Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/87

 The Builders ADELAIDE AND VICINITY 6i While the white people were establishing themselves in the country and forming a base from which they gradually stretched out their energy and occupied the whole land, the black man looked on with indifference and even with amusement. His care for the morrow was so slight that he probably gave this question of settlement by the Fluropeans no serious thought whatever. He was interested, and he was fed by strange foods ; his thirst was slaked by strange liquids ; and he sometimes had soft blankets put upon him. One or two cases of murder of white people had already been chronicled, but they did not equal the cruelty practised by whalers and sealers on native women. Crime- if such a strong term be permitted — was as yet mostly on one side. Although in the Act constituting the Province no provision was made for the native families, the Colonising Commissioners, the Governor, and the Directors of the South Australian Company were careful in issuing humanitarian instructions to their officers. Troubles with natives in Western Australia, whence grave and exaggerated accusations of the cruelty of the white people were constantly coming, caused the authorities to strive that South Australian settlement should not be stained by any record of inhumanity. They wished that the foundation should be free of everything that would allow even Exeter Hall people to point the finger of scorn at it. In the land regulations provision was made for native reserves, but these were not yet necessary. In common with the recently-established policy of the British Government, a Protector of Aborigines was appointed, but in practical results his work had been small. Though there was no violent or general conflict between the whites and blacks, the beginning had been made of what must end in the extermination of the aborigines. Besides taking possession of their tribal grounds and frightening their animals back into the remote country, the British had taught them some of the vices of civilisation. We read of sailors from the Buffa/o offering them not only food but strong spirits. We hear of other people, who ought to have known better, getting hilarious amusement from making them drunk. We read also that at first they refused the spirits, but they very soon acquired a passion for them. Such was the beginning. The aftermath of continual drunkenness is known ; the effects of the new foods in precarious quantities impaired their constitutions. In 1837 Governor Hindmarsh was greatly shocked when several white men, who had been out in the bush, were followed into Adelaide by a party of naked blacks. He ordered the Government Storekeeper to supply them with clothing, which, when brought forth, was put on them by Buffalo men. The blacks disliked such ivipcdiinenta, and the clothes were thereupon exchanged for blankets. In later years it became the policy of colonial Governments to periodically give blankets to natives. The gift is a kind but hardly a wise one. In winter the native wears his blanket, wet or dry ; and a wet blanket, especially to a decadent people, is as deadly as poison. Instead of woollen materials, surely a gift of tanned animal skins would be healthier. The natives inhabiting the territory contiguous to Adelaide were generally peaceable. On no occasion were they so treacherous or so thieving as natives in Western Australia and Queenskuid. The same white men referred to as bringing natives before