Page:The State and Position of Western Australia.djvu/40

 hunting and fishing grounds, and are consequently forced, unprepared, into new modes of life, and new conditions of society. The equitable and liberal fulfilment of the obligations thus incurred, is indispensable to any case of justification, which even the least scrupulous advocate of such intrusions might attempt.

Among the primary measures which he is anxious to see adopted, now that we are possessed of a sufficient knowledge of the natives of Western Australia and of their language, the writer would suggest that a formal treaty with them be speedily entered into. As a measure of healing and pacification, he is persuaded it would do much to prevent irritation and heart-burnings, and to promote a permanent good understanding with them. The advantages of such an arrangement could not fail to be shared by both parties. It is a favourable circumstance in this view, that the colony has, in the person of Mr. Moore, the Advocate-General, a public officer peculiarly gifted for conducting such a negotiation. The extraordinary aptitude he possesses for holding intercourse with the natives, has been strikingly exhibited in the accounts published in the Western Australian journals of July 12 and 19, 1834. The particulars of his conference with an outlawed chief of one of the tribes are so interesting, that want of room alone prevents their insertion in the Appendix.

Western Australia, apart from the continent to which it belongs, has an unquestionable demand upon us for such a solemn compact and treaty as that already alluded to. It has every right to expect that a benevolent line of policy will be pursued; but, on a professedly Christian country, it has a peculiar and irresistible claim that the blessings of Christianity should be extended to it. Let it not be said that a nation which includes among its far-famed institutions, Missionary establishments, designed to promote the