than seventeen of our people had either been killed or wounded by the natives; that he looked upon the tribe living on the before-mentioned peninsula, and chiefly on the north arm of Botany Bay, to be the principal aggressors; that against this tribe he was determined to strike a decisive blow, in order at once to convince them of our superiority, and to infuse an universal terror, which might operate to prevent farther mischief. … That his motive for having so long delayed to use violent measures had arisen from believing that in every former instance of hostility, they had acted either from having received injury, or from misapprehension. To the latter of these causes, added he, "I attribute my own wound; but in this business of M'Entire, I am fully persuaded … the barbarity of their conduct admits of no extenuation … and I am resolved to execute the prisoners who may be brought in, in the most public and exemplary manner, in the presence of as many of their countrymen as can be collected, after having explained the cause of such a punishment, and my fixed determination to repeat it whenever any future breach of good conduct on their side shall render it necessary."'
Hunter—all honour to him—proposed that, instead of destroying ten persons, the capture of six would better answer all the purposes for which the expedition was to be undertaken; as out of this number a part might be set aside for retaliation; and
