Will

The book you refer to is one and the same. Burger came across a group of victims sitting in a river with their limbs broken.

He rescued them but his paid blacks wouldn't help for fear or superstition. As he couldn't take them with him and they couldn't stay where they were for they would die slowly or be eaten (or both), in the end he had to do something he very much did not want to. He put them out of their misery.

Some of the happenings reminded me very much of parts of a book I read about twenty years ago, called "Rivers of Gold". I read this historical book while in the NT and it dealt with the Palmer River gold rush in the far North of Queensland in the Cairns / Port Douglas region.

The area was inhabited by cannabalistic Aborigines. Accounts in the book dealt with stories of the victims or near victims.

The finding of a cave filled with the bones and skulls of victims. Split for their marrow.

Also a white prospector whom was taken but managed to scribble a note with his arms broken. His legs were also broken. He and a friend lay in the shade awaiting their turn. Above him hung by their pigtails from a branch were several Chinese miners who also were still alive until they were eaten. The note survived but he did not.

Another somewhat blackly humourous story was of a white miner turned bushranger who hated the Chinese with a vengenace. He fled after some crime into the bush and joined the myall Aborigines. He aided them in their raids on Chinese mining camps and while the Aborigines got as "booty" the "meat", he took their gold.

However it is undoubtably the case that for every white miner or ten Chinese miners killed, probably a hundred Aboriginals were slain.

It is interesting to see how history is re-written. When I visited the Port Douglas area a few years ago I visited an Aboriginal museum which was quite good. However they started the tour with a PC lecture on how evil the wihite invaders were and the atrocities they committed. They conveniently forgot to give an account on how their ancestors loved to invite their guests to a barbeque. And usually this sort of "BBQ" invitation will excite the emotions and encourage reaction somewhat.

If you can come across the book "Rivers of Gold" it is a good read.