Top Banner
7/29/2019 Logan's Ghost (1941) http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/logans-ghost-1941 1/3 Sunday Mail (Brisbane) (Qld. : 1926 - 1954), Sunday 12 January 1941, page 2 National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article98258074 WCAjSftg^e ? Ghosts Of ? Queensland— No. 2 By BEACHCOMBER Still striking at the figure grasping his stirrup, he saw it suddenly dissolve. FROM the agony and horror of the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement, as it was administered by Cap 1*1111 i airic it. ijuya.ii vc tween the years 1826 and 1830, two curious stories that blend into one have come down to us. They can scarcely be digni They can scarcely be digni fied as more than legends, but their interest lies in that they provided the only basis in supernatural tales of a man who was once haunted and came back to haunt the class from which the original ghost derived. The story concerns Logan, the commandant, a paradox if ever complex human nature produced one. Brave and cold-bloodedly cruel, resourceful yet limited, en terprising yet pig-headed, his vir tues and fallings alike were essen tially human. Yet legend has ironically wrapped about this man two superhuman manifestations. The story of the ghost that haunted Logan for a couple of miles haunted Logan for a couple of miles on one lonely ride appeared in the old Moreton Bay Free Press a weekly paper started in Brisbane in the fifties to espouse the cause of the sauatters. The story of the occasion when. Logan came back to haunt the con victs he had terrorised is equally fragmentary, the stuff of which, comes from a newspaper corres pondent many years after Logan's Brisbane faded from view. In the Oxley Library there is a brief re ference to this second story. Did we accept the possibility that the ghosts of tortured humanity could return to haunt those who terrorised its members, tyrants one Imagines, would find their nights rather crowded with apparitions. Logan would certainly have found
3

Logan's Ghost (1941)

Apr 04, 2018

Download

Documents

Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Page 1: Logan's Ghost (1941)

7/29/2019 Logan's Ghost (1941)

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/logans-ghost-1941 1/3

Sunday Mail (Brisbane) (Qld. : 1926 - 1954), Sunday 12 January 1941, page 2

National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article98258074

WCAjSftg^e

?

Ghosts Of?

Queensland— No. 2

By BEACHCOMBER

Still striking at the

figure grasping his

stirrup, he saw it

suddenlydissolve.

FROMthe agony

and horror of*

the Moreton BayPenal Settlement, as

it

was administered by Cap1*1111 i airicit.

. ijuya.ii vc

tween the years 1826 and

1830, two curious stories

that blend into one have come

down to us.

They can scarcely be digni

They can scarcely be digni

fied as more than legends,

but their interest lies in that

they provided the only basis in

supernatural tales of a man who

was once haunted and came backto haunt the class from which theoriginal ghost derived.

The story concerns Logan, the

commandant, a paradox if ever

complex human nature producedone. Brave and cold-bloodedlycruel, resourceful yet limited, en

terprising yet pig-headed, his vir

tues and fallings alike were essen

tially human. Yet legend has

ironically wrapped about this man

two superhuman manifestations.

The story of the ghost that

haunted Logan for a couple of miles

haunted Logan for a couple of miles

on one lonely ride appeared in the

old Moreton Bay Free Press a

weekly paper started in Brisbane in

the fifties to espouse the cause of

the sauatters.The story of the occasion when.

Logan came back to haunt the con

victs he had terrorised is equallyfragmentary, the stuff of which,

comes from a newspaper corres

pondent many years after Logan'sBrisbane faded from view. In the

Oxley Library there is a brief re

ference to this second story.

Did we accept the possibility thatthe ghosts of tortured humanitycould return to haunt those who

terrorised its members, tyrants one

Imagines, would find theirnights

rather crowded with apparitions.

Logan would certainly have found

Page 2: Logan's Ghost (1941)

7/29/2019 Logan's Ghost (1941)

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/logans-ghost-1941 2/3

Logan would certainly have foundit difficult to get any sleep, for he

tortured hundreds.

It would be a mistake to say, as

have so many of his oversenti

mental critics, that Logan was a

monster. It would be equallyerroneous to excuse him. as his

apologists have done, on the score

that the desperate men in his

charge could only have been con

trolled by Logan's methods.Cruel he must have been, and

cold-blooded. But Logan was a

product of his day, and must be

seen against its background. It

was not Logan who was a mon

ster: it was the convict system that

was monstrous. And a cruel ad

ministrator had plenty of scope

without going outside the excessively

wide limits of almost inhuman

severity sanctioned by that system.

For going to the limit Logan had

a genius. In fact his genius was so

unbounded that Governor

Darling, who himself experi

enced trouble through

generosity with the lash, was

impelled by the suicides and

murders under Logan to

limit the number ot lashes a

convict could receive on any

one day to 100! Logan's 300

to

were felt to represent, even

in a Darling administrator, an ex

cess of zeal.

Logan certainly had to deal with

a verv tough element. Moreton Bay

was not a reception depot for new

arrivals from the overcrowded gaolsof Britain. It was a. special hell

established for the purpose of dis

ciplining those who had offended

the penal system in the older

colony of the south. The men and

women rent here had all been con

victed of new offences since their

arrival in Australia.

Few of them became citizens of

the Queensland that was to be.

Those who survived, or did not

starve to death after absconding,

were sent back before the opening

of Brisbane to free settlement early

in the Forties. The rate of sur

vival was not high, particularly

under Logan.Records show that Captain

Logan's charges died sometimes at

the rate of half-a-dozen a month,

and absconded at the rate of some

times 20! As far as the gallant cap

tain was concerned, it reads some

what like the record of a war of

attrition.

We are denied everything but the

most meagre knowledge of a con

vict named Stimson. lor we are

confined to a brief published refer

ence to both Stimson and his ghost.

Whether he was originally a

poacher, or a London thief, a Char

tist or a forger, all we know Is that

he must have offended the system

after he arrived at that little hell

which was Port Macquarie, in New

For he was sent to Brisbane to

be treated to some real discipline

under Captain Patrick Logan. He

certainlv cot it. Nevertheless, the

man had an unconquerable Instinct

for freedom and an incorrigible atti

tude to Captain Logan's adminis

tration. Three times he absconded.

Incredible as it may seem, he was

three times flosged. each flogging

runnine from 300 to 500 lashes— the

penalty for abscondintr under Logan.It appears that he did not survive

(he third floetrine. which is not al

together surprising.

for the curious story

NOWfor the curious story

of his apparition, and

where and how itac

costed Logan, and what it did.

Had Logan not been the curious

mixture that he was. the ghost of

the sorely-tried Mr. Stimson would

doubtless have been denied oppor

tunity to do its haunting.

Locan. as already emphasised, was

a brave, resourceful, and enterpris

ingman. He had a

passionfor

exploration, and early Queensland

owes him in Ihat respect a debt. He

made many journeys of exploration,

discovering in October. 1826. the

river named after him. and known

to modem Queenslanders by reason

of the toll paid to crassit.

In 1827 and again in 1828— (this

time in company with Allan Cun

ningham i— ha explored the south

western ranges of the Brisbane

watershed, and in 1828 climbed Mt.

Lindesay. Not all of his journeyswere ro'iducto'd in company. Loganfrequently rode many miles alone.

and that through extremely lonelycountry.

He was returning one day. saysthe ancient

newspaper paragraph,through rugged country to the west

of the settlement. It was dusk,and Logan had last reached the

rough track which led from Limestone Hill, and about two miles

from Brisbane, when he saw ahead

of him. standing just outside the

line of trees, a man clad in the

yellow garb of the convict.

AShe came nearer (so ran

the paragraph) Logan

saw something familiar

about the grey, lined face with

the intense feverish eyes, but

he dismissed the thought as he

spurred forward. The man, he knew,must be an absconder, and ab

sconders aroused all the martinet

in Logan.

He commanded the man to walk

ahead of his horse so that he could

ensure his return to the settlement.

To his surprise, the convict, never

taking his eyes off Logan's face,

strode forward and grasped his

stirrup.

Choleric In the face of such in

solence. Logan raised the huntingcrop he was carrying and broughtit down on the convict's head. It

seemed to pass right through the

fellow and struck the horse's riank

a violent blow. The startled ani

mal bolted, and Logan for some

minutes was occupied in a vain

effort to check the headlong gallop.

He gazed down, and saw that the

convict still clung tojhe stirrup, andwas being carried along at a fran

tic pace, but the eyes still bored upinto his own.

Again and again Logan struck

at the man. and with every blowthe horse became more uncontrollable. It was astounding that even

such a superb horseman as the

commandant was not flung from the

saddle. Suddenly round a belt of

stunted scrub there came a view

of the boat, with iLs convict crew,

waiting by previous command of

Logan to fcr.T him across the river.

Still striking at the figure grasp

ing his stirrup, he saw it suddenlydissolve.

We do not know what Logan said

to

We do not know what Logan said

to the boat's crew as his horsedashed up to the bank of the river,

being checked just in time to prevent disaster. Our old-time para

graphist. however, informs us (with

what authority we cannot know)

that much later that evening the

commandant remembered the man

to whom that frightened face be

longed. It was Stimson. dead, after

his third flogging, for more than a

month. And Logan recalled also

that thespot where Stimson's

ghost appeared was approximatelythe spot where he had been recaptured for the third and last time.

Having lived by the lash, Logandied by the nulla-nulla. which

seemed a sound enough functioningof a Eood Mosaic law in an Australian setting. About his death

there still clings an element 'of mystery, which would make an excellenttheme for a writer of thrillers.

IN1830 Logan's regiment was

? due for relief, and he pre

pared to hand over the

commandant's post to his suc

cessor, Clunies, who was alreadyunder orders to depart from Sydney for Moreton

Bay. Logan,how

ever, desired to complete a de

tailed and accurate map of the district which he had administered for

four years.

On October 9 he set out with

one free man servant and a partyof convicts to

.survey an area on

(he upper Brisbane.' When near

the Pine ranges his party 'met un

friendly blacks, but drove them oil.'

His survey was practically com

pleted on October 17. and Loganrode away by himself during the

afternoon, instructing his party to

march to a certain rendezvous to

which he would ride later.

It is here that is encountered thefirst of the baffling features of

?Logan's death. The party was

allegedly surrounded by 'hostile

blacks, yet Logan rode off by himself.

The commandant did not meet

his party as arranged, and the men

decided to go on to Limestone Hill,

as Ipswich was then called. A

search was organised, and at a spotten miles from where ills party said

he had left them the body of

Logan was found, lying face down

wards, in a shallow grave.

Who had killed him? The wounds

strongly suggested that it was the

work of blacks, but it was possible

that he was murdered by some of

his party of convicts to avenge old

scores, and that they made up the

story of Logan riding off alone.

However, there was another as

pect of the mystery. It lies long

forgottenin the

official reportsmade at the time. Logan had ap

parently occupied a native hut on

the night of the seventeenth, whichwould be a strange action for a

man who intended to rejoin his

party on that date.

THEmystery was never

elucidated, and, despite

the report which persisted

for years, that Logan was done

to death by the convicts who

loathed and feared him, or by blacks

at the instigation of convicts, offi

cialdom preferred the simpler ex

planation that his was

Page 3: Logan's Ghost (1941)

7/29/2019 Logan's Ghost (1941)

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/logans-ghost-1941 3/3

preferred the simpler ex

planation that his was an uninspiredmurder by the aborigines.

The most intriguing point as tohis having, apparently, the

night in the native hut was

not considered material to

this theory. Nevertheless, after

the passage of 110 years it is

still virgin ground for the

mystery writer who cares to

attempt a solution of a problem which the contemporariesof

Logan either did not want

do.

Now for Logan's ghost! As hisbody was found on October 18, andhe was last seen alive (accordingto the story of his party) on Octo

ber 17. he must have met his violentend either on the night of the lat

ter date or fairly early on the dayof the former date.

According to the quaint tale it

would be about midday on October

18 that a number of convicts were

working on the north bank of the

Brisbane River, just above the Gov

ernment Store, when they saw their

commandant ride up to the ferrystage on the south bank.

As he appeared out of the scrub

he signalled imperiously for the

ferry to be rowed across to him. The

convicts hastened to obey. Lack of

haste in carrying out Logan'sorders could easily earn 100 lashes.

When the men rowed the heavyferry to the southern approach theycould see no sign of their com

mandant and, although they waited

a long time he did not reappear.Were this old story true it would

'

certainly require explanation as to

how Logan could appear at the ferry

while his lifeless body was lyingmanv miles to the north of Lime

stone Hill.

LikeI

he other story. It isvery

scrappily based, has never been

tested, and to those who reject the

theory that aanaritions come from

the grave to haunt their fellows,

would seem highly improbable.Did Logan's ghost at th» ferry

encounter the ehost of Stimson?Both appeared in the same locality,if,

indeed, they appeared at all.

NEXT WEEK : A Stronger

Ghost- Than Fisher's.