WITH THE ABORIGINES. 
175 
commendable. He is doing what men in a more 
civilized state would have done under the same cir- 
cumstances, what they daily do under the sanction 
of the law of nations — a law that provides not for the 
safety, privileges, and protection of the Aborigines, 
and owners of the soil, but which merely lays down 
rules for the direction of the privileged robber in 
the distribution of the booty of any newly dis- 
covered country. With reference to the particular 
case in question, the murder of Master Hawson, it 
appears from Dr. Harvey’s report (already quoted), 
that in addition to any incentives, such as I have 
described, as likely to arise in the minds of the 
natives, there had been the still greater provocation 
of their having been fired at, but a short time pre- 
viously, from the same station, and by the murdered 
boy’s brother. We may well pause, therefore, ere 
we hastily condemn, or unjustly punish, in cases 
where the circumstances connected with their 
occurrence, can only be brought before us in a par- 
tial and imperfect manner. 
The 7th was spent in preparing my despatches 
for Adelaide. On the 8th I sent in a dray to Port 
Lincoln, with Mr. Scott’s luggage, and those things 
that were to be sent to Adelaide, comprising all the 
specimens of geology and botany we had collected, 
a rough chart of our route, and the despatches and 
letters which I had written. The boat was not 
ready at the time appointed, and Mr. Scott returned 
to the tents. In the evening, however, he again went 
