But Toil Cannot Be Long Supported Without Adequate Refreshment.
The first step
in every community which wishes to preserve honesty should be to set the people
above want.
The throes of hunger will ever prove too powerful for integrity
to withstand. Hence arose a repetition of petty delinquencies, which no
vigilance could detect, and no justice reach. Gardens were plundered,
provisions pilfered, and the Indian corn stolen from the fields where it grew
for public use. Various were the measures adopted to check this depredatory
spirit. Criminal courts, either from the tediousness of their process,
or from the frequent escape of culprits from their decision, were seldomer
convened than formerly. The governor ordered convict offenders either
to be chained together or to wear singly a large iron collar with two spikes
projecting from it, which effectually hindered the party from concealing it
under his shirt; and thus shackled, they were compelled to perform
their quota of work.
May, 1791. Had their marauding career terminated here, humanity would have
been anxious to plead in their defence; but the natives continued to complain
of being robbed of spears and fishing tackle. A convict was at length taken
in the fact of stealing fishing-tackle from Daringa, the wife of Colbee.
The governor ordered that he should be severely flogged in the presence of
as many natives as could be assembled, to whom the cause of punishment
should be explained. Many of them, of both sexes, accordingly attended.
Arabanoo's aversion to a similar sight has been noticed; and if the behaviour
of those now collected be found to correspond with it, it is, I think,
fair to conclude that these people are not of a sanguinary and implacable
temper.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 128 of 247
Words from 34457 to 34742
of 66960
