In the year 1826 there lived at Campbelltown two persona who had been transported to New South Wales. They were Frederick Fisher and George Worrall; they were friends and lived together. Fisher owned a farm and some stock. On the night of June 17, Fisher was in Campbelltown, and left a public-house there in company with other persons. Some of these persons shortly afterwards came hack to the inn and asked for Fisher, stating that they wanted to get money from him to purchase liquor. Fisher was never after seen alive. His is disappearance gave rise to much remark, as his friend Worrall told people that he had left the colony to escape a prosecution for forgery and had sailed in a ship the name of which he gave. Worrall further slated that Fisher had authorised him in writing to deal with his property, and he offered for sale a horse and some timber known to belong to the supposed absconder. The written authority was never produced, but a document in reference to the horse was shown, and was at once seen to be a forgery by those who knew Fisher's signature. Worrall lost no time in going to Sydney to Mr. D. Cooper, to whom Fisher was in debt some £80, and offered to pay this debt provided the deeds of Fisher's farm, held by Cooper as security, were given up to him. This Cooper refused to do, and having questioned Worrall very closely about Fisher's disappearance, he suspected from Worrall's manner that Fisher had been made away with. Cooper had an intimate knowledge of Fisher, and was satisfied in his own mind that he had no reason for leaving the colony. The ship, too, in which Worrall said Fisher had sailed was not known to have been in Sydney Harbor. Cooper did not express his thoughts to Worrall but he did so to another person, who told Worrall of Cooper's suspicions and observed his agitation when so told. In October (four months after Fisher's disappearance), the authorities thought it necessary to take some action. A reward was offered, and Constable George Leeland was instructed to search for the body. He commenced the search at a spot about 50 rods from Worrall's place, and where some blood was found sprinkled on the rails of a fence. It was noticed that an attempt had been made to burn the fence at this spot, as though to destroy the blood marks. Two aboriginals joined in the search from this spot, and the party came to a waterhole in a creek. Gilbert, one of the blacks, went into the water, and scumming off something from the surface with a maize leaf, smelt and tasted it, and said it was "white man's fat." Led by the natives, they went to another creek 40 yards further, when one of the blacks struck an iron rod into the ground in a marshy spot and called out that there was something there. The place was dug, and the body of Fisher, very much decomposed, was found. An inquest was held, and a verdict of wilful murder was found against some person or persons unknown. Worrall, a man named Laurence and another, were apprehended. Worrall only was put upon his trial, and upon evidence wholly circumstantial, was convicted and executed. Early on the morning of his execution he confessed to the late Rev. W. Cowper that he had killed Fisher by misadventure; that he and Fisher were driving a horse from out of a crop of wheat; that he made a blow at the horse with a paling, and accidentally hit Fisher and killed him. That he became alarmed lest he should be accused of murder, hid the body first in the reeds, and then where it was afterwards found. Such is the story as told, without any embellishment or hint of supernatural agency, in the Sydney Gazette, the Monitor and the Australian of the first week in February, 1827. The Monitor contains some editorial comment, and remarks upon "the almost miraculous discovery four months after the murder had been committed." The words "almost miraculous," evidently referring only to the discovery after such a lapse of time. This story, which so far seems plain and simple enough and not requiring much acumen to unravel, became celebrated for the assertion that a supernatural manifestation led to the discovery of the murderer.

      It is stated that a man named Farley, leaving Campbelltown one night with probably some grog on board, having parted from his boon companions, returned to them, appearing in a frightened condition, with a statement that he had seen the ghost of Fisher at the slip-panel leading into the paddock at Fisher's house, and that the appearance pointed to the pad dock. The ghost was dressed in the ordinary everyday garments of the period, in fact, in Fisher's clothes. There can he no doubt whatever that Fisher's body and clothes were at this very time under tho ground and rapidly becoming in a very decomposed and unpresentable and (with regard to the clothes especially) very rotten condition. If the ghost realty wore Fisher's clothes, one wonders how such an unsubstantiality could support their weight, unless, indeed (but this is too funny, or too dreadful, to contemplate), clothes — material clothes — may become sub limed and spiritualised and be invested with a future existence. (In this condition, will they wear out?) But perhaps ghosts are able to wear clothes, I once saw and heard the ghost of Hamlet's father in very creaky boots; I cannot say that their noisiness added to the solemnity. It is a consolation to know, at all events, that in spirit land decency at least is strictly preserved. But may we not seek for a rationalistic theory to account for this ghost. The ghost is not re ported to have been seen until four months had elapsed after the time of the murder. It did not appear until those who knew Fisher became perfectly satisfied that he did not leave the colony, and that Worrall's statements about him must have been untruthful. It is proved that the night he was missed he left a public-house in company with several persons. None of these seem to have been called at the trial. It is most likely that others then knew of, if indeed they did not participate in the murder. What had been done was probably known to a discoverer by Farley, and he then invented the whole story to ease his conscience of a burden too heavy to carry any longer. This gave a chic which, when followed up, led to the discovery of the body. The neighbors, who were of the same class with Fisher and Worrall were not likely to have been deceived by Worrall's lies. They were probably too loyal to one of their number to state openly what they knew. The blood on the fence, the attempt to burn it out, most, probably was known to some of them. Other theories suggest themselves, hut I venture to think that the above is most likely to be the correct one. It has been suggested that the story of the ghost having been seen at all was a mythical growth of a later day. In contradiction of this idea, I have the authority of a correspondent who was intimately connected with the gentleman who had charge of the police in the district when the murder was done, to the effect that Farley's story did suggest the search for the body in the creek. But even so, this does not prove that Farley saw a ghost, but rather strengthens the solution given above. I am informed that the first time the story appeared in print, it was in an almanac published in the colony, and was written by a Mr. Kerr, who at or about the time was a tutor in the family of Mr, Howe, of Glenlee. It is shortly referred to in Montgomery Martin's book on the colonies, published in 1835. He evidently had implicit faith in the ghost, and writes of "the discovery of the murder as one of the inscrutable dispensations of Providence." In "Tegg's Monthly Annual" for March, 1836, the story is told with much imaginative detail, and evidently for the purpose of furnishing an interesting story rather than an ascertained matter of fact. The story has lately been issued in Lang's "Clever Criminals and their Schemes," re-published by an enterprising Sydney bookselling company under the title of "Botany Bay." in this version the locality and the persons therein mentioned were in no way connected with the real story of Fisher's murder.

      It is to be remarked that during the hearing of the case, the man who is said to have seen the ghost gave no evidence, nor is there any allusion whatever to anything supernatural having been supposed to be manifested. It is also carious that the blacks should have led the party to the spot where the body was found. They are very observant, and most, likely had previously seen marks and indications that, now a clue was given, they had no difficulty in following up.