the tale contained in the following pages was compiled by the editor as it fell from the lips of the person who was at once the author and in some sort the hero of the adventures therein narrated, chiefly with a view to dissipate the ennui and vary the monotony — at times inseparable, in the circumstances of a life in the bush of australia.

as, however, the truth of many of the leading incidents is known to the editor personally, and that of others has been vouched for by persons of undoubted veracity, it is now offered to the public, who, it is hoped, will receive it with the indulgence due to the rude unadorned production of

a squatter

31st decr 1845