Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/154

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gi-eat loyalty, and accepting La Peroiise's declaration that only necessity inducGd bim to allow the Jiativea to be fired at, Phillip, nevertheless, recorded his mortification at these untoward events. Thefts, and assaults upon the native women, by comicts, who (Collins writes) "' were everywhere stra^^fgling about," were indeed sufficient to provoke ill- feeUng without the addition of violence with fire-armB. In March, 1788, several convicts came in from the woodaj one wounded with a spear, others much l>ruised. The:s denied (but Collins said there was too much reason believe) that they had been the aggressors, as Phillip on returning from an excursion found natives shy who had formerly been friendly, and who, after much invitation^^ pointed to bruises upon their bodies. ^| By the 2l8t May, 1788, violence had reached the phase of murder ; a convict's clothes were brought in bloody and pierced with spears. Phillip wrote: *'I have not any doubt that the natives have killed him, nor have I the least doubt of the convicts being the aggressors.'* On the Both of the same month two more convicts were found killed. The annalist says: An it was improbable that these murders should be committed without provocation, inquhy was made, and it appeared that these unfortunate men bad a few days previous to their being found, taken away and detained a canoe belonging to the natives, for which act of violence and injustice they paid with their lives/' Phillip went to the spot with an armed party. On returning be met about 200 natives, but had no means of discoverhig murderers among them. He wrote to Lord Sydney : *^ Whether from their superiority of numbers, for we were only twelve, or from their not being accustomed to act with treachery, the moment the friendship I offered was accepted on their side they joined us, most of them ^ laying down their spears and stone-hatchets with thafl greatest confidence.'* Phillip sighed for more efficient™ guai*ds over the convicts, and for more faithful co-operation on the part of the commanding officer of the marmes. that lie was a Imil shot, and that after lapse of a century the body of liiH victim cannot be produced. Tbe wanton liciog by the French was a serious impediment to Phillip in his laboui's to establish frieotUy relations with the natives, and a biattiriau afrrpminted with the evi8to*ms of tbi J Diitivea waB bound to deplore and to condemn it.