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. He 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 child in the most barbarous manner, close to the house; her
screams were actually heard by the Europeans under whose protection, and
in whose service she was living, but they were not in time to save her
life. This same native had been guilty of many other barbarous murders,
one of which he had committed in the district of the Upper Swan, in the
actual presence of Europeans. In June, 1839, he was still at large,
unmolested, even occasionally visiting Perth.

"Their fondness for the bush and the habits of savage life, is fixed and
perpetuated by the immense boundary placed by circumstances between
themselves and the whites, which no exertions on their part can overpass,
and they consequently relapse into a state of hopeless passive
indifference.

"I will state a remarkable instance of this:--The officers of the Beagle
took away with them a native of the name of Miago, who remained absent
with them for several months. I saw him on the North-west coast, on board
the Beagle, apparently perfectly civilized; he waited at the gun-room
mess, was temperate (never tasting spirits), attentive, cheerful, and
remarkably clean in his person. The next time I saw him was at Swan
River, where he had been left on the return of the Beagle. He was then
again a savage, almost naked, painted all over, and had been concerned in
several murders. Several persons here told me,--"you see the taste for a
savage life was strong in him, and he took to the bush again directly."
Let us pause for a moment and consider.

"Miago, when he was landed, had amongst the white people none who would
be truly friends of his,--they would give him scraps from their table,
but the