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CHAPTER IV.—The Racial War Begins.

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But although at this time the aspect of affairs immediately surrounding the settlement was peaceful, only a few individual instances of violence occurring between the colonists and the natives, there were frequent collisions between the opposing parties in the bush. One party of blacks stole the signal colors used at the South Head station, and the flags were afterwards seen at various times in use by the aborigines as aprons or body cloths. At Rose Hill (or Parramatta, as the place was called) several unpleasant encounters with the natives occurred, caused chiefly by the wanton destruction by a white man of a canoe, the property of an aboriginal named Ballooderry, who was one of the finest specimens of the race known to the colonists, and who had evinced the best disposition towards them. He had been very useful to the officers at Parramatta as a fisherman, his canoe enabling him to ply his trade with tolerable success. The destruction of his frail but useful little boat called forth the worst passions of his savage nature, and he set himself to work revenge by annoying and injuring the settlers whenever he could make opportunity, or opportunity presented itself.

Writing of this period (1794) Collins says:—

"Some severe contests among the natives took place during the month of August in and about the town of Sydney. In fact, the inhabitants still knew very little of the manners and customs of these people, notwithstanding the advantage which they possessed in the constant residence of many of them, and the desire that they shewed of cultivating their friendship. At the Hawkesbury they were not so friendly; a settler there and his servant were nearly murdered in their hut by some natives from the woods, who stole upon them with such secrecy as to wound and overpower them before they could procure assistance. A few days after this circumstance, a body of natives attacked the settlers, and carried off their clothes, provisions, and whatever else they could lay hands on. The sufferers collected what arms they could and following them, seven or eight of the plunderers were killed on the spot. This mode of treating them had become absolutely necessary, from the frequency and evil effects of their visits; but whatever the settlers at the river suffered was entirely brought on them by their own misconduct; there was not a doubt but that many natives had been wantonly fired upon; and when their children, after the fight of the parents, have fallen into the settlers' hands, they have been detained at their huts, notwithstanding the earnest entreaties of their parents to have them restored..... Some accounts were received from the Hawkesbury, which corroborated the opinion that the settlers there merited the attacks which were from time to time made upon them by the natives; it being now said that some of them had seized a native boy, and, after tying him hand and foot, had dragged him several times through a fire, until his back was dreadfully burnt, and in that state had thrown him into the river, where they shot at and killed him."

As evidence that the natives were not inclined to deal harshly with the whites, except by way of reprisal, the following case, contemporaneous with this early time may be cited:—

In August 1795, the ship Providence from England, which was driven by contrary winds to take shelter at Port Stephens, found there four white men who were supposed at first to be shipwrecked seamen, but who turned out to be runaway convicts who had been missing for nearly five years, and were supposed to have perished. They were brought to Sydney, and gave a most favourable account of the treatment they had met with from the natives of that part of the coast. The blacks, they said, had given them shelter and food, and supported them for years with the most unvarying kindness, they considering, as the convicts discovered when they had been there long enough to understand the language, that as unfortunate strangers cast upon their shores the men were entitled to assistance and protection.

They affirmed that the natives worshipped them, believing them to be the spirits of their dead ancestors returned to earth in white skins, and that they renamed them, alloted to each a wife, and treated them as altogether superior beings.

But such instances of kind treatment by the blacks of the whites were altogether unknown in those parts of the country which were being taken up for cultivation, and the Hawkesbury settlers were subjected to constant attacks, a kind of guerrilla warfare being kept up, in which many of the natives were rubbed off the mess roll of their tribes. Early in February an emancipated convict named Wilson, described by Bigge as a "wild idle young man who preferred living among the natives in the vicinity of the river to earning the wages of honest industry by working for settlers," informed the authorities that some of the whites had threatened to put to death three blacks against whom they had a grievance, and they had, in fact, already attacked one party and wounded several members of it. It is not surprising, therefore, that a successful attempt was made to have Wilson removed from the district. His sympathies were undoubtedly with the natives, whom he appears to have found more congenial companions than his own countrymen, for he was invariably in their company, and could speak their language with tolerable ease and fluency. It was in their company, or under direction from them, that he penetrated the fastnesses of the Blue Mountains, and won the distinction of being the first white man to cross them, although, being a convict, his story was disbelieved and no credit was given him for the hardy and hazardous feat. A fear was always entertained by the settlers that he would one day identify himself altogether with the natives and their cause, and lead them in raids against his own countrymen. Hence, he was compelled to vacate at once the camp of the natives and the settlement of white invaders; and about the same time a military guard was despatched to the Hawkesbury, with regulations under which acts of violence on either side were to be suppressed.

Collins gives several instances of the cruelty perpetrated by the settlers of the Hawkesbury upon the natives. He says:—

"At that settlement an open war seemed about that time to have commenced between the natives and the settlers; and word was received overland that two of the latter had been killed by a party of the former. The natives appeared in large bodies, men, woman, and children, provided with blankets and nets to carry off the corn, and seemed determined to take it whenever and wherever they could meet with opportunities. In their attacks they conducted themselves with much art; but where that failed they had recourse to violence, and on the least appearance of resistance made use of their spears and clubs. To check at once if possible these dangerous depredators, Captain Paterson directed a party of corps to be sent from Parramatta with instructions to destroy as many as they could meet with of the wood tribe (Bedi-gal); and in the hope of striking terror, to erect gibbets in different places whereon the bodies of all they might kill were to be hung. It was reported that several of these people were killed in consequence of this order; but none of their bodies were found (perhaps if any were killed they were carried off by their companions); some prisoners, however, were taken, and sent to Sydney—one man (apparently a cripple), five women and some children. One of the women, with a child at her breast, had been shot through the shoulder, and the same shot had wounded the babe; every care was taken of them that humanity suggested. The cripple in a short time found means to escape, and by swimming reached North Shore in safety, whence no doubt he got back to his friends. Captain Paterson hoped that by detaining the prisoners, and treating them well, some good effect might result; but finding after some time that coercion, not attention, was more likely to answer his ends, he sent the woman back. While she had been at the settlement the wounded child died; and one of the other women was delivered of a boy, who died immediately. On the soldiers withdrawing, the natives attacked a farm nearly opposite Richmond Hill, and put a settler and his son to death; the wife, after receiving several wounds, crawled down the bank and concealed herself among some reeds half immersed in the river, where she remained a considerable time without assistance; being at length found, this poor creature, after having seen her husband and her child slaughtered before her eyes, was taken into the hospital at Parramatta, where she recovered, though slowly, of her wounds. In consequence of this horrid circumstance, another party of the corps was sent out, and while they were there the natives kept at a distance. This duty now became permanent, and the soldiers were distributed among the settlers for their protection—a protection, however, that many of them did not merit."

The accounts of the years 1796-7 are full of stories of conflicts between the settlers and the natives, in which very little mercy appears to have been shewn on either side. It is impossible to arrive at anything like a correct estimate of the number of settlers killed by the blacks, but there is every reason to believe that it was scarcely a tithe of the number of the aborigines whose lives were sacrificed in return. The natives in many of their attacks evinced great daring, and were often successful in carrying off large quantities of plunder. On several occasions they boarded, from their canoes, the vessels employed in bringing grain and other produce from the Hawkesbury. In one, at least, of those piratical attacks they succeeded in overpowering and killing the whole crew, and getting possession of the vessel and cargo. In other attempts they were repulsed, with great loss, and ample vengeance was exacted. They were believed to have been encouraged in these crimes by runaway convicts, many of whom were living with them, and were for the most part beyond the reach of law.

The following may be takes as a fair sample of the conflicts that occurred about this time between the two races:—

The settlers at the Northern Farms (Kissing Point district) had been repeatedly plundered of their provisions and clothing by a large body of the natives, who had also recently killed a man and a woman. Exasperated by these outrages the settlers armed themselves, and after pursuing the marauders a whole night came up with a party about a hundred strong. The natives fled as soon as they saw that their pursuers were armed, leaving behind them a quantity of Indian corn and other articles which they had stolen from the farms. The settlers followed, tracing the fugitives to the outskirts of Parramatta. The latter were led by a troublesome half-civilized savage named Pemulwy, who now threatened to spear the first man that approached, at once throwing a spear at the foremost European, whereupon the latter fired at and seriously wounded him. Then followed a shower of spears, one of which passed through a settler's arm, answered immediately by a musketry volley, which caused five of the natives to bite the dust. The rest speedily scattered, and it was hoped that the blacks would lay the lesson to heart and cease their raids.

"Unpleasant as it was to the Governor," writes Collins, "that the lives of so many of these people should have been taken, no other course could have been pursued with safety; for it was their custom, when they found themselves more numerous than the white people, to demand with insolence whatever they deemed proper, and, if refused, to have recourse to murder."

The most frequent cause of trouble was the theft of growing maize by the blacks, which was carried to such an extent on the more outlying farms on the Hawkesbury in 1797, that some of the settlers were compelled to abandon their lands, after they had devoted several years to the labor of clearing and cultivation. But, as will be shown in a subsequent chapter, the natives were almost compelled to steal the corn for food. They were literally between "the devil and the deep sea." The firearms of the whites had so thinned and frightened the game upon which the unfortunate natives had been accustomed to rely for food, that they were shut up to the single alternative—they must either starve or steal. And it was one in the end. They died whether they stole or starved.

Pemulwy did not die just then. After the lapse of a month, having recovered from his wounds, he gave proof of his intrepidity and daring by escaping from the hospital with an iron about his leg. Notwithstanding the example made at Parramatta, the blacks continued troublesome throughout the entire year, attacking and wounding settlers and their families, burning their houses and corn, and carrying away such property as they found useful. The many gun-shot wounds from the effects of which Pemulwy had recovered, led him and his countrymen to adopt the idea that the arms of the European were powerless against him, and as a result he was always prompt to head predatory attacks on the settlers. It was these half-civilised natives who gave the most trouble and committed the greatest outrages, the tribes beyond the boundaries of settlement, and who had not fully recognised what the location of the strangers on their grounds involved, being most friendly when accidentally met with by exploring parties or wanderers. One instance is recorded about the time which will serve to mark this difference of conduct and disposition. While on a voyage from India to New South Wales a ship called the "Sydney Cove" was wrecked at Furneux's Island near Bass Straits. Mr Clark, the supercargo, with the chief officer and fifteen men, endeavored to reach Sydney in the long boat, but were driven ashore somewhere to the south of Cape Howe, from which point they attempted to travel northward and so reach the settlement by land. The distance was very great—nearly 400 miles—and the difficulties they had to encounter were very formidable. They persevered manfully for a time, but at length began to drop one by one, and lost each other daily. Their number on reaching the Illawarra district was reduced to five. Most of the tribes of natives they had met with before they arrived at this part of the country were friendly, but now they had the misfortune to fall in with two half-civilised blacks from Botany Bay. These scoundrels attacked the party unawares and killed the chief mate, leaving only Mr. Clark, one English sailor, and a lascar; and these three succeeded at last, after undergoing most frightful sufferings, in reaching Wattamolee, a little inlet on the coast about midway between Botany Bay and Wollongong. Here the party were discovered by some fishermen, who gave them a passage to Sydney, where they arrived on 17th April, having been two months on their perilous and disastrous journey.

Returning to the Hawkesbury we find that the animosity between the settlers and the aborigines during the two years ending the century had pretty near reached its climax, and resulted in deeds of the darkest cruelty on either side. One case is recorded of exceptional cruelty on the part of the white settlers. The natives had murdered two white men who had farms on the Hawkesbury, and a few of the settlers determined to follow the aboriginal custom and revenge their death by retaliation, selecting three innocent and unoffending black youths as their victims. The lads, not dreaming of treachery accepted the invitation of the settlers to come near, and were immediately driven into a barn, where two of them were ruthlessly slaughtered. The third escaped by jumping into the river, and although his hands were tied he succeeded in swimming to the opposite bank, none of the shots fired at him when in the water reaching him. Subsequently Governor Hunter heard of the occurrence, and caused an inquiry. The bodies of the two murdered boys were found buried in the garden, stabbed in several places, and the hands tied. A formal trial of the men who had murdered the boys was held, but nothing seems to have come of it, for although the men were admitted to bail, after being found guilty, the usual sentence was not passed, and no further mention is made of the case in the records.

Collins thus speaks of the activity of the natives in acts of reprisal:—

"When spoken to, or censured, for robbing the maize grounds, these people, to be revenged, were accustomed to assemble in large bodies, and burn the houses of the settlers if they stood in lonely situations, frequently attempting to take their lives; yet they were seldom refused a little corn when they would ask for it. It was imagined that they were stimulated to this destructive conduct by some runaway convicts who were known to be among them at the time of their committing these depredations. In order to get possession of these pests, a proclamation was issued, calling upon them by name to deliver themselves up within fourteen days; declaring them outlaws if they refused; and requiring the inhabitants as they valued the peace and good order of the settlement, and their own security, to assist in apprehending and bringing them to justice. The Governor also signified his determination, if any of the natives were taken in the act of robbing the settlers to hang them in chains near the spot as a warning to others. Could it have been foreseen that this was their natural temper, it would have been wiser to have kept them at a distance, and in fear; which might have been affected without so much of that severity which their conduct had sometimes caused to be exercised towards them. But the kindness which had been shown them, and the familiar intercourse with white people in which they had been indulged, tended only to make them acquainted with those concerns in which they were the most vulnerable, and brought on all the evils that they suffered from them."

Thus commenced the war which has proved so disastrous to the poor wretches who doubtless thought that they were only acting within their rights in stealing food from the white men who had destroyed their natural food supplies, and in committing assaults upon those who had assaulted them.

The Story of the Blacks

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