " — 
 Or as of mist the floating stream 
 Which wavers in the morning beam, 
 Anon, its grossness laid aside
 
 MOYARRA 6i 
 
 Ascending in a radiant tide, 
 In purest particles alone 
 Soaring to attain th' Almighty throne — 
 Impelled by power which tempers all, 
 Such is 6ur doom — we rise or fall. 
 .. Yet are there hours (who has not known ?) 
 When, of our rigid task abhorrent, 
 We fain would, like the sullen torrent, 
 Court the abyss before us thrown, 
 Rather than, on the wings of faith — 
 Our sordid part resigned to Death 
 As the mist-wreath to flee from earth 
 Freed from the taint that dimmed our birth. 
 * And why ? but that the past still flings 
 Its gloom o'er all the future brings : 
 Hope meted by our pleasures past 
 Deserves not that her shrine should last : 
 Fruition follows not her bloom : 
 Pining expectance droops her plume : 
 
 Whatever our pursuit, the part 
 Achieved sates not the longing heart 
 Restless, immortal, destined here to roam 
 Striving 'mid finite things to build itself a home.
 
 62 jNIOYARRA 
 
 IV. 
 
 Woe ! woe ! since the primaeval fall 
 The dirge of bHss was ever sung, 
 In each reverberating tongue, 
 
 The pregnant theme of grief for all. 
 The ground is cursed for thy sake ; 
 Thy bread in sorrow shalt thou take. 
 Earth shall deny each pleasant blossom, 
 III weeds and thorns deform her bosom : — 
 As, heretofore, the dews of heaven 
 
 Did gently on the plains descend, 
 Henceforth to thee the task be giv^en 
 
 The rugged soil to tend : — 
 Toiling, in sweat and agony of frame, 
 Till dust return to dust from whence it came. 
 
 V. 
 
 Go, pluck from the blossoms the humming bird 
 
 loves 
 The fairest that bloom amid Indian groves 
 Of odours so rare, and hues so bright. 
 That the senses faint with extreme delight : 
 A}'e ! add if }-ou will of those that grace
 
 MOYARRA 63 
 
 The gardens of art, of every race : — 
 
 Is it not sweet ? Then fling 
 
 But one small branch of some loathed thing 
 
 In t^e dank marsh whose stem is reared 
 
 (By man abhorred, by wild beasts feared j 
 
 The vapours of whose pestilent breath 
 
 Might antedate the sense of death ; — 
 
 And thou shalt find that drug hath power 
 To corrupt the sense of each precious flower — 
 
 « 
 
 'Mid all their odours to infuse 
 The venom of its poisonous juice. 
 
 Thus, of our earth each varied joy 
 That ceaseless curse hath power to cloy : 
 Ever present, never weary ; 
 Ready, with its bodings dreary, 
 Our most prized bliss to infect 
 Making it of none effect. 
 
 Crushed by such consciousness of doom 
 Is there no hope that, proudly flinging, 
 Like storm-drops from the eagle's plume. 
 The dross which, to our spirits clinging, 
 Obstructs our course — erect in conscious worth 
 We may arise, the demigods of earth .'*
 
 64 MOYARRA 
 
 Alas ! as well the parent shape 
 Might hope its shadow to escape 
 Whose dull, untiring mockery, 
 Still haunts it wheresoe'er it fly. 
 
 Yet, if revealed in one wide glow 
 Light's glories from the heavens might flow 
 That shade, o'erwhelmed in the bright maze. 
 Would vanish from our baffled gaze. 
 
 E'en thus it soothes the soul to think 
 That, when disrobed of earthly stain. 
 
 And clay to kindred clay shall shrink, 
 The immortal spirit shall remain, 
 
 A pure and perfect emanation 
 Of the great source from whence it came. 
 
 Soaring in heavenly aspiration, 
 
 As a lambent flame, 
 To mingle with the quoir above 
 Who chant unending hymns of love ; — 
 
 That there the soul may float in bliss, 
 Drinking in at every pore 
 
 Tides of celestial mysteries 
 W^hich fooled its keenest search before ; 
 Filled with a joy for utterance too deep 
 And holy love which doth its being steep ;
 
 MOYARRA 6s 
 
 While round, in gleaming circles, soar 
 The great, the good, from every clime 
 Gathered triumphant over Time 
 Th& murmurs of whose ebbless sea, 
 Which bore them to Eternity, 
 Drowned in the music of the spheres 
 No more attract their hopes, their fears ; 
 As, round and round, in mazy flight 
 T)iey wheel, a galaxy of light. 
 
 Celestial gales ambrosial fragrance bring; 
 To harps celestial angel voices sing ; 
 The hallowed concord of whose magic fills 
 The air with love, and on the sense instils 
 A holy joy, a trembling transport blended 
 With fear that aught so sweet must soon be 
 
 ended : 
 But ever do those winds of heaven blow 
 Wafting that melody's richest, fullest flow ; 
 And ever doth that train celestial float 
 In undulating union with each modulated note. 
 
 It is a faith that well might win 
 To virtue every child of sin, 
 To think that from such blest communion 
 With spirits made perfect, from that union 
 
 E
 
 66 MOYARRA 
 
 His soul alike might perfect grow, 
 Secure never again to know 
 Or pain, or sorrow, or that worst 
 Of ills with which the heart is curst, 
 A sense of thanklessness to Him 
 Who framed our being here, a dim 
 Yearning for nothingness again 
 To free us from the world's dull chain. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Around by dusky chiefs arrayed 
 Now low in earth is Mytah laid : — 
 While o'er her early bier they hung 
 Her closing requiem, thus they sung : 
 
 Thou art gone from us, Mytah ! the salt tears of 
 
 woe 
 Are our portion on earth, now thou art laid low : 
 
 One sun beheld thee with breath as light 
 As the soft summer wind at morn that weaves 
 Its melody 'mid the silvery leaves 
 
 Of the pendulous acacia's boughs ; 
 Another viewed thee far and faint 
 Sighing like the mournful plaint
 
 MOYARRA 67 
 
 Of the river oak, when storms at night ^ 
 The gloomy mountain's echoes rouse : 
 And now thou art gone, loved Mytah. 
 
 Though the rites of our country forbid that thy 
 
 name* 
 From the lips of thy kindred meet homage may 
 
 claim, 
 Yefe, more deep than the glozing of language may 
 
 tell, 
 
 Enshrined in our memories thy image shall dwell, 
 
 Though now thou art gone from us, M}'tah. 
 
 Yes ! if aught our affection for thee may outgo 
 It shall be of our hate the untameable glow 
 That burns to consume thy destroyer, w4th rage 
 Which the blood of its victim alone can assuage 
 Because thou art gone, loved Mytah. 
 
 Destruction shall couch in his path, as the snake 
 Ere, darting its venom, it springs from the brake. 
 Till the hand of thy foe from his vile carcase 
 
 torn ^ 
 Thy shade shall appease, and our triumph adorn 
 
 Because thou art gone, loved Mytah. 
 
 E 2
 
 68 MOYARRA 
 
 May the earth which enwraps thee be clothed with 
 
 flowers 
 The sweetest that bloom amid Spring's first showers; 
 May the fresh dews of heaven its bosom bedew 
 With a fragrance for ever undying, yet new, 
 
 And rest thee in peace, loved Mytah. 
 
 VII. 
 
 " Nay, nay, Koreungat ; say not so ; 
 Thou shar'st alike my weal, my woe. 
 But vainly now I strive to shield 
 My heart from ills by time unhealed. 
 
 Still, o'er my fancy, one by one, 
 Flit memories of joys bygone : 
 From commune with myself I shrink 
 Stung with the agony to think. 
 What marvel if such lot be mine 
 I seek not solace though 'twere thine ? 
 
 By heaven, when clouds deform the sky 
 Each gloomy scene offends mine eye. 
 Seeming to arrogate a share 
 In sorrow mine alone to bear. 
 
 Fond fool ! a brighter hour succeeds.
 
 MOYARRA 69 
 
 And inly, then, my sick heart bleeds, 
 Reflecting that from me alone 
 The weight of anguish hath not flown ; 
 A'ifd I could crush each tender plant 
 .in the sun's light which seems to pant 
 With rapture of delight, while I 
 Must watch its smiling apathy 
 
 And recklessness of my distress ; 
 Till, like the hunted prey, whose foe 
 
 Drinks its hot sobs with fell delight 
 No refuge from despair I know. 
 
 No ray adorns my night. 
 And not the least of pangs that wring 
 ♦•Is, that while thus remembering 
 The priceless debt to thy affection due 
 Though still to thee, I am as ever, true, 
 A listless apathy of voice denies 
 To shape the thought which gratitude supplies. 
 And I, repugnant to my crime, remain 
 Enervate in its galling chain." 
 
 *' Not to upbraid thee, did I speak, 
 Moyarra, but with hope to prove 
 (Howe'er against despairing love
 
 o MOYARRA 
 
 I feel my language faint and weak) 
 That this engrossing apathy 
 
 In which you strive, and vainly strive, 
 To bury thought of time gone by 
 
 Is but the spring which keeps alive 
 The source which feeds your constant grief 
 And bars the access of relief. 
 'Tis weak opposing ills to fly. 
 Nor effort make their force to try ; 
 But wise to prove each avenue 
 That hope can tint with prospects new. 
 
 Look ! when the face of heaven is drear 
 And clouds obscure the light of day 
 
 The glad earth drinks each genial tear, 
 The sun resumes his golden sway. 
 What bird or beast, by adverse fate 
 Bereaved, finds not another mate ? 
 One fountain of their joy is dried : 
 Another pours its willing tide. 
 No sorrows that we see endure. 
 Shall ours alone reject a cure ? 
 
 But, Moya, tell me not again 
 Of gratitude won by my love : 
 Thou dost but grieve a heart which fain
 
 MOYARRA 71 
 
 In silence would its fondness prove. 
 Enough, I know were mine thy pain 
 Thou wouldst have been the friend to me 
 That I have striven to be to thee. 
 
 But let us choose another theme ; 
 Two days we now have traced this stream ; 
 And though as deep its bed, and wide, 
 As when we first beheld its tide, 
 The mountains hang around our way 
 Repelling the broad light of day, 
 Beetling as if their craggy sides 
 Frowned vengeance on the foaming tides 
 Which sap with ceaseless flow their feet. 
 ^Escape is none for those who meet 
 Within this chasm the foe they fear. 
 If rightly we have judged, we near 
 That awful precipice whose crest 
 
 Groans with the weight of raging waves 
 Which plunging down with perilous haste 
 
 Are shattered in its yawning caves ; 
 Where echo-waking cataracts come 
 Rushing with hoary crests of foam."
 
 72 MOYARRA 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Truly the warrior spoke ; for round 
 Each jutting precipice as they wound 
 Nearer and nearer swelled the sound, 
 
 While dark and gloomier o'er them grew 
 
 The shade th' impending mountains threw. 
 
 Aloof the eagle swooped in air ; 
 
 No little warbler flitted there, 
 
 Nor herb was there its weight to bear ; 
 
 Nought but the huge rock's columned side 
 
 Rearing aloft its crest of pride. 
 
 Now louder grew the sound, and more 
 Magnificently rude the steeps 
 
 Re-echoing its terrible roar — 
 And lo ! revealed to sight, where leaps 
 Thy turbulent stream, Tiara, prone "^ 
 To the black gulf before it thrown. 
 The artillery of storms ! the flash. 
 Electric, where thy waters dash ! 
 The ambient clouds of mist that rise 
 Like spirits pure freed from the ties 
 Of earthly shocks and agonies ! 
 Oh ! who shall hear and gaze upon
 
 MOYARRA 73 
 
 Nor bend in spirit at the Almighty throne ? 
 Temple of Nature ! where the eye 
 
 O'ergazing to satiety 
 Redls on its liquid throne, 
 Each mortal feeling quenched and dead 
 Save passionate ecstasy thy dread 
 
 Magnificence to own — 
 As if the heart in one fond gush 
 Forth on the wings of sight did rush ! 
 
 Here, high precipitously piled, 
 Rude, beetling crags, and columns wild, 
 Hung vast, as threat'ning to o'erwhelm 
 The intruders on their rugged realm : 
 And there, as doth the war-horse bound 
 Rejoicing at the trumpet's sound. 
 From rock to rock, with frenzied wrath. 
 The chafed flood clove its hoary path. 
 Exulting to have found a foe ; 
 Then, plunging in the gulf below, 
 Foamed o'er the horrid rocks, and hurled, 
 In wreaths fantastically curled. 
 The scattered spray which floating there 
 Now hovered like a mist, in air ;
 
 74 MOYARRA 
 
 Now caught the histre shed in streams 
 By the fierce sun's meridian beams, 
 And weaving hues of every dye 
 Blended with magic harmony, 
 Glowed in celestial mockery. 
 
 And when, at times, a heedless zephyr 
 The bow which trembled there did sever 
 Each broken arch would, wavering, woo 
 Its gentle image to renew 
 Their love — now in the sunbeams waving, 
 Now in the ambient spray-dew laving 
 Their charms — then close in fond embrace 
 Leaving no tinge of parting's trace. 
 
 Oh ! ever thus should friends remain 
 Aye linked in friendship's golden chain ; 
 Seizing the sunshine of bright hours, 
 Plucking the rosy-blossomed flowers ; 
 And if the world's unwelcome breath 
 Taint with its blight one roseate wreath 
 Unheeded let it find a grave 
 When not our skill its sweets can save. 
 
 If from our grasp the rose is torn 
 Why should our bosoms nurse the thorn .'' 
 In amity's pure cup we'll find
 
 MOYARRA 75 
 
 A balm to soothe the wounded mind ; 
 Wealth's votaries never can possess 
 The joy we'll find in one caress, 
 Nor empire like the mutual union 
 Of soul with soul in full communion. 
 But here I cannot pause. Farewell 
 
 Torrent ! whose thunder-mocking throne 
 Of ever-during power doth tell ; 
 
 • Whose glories, silent I have gazed upon 
 Till from my mind earth's joys and sorrows 
 
 ■ fell. 
 
 IX. 
 
 « 
 
 From crag to crag the friends have gained, 
 
 With difficult labour, the ascent, 
 And now upon the summit stand 
 
 With earer sfaze around them bent. 
 
 o o 
 
 Short time they tarried, ere with spring 
 As silent as the far bird's wing 
 They bounded on, yet cautiously. 
 Leaving no trace to mark their way. 
 On printlcss rocks alone they tread 
 Nor bend the humble floweret's head.
 
 76 MOYARRA 
 
 Now sunk the sun, whose fiery rays 
 Revealed in all their energies 
 Paled the rich azure of the skies, 
 
 Quenching their bloom in one wide-scorching 
 
 blaze : 
 Sullenly plunging to his rest 
 In lurid glare he robed the west ; 
 His red, round orb glowing in rayless wrath 
 Denounced the terrors of his morning path ; 
 An ashen gloom as of a thunder-cloud 
 The horizon girt with dusky shroud : 
 
 Seemed it as if the fires of day 
 On the parched earth but smouldering lay, 
 Till lit by morn's electric ray 
 Again in one bright gush all nature to display. 
 
 The warriors paused ; and, having found 
 A hollow by green mounds hemmed round, 
 Prepared for food their simple fare : 
 This quickly done, they quenched with care 
 The glowing embers, and in low 
 And earnest tones then communed 
 How, in the morning, to proceed ; 
 And how, themselves unseen, to know 
 The present station of the foe.
 
 MOYARRA Tj 
 
 X. 
 
 Whjen fell the chill that tells of clay/ 
 
 Darkling, the warriors took their way. 
 
 Leaving the river's rocky bed 
 
 Silent and swift, Moyarra led. 
 
 Nor long they journeyed, ere a star 
 
 Eclipsed in station high, while near 
 
 Beamed brightly many a rival sphere, 
 
 Served to their practised eyes to show 
 
 Where frowned a neighbouring mountain's 
 
 brow ; 
 Nearing it with unslackened pace 
 
 They bounded up its rocky base : 
 
 With joy beheld that winter's chill 
 
 Had bared the summit of the hill. 
 
 Save where in dreary order stood 
 
 Some hardier scions of the wood 
 
 Which, having bloomed their little hour 
 
 Remained, types of their tyrant's power, 
 
 Lifeless, yet in bleak array 
 
 Memorials eloquent of decay. 
 
 Now, lo ! each moment brighter than the last
 
 B MOYARRA 
 
 Proclaimed the coming glories of the East : 
 Red and more red in deepening circles grew 
 Rays which revealed the waking world to view 
 (Like some fair vision of enchanted land 
 Where mysteries flee before the magic wand) 
 Till, leaping from his roseate couch, the sun 
 
 Rejoicing his bright course to run, 
 Like his great Author, looked — and all was 
 light 
 
 XL 
 
 " Moyarra ! fate befriends the bold ; 
 
 Caution had found no surer hold 
 
 Than this, your ardour hath bequeathed." 
 
 From the near forest's bosom wreathed 
 
 In welcome eddies many a spire 
 
 Evolvent of the latent fire : 
 
 Beyond, far-stretching plains were seen 
 
 Adorned but by their lawny green, 
 
 Save where at intervals, afar 
 
 Rose a few eminences, bare 
 
 Or crowned in mockery with a leafless wood 
 
 Like that on which the chieftains stood
 
 MOYARRA 79 
 
 Firm, and of fear unconscious, glancing 
 With all the ardour of the deer 
 Who knows his agile playmate near ; 
 Ho^e, fixed yet eager, was entrancing 
 With high and earnest thoughts the pair : 
 One passion ruled them both — to attain 
 Full vengeance for dark Mytah slain. 
 
 . Soon as the sun, with ardent ray 
 Asserting from high heaven the day, 
 Glowed on the forest's waving crests 
 The warriors marked with throbbing breasts 
 Each movement of th' unwary prey. 
 * As bees, that with the morning light 
 Disperse their troops in banded flight, 
 Winging at will their odorous way 
 From honeyed flower to flower ; so they. 
 For various chase prepared, depart ; 
 Some to ascend with perilous art 
 The gaunt stem of the tree, whose womb 
 The squirrel makes his daily home ; 
 Some, with the flying spear arrayed, 
 To rove at will the forest glade, 
 And, ambushed, ^ pierce the kangaroo
 
 8o MOYARRA 
 
 Or the far-striding, swift emu. 
 
 To thee, Muntookan, fate decreed 
 The former choice, when most thy need 
 Demands the safeguard of thy spear. 
 Thou, bhnd to fate ! might'st thou not fear 
 From thine own inroad's vile success 
 That fortune might thy rival bless ? 
 
 Yes ! he e'en now, from that near height 
 Marks with a proud and fierce delight 
 The course thy comrades with thee take 
 Though tending to his recent track ; 
 Though, of thy five companions, two 
 Armed with the quivering javelin go. 
 
 XII. 
 
 Now, while with careless step and eye 
 
 From tree to tree at ease thou'rt turning 
 (Like some fond bird, that joyously 
 
 Carols in the light of morning) 
 Thine enemy notes thee ; so the snake, 
 Extended latent in the brake. 
 With glance fire-darting marks its prey 
 Which flutters on the o'erhanging spray :
 
 MOYARRA 8i 
 
 His polished scales with livid lustre glow 
 As varied lights the mutable colours show, 
 His lambent tongue protruded licks the air, 
 With ardour vibrating — he keeps his lair 
 But tillr arrives the fitting time to spring 
 And crush the victim with its futile wing. 
 
 " Koreungat ! now our track they near 
 That seen, for us is no regress : 
 , ' My life I value not, nor fear 
 But for our enterprise' success : — 
 And see ! Muntookan swerves ; do thou 
 Retreat — I lay the spoiler low." 
 
 He spoke, and heedless of his friend's appeal, 
 Unerring as a beam of light, departed'; 
 
 His soul was but one passion strung to feel, 
 With eagerness of Hope his lips were parted : 
 
 Muntookan, startled, turned, and shrunk to see 
 The rapid death approaching : time was none 
 
 His swift assailant to repel or flee : 
 A fearful commune shook his breast alone 
 Whose craven judgment owned his race was 
 run. 
 
 One effort yet is prompted by despair ; 
 The fatal axe which laid dark Mytah low 
 
 F
 
 82 MOYARRA 
 
 Now cleaves, but cleaves in vain, the parted 
 air: — 
 The uplifted club diverts the forceful blow, 
 Then, whirled on high, descends and, crashing, 
 
 rends 
 The cowering front which, ere its coming 
 bends. 
 The recreant falls, with blood and brains defiled, 
 While o'er him hangs his foq unreconciled. 
 
 Yet fell he not unmarked : his scattered friends 
 To the fierce victor throng, with bearing wild, 
 Who heeded not their coming ; nor, when 
 flew 
 Th' unerring javelins which his life-blood drew. 
 Did once retract his gaze from his slain foe, 
 But glared upon him when himself laid low. 
 
 XIII 
 
 But thou, Koreungat ! who thy grief can tell 
 When thus, so near to thee, thy comrade fell ? 
 
 Not ineffectual was thy rage : thy spear 
 A victim adds to grace the warrior's bier, 
 Ere rushing from the covert of the shade,
 
 MOYARRA 83 
 
 Scorning the weapons in thy path arrayed, 
 And dashing down one foe while others gave 
 The wounds which grant thee no unwelcome 
 
 n gra,ve, 
 To thy loved friend thou held'st, unchecked, thy 
 f flight. 
 
 " Moyarra ! could'st thou doubt my truth ? " A 
 light 
 Like the faint lightning of a quiet night 
 Played o'er the victor's features fierce, and fired 
 With momentary joy ere he expired. 
 
 Then fled the vital spirit, free from care. 
 The hope fulfilled which, only, made life 
 dear. 
 Not unattended did he sink in death, 
 Koreungat, glad, resigned his equal breath ; 
 Worthy to wear th' imperishable wreath 
 That blooms and decks immortal Nisus' faith ; 
 Would that his praise were hymned by worthier 
 
 tongue 
 To raise his name the deathless great among. 
 Nor, as to harp of mine, thus humbly sung. 
 
 His place was vacant in the tribe ; who knew 
 When came not back the warriors to their view 
 
 F 2
 
 84 MOYARRA 
 
 That they had fallen by the stranger's hand ; 
 And there was mourning deep throughout the 
 land. 
 
 XIV 
 
 Thus far have I essayed to trace 
 The lives, the loves, of that dark race 
 (Chequered the tale, and fraught with ill 
 For frail is bliss, life human still), 
 Heirs of the land where I must pine 
 Reflecting that it is not mine. 
 
 My tale is done : and I would fain 
 Believe, though humble be my strain, 
 A pitying tear may dim some tender eye, 
 Some breast may heave a sympathetic sigh. 
 
 But yet it matters not — to me 
 It hath fulfilled kind ministry ; 
 To purest fancies it hath won me 
 From sorrowing thoughts that crowded on me ; 
 
 Affection, homeward prone to veer 
 It hath compelled with magic wand ; 
 
 Beguiling the sad truth that here 
 I am a stranger in the land. 
 Thou mild moon ! pouring down each night
 
 MOYARRA 85 
 
 Thy trembling showers of silver light ; 
 I love thee, — but I love thee more 
 That thou revisits't England's shore ; 
 Th&t though I view not, thou dost shine 
 On sacred haunts which once were mine, 
 And still, by Memory's aid, are shrined 
 In holiest precincts of the mind. 
 
 ♦ Aye ! thou returns't to gaze thy fill 
 On scenes by thee made holier still : 
 
 If shadows o'er the landscape fleet 
 They render thy next smile more sweet ; 
 But fruitless is my fond endeavour 
 ' To pierce the gloom which shrouds me ever : 
 My steps no more shall pace the grove 
 Endeared by childhood's earliest love. 
 
 Yet, when thou climb'st thine azure throne, 
 Encircled by thy starry zone 
 Thou bring'st remembrance of each night 
 I sported in thy gentle light ; 
 Or conned the legendary rhyme 
 Beneath the oak, long spared by time, 
 Which reared its venerable head 
 Relic of many a century fled ;
 
 86 MOYARRA 
 
 Or, fearful, tempted the stern shade 
 By the old moss-grown parapet made, 
 Doubting to leave thy light which wont 
 To quiver o'er the embattled front, 
 A lustre seeming to impart 
 Hallowing the remains of art. 
 
 As o'er those ruins thou could'st shed 
 A recompense for glory fled, 
 A holier grandeur granting them 
 Than w^as their boast in day's broad gleam 
 
 So, o'er the wreck of feeling crushed 
 Thy midnight hour, when all is hushed 
 A balm doth fling which can awhile 
 Of all its woes the heart beguile, 
 Prompting, since joy may never last, 
 A grateful memory of the past. 
 
 Yes ! those were happy times, when youth 
 Imagined, and received for truth 
 Its halcyon dreams ; in every dell 
 A fairy spirit feigned to dwell, 
 And fancied in the wind's low^ sigh 
 Tones of aerial minstrelsy. 
 
 But why enumerate the thousand ties 
 Subtilely woven with love's sympathies
 
 MOYARRA 87 
 
 Which bound me to that hallowed spot 
 My home ? enough, I view it not ; 
 Those ties are riven, and callous were the heart 
 To view without a pang such joys depart; 
 Fdc which the world could soothe such sadl\'- 
 n' pleasing smart. 
 
 Shades of my fathers ! haunting yet 
 
 "Each object of my fond regret ; 
 
 The memory of whose fame is twined 
 
 With tendril clasp around my meeting mind ; 
 Ye tutelar deities ! whose presiding love 
 Sighed in the gale, and whispered in the grove ; 
 
 Say, can your spells pervade this distant clime, 
 
 Alike victorious over space and time ? 
 Once I conjured ye — " Be your airy forms 
 Bright harbingers of fate in life's dark storms ! 
 Still hover o'er, your pinions weary never, 
 Beckoning to realms where bliss endures for 
 ever ! 
 
 Vain invocation ! rests with me alone ^ 
 A dim remembrance of fair visions flown ; 
 A lonely sense I yearn to lose — the ghost 
 Lingering, memorial sad, of pleasure lost.
 
 88 MOYARRA 
 
 Yet though the boon ye not accord to me, 
 Oh ! in the councils of my father-land ^'^ 
 Instil the wisdom which may keep it free, 
 Great, glorious, wonder of the nations : so shall be 
 Your benison wafted o'er the circling sea 
 To hearts which, faithful still, revere your sacred 
 band. 
 
 THE END
 
 NOTES TO CANTO II 
 
 ^ (P- 55)- " If feeling jet pursued that state." 
 .Though, as previously stated, the Australians had no de- 
 finite creed prevalent throughout the tribes, they had legends 
 of the supernatural, and frequently discoursed about them. 
 
 " (P 55)- " To think when soon the tree must die." 
 The mimosa, which bears leaves shaped like those of the 
 sensitive plant, is short-lived. 
 
 ' (p. 67). " Of the river oak, when storms at night 
 The gloomy mountain's echoes rouse." 
 
 Those who have heard the solemn, sighing sound pro- 
 duced among the boughs — one cannot say the leaves — of the 
 casuarina will appreciate the mournful feeling which in some 
 circumstances must arise in the mind when the melancholy 
 sound seems to be an echo of the sense. 
 
 * (p. 67). "Though the rites of our country forbid that 
 thy name." 
 
 The Australians scrupulously abstained from mentioning 
 the names of their deceased friends, and were aggrieved 
 when they heard their names referred to by strangers un- 
 acquainted with their customs. This custom produced one 
 curious result. It sometimes happened that the name of a
 
 90 MOYARRA 
 
 chief was taken from some place, or borrowed from a tree or 
 flower. Another name was then given to the place, or to 
 the tree, and the old word disappeared. 
 
 ^ (p. 67). " Till the hand of thy foe from his vile carcase 
 torn." 
 It was the custom in some tribes to cut off the hands of 
 their slain enemies, and carry them as trophies of prowess. 
 This custom led to curious misconceptions when colonists 
 saw the trophies, and imagined that all the tribes were can- 
 nibals, although most of them were not. Some of them 
 were. Those who were not recoiled with disgust from those 
 who were. In Taplin's Folk-Lore of South Australia are 
 recorded instances in which a few tribes were bound by 
 their superstition to a repulsive ceremony. They were not 
 bound to devour a dead relative, but certain close relations 
 were compelled to take a prescribed morsel, however 
 minute, of the deceased, as a token of duty. 
 
 ^ (p. 72). " Thy turbulent stream. Tiara, prone." 
 The chasms or gorges which are found on the east of the 
 mountain range which separates the waters of the Macleay 
 and other rivers from the waters which form the tributaries 
 of the Darling, and which were known among the early 
 colonists as " The Falls," were thus described by their dis- 
 coverer, Surveyor-General Oxley, in 1818. 
 
 "We had seen many fine and magnificent falls, each of 
 which had excited our admiration in no small degree, but 
 the present one so far surpassed anything which we had 
 previously conceived even to be possible that we were lost 
 in astonishment at the sight of this wonderful natural sub- 
 limity, which perhaps is scarcely to be exceeded in any part 
 of the Eastern world."
 
 AIOYARRA 91 
 
 " (p. -]-]). " When fell the chill that tells of day, 
 
 Darkling, the warriors took their way." 
 
 The sudden chill which precedes the dawn is well known 
 to alj who have spent night after night in the unhoused 
 bush. 
 
 . - This eJipedition of the friends may appear Quixotic, but 
 as a, daring exploit in war I have known something similar. 
 »J knew three active warriors who made an expedition into 
 their enemy's country to wreak vengeance for the killing of 
 one of their tribe. 
 
 The expedition lasted several weeks, and the three friends 
 returned with trophies of the withered hands of three 
 enemies. 
 
 ^ (P- 79)- " And, ambushed, pierce the kangaroo." 
 No more expert sportsman than the Australian has been 
 known. He could carry an ambush with him. 
 
 r 
 
 \ Watching intently his game, never moving a muscle while 
 the creature looked towards him, carrying a bough so 
 adroitly that it seemed a growing bush, he stealthily ad- 
 vanced while the animal's eyes were not turned towards him. 
 When near enough he resorted to his spear, or when hunt- 
 ing on behalf of an European, his gun. 
 
 ^ (p. 87). " Vain invocation ! rests with me alone 
 
 A dim remembrance of fair visions tlown. . ." 
 
 This may appear exaggerated language for an exile in his 
 teens who only accompanied his family to an English 
 colony : and it seems now somewhat overstrained in the 
 eyes of the writer; but it sprung from fervent feelings at the 
 time, and as it is idle for old age to prune the exuberance of 
 youth, the original words are in this case, as indeed through- 
 out the legend, left untouched.
 
 92 MOYARRA 
 
 1" (p. 88). " Oh ! in the councils of my father-land 
 Instil the wisdom which may keep it free." 
 
 This was indeed a " vain invocation ! " I have lived long 
 enough to see the principles of the English Constitution 
 violated by men solemnly pledged to defend them ; to see the 
 House of Commons comport itself like Caliban in the gar- 
 den of Prospero ; to see the very principle on which repre- 
 sentation was founded by our forefathers trampled in the 
 dust ; to observe the gathered voices from all parts of the 
 realm dominated by the will of numerous delegates from 
 towns so few in number that they may almost be counted 
 on the fingers — the result being that decisions, which under 
 the ancient constitution represented a composition of many 
 forces gathered from various places, have been degraded 
 until they represent little more than one force, that one 
 being dependent upon clamour in the streets prompted 
 and controlled by self-seeking wire-pullers behind the 
 scenes. 
 
 The once time-honoured principle of representation of the 
 tax-payers has been so grotesquely inverted that they who 
 contribute the bulk of the taxation have but a nominal voice 
 in its expenditure. 
 
 It is even demanded that the formula — one man, one 
 vote — shall supersede all claims for representation of intelli- 
 gence and industry. 
 
 The conduct of foreign affairs, and of all momentous 
 problems in government, must be thrown into crucibles 
 controlled by ignorance and passion. In the very heart of 
 the Empire intelligence is to be stifled. If none but those 
 who lodge within the electoral district of the City of London 
 can vote for a Member for the City, the caretakers of property 
 will wield the power heretofore possessed by proprietors
 
 MOYARRA 93 
 
 deemed worthy to represent the wealth, the intelligence, the 
 industry, and the enterprise of the metropolis. 
 
 Nay, more ; it is contended that if a majority told by 
 heads, demand what is injurious to their country and to 
 themselves, their fatal demand should be conceded. 
 • Kor is tliis enthronement of disorder, this proscription of 
 common sense, confined to the hoarse unreason of the 
 streets. Right and wrong, in the words of the greatest of 
 Englishmen, are to lose their names. 
 
 Then everything includes itself in power ; 
 Power into will, will into appetite ; 
 - And appetite, an universal wolf. 
 
 So doubly seconded with will and power, 
 Must make perforce an universal prey. 
 And, last, eat up himself. 
 
 We see a party leader, a man of marvellous culture and 
 powers, enslaved to this degrading heresy, abetting what he 
 has denounced as hurtful, and pleading that a leader is wise 
 in his own generation to keep '• always a little in advance 
 of each popular movement " — a rule of action which (as a 
 great orator declared) " if the distinguished author of it had 
 been living in Jerusalem on the first Good Friday in the 
 history of Christendom must have made him the first to cry 
 — ' Not this man, but Barabbas.' " 
 
 Prophetic voices have been heard from time to time, but 
 have been unheeded. 
 
 The betrayal of England by an exotic partisan in 1S67 
 aroused the wrath of Carlyle, who saw the gulf across the 
 path so unscrupulously chosen and so wildly followed. 
 
 Another of England's sages, Sir Henry Maine, pointed 
 out in burning words, which will ere long be recognized as
 
 94 MOYARRA 
 
 prophetic, the inevitable consequence of the folHes of 1867 
 and 1884. 
 
 "The effect" (he wrote) " of the virtually English dis- 
 covery of government by Representation was to diminish 
 the difficulties of popular government in exact proportion to 
 the diminution in the number of persons who had to decide 
 public questions. But this famous system is evidently in 
 decay through the ascendency over it which is being gradu- 
 ally obtained by the vulgar assumption that great masses of 
 men can directly decide all necessary questions for them- 
 selves." ..." The delusion that democracy, when it has 
 once had all things put under its feet, is a progressive form 
 of government, lies deep in the convictions of a particular 
 political school. But there can be no delusion grosser. It re- 
 ceives no countenance from experience or from probability." 
 
 . . . " We may say generally that the gradual establishment 
 of the masses in power is of the blackest omen for all legisla- 
 tion founded on scientific opinion, which requires tension of 
 mind to understand it, or self-denial to submit to it." . . . 
 " Perhaps we are not at liberty to forget that there are two 
 kinds of bribery. It can be carried on by patronising or 
 giving to expectant partisans places paid out of the taxes, or 
 it may consist in the directer process of legislating away the 
 property of one class and transferring it to another. It is 
 this last which is likely to be the corruption of these latter 
 days. . . ." We are drifting towards a type of government 
 associated with terrible events — a single Assembly, armed 
 with full powers over the Constitution, which it may exercise 
 at pleasure." 
 
 The warnings of the wis3, the experience of Greece, of 
 Rome, of mediaeval Italy and modern France, are thrown 
 away upon those who lust only for the spoils of the present.
 
 MOYARRA. 95 
 
 The halls which once resounded to the voices of the 
 great are defiled by the intrigues of the little, and England 
 staggers in disordered course along the road, and driven by 
 the same causes which have conducted ancient communities 
 to ruin. 
 
 /The sagdcious Hamilton, and his coadjutors who pro- 
 vided safeguards in the Constitution of the United States, 
 bore in mind the warnings of Montesquieu, who insisted on 
 the necessity of an essential separation of the Executive, the 
 Legislative, and the Judicial functions. 
 
 In some respects Hamilton's care has been rewarded ; but 
 degradation of the suffrage and dictations of a "caucus" 
 have so far perverted the order of the last century as to 
 present to us an organized State which prefers commit- 
 ting murders to amending its jury-law, or purifying its 
 electorates. 
 
 But in the land " set in the silver sea," from which the 
 French philosopher drew many of his arguments, the virtue 
 he commended seems doomed. 
 
 Members of a body degraded in its own composition may 
 be seen one day wallowing in the mire of criminal details, 
 and on another revelling in aspersions against the judiciary. 
 
 When earthly things which deserve respect are traduced, 
 " Reverence, that angel of the world," can hardly remain to 
 hallow it, and debased generations may pollute the homes 
 of God-fearing ancestors. 
 
 Already the sanction of an oath has been barred from one 
 branch of Parliament in deference to insolence and intrigue ; 
 and if the same low arts succeed in banishing religion from 
 schools, and in uprooting the national Church, a decay of 
 the moral fibre of the nation must ensue. 
 
 But this end is not yet. The train is indeed laid for the
 
 96 MOYARRA 
 
 miseries foretold by Sir Henry Maine, but they will be 
 evolved in England, with more or less precipitance, as they 
 have been evolved in other lands. 
 
 The preponderance of voting power lodged below that 
 centre of stability in which reside the intelligence, enterprise, 
 and industry of a nation cannot fail to be abused by in- 
 heritors of the low arts of a Cleon or a Clodius. The wheel 
 must " come full circle" in England as elsewhere. Succes- 
 sive generations repeat the follies of the past. 
 
 It is the most pity-moving characteristic in the history of 
 man, that the self-earned miseries of one country are power- 
 less to guard against their repetition in another. 
 
 Each seems to crave to work out, not its own salvation, 
 but its own — destruction. 
 
 " There is a history in all men's lives 
 Figuring the nature of the times deceased ; 
 The which observed, a man may prophesy 
 With a near aim of the main chance of things 
 As yet not come to life ; which in their seeds 
 And weak beginnings lie intreasured. 
 Such things become the hatch and brood of time." 
 
 Richard Ci.ay and Sons, Limited, London and Bungav.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 m 1 8 1959 
 
 Form L9-32m-8,'57(.C8680s4)444
 
 PR Rusden - 
 
 b'^h? Moyarra 
 R9U5m 
 
 m FAG hys ^tessa 
 
 PR 
 
 52ii9 
 
 R9l;5ir) 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY 
 
 FACILITY 
 
 AA 000 378 079