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This is a vivid account of the slaying by Aborigines of the Turner family, consisting of two brothers, a wife and a baby, at Munglago station, Port Curtis, on Christmas Day, 1855. Meston stresses that the tribesmen were motivated by a desire for retribution for cold-blooded slayings by whites, who were also contemptuous of Aboriginal customs and law. The essay concludes with an account of revenge taken by the Native Police for the Turner slayings: a 'dispersal' in which twenty-six Aborigines were killed.