Y-erran-gou-la-ga (Friend of Bennelong and Nanbaree)

A hand-coloured portrait, one of the most striking of the entire Petit group, depicting the Port Jackson warrior Y-erran-gou-la-ga (better known as “Mosquito”). Y-erran-gou-la-ga was a member of the circle that included Bennelong and Surgeon White’s adopted son Nanbaree, and is recorded as having fought numerous battles before crowds in Sydney.

The officers of the Baudin voyage visited Port Jackson in 1802, when Petit is known to have done a series of portraits and sketches: it is likely that this portrait derives from work he did at either Government house or Colonel Paterson’s residence.

The death and interment of “Mosquito” was reported at great length in the Sydney Gazette for 19 January 1806: “At night the corpse closed in bark, was conveyed by two into Mr. Jamieson’s yard, two others carrying a coffin that had been provided. This movement was under the direction of an ancient man, who commanded the bearers to make numerous turns, to walk backwards, and frequently to vary their places, in order to bewilder the deceased and prevent his return… At eleven [the mourners] repaired in a mass to the sand hills beyond the Brickfields in expectation of meeting [Mosquito’s killer] and his adherents…