Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/220

 In May 1796 Hunter appointed D'Arcy Wentworth assistant-surgeon to the settlement. Regulations were made as to carrying fire-arms. Convict servants were withdrawn from some settlers, other settlers were struck off the victualling books, a general muster of convicts was ordered, and many runaways and impostors (who, "being transported for life, had successfully represented themselves as transported for a less term") were sent to hard labour in the town and jail gangs. But no efforts of Hunter's succeeded in controlling the convicts. Two vessels were seized and carried off by them in 1798 and 1799.

The treatment of the natives at this time reached a pitch of brutality. Phillip's wisdom was gone, and Hunter's unwisdom and weakness asserted no control and gained no respect. He did, however, we are told, signify his intention of hanging the natives in chains as an example to others. He also referred to the Home government a case in which settlers murdered two native boys (peaceably living with other settlers), and were found "guilty of wantonly killing two natives."

It was characteristic of the natives, when they did not look on a man as an enemy (in which case deception was their approved mode of warfare), that, believing any one to be friendly, they would remain so towards him even when the conduct of his compatriots provoked them to retaliate. Thus, while natives were ruthlessly shot at the Hawkesbury, a freed convict named Wilson, who had abandoned his countrymen and lived almost entirely among the natives, was still received in the most friendly manner by the neighbouring tribe, and sometimes conveyed messages from them; "for" (says Collins) "they did not conceal the sense they entertained of the injuries which had been done them."

Hunter, who encouraged discoveries, availed himself of the services of Wilson on several occasions. There was a mythical story that this man, in 1799, with others, penetrated the Blue Mountains and discovered the Lachlan river.

The fact that Wilson reported the existence of a large river running inland has been urged as a proof that Wilson