Australia’s first “ international best seller ”, the 1886 detective
novel , THE MYSTERY OF A
HANSOM CAB MURDER , by
Fergus Hume (1859-1932) , set in Melbourne , made into a telemovie
starring John Waters, Oliver Ackland , Jessica De Gouw and others
, was the subject of
discussion on Radio National. Over the years, the book has sold in excess
of a million copies .
The radio report prompted this writer
to pull out THE BLACK TROOPERS and Other
Stories, circa early 1890s, which includes
a detective yarn set in England about a couple who
steal the master’s silver , intent
on starting a new life in
Melbourne and end up in
Canada .
The copy of Black Troopers , published
by the
Religious Tract Society , London,
was awarded to Sam McGregor , St. John’s
Presbyterian Sabbath School , Peel Street, Ballarat, for the year 1894. The illustrated title page, below, shows strange
looking dingoes
, mentioned in
the text as being shot
and poisoned ( a footnote states the dingo is almost extinct in Victoria...“Strychnine has greatly hastened its extermination .”)
The main story, THE BLACK TROOPERS , by an anonymous author , is a powerful
account by a sensitive
doctor in Victoria who becomes
involved in the hunt
, with black police,
for an Aborigine , Bobby Peel, said to have
killed
white men . Peel , it
unfolds , had been
shot at by overlanders
with stock when he approached
them in friendship
, his father and two
brothers killed .
The dialogue includes a discussion between the superintendent of a station and the doctor as they ride out with a police party intent on capturing or killing Peel and some others . The station man says he feels “ sad” about the fate about to befall the “unhappy wretches.” He continues -
Were I to speak thus
to nine out of ten squatters, they would
stare at me in astonishment. It is enough for them that these blacks
have killed white men .They must , therefore, be shot down
if they run, or be hanged if they
are taken alive. But I
cannot help feeling that all those so-called murders were perpetrated by those
ignorant savages in retaliation for innumerable atrocities
practised by the overlanders and their
men, who until a year or two back , when this station was
first formed, used to travel from the Sydney side
with their sheep and cattle to take up this country. Had we white
men only done our duty by these
poor creatures , and used our superior
power a little more mercifully when we sei(s)ed (
lost last letter of
alphabet ) and occupied their
country, such atrocities as those we are
going to punish would never
have occurred . It is enough to make
one’s blood run cold to hear some of my neighbour’s speak of these blacks. "How many did you shoot
when you came over ? one will ask another .” "Only eleven, he will
reply.”How many did you ?” “ Fourteen altogether .” And in town
I have more than once met-gentlemen , I suppose,I must call them
–who openly asserted that they made
it a point
to shoot all they came across
.”
The doctor
replies that he
heard the same more
than once in Melbourne ..."It is perfectly horrible.” Peel , who rubbed his
face with flour to make himself look like a white
man from a distance , is cornered
and shot
dead , see illustration at head of
post
. The story ends thus-
Years have passed , but all the incidents
of that exciting and tragic chase are still fresh in my memory
. The fierce strength of that last terrible effort almost
appalled us, and we are loud in
our regrets that so much
skill and endurance should come to such an end. Times have changed
since then, but it remains a reproach to our civilisation that the aboriginal races are
fast vanishing before it. At the
same time, there is cause
for thankfulness that the efforts
of Christian benevolence have not been in vain on behalf of the
natives. There are still
occasional outrages, but reckless treatment of the
blacks
is now held in check by a healthier
public opinion.
Wonder what impression this book had on young Sam McGregor ? His teacher was Miss
Kelsal.
