"It will be your duty to impress upon the settlers that it is the
determination of the Government to visit any act of injustice or
violence on the natives, with the utmost severity, and that in no
case will those convicted of them, remain unpunished. Nor will it
be sufficient simply to punish the guilty, but ample compensation must be
made to the injured party, for the wrong received. You will make it
imperative upon the officers of police never to allow any injustice or
insult in regard to the natives to pass by unnoticed, as being of too
trifling a character; and they should be charged to report to you, with
punctuality, every instance of aggression or misconduct. Every neglect of
this point of duty you will mark with the highest displeasure."
Such were the benevolent views entertained by the Government in England
towards the Aborigines ten years ago, and it might be readily proved from
many despatches of subsequent Secretaries of State to the different
Governors, that such have been their feelings since, and yet how little
has been done in ten years to give a practical effect to their good
intentions towards the natives.]
Were other evidence necessary to substantiate this point, it would be
only requisite to refer to the tone in which the natives are so often
spoken of by the Colonial newspapers, to the fact that a large number of
colonists in New South Wales, including many wealthy landed proprietors
and magistrates, petitioned the Local Government on behalf of a party of
convicts, found guilty on the clearest testimony of having committed one
of the most wholesale, cold-blooded, and atrocious butcheries of the
Aborigines ever recorded [Note 49 at end of para.], and to the acts of the
Colonial Governments themselves, who have found it necessary, sometimes,
to prohibit fire-arms at out-stations, and have been compelled to take
away the assigned servants, or withdraw the depasturing licences of
individuals, because they have been guilty of aggression upon the
Aborigines.
[Note 49: Seven men were hanged for this offence, on the 18th of December,
1838. In the Sydney Monitor, published on the 24th or next issue after the
occurrence, is the following paragraph: -
"The following conversation between two gentlemen took place in the
military barrack square, on Tuesday, just after the execution of the seven
murderers of the native blacks, and while General O'Connell was reviewing
the troops of the garrison.
"COUNTRY GENTLEMAN. - So I find they have hanged these men.
"TOWN GENTLEMAN. - They have."
"COUNTRY GENTLEMAN. - Ah! hem, we are going on a safer game now.
"TOWN GENTLEMAN. - Safer game! how do you mean?"
"COUNTRY GENTLEMAN. - Why, we are poisoning the blacks; which is much
better, and serve them right too!"
"We vouch for the truth of this conversation, and for the very words;
and will prove our statement, if public justice should, in our
opinion require it."
The following letter from His Honour the Superintendent of Port Philip
shews, that even in 1843, suspicions were entertained in the colony,
that this most horrible and inhuman cruelty towards the Aborigines had
lately been practised there.
"Melbourne, 17th March, 1843.
"SIR, - I have the honour to report, for his Excellency's information,
that in the month of December last, I received a letter from the Chief
Protector, enclosing a communication received from Dr. Wotton, the
gentleman in charge of the Aboriginal station at Mount Rouse, stating that
a rumour had reached him that a considerable number of Aborigines had
been poisoned at the station of Dr. Kilgour, near Port Fairy.
"I delayed communicating this circumstance at the time, as I expected
the Chief Protector and his assistants would find it practicable to
bring the crime home to the parties accused of having perpetrated it;
but I regret to state, that every attempt to discover the guilty
parties has hitherto proved ineffectual, and that although there
may be strong grounds of suspicion that such a deed had been perpetrated,
and that certain known parties in this district were the perpetrators,
yet it seems nearly impossible to obtain any legal proof to bear on
either one point or the other.
"I beg leave to enclose copies of two communications which I have received
from Mr. Robinson on the subject.
"I have, etc.
"(Signed)
"C. J. LATROBE."
"The Honourable the Colonial Secretary,
etc. etc. etc."
Rumours of another similar occurrence existed in the settlements
north of Sydney, about the same time. To the inquiries made on the
subject, by the Government, the following letters refer.
"Moreton Bay, Zion's Hill, 14th January 1843.
"Sir, - In reply to your inquiry respecting the grounds on which I made
mention in my journal, kept during a visit to the Bunga Bunga country,
of a considerable number of blacks having been poisoned in the
northern part of this district, I beg leave to state, that having
returned from Sydney in the month of March 1842, I learnt, first,
by my coadjutor, the Rev. Mr. Epper, that such a rumour was spreading,
of which I have good reason to believe also his Excellency the Governor
was informed during his stay at Moreton Bay. I learnt, secondly,
by the lay missionaries, Messrs. Nique and Rode, who returned
from an excursion to "Umpie-boang" in the first week of April, that
natives of different tribes, who were collecting from the north for a
fight, had related the same thing to them as a fact. Messrs. Nique and
Rode have made this statement also in their diary, which is laid before
our committee in Sydney. I learnt, thirdly, by the runaway Davis, when
collecting words and phrases of the northern dialect from him, previous
to my expedition to the Bunga Bunga country, that there was not the least
doubt but such a deed had been done, and moreover that the relatives of
the poisoned blacks, being in great fury, were going to revenge
themselves.
