25/04/2004
History of New South Wales From the Records
VOLUME 1 - GOVERNOR PHILLIP 1783-1789G. B. Barton - 1889
PART I
Phillip And The Natives
THE temper in which Phillip was disposed to rule the little community placed under his charge may be seen in the line of conduct he adopted towards the native race. The lively interest he took in it forms one of the most conspicuous features of his despatches. It was not merely because he had been instructed "by every possible means to open an intercourse with the natives and to conciliate their affections," that he took every opportunity for doing so. He evidently felt a personal pleasure in the task. It was for the first time in his life in which he found himself in contact with "the Indians;" and the study of their character, customs, and language was full of interest for him. For that, quite as much as for any official reason, he entered in his journal every little incident that occurred in the course of his communications with them. The Home Secretary, let us hope, fully appreciated the very elaborate information in his despatches with respect to the aboriginals; smiling, perhaps, to find him so much absorbed in his inquiries as to their peculiar customs - as, for instance, that of cutting off the two first joints of the little finger on the left hand of their women. But matters of this kind, trivial as they may seem nowadays, serve to show that he was at least sincere in professing anxiety to promote their welfare by every means in his power.
The natives have ever been treated with the greatest humanity and attention, and every precaution that was possible has been taken to prevent their receiving any insults; and when I shall have time to mix with them, every means shall be used to reconcile them to live amongst us, and to teach them the advantages they will reap from cultivating the land.
Although he never succeeded in teaching them to cultivate the land, he contrived to reconcile some of them at least to living amongst the white men. This result was owing largely, if not entirely, to his own example. Finding it impossible to cultivate friendly relations with them in the absence of an interpreter, he determined to secure one of them for the purpose of training him; and accordingly a young man named Arabanoo was captured in December, 1788. The experiment promised to be successful, the native having taken kindly to the ways of the white men. Phillip's method of teaching him may be gathered from the little sketch which Captain Hunter gives of his tea-table in the following month of May:-
As soon as the ship was secured, I went on shore to wait on the Governor, whom I found in good health; he was sitting by the fire, drinking tea with a few friends, among whom I observed a native man of this country, who was decently cloathed, and seemed to be as much at ease at the tea-table as any person there; he managed his cup and saucer as well as though he had been long accustomed to such entertainments (1).
The poor fellow did not live long enough to realise the hopes that were entertained of him:-
Five or six days after my arrival poor Arabanoo was seized with the small-pox, and although every possible means for his recovery were used, he lived only to the crisis of the disease. Every person in the settlement was much concerned for the loss of this man.
The lost must have been keenly felt by Phillip, whose hopes of friendly communication with the natives were then, for the time at least, extinguished. But his first experiment having been so far a success, he determined to make another; and in November of the same year two natives were seized and brought up to the settlement. Their names were Coalby and Bennilong; but both of them made their escape before they had been many weeks in captivity, and rejoined their friends in the bush. They were afterwards induced to pat friendly visits to the settlement:-
As the Governor and every other person in the settlement had ever been kind to them, they were inclined to depend on the Governor's promise, and did come to Sydney; were kindly received, went from house to house, and saw all their old acquaintances; they received many little presents, and returned to their friends when they thought proper. This confidential visit from two men, who appeared to have some influence among their countrymen, soon brought a more general intercourse, and the next visit from those men brought the same favour from their wives and families, whose example was followed by many others; so that every gentleman's house was now become a resting or sleeping place for some every night; whenever they were pressed for hunger, they had immediately recourse to our quarters (2).
It was by these means that Phillip endeavoured to establish a good understanding with the natives, and as far as it was possible for him to succeed in such a matter, he may be said to have succeeded. But it was not possible for him to make everyone else follow his example, or even obey his orders (3); the savages, friendly at first, were provoked from time to time by the convicts, and of course retaliated; every act of retaliation increased the ill-feeling on both sides, and at last led the way, in after times, to open violence and bloodshed (4).
So far as his own efforts were concerned, Phillip appears to have been peculiarly fortunate in his intercourse with the natives, seldom failing to make friends of them at once whenever he met them. A passage in Lieutenant King's Journal (5), in which he relates his adventure with the natives at Botany Bay on the day the Sirius arrived there, furnishes an illustration on this point. King and his party had met several of them and endeavoured to gain them over:-
I advanced before them, unarmed, presenting some beads and ribbands; two of the natives advanced armed, but would not come close to me; I then dropped the beads and baize which I held out for them, and retreated; they took it up and bound the baize about their heads. They then in a very vociferous manner desired us to begone; and one of them threw a lance wide of us, to show how far they could do execution.
King, who was accompanied by Lieutenant Dawes and three marines, thought it judicious to beat a retreat, and accordingly did so, the natives following them up; but -
they were ten times more vociferous, and very soon after a lance was thrown amongst us, on which I ordered one of the marines to fire with powder only, when they ran off with great precipitation. I embarked, and Governor Phillip joined me from the south side of the bay, where he had found the natives very sociable and friendly. We relanded on Lance Point [so named by King from the lance having been thrown to frighten him] and the same body of natives appeared, brandishing their lances and defying us. However, we rowed close in shore, and the Governor disembarked with some presents, which one of them came and received. Thus peace was established, much to the satisfaction of all parties.
Phillip had no difficulty in making friends of the men whom King found it necessary to frighten with gunpowder. Why the natives readily made peace with one man while they repelled the other, is a question that can only be answered in one way. The result could not have been owing to any other cause than Phillip's tact, courage, and self-possession in dealing with them (6). Another instance of his success may be seen in the incident which occurred on a subsequent occasion. Having set out in search of some natives who had killed two men at Rushcutters' Bay, he suddenly came upon a large number of them, "and in less than three minutes we were surrounded by two hundred and twelve men." It was a critical moment, and no doubt he felt the danger of his position:-
Had I gone up to them with all the party, though only twelve, or hesitated a moment, a lance would have been thrown, and it would have been impossible to have avoided a dispute.
Fortunately, he had time enough to halt his men while he advanced alone, and by that means he avoided the collision which otherwise would have been inevitable. The event justified his theory that the only means of warding off a conflict with the natives was to place confidence in them.
Another instance of his coolness in these cases may be found in his account of a trip to Broken Bay. A native who had shown signs of friendship towards the white men, having helped himself to a spade, was promptly corrected by Phillip, who gave him two or three slaps on the shoulder and pushed him away.
This destroyed our friendship in a moment, and seizing a spear he came close up to me, poised it, and appeared determined to strike; but whether from seeing that his threats were not regarded, for I chose rather to risk the spear than fire on him, or from anything the other natives said who surrounded him, after a few moments he dropped his spear and left us.
Phillip modestly adds that he mentioned the circumstance to show that the natives did not want personal courage, for several officers and men were then near him. But it also showed that he himself had something more than personal courage; the coolness and self-possession he displayed when his life was threatened were remarkable. Most men in his place would have fired at the savage the moment they saw him poise the spear, and the act would have been considered justifiable; for even if the spear was not poised with the intention of throwing it, Phillip could not have known that; and it was not thrown simply because the man was disarmed by his heroism. On a subsequent occasion he was not so fortunate, being seriously wounded by a spear thrown at him ny a native who had been introduced to him by Bennilong at Manly Cove. Such an event was sufficient to show the necessity for caution as well as courage in dealing with savages, whose action is habitually guided by the impulse of the moment (7).
His narrow escape from death on that occasion did not deter him from acting in his usual manner towards the natives. He knew that the man who threw the spear was not actuated by treachery, but was acting in self-defence, being under the impression, when Phillip advanced towards him with open hands, that he was about to be seized and carried off in the same way that other natives had been captured by the Governor's orders. Nothing indeed that had occurred during his intercourse with the tribes had led him to regard the natives as treacherous (8). An unfavourable opinion on that point was expressed by Captain Hunter and Surgeon White, based on the fact that the natives frequently attacked white men whom they happened to meet unarmed, while they never interfered with those who carried arms. These attacks, however, were probably - as Phillip always believed - acts of retaliation. In the first months of the settlement the canoes and spears, which they had been accustomed to leave on the beaches, were frequently carried off by the convicts and the seamen of the transports; for which revenge was taken whenever an opportunity offered, according to native law. The aggressors, in all cases, were necessarily the men who had not only driven the natives out of their hunting-grounds, but had taken away their means of living - especially the fish (9). Phillip recognised their right to that kind of property by ordering the boating parties always to give the natives a share of any fish that might be caught. He relates that on one occasion:-
Twenty of the natives came down to the beach, each armed with a number of spears, and seized on a part of the fish caught in the seine. While the greatest number were seizing the fish, several stood at a small distance with their spears poised, ready to throw them if any resistance had been made; but the coxswain very prudently permitted them to take what they chose, and they parted good friends. They at present find it very difficult to support themselves.
If we compare this passage with one in Cook's Voyage, under the date 19 July, 1770, describing an attempt made by the natives on the Endeavour River to seize some turtle on board his ship, there will be no difficulty in understanding the native view of the matter. In both cases it is evident that the act - which the European mind would present the appearance of an impudent attempt at robbery - was in fact an assertion of right on the part of the native owners (10).
There was one occasion, however, on which Phillip felt called upon to alter his usual line of conduct towards the natives, with the view of teaching them a much-needed lesson. In the month of December, 1790 (10), a party consisting of a serjeant of marines and three convicts - among whom was a man named McEntire, "the Governor's gamekeeper" - was sent out for the purpose of shooting kangaroos at Botany Bay, in order to increase the stock of provisions, which had then become alarmingly small. During the night, they were disturbed in their camp by a noise among the bushes near them, which they found was occasioned by some natives - two of whom were seen creeping towards them with spears in their hands, while three others appeared a little behind. McEntire then got up, saying that he knew them, and laying down his gun, went towards them. They retreated slowly while he followed and began talking in a friendly way with them. One of them suddenly jumped on a fallen tree, and without giving the elast warning of his intention, launched his spear at McEntire with such force as to drive it seven and a half inches into his left side. The unfortunate man lingered for some weeks afterwards and then died. Phillip was at Rose Hill when the affair occurred, but on the day after he returned to Sydney, and immediately issued the following order:-
Several tribes of the natives still continue to throw spears at any man they meet unarmed, by which several have been killed, or dangerously wounded:- The Governor, in order to deter the natives from such practices in future, has ordered out a party to search for the man who wounded the convict McEntire in so dangerous a manner on Friday last, though no offence was offered on his part, in order to make a signal example of that tribe. At the same time, the Governor strictly forbids, under penalty of the severest punishment, any soldier or other person not expressly ordered out for that purpose, ever to fire on any native, except in his own defence; or to molest him in any shape, or to bring away any spears, or other articles, which they may find belonging to these people. The natives will be made severe example of whenever any man is wounded by them: but this will be done in a manner which may satisfy them, that it is a punishment inflicted on them for their own bad conduct, and of which they cannot be made sensible, if they are not treated with kindness while they continue peaceable and quiet.
A party, consisting of two captains, two subalterns, and forty privates, with a proper number of non-commissioned officers from the garrison, with three days' provisions, &c., are to be ready to march to-morrow morning at daylight, in order to bring in six of those natives who reside near the head of Botany Bay; or, if that should be found impracticable, to put that number to death.
Captain Tench proceeds to relate that, having been appointed to command the party, he received further instructions from Phillip personally to the following effect:-
That we were, if practicable, to bring away two natives and to put death ten; that no hut was to be burned; that all women and children were to remain uninjured, not being comprehended within the scope of the order; that our operations were to be directed either by surprise or open force; that after we had made any prisoners all communication, even with those natives with whom we were in habits of intercourse, was to be avoided, and none of them suffered to approach us; that we were to cut off and bring in the heads of the slain, for which purpose hatchets and bags will be furnished; and, finally, that no signal of amity ot invitation should be used in order to allure them to us, or if made on their part should be answered by us: for that such conduct would not only be present treachery, but give them reason to distrust every future mark of peace and friendship on our part.
It is hardly necessary to say that the soldiers did not succeed in surprising any of the suspected tribe. It is evident that Phillip at that time had not made himself acquainted with the habits and customs of the natives when on the warpath, or he would not have entertained the idea of despatching a large armed force in order to seize the men he wanted. But his determination to inflict punishment for an act which he looked upon as wanton murder shows that his usual course of action towards the natives was not dictated by any misplaced feeling of sympathy, but was the result of his deliberate convictions on the subject. Lenient and forbearing as he was towards them, he was not prepared to condone an unprovoked outrage on their part. In this instance there is some reason to believe that the opinion he had formed of the matter was not altogether a sound one. Tench informs us that "from the aversion uniformly shown by all the natives to this unhappy man (McEntire), he had long been suspected by us of having, in his excursions, shot and injured them." The manner in which the crime was committed would certainly lead one to suppose that it was entirely an act of revenge, provoked by some previous aggression on the part of the victim; and so far it would serve to confirm Phillip's original theory with respect to the many attacks upon unarmed men of which complaint was made.
Looking back now on his benevolent but unavailing efforts to civilise the natives, it seems matter for regret that so little should have been done by the Home Government - either in his time or in that of his successors - to establish some definite principles of action for the purpose or reclaiming them. The task of civilising a savage race was altogether beyond the power of any one man in the colony to accomplish, especially at a time when the struggle for existence was so sharply felt. It was pre-eminently the work of a central Government; the means of doing it, as well as the moral obligation to do it, lay there, and not with the embarrassed head of the colonial administration; still less with the scattered settlers, who so soon found themselves engaged in a hand-to-hand struggle with the natives. There is nothing to show that the Government entertained even the idea of improving their mode of life. Phillip was instructed to open an intercourse with them and to conciliate their affections; every one in the colony was to be enjoined to live in amity and kindness with them; they were not to be wantonly destroyed or unnecessarily interrupted in their occupations. But nothing was said about civilising them. That was Phillip's idea, conceived as soon as he found himself in their midst, and carried out as far as his means and opportunities would allow. Savages, however, are not to be reclaimed by individual acts of kindness; if the work is to be done at all, it can only be done on an organised system.
That much might have been affected in that direction under the influence of a sound method of administration, devised and controlled by the Home Government, will hardly be denied. Sir George Grey offered several practical suggestions in a "report upon the best means of promoting the civilisation of the aboriginal inhabitants of Australia," submitted by him to Lord John Russell in 1840. Among these suggestions was one that might at least have been tested in Australia, as it has been to some extent in India: that savage customs, inconsistent with civilised life, and necessarily tending to perpetuate savagery, should be prohibited (12). The report was "approved," and copies of it were sent to the Governors of the Australian colonies and New Zealand; but there the matter ended. The natives all over Australia have been left in the enjoyment of their most brutalising laws and customs, and the consequences has justified Sir George Grey's contention. The only measures that have been adopted with a view to their redemption are, the establishment of schools for aboriginal children and the distribution of rations and clothing among the old and infirm. According to the last report of the Aborigines Protection Board, the census taken in October, 1887, showed that the total number in New South Wales for that year, including full-blood and half-castes, was 7,902, of whom 5,042 were full-blood, and 2,860 were half-castes. The number of children attending school in the preceding year was 384; and the amount distributed during that year for supplies was £3,608.
The race is fast disappearing in this colony, and the date of its final disappearance cannot be very far off. Phillip estimated that there were fully 1,500 natives living about the shores of Botany Bay, Port Jackson, and Broken Bay in his time; but there are none to be seen now. Taking his estimate as a basis for calculation, there were probably many thousands at that time scattered over the immense territory included in the boundaries of New South Wales; and at the present day, had not their natural increase been summarily checked by contact with civilisation, instead of the melancholy remnant of the tribes now struggling against destiny, large masses of them would have been gaining their own subsistence a the spear's point. That would have occurred in the ordinary course of nature. Whether the interests of civilisation are better served by the destruction of the race than they would have been by its preservation and redemption, is a question for philosophers to settle. That they were not by nature incapable of being civilised - so far, at least, as any savage race can be civilised at all - is now generally admitted. From the time - just two centuries ago (13) - when Dampier pronounced them "the miserablest People in the World," they remained for many years after the occupation of the country under that stigma; but it has long since been rejected as unfounded and unjust. Sir Geoprge Grey considered them "as apt and intelligent as any other race of men I am acquainted with (14);" and many other well-qualified observers have expressed similar opinions. In the journals of Australian explorers may be found many tributes to their intelligence and fidelity, as well as to their wonderful faculties as bushmen. "They have been described," said Sir T. L. Mitchell, "as the lowest in the scale of humanity, yet I found those who accompanied me superior in penetration and judgment to the white men composing my party. ... It would ill become me to disparage the character of the aborigines, for one of that unfortunate race has been my 'guide, companion, councillor, and friend,' on the most eventful occasions during this last journey of discovery (15)." No one has spoken more emphatically in their favour than Edward John Eyre, the explorer, although no one had more cause to complain of their so-called treachery. He, like Grey, suffered severely from a wanton act of aggression on the part of the natives; but, like Grey, he could discriminate between deliberate treachery and mere impulse; and even where treachery was proved, he did not dream of condemning a whole race for the wrong-doing of a few. Notwithstanding his personal grievance, he could speak of them as "a people hitherto considered the lowest and most irreclaimable of mankind, but whose natural capabilities and endowments are, I feel assured, by no means inferior to those of the most favoured nations (16)." This may seem rather an extreme assertion; but it is confirmed by the independent testimony of many capable judges. Of all men whose opinions might be safely taken on such a question, there are certainly none more entitled to respect than Grey, Mitchell, and Eyre. Taken together, the chapters on the manners and customs of the natives written by Grey and Eyre form perhaps the best critical dissection of the aboriginal character that has yet been published. Although each of these writers looked at his subject from a totally different standpoint, their conclusions are singularly uniform, not only as to the capacity but as to the character and disposition of the native race. If kindness to strangers in distress or devotion to a dying master be any test of good feeling, it would be difficult to find in history more touching instances than those recorded of the blacks at Cooper's Creek in the last hours of Burke, Wills, and King, and of the faithful savage who watched over Kennedy in the agony of death.
Much has been said and written about the cruelty shown by the settlers to the natives from the earliest times; and no one can justify the many murderous acts by which it was sought to hold them in check when their numbers made them formidable. But the ultimate question that arises out of this matter is - with whom lay the responsibility? It was a war of races, and the consequences of such a struggle were inevitable. That they might have been avoided, or at least greatly alleviated, is plain from this consideration: theoretically, the law recognised no distinction between black and white; it held the life of one as dear as that of the other; but practically it deprived the native of the protection which it gave the European by rejecting his evidence in Court (17). If, therefore, he could not look to the law as a means of redress, it was but natural that he, as a savage, should seek a remedy in his own way. This was but one of many evil consequences which flowed from the want of an intelligent system in dealing with the question, and which should have been established by the Home Government concurrently with the occupation of the territory.
NOTES:
(1) Journal, p. 132. Tench gives us a similar picture of the Governor's dinner-party on New Year's Day, 1789:- "To-day, being New Year's Day, most of the officers were invited to the Governor's table. Manly [Arabanoo was so named by Phillip because he was captured at Manly Cove, his native name not being then knowm], dined heartily on fish and roasted pork; he was seated on a chest near a window, out of which, when he had done eating, he would have thrown his plate, had he not been prevented. During dinner-time, a band of music played in an adjoining apartment; and after the cloth was removed, one of the company sang in a very soft and superior style; but the powers of melody were lost on Manly, which disappointed our expectations, as he had before shown pleasure and readiness in imitating our tunes." - Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson, p. 13. Their musical capacity was noticed by Tench while the ships were at Botany Bay:- "The Indians, though terrified at the report (of the gun), did not run away; but their astonishment exceeded their alarm, on looking at the shield which the ball had perforated. As this produced a little shyness, the officer, to dissipate their fears and remove their jealousy, whistled the air of Malbrooke, which they appeared highly charmed with, and imitated him with equal pleasure and readiness. I cannot help remarking here, what I was afterwards told by Monsieur De Pérouse, that the natives of California, and throughout all the islands of the Pacific Ocean, and in short wherever he had been, seemed equally touched and delighted with this little plaintive air." - Narrative, p. 58.
(2) Hunter, p. 205.
(3) The difficulty experienced by Phillip in enforcing obedience to his reiterated orders on this subject may be seen in the fact, previously noted, that, in March, 1789, a party of convicts actually set out in pursuit of the natives for the purpose of avenging the death of a man whom they had killed.
(4) "At Swan River, the natives are extremely inimical to the Europeans. They have murdered several persons, besides destroying a great number of sheep. When I was there, soon after the formation of the settlement, we found them friendly and quiet, nor did I hear of a single act of aggression on their part; the only way, therefore, of accounting for the bad feeling which now exists between them and the settlers, is by supposing they must have been ill-used, or that some misunderstanding has taken place." - Lieutenant Breton, Excursions in New South Wales, 1834, p. 166.
(5) MS. in the possession of the Hon. Philip Gidley King, M. L. C.
(6) "This very pleasing effect was produced in no small degree by the personal address, as well as by the great care and attention of the Governor." - Phillip's Voyage, p.44.
(7) Collins, p. 134; Tench, Complete Account, p. 59. Poising a spear at a stranger was a common practice with the natives. It was an invitation to stand his ground.
(8) Hunter, p. 463-4.
(9) "Still it is impossible that the Government should forget that the original aggression was our own; and that we have never yet performed the sacred duty of making any systematic or considerable attempt to impart to the former occupants of New South Wales the blessings of Christianity, or the knowledge of the arts and advantages of civilised life." - Lord John Russell to Sir George Gipps, 21 December, 1839.
(10) "Every tribe has its own district, the boundaries of which are well-known to the natives generally; and within that district all the wild animals are considered as much the property of the tribe inhabiting, or rather ranging on, its whole extent, as the flocks of sheep and herds of cattle that have been introduced into the country by adventurous Europeans, are held by European law and usage the property of their respective owners." - Dr. Land, quoted in Captain Grey's Journals of Two Expeditions, 1841, vol. ii, p. 283.
"The foundation of their social edifice may, like that of civilised nations, be said to rest on an inherent sense of the rights of property. As strongly attached to that property, and to the rights which it involves, as any European political body, the tribes of Australia resort to precisely similar measures for protecting it, and seek redress and revenge for its violated laws through the same means as an European nation would, if similarly situated. Thus, if his territory has been trespassed upon, in hunting, by a neighbouring tribe, compensation or a reparation of the insult is asked for. If such be refused, war ensues; and when both tribes display equal force and courage, in most cases ends in a feud which is bequeathed to future generation." - Strzelecki, Physical Description of New South Wales, 1845, p. 340.
(11) Tench, Complete Account, p. 89; Collins, p. 143.
(12) Journals of Two Expeditions, vol. ii, p. 373. - "I do not hesitate to assert my full conviction that whilst those tribes which are in communication with the Europeans are allowed to execute their barbarous laws and customs upon one another, so long will they remain hopelessly immersed in their present state of barbarism; and however unjust such a proceeding might at first sight appear, I believe that the course popinted out by true humanity would be, to make them from the very commenvement amenable to British laws, both as regards themselves and Europeans; for I hold it to be imagining a contradiction to suppose that individuals subject to savage and barbarous laws can rise into a state of civilisation, which those laws have a manifest tendency to destroy and overturn."
(13) "The 4th day of January, 1688, we fell in woith the land of New Holland, in the latitude of 16° 50'." - Dampier, vol.i, p. 462.
(14) Journals, vol. ii, p. 374. - Grey's pages furnish abundant evidence in support of this statement.
(15) Journal opf an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia, 1845, pp. 412-4. This passage contains a strong confirmation of the opinion which Mitchell had formed of them ten years previously. He said then:- "My experience enables me to speak in the most favourable ter,ms of the aborigines, whose degraded position in the midst of the white population affords no just criterion opf their merits. The quickness of apprehension of those in the interior is very extraordinary, for nothing in all the complicated adaptions we carried with us either surprised or puzzled them. They are never awkward; on the contrary, in manners and general intelligence they appear superior to any cl;ass of white rustics that I have seen. Their powers of mimicry seem extraordinary, and their shrewdness shines even through the medium of imperfect language, and renders them, in general, very agreeable companions." - Three Expeditions, 1838, vol. ii, p. 334.
In the same volume (p. 346) the author said:- "Some adequate provision for their civilisation and maintenance is due on our part to this race of men, were it only in return for the means of existence of which we are depriving them. The bad example of the class of persons sent to Australia should be counteracted by some serious efforts to civilise and intruct these aboriginal inhabitants."
Lieutenant-Col. Mundy, who was appointed Deputy Adjutant-General in the Australian Colonies in 1846, gave the result of his observations on the subject in equally strong terms:- "Yet, low in the scale of humanity as is the grade of the Australian savage, I agree with those who believe the assumption unfair that he is incapable of attaining the same standard of intelligemnce as the European. No real effectual and properly sustained plan for his amelioration has as yet been extended to him. Efforts, podigal indeed in zeal and money, have been made to civilise and christianise him, but they have hitherto met with signal failure. ... The promptitude with which the Australian blacks, enrolled in the police, have acquired a proficiency not only in the manual parts of their duties, but in discipline, abstinence from drink, obedience to orders, &c., affords satisfactory testimony of their aptitude for better things. Fopr bush duties, especially against their own countrymen, the native police is infinitely more effective than the English police. Nor is there, I think, anything very extravagent in the assumption that the creature who has sufficoient skill and energy to construct the spear and boomerang, to transfix the kangaroo at sixty paces. strike down the bird on the wing, ensnare the river fish with his nets, and pierce the sea fish with his harpoon, who can manufacture his canoe and its implements, is capable, also, of learning more useful though in fact less ingenious arts and sciences." - Our Antipodes, 4th edition, 1857, p. 52.
(16) Journals, vol. ii, p. 459.
(17) "The fact of the natives being unable to give testimony in a Court of Justice is a great hardship on them, and they consider it as such; the reason that occasions their disability is at present quite beyond their comprehension, and it is impossible to explain it to them. I have been a personal witness to a case in which a native was most undeservedly punished, from the circumstance of the natives, who were the only persons who could speak as to certain exculpatory facts, not being permitted to give their evidence." - Grey, Journals, vol. ii, p. 380.
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