Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/621

 GOV. DARLING AND OUTRAGES ON THE NATIVES. 59^ requires preliminary solemn acts; and that to order soldiers to punish any outrage in this way, is against the law, which is powerful enough to guard the public peace from any permanent aggression." Darling vouchsafed no reply, and in the following month Bannister was out of office.* The atrocities which occurred can be only faintly pictured by the imaginations of those unacquainted with the characters of the class in whose hands firearms were- thus freely placed, and over whose doings there was no control. Bannister, cognizant of the atrocities, was deter- mined to denounce them in England. The Governor thought some explanation expedient, and wrote to the Secretary of State (6th Oct. 1826). He spoke of outrages committed at the Hunter — " A report having reached me that a native, who was apprehended by the mounted police as having been concerned in the proceedings above aUuded to, had been shot while in custody, I immediately gave orders that the matter should be investigated by the magistrates of the district. This order, after some delay, occasioned by the absence of Lieut. Lowe, was acted upon." Darling brought the matter before the Council with na further result than can be gathered from the following passage in his despatch: "There can be no doubt of the criminality of the natives who have been concerned in the recent outrages, but though prompt measures in dealing with such people may be the most efficacious, still it is impossible to subscribe to the massacre of prisoners in cold blood as a measure of justifiable policy." In one sense, every Governor except Phillip had subscribed to massacres which he did not check or punish, and Darling was na exception to the bad rule.^ It is fair to him to mention that when Captain Wright reported (26th Dec. 1826) his arrival at Western Port to form a settlement, he added (after saying that the natives kept aloof) : "As I am aware that it is your Excellency's wish to conciliate them as much as possible, I have not allowed them to be pursued or molested in any way." ^ Saxe-Bannister published documents connected with these events, " New South Wales in 1824-5-6 " (Cape Town: 1827). survivors of the authorized raids in the Hunter River district, and with some of those who were settlers at the time. MM
 * The author was personally acquainted with many of the aboriginal