rarely extended beyond two or three;
but the havock of their new enemy awakened irremediable distrust. The
sorrows of a savage are transient: not so, his resentment. Every wrong
is new, until it is revenged; and there is no reason to suppose these
terrible sacrifices were ever forgotten.

In these collisions, no British subject had fallen; but in the
succeeding year (1805) a prisoner of the crown was speared, while
following a kangaroo; and two years after (1807) another, named Mundy,
met with a similar fate. The black had received presents from his hands,
and approaching him in pretended amity, trailed between his toes the
fatal spear. These facts are given to illustrate the cruelty of the
natives; and it may be presumed that, from the slaughter of Risdon, not
many could be added to the number. These were, however, the acts of
individuals, and without concert or much premeditation. It is
conjectured that the first European who perished was Mange, the surgeon
of the _Geographe_, in 1802. The attack was unprovoked, and it is said
unavenged.

The scarcity of food compelled the British to adopt a mode of life
somewhat resembling that of the aborigines. Germain, a marine, was
employed, from 1805 to 1810, in procuring kangaroo, which he hunted
with dogs: he but rarely carried a gun, slept on the ground in the
summer, and in the winter on the branches of trees. During his
wanderings, he often encountered the natives, but they offered no
violence; and he stated, as the result of his experience, that until
bushrangers excited them by cruelties, "there was no harm in them." The
daughter of a settler of 1804, was left sometimes in their care; their
kindness was among the recollections of her childhood.

The prisoners were dispersed. The government, unable to supply the
common necessaries of life, gave them license to forage: labor could not
be exacted, nor discipline enforced; and when circumstances altered, it
was difficult to recall the wanderers, or to recover authority so long
relaxed. In their intercourse with the natives, licentious and cruel
outlaws committed every species of atrocity which could be suffered by
the weak in contact with the wicked.

Lord Hobart, under whose auspices the colony was planted, directed the
Lieutenant-Governor to conciliate the natives: to preserve them from
oppression, and to encourage them to resort for protection to his
authority. Their natural rights were recognised, but unhappily no
p