A GLANCE AT THE ABORIGINES. 



169 



on posts near the house, and thus the warning of an attack was passed 

 through a district, and a force would be brought together to relieve the 

 white men and to punish the black. So it has been in turn in all the 

 settlements. 



Mr. G. F. Moore, when Advocate-General at the Swan, gave the 

 following narrative of a defence made to him by a black, who for his crimes 

 had been outlawed : ' A number of armed native men had surrounded the 

 house, when Mr. Moore went to the door to speak to them, having his fire- 

 arms close at hand. He soon recognised Yagan, but the natives near the 

 door denied that he was present. However, when the outlaw perceived that 

 he was known, he stepped boldly and confidently up, and, resting his arm 

 on Mr. Moore's shoulder, looked him earnestly in the face, and addressed 

 him, as the first law officer of the Crown, to the following effect : " Why 



Civilised Aisorigines. 



do you white people come in ships to our country and shoot down poor 

 black fellows who do not understand you ? You listen to me ! The wild 

 black fellows do not understand your laws ; every living animal that roams 

 the country and every edible root that grows in the ground are common 

 property. A black man claims nothing as his own but his cloak, his 

 weapons, and his name. Children are under no restraint from infancy 

 upwards ; a little baby boy, as soon as he is old enough, beats his mother, 

 and she always lets him. When he can carry a spear, he throws it at any 

 living thing that crosses his path ; and when he becomes a man his chief 

 employment is hunting. He does not understand that animals or plants can 

 belong to one person more than another. Sometimes a party of natives 

 come down from the hills, tired and hungry, and fall in with strange animals 

 you call sheep ; of course, away flies the spear, and presently they have a 



