AND THE NATIVES. 133 but as to the character and disposition of the native race. 1788-93 If kindness to strangers in distress or devotion to a dying master be any test of good feeling, it would be difficult to find in history more touching instances than those recorded of the blacks at Cooper's Creek in the last hours of Burke, Wills, and King, and of the faithful savage who watched over Kennedy in the agony of death. Much has been said and written about the cruelty shown by the settlers to the natives from the earliest times ; and no one can justify the many murderous acts by which it was sought to hold them in check when their numbers made them formidable. But the ultimate question that arises out of this matter is — ^with whom lay the responsi- Q"«**on bility ? It was a war of races, and the consequences of JS^. such a struggle were inevitable. That they might have been avoided, or at least greatly alleviated, is plain from this consideration : theoretically, the law recognised no distinction between black and white ; it held the life of one as dear as that of the other; but practically it deprived the native of the protection which it gave the European by outlawed, rejecting his evidence in Court.* If, therefore, he could not look to the law as a means of redress, it was but natural that he, as a savage, should seek a remedy in his own way. This was but one of many evil consequences which flowed from the want of an intelligent system in dealing with the question, and which should have been established by the Home Government concurrently with the occupation of the territory,
- " The fact of the natives being unable to give testimony in a Court of
Justice is a great hardship on them, and they consider it as such ; the reason that occasions their disability is at present quite beyond their com- prehension, and it is impossible to explain it to them. I have been a personal witness to a case in which a native was most undeservedly punished, from the circumstance of the natives, who were the only persons who could s^ak as to certain exculpatory facts, not being permitted to give their evidence." — Grey, Journals, vol. ii, p. 380. Digitized by Google
