WITH THE ABORIGINES. 
169 
those who have placed themselves upon the out- 
skirts of civilization, and who, as they are in some 
measure beyond the protection of the laws, are also 
free from their restraints ? A settler going to 
occupy a new station, removes, perhaps, beyond all 
other Europeans, taking with him his flocks, and 
his herds, and his men, and locates himself wherever 
he finds water, and a country adapted for his pur- 
poses. At the first, possibly, he may see none of 
the inhabitants of the country that he has thus un- 
ceremoniously taken possession of; naturally alarmed 
at the inexplicable appearance, and daring intrusion 
of strangers, they keep aloof, hoping, perhaps, but 
vainly, that the intruders may soon retire. Days, 
weeks, or months pass away, and they see them still 
remaining. Compelled at last, it may be by enemies 
without, by the want of water in the remoter districts, 
by the desire to procure certain kinds of food, which 
are peculiar to certain localities, and at particular 
seasons of the year, or perhaps by a wish to revisit 
their country and their homes, they return once 
more, cautiously and fearfully approaching what is 
their own — the spot perhaps where they were 
born, the patrimony that has descended to them 
through many generations ; — - and what is the 
reception that is given them upon their own 
lands ? often they are met by repulsion, and 
sometimes by violence, and are compelled to re- 
tire again to strange aud unsuitable localities. 
Passing over the fearful scenes of horror and 
bloodshed, that have but too frequently been perpe- 
