THE ABORIGINES AND THEIR TREATMENT 235 



native population, as many as one hundred ever understandingly 

 embraced Christianity, though of course far more than that number 

 have listlessly conformed to its outward and visible signs. But 

 the triumphant air with which in some of the reports the ability 

 of a black-fellow to give the correct answers to his catechism is 

 extolled as proof of spiritual progress is little less than absurd. 



In the still existing reserves at Corranderk, Framlingham, Lake 

 Condah, Lake Tyers, and others, the natives are of course furnished 

 with the means of attaining such education as they can absorb, and 

 have the benefit of regular religious services. 



As to the question of the loss of life sustained in actual fight- 

 ing, it may safely be said that its bearing upon the decrease of the 

 aborigines has been generally exaggerated. At no time did it rise 

 to a condition of warfare. With the single exception of an attack 

 made in April, 1838, on Mr. Faithful's party between the Ovens and 

 the Goulburn Rivers, when some three hundred natives surprised 

 them and killed eight of the servants in charge of the sheep, and 

 dispersed the remainder, without suffering any loss themselves, the 

 murders of white men were nearly always limited to individual 

 cases of solitary shepherds or hut-keepers. That these were not 

 so numerous as generally supposed may be gleaned from the official 

 statement of Mr. Parker, who records the total number of white 

 people killed within his district, a very populous one, as eight. 

 Within the same period he returns the number of natives "re- 

 ported " to be killed by the whites as forty-three. In 1841 he 

 reported that of the natives under his charge twenty-four had been 

 killed during the previous two years, by raids from hostile tribes, 

 which he was powerless to prevent. 



The other Assistant Protectors did not publish such exact re- 

 turns, and in the district under the control of Mr. Sieve wright the 

 figures relating to the natives would undoubtedly be larger. There 

 were two very serious cases there, which evoked much severe com- 

 ment at the time and led to the active intervention of the law. The 

 most important in point of numbers was that of Messrs. Whyte 

 Brothers, whose station on the Wannon was raided by a body of 

 natives in March, 1840, and a considerable number of sheep driven 

 off. The owners called in the assistance of some neighbouring 



