Musquito

Musquito (c. 1780 – 25 February 1825), also rendered Mosquito, Musquetta, Bush Muschetta or Muskito, was an Indigenous Australian resistance leader, convict hunter and outlaw based firstly in the Sydney region of the British colony of New South Wales and, after a period in exile on Norfolk Island, in Van Diemen's Land.

Quotes

• Musquito, in conversation with Mr. Bisdee, the jailor, and some other persons, after his sentence, said, "Hanging no good for black fellow."
  Mr. Bisdee.—"Why not as good for black fellow as for white fellow, if he kills a man?"
  Musquito.—"Very good for white fellow, for he used to it."
  He evidently meant that his execution was useless as an example to the savages: although executions were useful amongst the white people, who from custom understood the reason of men being thus punished as examples for others.
  • Reported in Henry Melville, The History of the Island of Van Diemen's Land (London and Hobart, 1835), p. 35, note

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Musquito on Wikipedia