Page:History of West Australia.djvu/83

 Rh people, and the sluggards who aspired to obtain fortunes which demanded no special exertion from them. The settlers were the most progressive. The earlier pioneers had finished their houses, necessarily rambling rough structures, and were constantly making some new developments on their property. After planting their crops they spent the intervening time till harvest in preparing for more security for their stock, and in denuding patches of land of timber and small growth, and fallowing it. The better class—the experienced farmers—obtained a good growth of cereals and vegetables, and some had even planted fruit trees and much-prized English flowers. The new arrivals were astonished to observe fair crops of peas, barley, radishes, and turnips on the white sand at Garden Island in early summer. It was so singular and unusual to them that they expressed themselves as quite unable to form an opinion as to local soils. A few settlers remained on Garden Island throughout 1830. The prospect of the crops up the Swan and Canning were not generally bright. There were some good fields of wheat, maize, barley, oats, and rye, which had been planted and tended by farmers of experience, but many of the inefficient thought that the ground only required scratching for the reception of seed. These over-sanguine persons wooed great disenchantment. On the Swan above Perth, melons, cucumbers, pumpkins, cabbages, peas, and all the ordinary garden vegetables were produced with moderate success. A large proportion of crops failed altogether, because the sowers had planted at the wrong season. By this circumstance they had to live on their capital for still another year. Few indeed obtained enough for their own consumption. All the fields were small, caused by the original want of energy. Good cows sold in December at £25 each, and sheep were correspondingly high.

The number of people who left the colony was largely increased in the latter part of the year, including many of those who held grants. In order to comply with the conditions of improvement they arranged with incoming settlers to divide the grant. The latter were required to perform the location duties sufficient to retain the whole area. Others left their properties, and paid no attention to them whatever. All of these articulated their disappointments so loudly that the colony suffered acutely.

The relationship between the settlers and the blacks had up to the latter half of 1830 been decidedly happy. The whites showed no fear of their black neighbours, and treated them most liberally. Hardly a day passed without bands of natives visiting the settlers on the banks of the Swan and the Canning. The settlers gave these aborigines damper, potatoes, and other provisions, which they soon appreciated far more than their native foods. Besides, they were so much more easily collected. The surprised blacks took constant delight in watching the toil of the whites, and in examining the rapid results of their labour. The consequence of liberality began to be apparent towards the end of 1830, when the natives seemed to more and more depend on he settlers for their subsistence. So persistently did they beg for food that the settlers tired of and suffered from their liberality, and ultimately sent the natives away without the usual gifts. After going from settler to settler these black beggars evidently became envious of the more palatable food of the whites. Their envy took a substantial form, and after a period of temptation they cunningly stole when a safe opportunity arose. Little notice was taken of this at first, but when they acquired a taste for beef and mutton, and speared, instead of the Kangaroo and emu, the sheep and cattle of the settlers, a more serious air was lent to their visitations.

And so the position remained until early in November, when several natives were detected robbing a house. The aborigines afterwards hurried away through the woods, where they made merry with the plunder. The Colonial Secretary, who was accompanied by Mr. G. F. Moore and a few soldiers, gave chase. A conflict took place, during which one native was shot, three wounded, and seven were taken prisoners to Perth. The prisoners were kindly treated, and after a few days released, the authorities hoping that the proof given of the superiority of European weapons, and also the urbane treatment extended to the natives, would cause them to preserve a peaceful attitude in the future.

It was not so. While some natives were amenable to the civilising influences of the whites, others preferred to steal and even kill where they could not obtain by fair means. Of the former class were a few who occasionally assisted the white settlers in their work, and esteemed them as superior beings. They were most delighted when rowed down and up the rivers in boats, and one settler tells how a native, while with him in a boat, grew sleepy and asked permission to lay his head upon the white man's knee. The request was granted after the precaution was taken to spread paper over the European's trousers to save them from the grease and red earth with which the aboriginal's hair was dressed. Then the black slept peacefully in all trustfulness.

The other class of blacks, many of whom had quickly learnt the meaning of simple English words, continued their depredations. It is not known that any settlers murdered blacks up to this time or even punished them; but, notwithstanding the natives' former evident welcome of the whites, they now murdered a man named McKenzie on the Murray River. Whether this was in accordance with their law of life for life or was unprovoked is not certain. It was subsequently discovered that the blacks on the Murray were more fierce than those on the Swan.

A second murder was committed in 1830. In November and December the settlers about the Swan suffered somewhat heavily through thefts by natives. A man named Smedley detected a native stealing potatoes from Mr. A. Butler's garden on the banks of Melville Water. He fired at and killed him. Shortly afterwards a party of natives surrounded the house of Mr. Butler, and brutally murdered his servant, Entwistle. Two natives named Yagan and Midgegooroo seemed to head the avengers. Entwistle was killed near his doorstep before the eyes of his two sons, both mere children, who rushed into the hut from the fearful sight and hid beneath the bed. The blacks followed them but did not find them. Yagan and Midgegooroo cunningly escaped punishment from the authorities.

The conditions upon which land was apportioned were slightly altered in the middle of the year by restricting the area allowed for a given investment on servants or stock, but this regulation did not immediately come into effect. On 20th July, 1830, a circular was issued from the Colonial Office, in which the Home Government carefully pointed out, as before, that at no time was it their intention of assisting settlers by incurring expense in conveying them to and removing them from the colony, or defraying the cost of provisions. Those persons emigrating after 31st December, 1830, were to receive 20 acres instead of 40 for every £3 invested, and 100 acres instead of 200 on the passage of every labourer. By this rule immigrants were entitled to only half the acreage previously allowed, this step being taken apparently to prevent the alienation of areas which were too large for the colonists to improve and adequately develop.

The Government of Western Australia was wholly vested in the hands of Captain Stirling up to this time. He had his