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 other world as well as in this; and I give you my word that I will make you work throughout eternity." Upon this the Indians threw themselves at his feet, and begged him not to kill himself.

Colonists have a reputation for cruelty to the miserable aboriginal inhabitants. Raynal gave us a character, in thinking that a man changed his very nature in going to New Holland. There is a degree of simplicity of selfish injustice, in the following quotations from the diary of one of the early Dutch governors of the Cape Colony:—

"December 3, 1652.—To-day, the Hottentots came with thousands of cattle and sheep close to our fort. We feel vexed to see so many fine herd of cattle, and not be able to buy to any considerable extent. With 150 men, 10,000 head of black cattle could be obtained without the danger of losing one man, and many savages might be taken without resistance, in order to be sent as slaves to India, as they still always come to us unarmed."

Commandoes of Dutch Boers against the native races were common enough. Even as recently as 1832, Lord Somerset had great difficulty in arresting the march of a party that had started for the destruction of a settlement of 5,000 Christian Hottentots, on the Kat river. In 1774, a Government order was issued for the extirpation of the whole of the Bosjesmen. In 1795, Earl Macartney's Proclamation ordered the magistrates to take the field against the Bosjesmen, "whenever such an expedition shall appear requisite and proper." Mr. Magnier, the Landdrost of Graff Reynet, says: "I was made acquainted with the most horrible atrocities committed on these occasions, such as ordering the Hottentots to dash out against the rocks the brains of infants (too young to be carried off by the farmers for the purpose of using them as bondmen) in order to spare powder and shot." Colonel Collins, in 1809, knew a gentleman (an estimable character in other respects) who declared that, within six years, parties under his orders had killed or taken 3,200 of these unfortunate creatures.

But while the English Government in Van Diemen's Land issued paternal proclamations, and uttered sentiments of profound compassion for the Aborigines, little effectual energy was exerted to repress and punish crimes against them. The Hobart Town