4.i o ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH COLONY [April, 



broken to pieces ; one of which fo feverely wounded the mill-wright 

 that his life was defpaired of. 



Notwithstanding the example which had lately been made of the 

 natives, they were again exceedingly troublefome to the fettlers, wound- 

 ing their perfons and deftroying their property. The fettlers in Lane 

 Cove were fo perpetually alarmed by them, that they collected their 

 whole force, and, a few foldiers being fent to their afFiftance, went 

 out in the night ; when, being dire&ed by their fires to the place where 

 they lay, they difcovered a large body of natives collected, no doubt 

 for the purpofe of attacking and plundering the fettlers. Being un- 

 willing to take any of their lives, a volley of mufketry was fired over 

 their heads, which fo alarmed them, that they inftantly fled, leaving 

 behind them their fpears, &c. 



It was diftreffmg to obferve, that every endeavour to civilize thefe 

 people proved ffuitlefs. Although they lived among the inhabitants 

 of the different fettlements, were kindly treated, fed, and often cloath- 

 ed, yet they were never found to poffefs the fmalleft degree of grati- 

 tude for fuch favours. Even Ben-nil-long was as deftitute of this qua- 

 lity as the moft ignorant of his countrymen. It is an extraordinary 

 fa£t, that even their children, who had been bred up among the white 

 people, and who, from being accuftomed to follow their manner of 

 living, it might have been imagined, would be little difpofed to reliih 

 the life of their parents, when grown up, have quitted their comfor- 

 table abodes, females as well as males, and taken to the fame favage 

 mode of living, where the fupply of food was often precarious, their 

 comforts unworthy to be called fuch, and their lives perpetually in 

 danger. As a proof of the little perfonal fafety which they enjoyed, 

 a young woman, the wife of a man named Ye-ra-ni-be, both of whom 

 had been brought up in the fettlement from their childhood, was cru- 

 elly murdered at the brick-fields by her hufband, affifted by another 

 native, Cole-be, who firft beat her dreadfully about the head (the 

 common mode of chaftifing their women), and then put an end to 

 her exiftence by driving a fpear through her heart. 



When 



