en with those natives with whom we were
in habits of intercourse, was to be avoided, and none of them suffered to
approach us. That we were to cut off and bring in the heads of the slain;
for which purpose hatchets and bags would be furnished. And finally, that
no signal of amity or invitation should be used in order to allure them to
us; or if made on their part, to be answered by us: for that such conduct
would be not only present treachery, but give them reason to distrust every
future mark of peace and friendship on our part.

His excellency was now pleased to enter into the reasons which had induced
him to adopt measures of such severity. He said that since our arrival in
the country, no less than seventeen of our people had either been killed or
wounded by the natives; that he looked upon the tribe known by the name of
Bideegal, living on the beforementioned peninsula, and chiefly on the north
arm of Botany Bay, to be the principal aggressors; that against this tribe
he was determined to strike a decisive blow, in order, at once to convince
them of our superiority and to infuse an universal terror, which might
operate to prevent farther mischief. That his observations on the natives
had led him to conclude that although they did not fear death individually,
yet that the relative weight and importance of the different tribes
appeared to be the highest object of their estimation, as each tribe deemed
its strength and security to consist wholly in its powers, aggregately
considered. That his motive for having so long delayed to use violent
measures had arisen from believing, that in every former instance of
hostility, they had acted either from having received injury, or from
misapprehension.

"To the latter of these causes," added he, "I attribute my own wound,
but in this business of McEntire, I am fully persuaded that they were
unprovoked, and the barbarity of their conduct admits of no extenuation;
for I have separately examined the sergeant, of whose veracity I have the
highest opinion, and the two convicts; and their story is short, simple,
and alike. I have in vain tried to stimulate Baneelon, Colbee, and the
other natives who live among us, to bring in the aggressor. Yesterday,
indeed, they promised me to do it, and actually went away as if bent on
such a design; but Baneelon, instead of directing his steps to Botany Bay,
crossed the harbour in his canoe, in order to draw the foreteeth of some
of the young me