Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 35]
from the natives, who plundered some of the settlers, robbed people upon the road, and spearing some few. And they threatened, as it was said, to set the growing wheat on fire. Strict orders were given, forbidding all persons for harbouring or having any intercourse with them. At times nothing was heard of them, then all was silence. When they appeared again, then there was a hue and cry. This sort of war lasted for about twelve months, at which time an order arrived from England respecting their behalf, and then the sceen was reversed, for instead of shooting, or killing them, orders were given for no one to molest them, unless they were committing some depredation. The cause of this war begun about some sheep, which the stock-keepers said the natives had speared. Accordingly war was declared without much deliberation; and the natives finding that we were bent upon hostility, it was not long before they revenged themselves, by killing one of the stock-keepers. This affair ought, and might have been settled at first, which would have prevented many of those depredations that were committed, and the inhabitants freed from that dread which incurred in their minds. In some attempts that we made to take them by surprise, they compleatly duped us. I shall not hesitate