ee
months after, he forwarded another communication, which referred to the
murders recently committed, and justified the proclamation which he had
issued for their expulsion. So exasperated were the settlers, that the
safety of the blacks themselves seemed to demand this precaution. He
had, however, found it impossible to assign one district, owing to the
animosities of the tribes against each other, and therefore he resolved
to expel them to the remoter portions of their several territories. In
two other communications of the same year, the Governor reported the
temporary retirement of the natives, in search of marine subsistence,
and their return from their winter quarters in the November following,
when their animosity had not abated: a dark catalogue of murders,
including every age, condition, and sex, attested their subtlety and
sanguinary spirit. He still declared that no means were neglected to
conciliate and reclaim them, consistent with the interests of the colony
at large; but their indiscriminate attacks were equally directed against
their benefactors and their enemies. Communication had become difficult,
a risk of life, and almost impossible.

These statements are, unhappily, sustained by ample proof. It would be a
waste of time even to condense, in the most succinct relation, all the
incidents that occurred. Narrative is tedious by the monotony of detail,
and the events themselves were recorded by those who witnessed them,
with ominous brevity. Such crimes were of daily occurrence; perhaps
sometimes multiplied by rumour, but often unheard of and unrecorded. The
perils of the stockmen were constant: many of them were repeatedly
wounded; and one, named Cubit, was nine times speared, and yet survived.
Death assumed new forms daily: the poet of the Iliad did not describe
more numerous varieties, in the slaughter of his heroes.

The shepherd went from home in the morning, attended by his dog, and
armed with a gun, now unavailing for his defence: he never returned. Had
he escaped to the bush? Such a step was improbable. His employers are
soon informed that the blacks have been near; that the sheep have been
wounded, or beaten to death. The search now becomes diligent: at length,
the melancholy reality is clear; they find a mutilated form, which still
preserves sufficient proof that the lost shepherd lies there. The sad
catastrophe excites the compassion of the master; but it provokes the
fellow servants to rage,