THE NATIVES. 
171 
contrary, I know that the better, and right thinking 
part of the community, in all the colonies, not only 
disavow such feelings, but are most anxious, as far 
as lies in their power, to promote the interests and 
welfare of the natives. Still, there are always some, 
in every settlement, whose passions, prejudices, in- 
terests, or fears, obliterate their sense of right and 
wrong, and by whom these poor wanderers of the 
woods are looked upon as intruders in their own 
country, or as vermin that infest the land, and whose 
blood may be shed with as little compunction as that 
of the wild animals they are compared to. 
By those who have heard the dreadful accounts 
current in Western Australia, and New South 
Wales, of the slaughter formerly committed by 
military parties, or by the servants* of the settlers 
* The following extract from a reply of his Honour the 
Superintendent of Port Phillip to the representation made to his 
Honour by the settlers and inhabitants of the district of Port 
Fairy, in March 1842, shews that these frightful atrocities against 
the natives had not even then ceased. 
“ That the presence of a protector in your district, and other 
means of prevention hitherto employed, have not succeeded 
better than they have done in repressing aggression or retaliation, 
and have failed to establish a good understanding between the 
natives and the European settlers, is greatly to be deplored. 
“ As far as the local government has power, every practicable 
extension of these arrangements shall be made without delay ; 
but, gentlemen, however harsh, a plain truth must be told, the 
destruction of European property, and even the occasional sacri- 
fice of European life, by the hands of the savage tribes, among 
whom you live, if unprovoked and unrevenged, may justly claim 
