Читать книгу Australian History For Dummies - Alex McDermott - Страница 103

Macquarie wasn’t content with just occupying the colony — he wanted to push outward past and through previously impassable geographic barriers (like, say, the Blue Mountains; see the sidebar ‘Getting through the Blue Mountains blues’).

Macquarie also wanted to put Indigenous relations on a better footing. Macquarie figured that if he could act like an all-powerful chief with white colonists, he could act like a benevolent chief with the local Aboriginal people as well. The idea of having annual tribal gatherings, where he dispensed gifts and authority, and opening a school for Aboriginal children to be taught reading, writing and the various skills of European civilisation, appealed to him a great deal.

When it came to the convicts, while Macquarie was surprised and pleased at how successful convicts had become (refer to the preceding section), he also wanted them to behave in a more orderly, less raucous fashion. He did his best to make this a reality too.