"Yagan, whose portrait(by Mr. George Cruikshank) forms the frontispiece, was chief of the tribe of natives inhabiting the banks of the Swan, over whom his remarkable character had acquired an unusual ascendancy. He was strong and active, perfectly fearless, and the best spearsman of his tribe — but passionate, implacable and sullen; in short, a most complete and untameable savage. He very soon made his first essay against the settlers,by decamping with a bag of flour belonging to the commandant: the robbery was discovered, and a native, who gave information, led a party upon his trail with the quickness and sagacity of an Indian, until they found the flour, but not the thief, in a thick swamp. After leading his tribe in an unsuccessful attack upon the barracks at the Canning River — in which, it is said, he performed the romantic feat of burying the head of his spear in a tree from a distance of sixty yards — he was the principal actor in two murders, and a reward was offered by Government for his apprehension. For a considerable time he evaded pursuit, but was at length, with two other natives, enticed into a board by some fishermen, who pushed off into deep water, and, after a desperate resistance, secured him. Being removed for safety to an island off the coast, he made his escape, with his companions, and soon afterwards, accompanied by his own and another tribe, entered Fremantle in the night, and plundered the stores of a merchant, but not without the loss of one killed, and several who were wounded by the inhabitants, who fired on the marauders. To revenge this death, Yagan immediately proceeded to the Canning, and, having laid an ambuscade, killed two men who were driving a cart in advance of a party of settlers, who were moving up the river. He was now outlawed, and constantly pursued from place to place for three months. At length two brothers, shepherds, one eighteen the other fourteen, met him in the woods along with Weeip, a mountain chief, and five other natives. The boys instantly armed themselves each with a gun, and the elder, engaging Yagan in conversation until his head was in a line with the muzzle of his gun, shot him. The boys did not both escape; the elder was overtaken and speared. Yagan always shewed an inveterate hostility towards the Europeans. He certainly was a dangerous character, and decided steps were necessary to be taken, nor merely on account of his past behaviour, but also of a determination which he expressed, and would have no doubt carried into effect, of taking the lives of three "white men," in revenge for the death of his father, who had been shot by order of Government, upon being tried and convicted of murder. The justice of his death appears to have been recognised by his tribe; for after have propitiated the shade of their chief by taking — not, as had been their practice when one of their number had been killed by the Europeans, a white man's life, but — the lives of two individuals of an unoffending tribe, all hostility ceased, and a friendly feeling was soon established."