Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/238

 200 THE NATIVES. 1791 Notwithstanding thig nnfortunate incident, it was not Convicts long before friendly relations with the natives were re- natires. established ; but they were broken ofE again very soon^ by an act of wanton mischief on the part of some of the con- victs. Several of the natives were accustomed to sell or exchange fish among the people at Parramatta^ and in a settlement where fresh animal food was almost an unknown thing this was a great advantage. While one of these natives, named Ballooderry, was disposing of the fish he had caught, his canoe, which he had endeavoured to hide, AwMton was discovered by six convicts, who destroyed it. Balloo- derry was greatly enraged at this, and '^threatened to take his own revenge, and in his own way, upon all white people.'* With the object of pacifying him, and showing him that it was intended to treat him and his people with convicte justice, the convicts who had destroyed the canoe were found and punished. Ballooderry was even led to believe that one of them had been hanged. But this did not satisfy the wrath of the savage. According to aboriginal law, a man who had been injured must take personal vengeance, and the only way in which he could do so was by shedding some one^s blood, no matter whose, provided that the victim was A native's of the samc tribe or race as the person who had inflicted the wrong. Ballooderry watched for an opportunity, and coming upon a convict who had strayed from Parramatta into the bush, attacked and wounded him with a spear. Instead of trying to capture and punish Ballooderry, Phillip simply forbade him to appear again at any of the settle* ments. The result was that *' the other natives, his friends, being alarmed, Parramatta was seldom visited by any of them, and all commerce with them was destroyed."* Origin of the This occurronce serves to show how many of the mis- misunder*, ^ , standings, understandings between the natives and the white popula- would for ft long time retard the general underBlandmg of our friendly inten- tions toward them ; and it was not improbable but that they might for the same roason represent ns in ewwj unfaTouzable light they could imagine." — Collins, vol. i, p. 147. •lb., p. 166.