ft 



4)q HISTORY OF 



tainty, whether it was effected by a native or 

 one of our own people, as the former were 

 continually receiving what they deemed suffi- 

 cient cause for the commission of every depre- 

 dation and too many of the latter were ever 

 ready to commit any vileness, without any 

 provocation whatever. 



Unfortunately, however, the natural igno- 

 rance of the natives, and the refined iniquity 

 of the convicts, were not the only obstacles 

 the colony had to encounter. Neither was the 

 occasional intense heat to which the country 

 was subject; for another overflow of the 

 Hawkesbury inundated the country, and de- 

 stroyed the farms and property of the settlers, 

 who now abandoned themselves to despair, and 

 quitted their possesions. 



Thus the close of the year 1801, and the 

 opening of 1802, afford little or no variety to 

 the general routine of occurrences which daily 

 pass in all settled countries, except that New 

 South Wales is, and I fear ever will be, while 

 a receptacle for convicts, more particularly 

 niarked by a repetition of crimes and punish- 

 ments, than any quarter of the globe. 



The natives have now nearly ceased giving 

 any material trouble to the colonists, unless ag> 

 gravated, and in such cases they will seek 

 their own modes of redress as long as they exist 

 in their savage state of nature, and there can 

 be little doubt but the causes which stimulate 

 them Mill never cease. 



The Lady Nelson brig having been in Bass 

 Strait, surveyed Western port, and found a very 



