r and his friends were retiring by degrees to their
boat, having imprudently allowed the natives very nearly to surround
them, when Bennillong, after presenting several of his friends by name,
pointed out one, whom Captain Philip stepped forward to meet, holding
out both his hands to him. The savage, not understanding this civility,
and possibly thinking that he was going to seize him, threw his spear,
and wounded the governor rather badly, but not mortally. Several other
spears were thrown, and one musket fired, but no injury was done on
either side. A few days after the accident Bennillong came with his wife
and some companions very near to the settlement, and an interview
between these and the British officers took place, in which it was
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