hasDescriptionQuoterosie-reynolds-massacre-connection/nmp-events-export-20260508193632/row-1652-eid-50838
The Old Gilbert. — When Beakam and his mate, on their expedition to this place, arrived at the site of the town, they found camps of blacks comfortably settled. Beakam was nearly losing the number of his mess one morning, when looking after the horses. A party of niggers followed him up, and from one flight of spears half-a-dozen quivered in the soil within a couple of feet of his person, They however, had an old stager to deal with, and biding his time, Beakam, who was well armed, fired one shot, and the natives dispersed. His second adventure was a most laughable one. Taking his own and his mate's clothes to the river to wash, he stripped himself intending to wash the clothes he was wearing and give himself a "clean start." Then came the process of hanging out to dry, during which he lay with a blanket covering inside the tent. His annoyance exceeded his surprise when he found shortly afterwards that the darkies had taken every stitch of clothing, leaving his mate with the garments he was working in and himself as unadorned as Adam before the fall. He was, however, equal to the emergency and cutting holes in a saddle cloth to put his arms through, and girding his loins with a piece of old blanket, he "rather astonished" the people at Finnigan's, into which town he rode en route for Townsville.