Australia, its history and present condition: containing an account both of the bush and of the colonies,; with their respective inhabitantsPridden, W. (William)
History
Australia, its history and present condition: containing an account both of the bush and of the colonies,; with their respective inhabitants
Pridden, W. (William)
Australia -- Description and travel
agreed that the governor, as soon as he was able, should visit the
same spot; Bennillong, meanwhile, assuring them that the man who had
inflicted the wound had been severely beaten. On the tenth day his
Excellency was so far recovered as to go to the place of the whale
feast, together with several officers, all armed. Bennillong here
repeated his assurances to the governor in person, that the offending
party had been well beaten by him and Cole-be, and added that his
throwing the spear was entirely the effect of his fears, and arose from
an impulse of self-preservation. The day before this visit nearly 4000
fish had been taken by the colonists, and between 30 and 40 of these,
weighing on an average about 5 lbs. each, were sent to Bennillong and
his party on the north shore of Port Jackson. After this, tolerably
friendly feelings continued, with some few interruptions, between the
two nations, and Bennillong himself became very much attached to the
governor, insomuch that he and another native resolved to accompany
Captain Philip to England, when, towards the close of 1792, that
excellent officer resigned his appointment, and embarked on board of
the Atlantic transport-ship. The two Australians, fully bent upon
the voyage, which they knew would be a very distant one, withstood
resolutely, at the moment of their departure, the united distress of
their wives and the dismal lamentations of their friends. No more was
heard respecting these absentees until March 1794, when a message was
brought from them in England, requesting that their wives might be told
to expect them in the course of that year, since, though well, they had
not so completely lost their love of liberty and of their native
country, to prefer London, with its pleasures and abundance, to the
woods of New South Wales. It was not, however, until August, 1795, that
Bennillong reached his native shores, having become accustomed to the
manners of civilized life, by his long sojourn among the English people.
He declared to his old acquaintance, with an air and tone that seemed to
expect compliance, that he should no longer suffer them to fight and cut
each other's throats, but should introduce peace among them, and make
them love one another. When they visited him at Government House, he
wished they would contrive to be somewhat more cleanly in their persons
and less coarse in their manners; and he was quite offended at his
sister, who came in such haste to see him, that she positively forgot to
bring anything else upon her back, except a little nephew! Bennillong
had been an attentive observer of manners, which he was not unsuccessful
in copying; his dress was an object of no small concern to him, and
every one was of opinion that he had cast off all love for savage life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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