And yet a law is passed, subjecting natives, who appear thus,
to punishment! - How are they to clothe themselves?]
"The circumstances, too, of the aborigines called upon them for increased
exertion. They were wasting away with disease - they were dying on the
scaffold - they were being shot down in mistake for native dogs, and their
bleeding and ghastly heads had been exhibited on poles, as scare-crows to
their fellows."
The report of the Missionary Society, read on the same occasion, says,
"Though it is undeniable that there is much to discourage in the small
results which can yet be reckoned from these efforts, and a variety of
secondary means might be brought to bear with great advantage on the
condition of the natives, still we must exercise faith in the power of
the Spirit of God, over the most savage soul, in subduing the wicked
passions and inclining the heart unto wisdom by exalted views of a future
state, and of the divine character and will."
Captain Grey's opinion of the little good that had ever been
accomplished, may be gathered from the following quotation, and which is
fully as applicable to the state of the natives in 1844, as it was in
1841. Vol. ii. p. 366, he says,
"I wish not to assert, that the natives have been often treated with
wanton cruelty, but I do not hesitate to say, that no real amelioration
of their condition has been effected, and that much of negative evil, and
indirect injury has been inflicted on them."
Upon the same subject, the Committee of Management of the Native School
at Perth, Swan River, Western Australia, state in their 3rd Annual
Report, dated 1844.
