FL661440

The various tribes have their allies & often
assist each other. On this account they some-
times require several weeks till they are all
prepared & meet. The day for the fight is usually
fixed upon some time before. They always cease fighting
[word crossed out] before or at sundown.
But their quarrels are not always settled
in this more open & honorable way [words crossed out]
Revenge too frequently leads them to act
by more clandestine & cowardly procedings. Revenge
is often carried on, tribe against
tribe, for years & the allied tribe becomes
implicated. The most innocent may thus
become the victim. For if there be a feud between
them, they care not whom they obtain from the
opposing tribe or tribes, as their victim. I may exemplify &
explain this by [words crossed out] relating to you a sad story of succesive
acts of retaliation
which happened within the last 10 or 12 years.
The Mudgee tribe & the Wellington tribe had been previously
allied on the one side & on the other the Castle-
reagh tribe & the Lower McQuarie tribe.
In consequence of an old grudge, one of the
Castlereagh tribe killed a Black of the Mudgee a [indecipherable]tribe somewhere
about Manduran, clandestinely. The victim
was a peaceable Black at the time in the service
of a settler. [Crossed out: This Black belonged to the
Mudgee or [indecipherable] tribe. In consequence