Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/366

 done and sanctioned which was disgraceful. Lord Hobart's despatch (30th Jan, 18012) respecting the men found guilty of murdering peaceful native bojs during Hunter's govern- ment, was received by King late in 1B02, It might have been barbarous to execute the men after so long a delay, but they might have been transported, deported, or im* fl prisoned. To condone their offence was to court its repeti- ™ tioDj and it was repeated by rough borderers without compunction. King himself, while the murderers were under respite, bad lent the authority of the government to open warfare against all natives without proof of their hostile intentions. On the Ist May 1801, a government notice declared that the wanton manner in which a body of natives of Parra- matta, George's river, and Prospect p had killed sheep and threatened white men, and the killing of one Com-oy, a stockman, and wounding of a settler. Smith, made him direct that *'thiB as well as all other bodies of natives in the above district be driven back from the settlers' habita* tions by firing at them/' He added that the order was not to extend to natives in other districts, and that they were not to be molested in '*the harbour at Sydney, or on the road leading to Parramatta.'* He could hardly have expected that, while he commanded that natives, friendly or otherwise, should be tired at throughout a considerable district, their brethren outside of that district would remain at peace, or draw the distinction between guilty and innocent white men which King declined to draw betw^een the blacks. The sable wanderers, whose district from Port Jackson to the Hawltesbury was occupied by their well- armed foes, made such reprisals as they could with their wooden weapons. In 1801 '^^ King wrote ; have been exceedingly troublesome and annoying to Ihein, wiiicli has made it neceasttrj' to allow tkeni to repel their predatory attat^Jts. It ia muuh tc* be apprehended that they are incited to several acts they have com- mitted by same worthlesa vagabonds, wlio have aesociated ivith them for the express purpose of plundering the settlers. However, 1 hope when grain is more plentiful, the inconvenience will cease," It is difEcult to imagine what the settlers wished the natives to do but submit to be shot. Their means of living "•Deapatiih to Sccrcilav^ oi Bu.tft, Uth Nov. 1801.
 * Since grain has been so very scarce among the aettlers the natives'