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 natives kept aloof from Parramatta. About three weeks after the loss of his canoe Balloodery wounded a white man, did not deny the fact, and was forbidden by the Governor to visit any of the settlements. "How much greater claim to the appellation of savages" (writes Collins) "had the wretches who were the cause of this, than the native who was the sufferer?" In August, Balloodery, "than whom," Collins says, he had seen no finer young man in the country," ventured into Parramatta, and armed parties failed in attempts to capture him, although shots were fired.

In the following month Phillip compelled a sailor, who had sunk a native's canoe, to present a complete suit of clothes to the owner, and to remain on board his ship while she stayed in the harbour. Balloodery for some months went armed; but falling sick (Dec. 1791) was restored to favour, Phillip allaying his doubts by taking him by the hand, and promising that after recovery in the hospital he should be outlawed no longer. Thus, dispensing even-handed justice, Phillip persevered; retaining his good name so completely with both races, that when he quitted the colony in 1792, he bore with him the goodwill of the whites, and was accompanied by Bennilong and Yemmerawannie, who in spite of the wailings of their friends determined to follow him to England.

No one can tell whether his humane and just system could have been continued successfully when, with the extension of settlement, the boundary of occupation by the whites became indefinitely large, and more and more free from the control of head-quarters. It is probable that want of means would have defeated even Phillip's determination; but he would not have shrunk from using all the means at his disposal, and endeavouring to enlarge them; whereas in later times outrages were condoned.

In the time of his successor, Hunter, two white men had been killed by natives at the Hawkesbury. Settlers at that river thereupon seized three native boys (who were living peaceably with other white settlers), tied their hands, stabbed them, killing two, and firing at the third, who, though his hands were tied behind his back, jumped into the river, and swam so manacled, and escaped. The bodies of the murdered boys were found buried in a garden, and