238 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



capital offence; the others had all left the colony. The trial in 

 Melbourne lasted two days, and although the Attorney-General for 

 the Crown, and Mr. Eedmond Barry, as Standing Counsel for the 

 natives, conducted the prosecution with vigour, the evidence of the 

 informer, Mr. McGuiness, was so tainted and unsatisfactory, and 

 his antecedents were so villainous, that the jury would not believe 

 him, and acquitted the prisoners. Though there was undoubtedly a 

 miscarriage of justice, the Judge held that the nature of the testimony 

 justified the jury in their finding, and Mr. Latrobe, in advising Sir 

 George Gipps of the result, expressed his strong belief in the guilt 

 of at least two of the prisoners, but saw no way to proceed further. 



When on the point of relinquishing his position as Lieutenant- 

 Governor of Victoria, Mr. Latrobe addressed a circular letter to a 

 large number of the early settlers requesting information as to the 

 circumstances of the first occupation of various parts of the colony. 

 To this he received over forty replies, some of them of considerable 

 length, and the whole containing such a mass of valuable historical 

 information that, when, many years afterwards, he handed them over 

 to the Trustees of the Public Library, it was resolved to print them, 

 and the volume was issued in 1899 under the title of Letters from 

 Victorian Pioneers. One point on which Mr. Latrobe specially 

 asked for information was the character and customs of the abori- 

 gines and their treatment by the settlers. Out of forty-six letters 

 from men who had an intimate experience of the natives, thirty-two 

 have more or less good words to say in then- favour, and fourteen 

 denounce them as treacherous, implacable, bloodthirsty and incap- 

 able of improvement. As before indicated, the majority of the 

 denunciations come from the district over which Mr. Sievewright 

 presided, and it is easy to see that his line of action undoubtedly 

 tended to promote antagonism between the races. The old maxim 

 that a good master makes a good servant had a strong bearing on 

 the case, and a perusal of these letters leads to the inference that 

 where the natives were firmly and judiciously treated there was 

 seldom much trouble arising. 



On a review of the somewhat imperfect data, it would appear 

 that the total number of the aborigines who fell in conflict with the 

 whites within the Port Phillip district might be stated approximately 



