A report of the kind certainly exists among the two tribes I fell in with, namely, the Dallambarah and Coccombraral tribes, but as neither of them were present at the time, they could give me no circumstantial information whatever on the subject.

The Giggabarah tribe, the one said to have suffered, I was unable to meet with.
Upon inquiry at the stations to the north, I could learn nothing further than that they had been using arsenic very extensively for the cure of the scab, in which operation sheep are occasionally destroyed by some of the fluid getting down their throats; and as the men employed frequently neglect to bury the carcases, it is very possible that the Aborigines may have devoured them, particularly the entrails, which they are very fond of, and that hence some accident of the kind alluded to may have occurred without their knowledge.
"I have, etc.
"(signed) S.SIMPSON, "Commissioner of Crown Lands." "The Honourable E.D.Thomson, "Colonial Secretary." For the sake of humanity I would hope that such unheard of atrocities cannot really have existed.

That the bare suspicion even of such crimes should have originated and gained currency in more than one district of Australia, is of itself a fearful indication of the feeling among the lowest classes in the colonies, and of the harrowing deeds to which that might lead.
Extract from South Australian Register, 10th of July, 1841, after the return of Major O'Halloran and a party of sixty-eight individuals, sent up the Murray to try and rescue property stolen by blacks.

"In the mean time we cannot but think that the DISAPPOINTMENT SO GENERALLY EXPRESSED, because Major O'Halloran has returned 'WITHOUT FIRING A SHOT,' is somewhat unreasonable, seeing that in his presence the natives DID NOTHING TO WARRANT AN EXTREME MEASURE, and that there were no means of identifying either the robbers of Mr.Inman, or the murderers of Mr.
Langhorne's servants.

It is quite clear that a legally authorised English force could not be permitted to fire indiscriminately upon the natives AS SOME PERSONS THINK they ought to have done, or to fire at all, save when attacked, or under circumstances in which any white subject of the Queen might be shot at.