Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/372

 wronged. Wiite spectators saw the ordeal. Musquitu "defended himselt' against sixty-four spears, all thrown with rancour and malignity, and seventeen of which went through the target, some to a depth of nearly two feet. The sixty-lifth and hist thrown at him entered the calf of liis right leg and penetrated six inches through. This wab cut short hefore it could be extracted/* The dark race could furnish a show, as the Dacians of old amused their conquerors in the amphitheatre.^^ It is a pleasanter task to chronicle King's efforts on behalf of orphans. Before he formally assumed office in Sydney in 1800 he strove to remedy the evils which abounded. Though he arrived in April, he did not assume tfie government until ^Bth Hept. In July 1800 he had written to say that for a Teraale Orphan Institution he had bought, for £1539, a house belonging to Captain Kent, of H.M.S. Bfijfalo. On 9th Sept. he pleaded the cause of the orphans to the Dukt^ of Portland : colony from the destnictiA'e eXEimples of th'iir almndoiied pareuts, and others they unavoidahly associate with, for want of an iU'^yluni to tlraw them frora tho&e exaniplea, and the asRurancea I have of the success whieli h&s attended an inBtitutiou of that kmd which I formed some years ago at Norfolk laland," had iiidticed him to make conditional piirchase^^ of Kent's house, and to appoint a committee of management* Most of the children were of an age when instruction and example, either good or had, have full force. He humhlv suhmitted the propriety of sanctioning the purchase of the house. Funds for management would be oVitained from suhscrip- tions, duties on entry and clearance, on landing goods, watering vessels, quit-rents, fines, and penalties. In a few «* Vide mpra^ p. 95. Tlierti tnnat have been several natives called Mustiuito by the colonists. The Sifdmy QazciU of Jan. 1806 states that a black of that oamc in that month slew another black m a desperate battk' with clnbs, in which he kid ojieu bis enemy's skull, and that in the night Musjfjuito was treaclierously speared, and died in the hospital from the wound. At this time, according to King's deapateh, the Must^uito tiiHt- meotioned was at Norfolk Island. ^ The Duke of Portland lost no time in approvinj^ the purchase, and in ] Jan. 1802 Lord Holmi't praised all the arrangements macle, and promised his own support.
 * The necessity of some steps being taken to save the youth of thin