CHAPTER VI
In a paragraph of Phillip's 'Instructions,' he was enjoined to use every possible means 'to open an intercourse with the natives, and to conciliate their affections.' If any of them were ill-treated or wantonly destroyed by the whites, he was to bring the offenders to punishment; and was to report his opinion to one of the Secretaries for State as to the way in which intercourse with these people could be turned to the advantage of the colony.
The manner and spirit in which he carried out this part of his duties supplies us with an interesting if not altogether agreeable chapter in the narrative of the Governor's administration. Light and pleasant reading is none too common, naturally enough, in the annals of the penal settlement.
Phillip very often turned from the disheartening duty of trying to civilise his prisoners to the more
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