The Legend of Barney Duffy
Barney Duffy, an Irishman, was a giant of a man who had been imprisoned by the British on Norfolk Island during the 2nd Penal Settlement. Barney Duffy escaped from his prison hell, and hid in a hollow pine in the thick rain forest. He emerged at night to raid the vegetable gardens of the settlement. His beard and hair were long and matted, and he had just a few rags to cover himself when the two soldiers who were out fishing, discovered him. He towered over the two young soldiers, uttering a terrible curse: "Take me or report me, ye red-coated, lily-livered lice! Aye! And then I'll hang – but hear me curse on ye! So surely as ye do this, before me corpse has hung a week on King's Town gallows, ye'll meet a violent death, the pair of ye!"
They ignored his curse, and returned him to the settlement. Duffy was hanged, and two days later the soldiers went to fish at the same spot near the same hollow pine. Shortly after a foot patrol found the broken and battered bodies of the two soldiers, a freak wave having swept them to their deaths.