388 Obituary. 



their power of marking the spot whereon a man wholly devoted to science had, 

 in the earnestness and zeal with which he was prosecuting botanical investiga- 

 tion (attached, as he was, to the explorative expedition of Major Mitchell) been 

 deprived of life, by the hands of mistaken savages ! ' 



" Thus fell, in the very prime of life (having just completed his forty-second 

 year), Richard Cunningham, an able botanist, and in other respects a very 

 talented man ; whose very amiable and obliging disposition had in his lifetime 

 secured as much to him general esteem, as his premature, ever to be lamented 

 death had produced a universal sentiment of unfeigned grief, in the minds of 

 all his friends in England, and of every colonist in New South Wales. 

 ": "I have now given you the substance of the last official communication re- 

 ceived from New South Wales, and which is a final one, regarding my poor 

 brother ; who, you will observe, was but one night living with the natives. We 

 cannot tell what might have been the state of his mind on that night, which had 

 urged him repeatedly to rise, walk about, and listen to catch the bark of dogs, or 

 any little stir (amidst the dead stillness- of midnight), from the considerable 

 encampment of his anxious sleepless companions, not far removed from him 

 at the time ! How dreadful must have been his feelings, may be readily ima- 

 gined. But, could he have composed himself, and not have risen, and thus 

 excited the suspicions of the savages among whom he was reposing, he probably 

 would have been recovered, in a day or two, by his companions, who came 

 to the native encampment but a day or so too late ! He had a mind well 

 disciplined by the religious education he had received; and, in perfect pos- 

 session of his mental faculties, could soon have reconciled himself to a short 

 lie in a remote desert, with savages, until rescued by his party : for he 

 could saj', with real feeling, and in firm belief in the existence of a merciful 

 protecting Providence, in the desert and every where, — 

 ' There is mercy in every place ; 



And mercy, encouraging thought I 



Gives even affliction a grace. 



And reconciles man to his lot.' 



I can go no farther with you ; but, standing relatively as I do, in this sad 

 business, let me now for ever draw a veil upon the whole ; just remarking, that 

 two of the blacks found means to escape from the soldiers ; and what has been 

 done with the third, who was conveyed to Sydney, and there lodged in jail, is 

 not known : for it appears very doubtful whether any evidence could be ob- 

 tained, sufficient legally, to substantiate his guilt. Last December, the law 

 officers had the case before them. — A. C. Strand on the Green, Kew, June 17. 

 1836." 



The only consolation which we derive from this authenticated account of the 

 death of a friend, with whom we were intimate for nearly twenty years, is the 

 manner in which he was deprived of life. It could be attended with no pain, 

 either actually or by anticipation. How different must be the case where the 

 object is avowed, and where processes are had recourse to, which must increase 

 the pains of death a thousand fold ! With respect to the savages who have been 

 caught and detained, as they are out of the pale of civilisation, we do not see 

 how they can be tried according to any law. A savage may be put to death, 

 or otherwise prevented from injuring man, as a matter of self-defence ; but the 

 idea of trying such a being according to laws which he had no voice in mak- 

 ing, and from which he receives no protection, appears contrary to common 

 sense. What is a death occasioned by a stunning blow on the back of the head, 

 which must have instantly deprived the victim of sensation, when compared 

 with the horrible cruelties lately practised in Spain ? There, it is stated in the 

 Morning Chronicle of June 20. 1836, that, by the order of Don Carlos, some 

 British prisoners were pinioned naked to a wall, then shot in the legs, after- 

 wards in the thighs, and finally in the abdomen ; and then left to linger in 

 agony, till death put a period to their sufferings ! 



