Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/156

 to reBtrain the passions of his convict suhjects, and goaded t>y the Inei'eaHing hoKtihties, Philiip passed several months ; and iiually determined to cut the knot of his difficulties by seizing one or two natives in order to acquire their language from them. Accordingly, on the SOth Dec, hy Lieut, Ball, of the Sitpph/, and Lieut, Cleorge Johnston, of the marines, ** a yonng man was seized and hrought up/* A second was seized, bat after dragging into water beyond his depth the man who seized him, he escaped. The captive, Arahanoo, was manacled and confined in a hut close to the guard-honse^ near the Governor's dwelling, and a trusty convict was employed to watch him. Phillip took care to send liim down the harbour several times so that his friends might converse with him and know that he was well treated. He speedily became a favourite among his captors, and through him a limited vocabulary w^as obtained. Phillip thus explained (Feb, 1890) to the Secretary of 1 State his resort to force. " Not auctieedinkT in my enile?i.voiii" to persuade some of the natives to come and live with us, I ordertjd one to be taken by force, wbich was what 1 would gladly have avoided, mh I knew it, inuat alarm them ; hut not a native would come to the *5et tl emeu t for many luonths, and it was abao- lutely neceHsary that we should attain fcbeir language or teaeli them ours, I hat the means ni redress might be pointed out to them if they were in- fiired, and to reconcile theiu by allowing thts ma-uy advEUitages which they would enjoy by mixing Avith ns. A young man, who appeared to be about twenty-four years of age^ was taken in Dec. (1788), and anfor- tnuately died ol the Bmall-pox^ ia Mavj when he was perfectly reconciled lit liiB Asituation, ami appeared gt> sensible of the advantages he enjoyed, that, fully persuiided he wouhl not leave us, I had for some tiuie freed him • Some discussion has taken place about this outbreak of .sraall-pox. Phillip said: — " Whether the small-pox which haa proved fatal t^ great imuihers of the uativew is a ili}*order to which they were subject before any Europeans visitt'd thi^ country, or whethey it was brought by the French ships, we have not yet attaine<i sufficient knowledge of the language to deteraiiDe. It oever appeareil oii board u.uy of the ships in our passage." (Its ravages amongst the natives were great » and an they) "always retired from where the disorder appeared, and which some must have carried with them, it must have been spread to a considerable distance, as well inland as along the coast. We have seen the traces of it wherever we have Ijeen," Further observation contirined the supposition that the diseasej of which t^iptain Cook's conipanious had in I77<^ seen no traces, was introduced by the French. The early settlers, when able to converse with the aatives, came to that conclusiou. In a paper piepared by Jamison, the principal surgeon (Sydnet/ Gajsette^ 14th Oct* 1804), it was stated: ** It is generally accredited by the wvdical gvuthmen of the colony on ita fir4t,estabUshmont, that thesnmll-poi « J