EVERY DAY, MURRANGURK waited for the cloud of sail to appear on the horizon.
He had been left with two of the white men and their People until the ship arrived. He went back to his own fires, and moved the women and the warriors to the Place of Growing, for safety, and returned to Beangala with Nullamboin and most of the elders. They made their shelters next to the white men, and Murrangurk stayed with them.
The cloud came. Murrangurk watched. The ship hit a sandbank some way from the shore, and a boat was lowered. Then a cannon fired, and Murrangurk felt the claws of Neeyangarra within him, in joy and pain, for William Todd had said that, if he came back with the pardon, the cannon would be the sign.
The boat was drawn up on the shore and William Todd stepped out, smiling, and holding a parchment fastened with red silk. He gave it to Murrangurk.
“This is for you, Will.”
“Is it me pardon?”
“Open it.”
Murrangurk broke the seal, untied the ribbon and unrolled the parchment.
“From the Governor,” he said.
“You could look more pleased.”
“There’s promises,” said Murrangurk.
“How can I?”
“I have secured you preferment and a situation.”
“What’s that?”
“Your adventures are all the talk, and I have found a decent man who will provide you with food and drink, clothing and lodging, and remuneration besides.”
“What should I want with them?”
“But you cannot enter society as you are.”
“And what makes this gentleman so kind as to do all this for the likes of me?”
“He keeps a tavern and a music hall. It is his plan to show your marvellous adventures in a public spectacle, a divertissement: how you overcome the might of the militia in Man’s universal struggle to be free; how you brave the savages, through Almighty Providence, in your wanderings in the wilderness, and subdue their brutish natures to God’s wisdom in making you their king; and how, in the end, by your steadfastness to Him who shed His blood for all men, you are purged of Sin. For this, my friend will pay you eleven pounds per annum, all found. Will this not aid your promises, if, as I suspect, you mean your passage home, which could be yours in but a few years’ time?”
“You’ve been right good to me,” said Murrangurk.
“There would have been none to thank, without Will Buckley. Is that not so, Mr Batman?”
There was another white man in the boat. He had eyes that did not move when he looked at Murrangurk. Murrangurk saw that he would not speak the truth.
“What is it you’re at, coming here?” said Murrangurk.
“To settle the land and to run sheep,” said Batman. “The first flocks are with us.”
“And what shall you eat while you’re at this caper?” said Murrangurk.
“There is game, and we have sown crops,” said Batman.
“And what’s us lot supposed to do?” said Murrangurk, nodding towards the elders.
“The niggers shall move,” said Batman. “They are few, the country is large, and there is room for all. And we cannot have them worrying the sheep.”
“If you try at shifting us,” said Murrangurk, “you’ll happen find more nor what you bargained for. ’Empty bellies don’t have ears,’ think on. I’m telling you. It’s here as we belong.”
“Here. Elsewhere. What does it matter?” said Batman.
“Matter? I’ll tell you what it matters,” said Murrangurk. “If we’re shifted, we’ll not thole. And if we don’t thole, land dies. It needs walking, and it’s us must walk it. Do you not see? We’re all one, and have been since I don’t know when, since Beginning. It’s same as, like, whatsitsname, what-d’ye-call-em. Church! Yay! If you flit any on us, we’ll not live; and just you see: neither will land. We must have each other –”
“This is sentimental nonsense.”
“– same as Mami-ngata said! Same as Bible!”
“The man’s deranged and blasphemous.”
“‘For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.’ Look ye! I remember me Bible! So you just bugger off back where you come from!”
“But here you are wrong, Buckley. Read me this.”
Batman spread out a sheet of parchment, ornately written. Murrangurk peered at it.
“‘Know all Persons that We Three Brothers, Jagajaga, Jagajaga, Jagajaga, being the Principle Chiefs’ – Nay! You read it! ‘Jagajaga’? What’s all this nominy? ‘Jagajaga’? So’s me arse! Chiefs? Give over! And we don’t write us names in pen and ink, neither!”
“Nevertheless,” said Batman, “this document shows and proves that I have bought one hundred thousand acres of this land for twenty pair of blankets, thirty knives, twelve tomahawks, ten looking glasses, twelve pair scissors, fifty handkerchiefs, twelve red shirts, four flannel jackets, four suits of clothes and fifty pounds of flour. The land is mine. I own it.”
“Nay, youth,” said Murrangurk. “The land owns us: every mortal one. But you! My song! Coming here! You’ve pissed chalice and shitten church!”
Murrangurk walked away and sat at the fire with the elders.
“The creature could threaten our venture,” said Batman. “We must remove him.”
“But, sir, he has prevented massacre,” said William Todd. “We are greatly indebted to him. And the people hold him in high repute. It would be a madness to meddle with him.”
“Allow me credit for a little wit, friend Todd,” said Batman. “Without his good offices, we should indeed be at risk. No. His fortune must become our special care.”
“But there will be war among all the nations,” said Derrimut. “Then the Mogullumbitch will kill the Ballung-Karar, the Ballung-Karar the Wurunjerri-baluk, the Wurunjerri-baluk the Bunurong, the Bunurong the Kurung, the Kurung the Beingalite, we the Kaurnkopan, they the Gournditch-Mara, and so to the end of the world. Where are my spears? I shall make him peace!”
“It is of no use, cousin,” said Murrangurk. “He speaks as one I dreamed once, who cared for nothing but his wish, felt no honour to the laws of elders, nor thought for any but his own. We cannot move these men. They will not go. They will swallow the world. Now my Dreaming truly begins. For this Nullamboin sang, and for this he danced.”
“For this you are one with Neeyangarra,” said Nullamboin. “For this you have his songs. So, too, did I sing and dream, long ago, that you might come. Now is your Dreaming, now your song.”
“Buckley. A word with you.” Batman spoke. Murrangurk got up from the fire and went to him.
“Buckley. I have been thinking. Although my claim to this land is beyond dispute, I must own that communication with the natives, and their understanding of my claim, are matters of some difficulty. Could we not strike a bargain? If you were to accompany me for some months as translator, since I believe you are conversant with their several tongues, and if you were to lend your undoubted authority to my dealings with the chiefs, I should be prepared, at our conclusion, to fund your passage to England. What do you say to that?”
Murrangurk looked up. The eagle was above him.
“Ay. Fair do’s.”
He looked again. The eagle was still there.