rd of May, 1817: Payment to Quartermaster McDonald

Demise of the Parramatta Native Institution

• 
  it shows that that traditional Aboriginal life continued;
  
• 
  it reveals Aboriginal fear of missionaries taking children away to the Native Institution;
  
• 
  reinforces the argument that Yellomundee was the father of Maria; and
  
• 
  it was the last contemporary reference to Yellomundee.
  

‘While in this district (Portland Head) I availed myself of an opportunity of speaking to a tribe of native blacks. They were preparing for a war with another tribe, making swords of timber, and womaras ( a sort of club), and spears in great number for the combat; discovering this as I rode through the woods, I put my horse up at a settler’s house and walked towards them. As I approached, the women and children ran away; but the king (Yellowmonday), with several men, came to meet me. I enquired why the children were carried off; they replied that many of them had been taken away by men in black clothes, and put to school at Parramatta, and they feared I was come on that errand. After assuring them to the contrary, the King dispatched messengers after the absentees, who presently mustered them on the spot where I was conversing with their Chief.’³⁰²

13^th April 1819: school examinations

Not only did George Howe report on a child from the Parramatta Native Institution coming first in the school examination in Parramatta but he reflected upon the progress of the children and signalled a change in attitude since the exchange between Philanthropus and A Friend to Civilization in the pages of the Gazette in 1810. Contrary to the general consensus, my personal opinion is that the girl who won first prize was probably not Maria, daughter of Yellomundee.
‘On Tuesday last an Anniversary School Examination took place at Parramatta, at which the children of the Native Institution were introduced, their numbers not exceeding twenty; those of the schools of the children of Europeans amounting nearly to a hundred. Prizes were prepared for distribution among such of the children as should be found to excel in the early rudiments of education, moral and religious; and it is not less strange than pleasing to remark, in answer to an erroneous opinion which had long prevailed with many, namely, that the Aborigines of this country were insusceptible to any mental improvement which could adapt them to the purposes of civilized association, that a black girl of fourteen years of age, between three and four years in the school, bore away the chief prize, with much satisfaction to their worthy adjudgers and auditors. Other prizes were designated to children of much desert; and it was declared generally that the attention paid to their instruction by their various instructors was entitled to much praise for their zeal in so good a cause, manifested in the improvement of their pupils. At the time His EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR MACQUARIE was pleased to institute and patronize the Institution for the maintenance and instruction of these poor children, it was considered by very few otherwise than as a benign wish to withdraw them from a condition which had no rank in the scale of human nature; but under this benign auspices, aided by the zealous exertions of the Gentlemen appointed to its Committee, we have already the happiness of contemplating in the infant bud the richness of the expanding flower. That they might have been for many years to come reserved for the contempt of the more enlightened world no doubt may be formed; but do not all late accounts inform us that the black natives of Africa are in the exercise of high offices in St Domingo; which they not only conduct with precision, but fill with a degree of urbanity (which may nevertheless be more confined to the reception of strangers than to common habit) and why then should we despair of the poor people being equally redeemable from their state of abjection, which was in itself but natural to persons whose only associates were the animals of the forest?
It is true, that repeated instances in our natives, have occasioned their adapting themselves in youth to European manners, and in the end retreated to the woods to rejoin their kindred: but in this there can be nothing to be wondered at: that state amongst the white population that was assigned to them was possibly little better than the one they had forsaken; the meanest offices of drudgerery (sic) always reflecting upon their minds a picture of debasement, a want of attention to their common wants, of which our very dogs and horses had not to complain.
Such treatment could not be considered a fair trial of their capacities or fixed inclinations. On the contrary, it was sufficient to disgust instead of withdrawing them from habit which at maturer age appeared to themselves to be even less intolerable. In a Gazette ten year ago we recollect ascribing to another cause their voluntary return to original habits.³⁰³ Man cannot be happy without society, for nature has enriched him with a mind which unfits him to the state of solitude. A poor native boy in a kitchen was worse than in a state of solitude; for he had constantly, and the more so as he improved in faculty, to lament a debasement which nature alone had stamped upon him. There is an associate which man in every condition finds congenial to his wishes; the smallest bird has its mate; the untamed son of the forest defends his den, and protects his yet inoffensive family of yelping cubs; out of the woods the poor half civilized native had no chance of a mate; no chance of ever sharing in the tender feelings of a parent, which the very crocodile evinces. The doubt of their capacity and fairness of intellect must now wear off; and it will no more be doubted that this our infant Native Institution will prove eventually honorable to its earliest Patronage, and add additional honor to the Country whose benevolent efforts are sounded throughout all parts of the habitable world.’³⁰⁴

Opposition to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Among the Aborigines

The Reverend Richard Hill, 1782-1836, arrived in 1819 as an assistant to Reverend Cowper. An early indication of his humanitarian leanings was his establishment of the NSW Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Among the Aborigines. Founded in 1698 The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge was the oldest Anglican mission.
Hill’s proposal for the establishment of the NSW Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Among the Aboriginal people met with strong opposition from what would appear to be an unusual alliance of clergy and landowners on the frontier. The signatures of the clergy on the petition should be seen as an indicator of the internecine relations of the Sydney clergy. The landowners did not want any possibly embarrassing interference in their operations.
The petition to Governor Macquarie was cleverly constructed. It used Macquarie’s Native Institution as an argument against any other enterprise and used the costs of running the school as leverage. The petition was careful to explain that the degraded and very wretched state of the Aboriginal people was a result of land clearances. No mention was made of Macquarie’s Proclamations of 1816. Some of the signatories had been, or would be, involved in a different sort of clearance. Despite the author’s fondness of commas over full stops I have maintained the original grammar, or lack of grammar.

‘Windsor 24^th August 1819

Sir,

We have the honour of addressing your Excellency on the subject of a printed advertisement, under date the 12^th instant, and which lately came to our knowledge announcing to the public the establishment of a society for “Promoting Christian knowledge amongst the Aborigines of New South Wales and its dependencies,” signed by his Honor the Lieutenant Governor, the judges and Clergymen of Sydney with your Excellency’s approval affixed thereto. –
From long experience, as Residents in the Interior of this Colony, we deeply face the justice and important necessity of doing something to raise the Natives from the degraded and very wretched state in which they still continue and on reverting to your Excellency’s Rules and Regulations of 1814, in founding and establishing the Native Institution we there perceive that it was founded not only on principles of justice but of humanity to the Natives, who most certainly have been deprived of grat parts of their means of subsistence by our clearing the lands of its timber, by which were cleared the greater part of the animal food etc.
This Institution has exceeded the most sanguine expectations of many of its admirers, as far as it has yet been carried into effect, for it proves that the Native Children are as capable of improvement as children in general. We therefore submit it to your Excellency’s consideration whether or not, had the inhabitants an opportunity of enacting and expressing their opinions on this very important subject, it would not be for the benefit of the original Institution, as every gentleman with whom we have conversed on this subject, would willingly come forward to support and extend, so highly approved and laudable an Institution as the one established by Your Excellency, especially as the children already in the School are arriving at an Age that will yet require such attention and expense to form and make them good and useful members of society.
We have the honour to be, Sir

Your most obedient

humble servants

Jn: Jamison

James Mileham Rob^t. Cartwright³⁰⁵

M^r:Minchin³⁰⁶ M^r. Cox:

Tho^s. Moore³⁰⁷ Arch Bell

Walter Lawry³⁰⁸ John Youl³⁰⁹

Cha^s Throsby

Thomas Carne³¹⁰ Robert Lowe

M^r. Howe William Lawson

John Wood³¹¹

George Cox’³¹²
A month later on the 23^rd of September 1819 Governor Macquarie appointed the following ten men to the Committee of the Native Institution:

‘The Honorable JUSTICE FIELD.

Sir JOHN JAMISON, Knt.

Reverend RICHARD HILL, Assistant Chaplain, Sydney.

Captain H. C. ANTILL, Major of Brigade.

JOHN PIPER, Esquire, Sydney

JOHN HARRIS, Esquire, Sydney

JOHN OXLEY, Esquire, Sydney

FREDERICK GARLING,

Reverend ROBERT CARTWRIGHT, Chaplain

Lieut. ARCHIBALD BELL, R. V. Corps, Richmond.’³¹³
The Reverend Richard Hill was ensconced firmly within the tent and Jamison, Cartwright and Bell, signatories to the petition opposing Hill’s initiative, would keep him firmly in place. The “NSW Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Among the Aborigines” appears to have had a short existence.

Compilation of Parramatta Native Institution Admission List: 1814 to 1820

‘Names of the Children of the Aborigines received into the Native Institution Parramatta, since its foundation, 10 Jan^y. 1814³¹⁴

No.	Date of Admission	Names.	Supposed ages.	State of learning	Tribe	Not now in school
1	28 Dec 1814	Maria315	13	Spells four syllables in the Bible & reads	Richmond
2	" " "	Kitty	12	Reads & writes well	Prospect
3	" " "	Fanny	9	Beginning to read and spell	Cattai Creek
4	" " "	Friday	12	Reads & writes well	Portland Head
5	10 Jany 1815	Billy	12	d0 d0	South Creek
6	6 June 1816	Nalour				Absconded
7	" " "	Doors				d0316
8	12 Augt "	Betty Cox317	15	Reads and writes well	Hawkesbury
9	" " "	Nilbah318	15	Improves in reading and spelling	Cowpastures
10	" " "	Betty Fulton319	16	Reads and writes well	Cowpastures
11	" " "	Tommy	11	Reads and writes well	Hawkesbury
12	" " "	Peter				Absconded
13	" " "	Pendergrass				d0
14	23	Amy	8	Reads and spells well	Botany Bay
15	" " "	Nancy	10	Beginning to read and spell	Botany Bay
16	" " "	Charlotte				Died in Sydney320
17	9 Sep. 1816	John	6	Reads and spells	Cattai Creek
18	28 Decr "	Davis				Absconded
19	" " "	Dicky321	9	Reads and spells well
20	" " "	Judith	13	Reads and writes well	Mulgoa
21	1 Jany 1818	Jenny Mulgaway	7	Reads and spells	Mulgoa
22	" " "	Joe Marlow			Prospect	Absconded
23	17 July 1818	Neddy	6	Reads and spells	Prospect
24	25 Sep "	Wallis	10	Repeats the alphabet	Newcastle
25	15 Jany. 1819	Jemmy	4	d0	Newcastle	D. 1/10/21322
26	1 March "	Henry	4	d0	Kissing Point	D. 26/08/21323
27	20 Decr "	Maria, als Margt.324	11	d0
28	" " "	Nanny				Taken by her father.
29	" " "	Sukey				Died at Parramatta
30	30 May 1820	Joseph	3	d0		D. 22/10/21325
31	" " "	Billy George				Taken by his father.
32	6 June "	Polly326	16	Reads and writes well
33	28 Decr "	Martha327	10	Repeats the alphabet
34	" " "	Peggy	8	d0
35	" " "	Charlotte	10	d0
36	" " "	Caroline	7	d0
37	" " "	Anna	1	d0		(Signed) Richard Hill Secretary

In the seven months June to December 1816, fifteen children were admitted to the Parramatta Native Institution. Two of the fifteen, Amy and Nancy, came from Botany Bay, Charlotte probably also came from Botany Bay. Four children, Nalour, Doors, Nilbah and Betty Fulton came the Cowpastures and Wallis’ expedition. Peter and Pendergrass may also come from the south. Three, Betty Cox, Tommy and John came from the Hawkesbury. Dicky came from Kissing Point, Judith from Mulgoa and Davis from places unknown.

The demise of the Parramatta Native Institution was due to the complexities of colonial society as much as anything else. Certainly disease-related deaths necessitated a move. In October1821 eight children died or were removed from the Native Institution. Thirteen Maori children died in Marsden’s New Zealand Seminary at Parramatta at the same time.
The governorship officially changed on the 1^st December 1821 from Governor Macquarie to Governor Brisbane. The Reverend Samuel Marsden, became chair of the Native Institution Committee a fortnight later on the 14^th of December 1821. His enthusiasm for the position may not have been come from his concern for the children, but from religious rivalry. The Reverend Samuel Leigh, the first Wesleyan minister to come to Australia in 1815, petitioned the London Wesleyan Missionary Committee to appoint a missionary to the black natives of New South Wales and the Reverend William Walker was appointed to this position, arriving in April 1821. Walker was impressed by Nurrangingy’s settlement at Bell’s Creek, Rooty Hill and conceived a plan to build an agricultural community around it. A fortnight after Marsden’s appointment the Committee recommended that the Native Institution be shifted out of Parramatta and across from Nurragingy’s land grant on what is now the junction of Richmond Road and Rooty Hill Road North. This idea was originally William Walker’s, but in the process, he was cut out of any involvement. The running of the Institution was now in the hands of the Church Missionary Society. Given Henry Lamb’s previous relations with Aboriginal people, his appointment as supervisor on the 1^st of February 1822 of what was now the Bethel Settlement may not have been in the best interests of the children. In 1825 Governor Brisbane closed the Native Institution. The children were moved around to various institutions and the site was reused for a number of years before being sold into private ownership.³²⁸
Several reasonably contemporary writings illuminate the failure of the Native Institution.
On the 11^th of June 1838, the Reverend William Cowper wrote to Justice Burton, mainly about the Wellington Mission. The following extract is about the Parramatta Native Institution. While written long after the event Cowper’s letter is most telling in its account of how hostility and neglect destroyed “attempts made to ameliorate the condition of the aborigines in New South Wales.”

‘1814 - 1823

At Parramatta an establishment was commenced for the institution and maintenance of the aborigines' Children. This Institution succeeded as well as could be expected, & indeed beyond the anticipations of many. Several of the Boys and Girls made a fair progress in reading, writing, arithmetic and religious knowledge. The Colonial Secretary, however, did not like the Institution, and he desired measures for its abolition. - about 1822, I think, the Children were all removed from Parramatta to someplace near Prospect, called the " Black Town " - this change was a precursor to the final and complete extinction of the "Native Institution", in 1823, or 1824.
On 31 Janry 1815 an attempt was made to induce a number of the adult Blacks to locate and settle themselves at "Georges Head" there were Huts erected, and small patches of Garden Ground were prepared for them; and our Boat was given to them. A European man was appointed to assist the natives, but this plan was not attended with success. But the European, feeling a little, if any, interest in the welfare of the natives, did not protect the property thus appropriated for them, and in a short period the Huts and Gardens, &c were destroyed, and the boat was lost, and this attempt failed.
About 1820, or 1821 another plan was devised on the half of a different Tribe at Elizabeth Bay, Huts were erected, and some Ground was prepared for their cultivation. But this place was too near to Sydney for while there was none to protect the property, there were many to destroy. - in these attempts to settle and civilize the adult Natives there was no Missionary employed to instruct them, nor any person of rank, intelligence, or influence, or of integrity, to encourage them in their new condition, or to show them by his own example the advantages of Christianity.

William Cowper’³²⁹
Robert Campbell was a merchant, land holder and friend of the ecclesiastical community. His letter to Justice Burton, also written in 1838 provided valuable insights into contemporary thought. He repeated contemporary prejudice as though it was true – there is no evidence to sustain his claim that lust was the strongest passion of Aboriginal people.³³⁰ He failed to appreciate why the very fine and remarkably docile boy at my sheep Establishment would leave to marry a Aboriginal woman. He failed to appreciate that the unwillingness of Aboriginal people to surrender their lifestyle represented a failure of the settlers to convince Aboriginal people of the superiority of their ways. While his claim of ignorance of any harm done by settlers seems disingenuous, it must be noted that he was a frequent visitor to England and trade was his major occupation. His letter is also important in drawing attention to the impact of venereal disease upon Aboriginal people.

‘Mr Campbell to Mr Justice Burton on the habits of the blacks

Sydney, 22 June 1838

My dear Sir,

I wish sincerely that it were in my power to afford you "much useful information" on the subject which you have at present under consideration - I regret to be obliged to confess that I have very little indeed to impart of which you are not already in possession.
I do not remember at this moment any attempt on the part of Government to civilize the Aboriginal natives of this country; or to communicate to them the knowledge of the Gospel, previously to the administration of General Macquarie. His predecessors were very kind, personally to the poor creatures - one or two of their chiefs having occasionally dined at Government House- and in this respect our early Governors were imitated by the respectable Inhabitants, as I recollect observing, on my arrival in this Colony, numbers of natives about the dwelling of Mr Commissary Palmer and other Gentlemen. But I think that the first attempt to locate any one of the Tribes in a particular spot and to encourage them to apply themselves to agriculture and fishing with a view to supplying their wants by the produce of their own labour - and at the same time to institute schools for the education of their children - was made during the administration of General Macquarie.
Several children were collected and fed clothed and instructed by a Mr. Hall in a house erected for the purpose by the Governor on the Richmond Road; small portions of land were likewise cleared in the vicinity and huts built thereon, in which a few of the natives were coaxed to reside for a short time. About the same time huts were constructed at Elizabeth Bay and Mrs. Macquarie zealously endeavoured to prevail upon the Port Jackson Tribe to settle there, furnishing their Chief Bongaree with boats to enable them to obtain fish, for which they could always find a market in Sydney. I think that from the Revd. Messrs Cartwright and Cowper you could in all probability collect the most accurate information relative to the details of either plan; and to the apparent causes of the failure in both instances of General Macquarie's scheme for the amelioration of the condition in which he found the Aborigines. The true cause is to be found, perhaps, in their invincible aversion to labour and to abiding in one place more than a few days together. I know that it was the opinion of my late friend, the Revd. Samuel Marsden, that they will neither be converted nor civilized until a Missionary be found possessed of sufficient self denial to live amongst them, adopting their vagrant habits until such time as he shall have acquired their full confidence. It comes within my own knowledge that it is generally impossible to prevent their children, although trained amongst white people, from joining their Tribes on attaining the age of puberty, and their resembling thenceforth their savage Countrymen in all respects would lead us to infer that they had derived no benefit either from our instruction or example. I had a very fine and remarkably docile boy at my sheep Establishment, who could reap, drive oxen, heavy[?] plough as well as a white man. This boy would kneel and repeat the prayers which he heard white men uttering - and remained in my service some years. But when he wished to marry he rejoined his Countrymen, resumed the savage practices which I supposed he had for ever abandoned; and was I have learned, ultimately killed in one of the Conflicts. I ought to have mentioned that Governor Macquarie instituted an Annual Feast to which the tribes resorted from a considerable distance - and on this occasion a number of blankets were usually distributed amongst them.
I believe that any outrage on their part (with the exception of rape which I am told they will attempt whenever a defenceless white woman is thrown in their way - lust being their strongest passion:) committed on Europeans may be ascribed to a thirst for retaliation. It is true that I am not aware of any instance of their having been wantonly injured by the Settlers - but as we wield[?] our possessions their game - on which they depend for subsistence - is destroyed - and our convict servants excite their jealousy by forming connexions with their women.
The present condition of this degraded race is unquestionably most wretched in the vicinity of Sydney , - but throughout the Territory their intercourse with the lower class of Convicts has undoubtedly been extremely prejudicial to them. They have become [LINE OBSCURED] of which aided by the Venereal Disease, has very much reduced their numbers already, in our more settled districts, and it is to be feared, will ere long completely destroy the race.
I remain, my dear Sir, Yours truly,

Rob Campbell

22nd June 1838’³³¹

George Reeves on Lachlan Macquarie

George Reeves, who was not an admirer of Lachlan Macquarie, wrote an insightful account of Macquarie’s final land grants on his departure. Colbee and his brother both received land grants in the middle of what is now Windsor. I have not been able to find in the Historical Records of Australia a record of a grant to Colebee and his brother.³³² The relevant document (pages 560-566, HRA, Vol. 10, Library Committee of the Commonwealth Parliament, 1917) deals only with grants over 100 acres.
‘Before finishing with Lachlan Macquarie, I wish to refer to the scandal of his administration in the matter of grants of land. A. long list in 1821 contains 822 names who received additional grants for grazing lands. The total area alienated amounted to 74,920 acres. The Secretary of State was responsible for a large number of recommendations. Edward Riley received 1500 acres through being a long resident. Hannibal McArthur got 1000 acres through having numerous stock, and James and William Mc Arthur, on their father's recommendation, received 1000 acres each. Charles McArthur, for services rendered, received 800 acres. One person, James Daley, of Windsor, had a grant of 50 acres additional, through having met with misfortune. William Douglass, of Windsor, received an additional grant through a loss by fire. William Cox, Esq., of Richmond, received 10,000 acres, 20 miles on the west side of Bathurst, through having a large increase of stock. Robert Fitz, of Windsor, got 300 acres additional through. having a large family. On the 31st October, 1821, an aboriginal native, named Colebee, of Windsor, whose English name is listed as Edward Hore, had a small area grant of land at the old town; also his brother, John Hore. Both these small pieces of land were bounded by George, Brabyn, and Macquarie streets, and they are still vacant and unoccupied. They are situated at the corner of George and Brabyn streets opposite the Benevolent Society's Home for old Hawkesbury people in bad circumstances. Both Hores (Colebee and his brother) were attached to the police quarters, at Windsor as blacktrackers, and as grooms for the mounted men. In my opinion, for the areas of grants from 100 acres of land downwards, there was ample justification, but not so in the excessively large grants to ex-military officers such as Captain William Cox, the McArthur's and others of that caste. It will be seen that Macquarie, as a soldier, was nothing more nor less than a looter, and despoiler of Indian potentates, relieving them of their wealth in order that he and his friends at the English Court should possess a great wealth of gold and silver ornaments and precious stones. Macquarie, having acquired the habit of dispossessing natives of India, it was quite easy for him as Governor-in-Chief in New South Wales to grant large areas of the best lands in the State to his military favorites.’³³³

27^th of July, 1822: Lachlan Macquarie to Earl Bathurst on his achievements

In regard to recounting his achievements in civilising the “poor Black Natives or Aborigines of the Colony” Macquarie’s despatch was a masterpiece of bureaucratic reporting.
Macquarie cast himself as an enlightened ruler by recycling Banks’ mistaken view that Aboriginal people only lived on the coast. By doing this Macquarie was able to absolve the British government and himself, of any responsibility for taking Aboriginal land in the interior.
His achievements: the Native Institution, the Annual Congress and settling the Aboriginal people were all largely dismantled within a decade.
He made no mention of the military operations that took place in 1816.
‘20. Considering the poor Black Natives or Aborigines of the Colony entitled to the peculiar protection of the British Government, on account of their being driven from the Sea Coast by our settling thereon, and subsequently occupying their best Hunting Grounds in the Interior, I deemed it an act of justice, as well as of Humanity, to make at least an attempt to ameliorate their condition and to endeavour to civilize them in as far as their wandering habits would admit of.
21. With this view, I called a general meeting or Congress of the Natives inhabiting the Country lying between the Blue Mountains and Port Jackson. This Meeting took place accordingly at the Town of Parramatta on the 28th of December, 1814, when several propositions were made to the Natives in respect to their discontinuing their present wandering predatory habits and becoming regular Settlers.
22. It was also proposed to them to send their Children to School, at a Seminary I intended to establish immediately for that express purpose.
23. Many of the Natives agreed to take Lands and settle permanently on them, and they all seemed highly pleased with the idea of sending their children to school. It was therefore determined to establish and open the Native Institution for Educating and Civilizing the Children of the Aborigines on the 18th of the ensuing Month of January, when several of the Natives promised to bring in their children, which they did; and the Institution was accordingly established on the day above mentioned under the superintendence of Mr. William Shelly, a pious, sober and steady good man, who had come out originally as one of the Church Missionary Society.
24. This Institution has fully answered the purpose for which it was established, it having proved that the children of the Natives have as good and ready an aptitude for learning as those of Europeans, and that they are also susceptible of being completely civilized.
25. I limited the number of children to be received into the Institution to Twenty four, as the expense of maintaining a greater number at one time would be very considerable, one half of whom to be male, and the other female. The progress, these Black Children have made in their Education, has been a subject of astonishment to every one, who has ever visited the Institution. It has also had the good effect of completely conciliating the good will and friendship of all the native tribes to the British Government, and of securing the most friendly and social intercourse with them. Three Girls, educated at the Native Institution, have already been married from thence to Native Youths, who have become Settlers.
26. The Adults, however, are naturally very indolent and averse to labor, and I had consequently great difficulty in prevailing on any of them to become regular Settlers. But determined to persevere in my endeavours to civilize these poor inoffensive Human Beings, I at length prevailed on Five different Tribes to become Settlers, giving them their choice of situations. Three of the Tribes chose to settle on the Shores of Port Jackson in the vicinity of Sydney, on account of the conveniency of fishing, for which purpose I furnished them with Boats and Fishing Tackle. The other two Tribes preferred taking their Farms in the Interior, from the produce of which they now maintain themselves, and appear much pleased with their change of condition; and their good example I hope will in due time reconcile many of the other adult Native Blacks to become Settlers. I appointed the 28th of December of each year for a general Meeting or Congress of all the Natives, which they have regularly attended, upwards of 300 having been present at the last Annual Congress at Parramatta.’³³⁴
Curiously, W. C. Wentworth in his 1823 poem Australasia, penned a somewhat similar idea of Aboriginal people retreating before the settlers.
‘… the mournful genius of the plain

Driv’n from his primal solitary reign

Has backward fled, and fix’d his drowsy throne

In untold wilds, to muse and brood alone.’³³⁵

1824-25: Drought and conflict

In the drought of 1824-25 there was violence on the Hawkesbury at Putty and the Lower Hawkesbury, confirming my theory that violence tended to be on the edges of settlement.
A Aboriginal warrior known as both Bumblefoot, because of a foot deformity, and Devil Devil attacked and nearly decapitated the convict Jeremiah Buffey, on September 19, 1824, in the Newcastle area. Bumblefoot then appeared to have made his way to the Lower Hawkesbury. Valerie Ross has put together a picture of his activities there.³³⁶ In early October he knocked a settler senseless and took his food and clothes. Other Aboriginal people told Richard Woodbury, special constable and local farmer at Laughtondale, that Bumblefoot had a gun. Richard Woodbury captured Bumblefoot and took him by rowboat to Windsor where he was charged with murder. The Sydney Gazette, of the 11^th of November 1824 carried a report of the attack. ‘On Saturday, the 30th ult. Devil-Devil, an able-bodied aboriginal native, with a cloven foot, was brought before a Bench of Magistrates at Windsor, by Woodbury, a Portland-head constable, charged with murdering a servant of Mr. Dickson's in the bush, by severing the poor man's head from his body with a tomahawk, while in the while in the act of stooping down to the ground. The sable criminal was remanded for further examination.’³³⁷ On the 26^th of January 1825 Bumblefoot appeared before the Sydney Courts, on an unstated charge; however, because he could not speak English and a translator was not available he was remanded. On the 23^rd of June 1825 he was charged with a violent assault upon Jeremiah Buffey. The outcome of this case is unknown.³³⁸ The Reverend Lancelot Threlkeld later wrote that Bumblefoot had spent a considerable time in gaol for this offence. Bumblefoot threatened to kill him because Threlkeld had told him to return to his home, Mangrove, forty miles distant from Newcastle. According to Mr Amos Douglas of Upper Mangrove, he was killed by other Aboriginal people at Bumble Hills, between Mangrove and Yarramalong.³³⁹ Bumblefoot’s movements between the Hunter and the Hawkesbury supports my contention that Aboriginal people travelled widely and concealed from settlers their knowledge of surrounding country.³⁴⁰
Valerie Ross recorded that in 1825 Thomas Dillon, a first Branch settler, had to “fly with eight young children in a most distressed state from blacks and bushrangers to the district of Appin”. I have not been able to locate Dillon’s letter in the AONSW.³⁴¹

Obituary: Keturah Woods

Keturah Woods was born in 24 May 1824. Her father was Thomas Woods and her mother, Sarah Mary, was the eldest daughter of Sarah Stubbs, who as a widow had married James Painter/Paynter in 1806. Keturah claimed that when she was born her parents lived on Clink’s farm, opposite Dillon’s at Wiseman’s Ferry. In 1835 the Wood’s moved downstream from Sally’s Vale and almost opposite Woodbury’s.³⁴² While it is possible that Keturah may have witnessed the events described, they may have dated from the time she was born and entered into her memory as a personal experience.
‘OBITUARY.

AN EARLY COLONIST.

There passed away recently at her daughter's residence; in Leichhardt, Mrs. Keturah Butterworth, a very old colonist, who was born 81 years ago upon a point of the Hawkesbury known as Klink's Farm, near Wiseman's Ferry. Mrs. Butterworth was the relict of the late James Butterworth, of Balmain, to whom she was married at the Hawkesbury sixty-two years ago. She had been a widow at the time of her death for 23 years, and was the mother of nine children (seven girls and two boys), many grandchildren, and five great grand-grandchildren. She herself was one of a large family, her parents, whose name was Woods, having been among those, who emigrated from England at the beginning of last century. The picturesque Hawkesbury was settled by a sturdy and courageous class, and the first residents did splendid pioneering work, which has been continued by their descendants, in spite of occasional periods of adversity, or even of disasters, such as recurring floods, of which the greatest was the memorable flood of 1867. Mrs. Butterworth had many recollections of such events. Again and again she had seen the heavy rains from the Blue Mountains pour down the Hawkesbury Valley, the waters sweeping before them the haystacks, outbuildings, and roofs, live poultry and pigs, the furniture, and even the cottages of residents, and bearing them swiftly down to the Pacific Ocean. Sometimes the people themselves were drowned, and whole farms were swept out of, existence. Another trouble that the early settlers experienced was from the blacks, who, especially when the male members of a household were absent, were very Aggressive and persistent in their demands, obtaining tobacco, sugar, etc., by terrorising the women and children. Often they went further, bearing and carrying away stock, or even firing crops and houses.
Mrs. Butterworth has frequently told of times when, as a child, she and others barricaded themselves in their house, and watched the natives spearing their pigs and fowls. After her marriage, in 1843, she remained for some years on the Hawkesbury, her husband carrying on farming operations. In 1851, James Butterworth was seized with the gold fever, and he went to the Turon, but not finding the streets of Sofala paved with loose gold, and remembering that his heavy maize crop was ready to be harvested, he soon abandoned the pick and Shovel and dish, and sought prosperity in the surer field of agriculture. At that time as much as £20 was paid for a load of hay, delivered in Sydney, and other produce was realising equally high prices.
After living for some years in Pitt Town, Mrs. Butterworth moved to Box Hill, then to Bathurst, and afterwards to Trunkey. Thirty-three years ago she and her husband settled in Balmain, and she spent the rest of her days in the metropolitan district. Until a year ago, when her sight failed, Mrs. Butterworth retained all her faculties, and her memory for dates, up till the day of her death, November 19 last, is described as wonderful. Her birthday was May 24, coinciding, with that of the late Queen Victoria:’³⁴³

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