Captive Wife, The by Fiona Kidman Read Free Book Online Page B

it’s too soon to enquire about the arrangements. Someone has to see to the children.
    Your silence suggests that you continue to hold some grievance against me, real or imagined. All the same, your lack of interest in my welfare will not go unremarked for long. Indeed, it has reached my ears that you have not been received at the Governor’s second residence at Parramatta for some time. I do have a number of friends here, through the kind offices of dear Emmeline in the past, and I am frequently received at Government House, although the new Governor Bourke, like dear Lieutenant Roddick, is recently widowed, so he is in mourning. No doubt you will have heard about this; it happened soon after his arrival. His daughter is standing in as his hostessbut their receptions are confined to a small circle among whom I count myself one of the privileged few.
    I am aware that you have been petitioning for more acres of grassland, and I can only say, your conduct could rebound unfavourably on you. I would never volunteer information against someone whom I have held so dear all my life, but do not think that questions have not been asked. If I am forced back into lodgings, I am sure that the quality of our familial ties will soon be under scrutiny.
    It is worth noting, perhaps, that the new Governor, Sir Richard Bourke, has greater sympathy with the emancipists than his predecessor. At first I was scandalised, but I am beginning to think his attitude may lead to greater harmony in the Colony than in recent years. No doubt, you will have heard that Governor Darling’s departure was fêted by those who support convicts’ rights, with feasting and celebrations. A brass band played ‘Over the hills and far away’ and a huge sign on the newspaper building crowed HE’S OFF, while a fireworks display spelled out the words Down With the Tyrant. I felt myself quite borne away with the excitement of it all and I believe I may have the stirring of a liberal conscience in my breast. But that is what happens when people are dispossessed. How could this ever have come upon me? Of course, I have not shared these thoughts with the Lieutenant, who is a man under orders.
    When Sir Richard arrived, the frenzy was as great, but on so much happier a note; bonfires were lit and the streets illuminated in greeting. You, with your hundreds of convicts working on the farm, cannot hope to go unnoticed. Do not come to me in great remorse when it is all too late, brother.
    Your ever affectionate sister,
    Adie Malcolm

Chapter 6
    We are happy in noticing the arrival of His Majesty’s Ship Alligator, once more in our harbour, especially after the successful termination of the enterprise in which she has been engaged; the particulars of which, we are now enabled to present to our numerous and respectable Readers .
    It will be remembered that His Majesty’s Ship left this Port on the 31st August, with the Colonial schooner Isabella, having on board a detachment of the 50th Regiment, under her convoy, for the purpose of rescuing from the savage inhabitants of New Zealand, the wife and children of Captain Guard, and the remainder of the crew of the ship Harriet.
    Mrs Guard states that when the New Zealanders first took her prisoner she was nearly exhausted with the loss of blood, which was flowing from the wounds she received in her head with their tomahawks. They voraciously licked the blood, and, when it ceased to flow, attempted to make an incision in her throat for that purpose, with part of an iron hoop. They then stripped her and her children naked, dragged her to their huts, and would have killed her, had not a chief’s wife kindly interfered in her behalf, and when the bludgeon was raised with that intention, threw a rug over her person and saved her life. The savages took the two children from under her arms and threw them onto the ground; and while they were dividing the property they had stolen from the crew of the