BLACK TRACKERS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 253, 15 March 1913, Page 2 (Supplement)

BLACK TRACKERS

THIEF-HUNTING IN MOUNTAINS. Sydney, February 26. The Australian blacks are world-fam-ous as trackers. All the police outback agree that their wonderful skill in tracking is almost superhuman. Mounted-constable Dowdy, who is stationed at Aretunga, in Central Australia, and is in Sydney on a holiday, told an interviewer the other day of a remarkable tracking case, and it is worth repeating, because of its proof of the extraordinary qualities of the natives:—

A miner named William Russell, occupying a lonely camp in the McDonnell Ranges in Central Australia, had his place robbed during his absence. He stated that on the previous evening a young lubra, who could speak a little pidgin English, had called at his camp 'and asked for food and tobacco. On going outside to get firewood he had noticed the end of a spear sticking out of a bush about 100 yds from camp. Before he could get within 50yds of it with his rifle, a naked native flashed out from behind, and disappeared in the dense undergrowth. It was on the following day that his camp was raided, and as there were hundreds of aborigines in the vicinity the capture of the culprits seemed to be an impossible task. Moreover, the offenders had for some distance dragged houghs behind them, and thus obliterated all tracks.

Dowdy was sent for, and his trackers discovered some marks near the bush, and immediately identified them as those of an aboriginal named Oeera. This seems strange even to a scientific white, but it is a well-established fact that a good black tracker will know the tracks of every man, woman and child in his district. He will even pick up the tracks of a horse out of a hundred hoofmarks round a water-hole, and track that horse till he finds it. The trackers followed the tracks of Oeera for some distance, and then discovered that they joined those of a lubra. These the trackers identified as the tracks of Oeera's wife, or lubra. Two days passed before Dowdy was able to start on the chase with two trackers, 10 horses, and an ample supply of provisions, water and the essential firearms. A LONG CHASE. "We continued in their tracks," he said, "and, even to myself, who have been living continuously amongst aborigines for over 12 years, it seemed wonderful how these trackers could follow the tracks of two bare-footed niggers over such rough, wild and mountainous country. Yet the chase continued day after day. ' In some places it became too rough to take the horses. Here the trackeTs would dismount, and tak-, ing off their boots to secure a firmer footing, continue on foot, I taking the horses to the bottom of the mountain, and driving them slowly along the foot thereof. On the third day there was a break in the mountains, and it became absolutely necessary for the hunted pair to cross a well-beaten road to get from one mountain range to another. I rode on to this road, thinking I could cut their tracks, but could find no trace of them. After a time I could see the trackers coming in the direction of the road, and on their arrival they halted for perhaps a minute, then looked right and "left for tracks going off, but could find none. Presently one of them gave a grunt of satisfaction, commenced to laugh, and said: 'Come here, boss, I bin show you which way that pfella Oeera bin cross the road. My word, boss, him big pfella rogue all right.' I dismounted and found that he had crossed the road by walking fully 10ft along a dead tree which was lying across the track, and then—springing about 5ft —had landed on to, or rather into, a green cotton hush. His lubra had followed in his very footsteps, and thus they had crossed'the road and gained access to another range of mountains without leaving any tracks that a white man would notice, but which were as plain as daylight to my trackers. CAPTURE OF THE THIEVES. "After five days' tracking we came to the terminns of this range, and as the trackers knew there was a rockhole of permanent water right on the top of the mountain, and that there was no further chance of obtaining water after leaving this, I decided that there was a big possibility of catching them there at the first peep of day on the following morning. That night, though very tired, and both the trackers and myself were longing for a drink of tea, we were afraid to light a fire, or even to indulge in the luxury of a smoke, for fear that the keen olfactory sense of the hunted party might detect the smell of tobacco. We also had to keep the horses well bunched together, fearing they might i#igh to one another, and thus acquaint the enemy of our approach. We spent the night in lonely solitude. My two boys were soon fast asleep, both curled up in one rug; but I remained awake, and my thoughts travelled thousands of miles. I tried to sleep again and again, * but failed, and about midnight I was startled to hear the voice of a lubra away up on the top of Hie mountain calling for her dog or dogs. The boys, too, sprang up at the first sound of the voice, and stood listening intently until it was repeated, and then they informed me that it was Nangerrna's voice. After that sleep was impossible for me, though the boys dozed in fitful slumbers. . "Directly the birds commenced to twitter we began the ascent, the boys taking off their boots and clothes and going stark naked, each with a rifle in his hand. I retained my trousers, shirt and boots, after tying saddle-cloths around my boots to avoid making any noise. It was a wery climb 150 ft to 200 ft up almost perpendiuclar, solid rock; but on our arrival we were amply repaid by finding our man and his lubra there, liotli sound asleep by the side of a small fire in a little cave near a rockhole of water.

"Lying curled up around the fire were also about 15 half-bred dingoes. We had crept up on our hands and knees to within about ten yards of them when n stick broke under my feet. Instantly a dog sprang up and barked, and the two natives sprang to their feet —Oeera grasping a spear in his hand. Tracker Bob sang out in his native language: 'Drop that spear or we will shoot you.' and poor Oeera and his lnbra saw the gleamiiig barrels of three rifles. The man. dropping his spear, stood mute and motionless. "We arrived home on the 24th, and brought the prisoners before two justices on the 25th. Oeera pleaded not guilty, and put all the blame on bis wife: but he was convicted and sentenced to four months' hard labor. Xangeena pleaded guilty, and. as it was her first offence, got only two months. Oeera had previously served a sentence for spearing cattle."