No date is given. In Botany Bay, {142}
the legend is narrated by Mr. John Lang, who was in Sydney in 1842.
He gives no date of the occurrence, and clearly embellishes the tale.
In 1835, however, the story is told by Mr. Montgomery Martin in volume
iv. of his History of the British Colonies. He gives the story as a
proof of the acuteness of black trackers. Beyond saying that he
himself was in the colony when the events and the trial occurred, he
gives no date. I have conscientiously investigated the facts, by aid
of the Sydney newspapers, and the notes of the judge, Sir Frederick
Forbes. Fisher disappeared at the end of June, 1826, from
Campbeltown. Suspicion fell on his manager, Worral. A reward was
offered late in September. Late in October the constable's attention
was drawn to blood-stains on a rail. Starting thence, the black
trackers found Fisher's body. Worral was condemned and hanged, after
confession, in February, 1827. Not a word is said about _why_ the
constable went to, and examined, the rail. But Mr. Rusden, author of
a History of Australia, knew the medical attendant D.
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