BY THE SETTLERS. 
425 
“ Another evil is the very extraordinary position in which 
they are placed with regard to two distinct sets of laws ; that is 
they are allowed to exercise their own laws upon one another, 
and are again held amenable to British law where British sub- 
jects are concerned. Thus no protection is afforded them by 
the British law against the violence or cruelty of one of their 
own race, and the law has only been hitherto known to them as 
the means of punishment, but never as a code from which they 
can claim protection or benefit. 
“ The following instances will prove my assertion : In the 
month of October 1838, 1 saw early one morning some natives 
in the public street in Perth, in the act of murdering a native 
woman, close to the store of the Messrs. Habgood : many Eu- 
ropeans were present, amongst others a constable ; but there was 
no interference on their part until eventually the life of the 
woman was saved by the courage of Mr. Brown, a gardener in 
Perth, who rushed in amongst the natives, and knocked down the 
man who was holding her ; she then escaped into the house of 
the Messrs. Habgood, who treated the poor creature with the 
utmost humanity. She was, however, wounded in several 
places in the most severe and ghastly manner. 
“ A letter I received from Mr. A. Bussel, (a settler in the 
southern part of the colony,) in May, 1839, shews that the same 
scenes are enacted all over it. In this case, their cow-keeper, 
(the native whose burial is narrated at p. 330,) was speared by 
the others. lie was at the time the hired servant of Europeans, 
performing daily a stated service for them ; yet they slew him in 
open day-light, without any cause of provocation being given by 
him. 
“ Again, in October, 1838, the sister of a settler in the 
northern district, told me that shortly before this period, she 
had, as a female servant, a most interesting little native girl, 
not more than ten or eleven years of age. This girl had just 
learned all the duties belonging to her employment, and was 
regarded in the family as a most useful servant, when some 
native, from a spirit of revenge, murdered this inoffensive 
