THE NATIVES. 
179 
The following extract from a letter addressed by 
the Chief Protector of the Port Phillip district, Mr. 
ble that the Aborigines may have devoured them, particularly the 
entrails, which they are very fond of, and that hence some acci- 
dent of the kind alluded to may have occurred without their 
knowledge. 
“ I have, &c. 
(signed) “ S. Simpson, 
*‘ Commissioner of Crown Lands.” 
“ The Honourable E. D. Thomson, 
Colonial Secretary.” 
For the sake of humanity I would hope that such unheard of 
atrocities cannot really have existed. That the bare suspicion 
even of such crimes should have originated and gained currency 
in more than one district of Australia, is of itself a fearful indi- 
cation of the feeling among the lowest classes in the colonies, and 
of the harrowing deeds to which that might lead. 
Extract from South Australian Register, 10th of July, 1841, 
after the return of Major O’Halloran and a party of sixty-eight 
individuals, sent up the Murray to try and rescue property stolen 
by blacks. “ In the mean time we cannot but think that the dis- 
appointment so generally expressed , because Major O’Halloran 
has returned ‘ without firing a shot is somewhat unreasonable, 
seeing that in his presence the natives did nothing to warrant an 
extreme measure , and that there were no means of identifying 
either the robbers of Mr. Inman, or the murderers of Mr. Lang- 
horne’s servants. It is quite clear that a legally authorised 
English force could not be permitted to fire indiscriminately upon 
the natives as some persons think they ought to have done, or to 
fire at all, save when attacked, or under circumstances in which 
any white subject of the Queen might be shot at. We know 
that many overland parties have not hesitated to fir eat the natives 
wherever they appeared ; and it is possible that the tribes now 
liostilely disposed may have received some provocation.” 
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