Whites Lose Fear of Natives

The Government Resident in Port Lincoln in his quarterly report for March 31, 1845, after referring to the appreciation of the natives for the food, provided for them by the settlers, and their altered feelings towards the settler, wrote : "I believe that as far as the settlement at or near Boston Bay is concerned, they would lament its total abandonment or a further diminution in the number of settlers although, I doubt not, a more extensive occupation of the country would again provoke in them jealous and hostile feeling." 

In the same report the Government Resident said that natives prominently implicated in the murders of 1842 had been living in the settlement during the preceding three months. In the meantime they had avoided the Europeans. As Charles Tubbs, the only one who could give evidence, had left the colony, nothing could be done. 

Mr. Driver put the position as: "The law having made example of some of their accomplices, and their individual demeanour being conciliatory and submissive, I have, after careful review of these and all other circumstances connected with their cases, thought it advisable not to prevent their holding intercourse with the settlers, as is held by their companions, a course which I believe to be conducive to the preservation of peace, and, therefore to the security of life and prosperity of the settlement." 

Less than a month after the Resi-dent penned these remarks, the Protector of Aborigines (Mr. M. Moorhouse) brought to Port Lincoln the pardoned prisoners, Moorpa and Moullia. On his return to Adelaide he reported for the information of the Governor, his impressions. The two natives were given their freedom on April 29, after which the Protector visited several outstations. First he went to Capt. Hawson's station at Little Swamp, four miles from the town, and there he found that "the natives are in the habit of visiting this station and assisting in farming operations from time to time." 

On the following day he saw Thomas Hawson with cattle at Higgins's station, formerly owned by Biddle. Thomas had been at Pilaworta collecting cattle and he said he was in the habit of sleeping at Pillaworta quite alone, and feared nothing from the blacks. 

ONLY ONE EXECUTION 

Messrs. Higgins had been only three weeks at the station at the time of the Protector's visit. They had not been visited by natives, and only two native boys had been seen in the run, and they were then two miles from the hut. The Protector said, "They do not apprehend danger from the natives." He also said that this station was "where Nultia was hanged on April 7, I843." From this it is apparent that there was only one execution. Earlier in this paper, it was stated that there were one or two, for there seemed to be a doubt. Angas in his book in 1847 stated there were two, evidently under a misapprehension. 

The Protector also visited Clay's station, and found he was in "the habit of employing natives about the place, and had lost the fear which he had 12 months ago, of having his property attacked by them." So much so, that he contemplated going further into the interior. The Protector found "the whole of the native population for 60 miles from Port Lincoln is in a state of quietude." Petty thefts were sure to occur, but even with 300 or 400 natives he did not contemplate that any capital crime need be feared. Within these 60 miles he considered that the inhabitants and property would be secure, but he would not venture an opinion as to what would happen when the settlers spread outside that distance. His guarded judgment was justified, for the opening up of that outside country entailed more murders, which will be dealt with in the 1848-51 series of tragedies. 

When going through some manu-scripts in the Archives some time ago, I came across the following interesting and remarkable story, and at the time put a big query against it. This series of articles necessitated a check-up of all the facts, and the results are incorporated in the foregoing details. Hailes dates the event about to or related as occurring in 1843. Moullia was in Port Lincoln in April of that year, having arrived by boat, but I imagine strictly under guard of the sheriff's deputy and would not be allowed to wander around the country. He was taken back to Adelaide and there kept in prison until April 1845, when he was released and returned to Port Lincoln by boat, this time under the care of the Protector of Aborigines. At the present time no solution is available. 

INTERESTING "MYTH." 

Is the whole a figment of fancy. Has the memory played tricks? Does the story relate to some other native, and was Moullia's name introduced inadvertently? It cannot be said definitely when Hailes wrote his "Recollections" or reminiscences but from one remark it would appear that they were written after the death of Charles (in all probability Charles Lloyd) Hawker (1860), as they were published in 1876-1878. At that time he would have been about 75 years of age, and the Port Lincoln events happened over 30 years previously. Hailes was the Clerk of the Peace at Port Lincoln for two or three years, and I have been accepting his writings as correct. In this series it was necessary to point out one palpable error, and now this has to be added to the category of inaccuracies, therefore at present it can only be classed as a myth, but an interesting one. 

This raises the question, was Hailes right in correcting G. F. Angas's account of the fleeing of Millitie, mentioned in the story of the Hawson murder? Hailes's story runs: — "The faculty possessed by them (natives) of discovering tracks even on long tough grass is very extraordinary, as the following will prove. A native named Moullia had been in Adelaide and imprisoned there, for a subordinate participation in one of the murders of 1842. In the following year, I was traversing the bush, about forty miles from the settlement, accompanied by Utulta, a trusty native of the Port Lincoln tribe, who had been attached to the police force. Suddenly he stopped, bent down on his two hands and knees and scrutinised the grass with great earnestness. 'What is it, Uta? I asked. (The natives in speaking familiarly of each other drop the middle syllable of their name, thus Koongulta becomes Koonga, Millitia Millie and so on.) (Probably this accounts for the difference in spelling Jemmy, Nairabie and Ngarbi — J.D.S.) ' Moullia,' said he, and the whites of his eyes were expanded to nearly double the ordinary size. 'Nonsense,' I replied, 'Moullia is in Adelaide Gaol and has a year and a half to remain there.' Uta was positive, and to satisfy him I dismounted, brought my face within an inch or two of the supposed impression, and at length believed that I did perceive the imprint of some object on the grass but whether it was made by the foot of man, the hoof of a bullock or kangaroo, or the pedal termination of the apocryphal bunyip, I could not tell. 

SAGACITY ESTABLISHED 

" But Uta pointed out another and another, still insisting that they were the footprints of Moullia. 'But suppose it is a blackfellow's step,' I said, ' Why fix on a man who even if liberated from prison would return by sea?' for hitherto no prisoner had journeyed between Adelaide and Port Lincoln except by water. In reply, he stated a fact I well recollect, that Moullia had a slight deformity of one foot. On reaching the settlement, a few days after, I was surprised to find that Moullia was there before us." 

"His health had suffered so severely from confinement that the Protector recommended his case to the Governor and the remainder of his sentence was remitted. As many weeks would elapse before the small cutter would sail for the settlement, the liberated native pleaded hard to be allowed to go overland, a journey of five or six hundred miles. Having satisfied himself that the native well understood the course he should take, which he most intelligently described by lines drawn in the dust of the ground with a stick, the Protector favoured his plan, and having been supplied with rations, clothing, and bedding, he set forth on his successful journey. This occupied him several weeks, for he could only travel at night, when the strange tribes were not moving about; and he greatly added to its real distance by making numerous deviations from his direct road, believing that to be essential to his safety. Utulta's sagacity was fully established. The faint traces on the grass had undoubtedly been imprinted by the foot of Moullia." 

The next native murder was that of Darke in 1844, then there was a series about 1848-51. Before dealing with these latter, it would be advisable to trace the history of the loss of C. C. Dutton (1842) and then the whalers' trip (1843), the latter giving impetus in the opening up of the country.

 (The next series of articles will deal with the mysterious loss of C. C. Dutton.)