170 
WRONGS OF 
If, in addition to the many evils and disadvantages 
the natives must necessarily be subject to from our 
presence, we take still further into account the 
wrongs they are exposed to from the ill feeling 
towards them which has sometimes existed among 
the settlers, or their servants, on the outskirts of the 
country; the annoyances they are harassed by, even 
where this feeling does not exist, in being driven 
away from their usual haunts and pursuits (and this 
is a practice often adopted by the remote grazier as 
a mere matter of policy to avoid trouble or the risk 
of a collision) ; we shall find upon the whole that 
they have often just causes of offence, and that there 
are many circumstances connected with their crimes 
which, from the peculiar position they are placed in, 
may well require from us some mitigation of the 
punishment that would be exacted from Europeans 
for the same misdeeds. 
Captain Grey has already remarked the strong 
prejudice and recklessness of human life which 
frequently exist on the part of the settlers with 
regard to the natives. Nor has this feeling been 
confined to Western Australia alone. In all the 
colonies, that I have been in, I have myself observed 
that a harsh and unjust tone has occasionally been 
adopted in speaking of the Aborigines; and that 
where a feeling of prejudice does not exist against 
them, there is too often a great indifference mani- 
fested as to their fate. I do not wish it to be 
understood that such is always the case; on the 
