several with small shot. The scene of this encounter was Garden Island, so called from its being set apart as a vegetable garden for the people of the Sirius. It is now the Imperial Naval Depôt in Sydney, the headquarters of the squadron on the Australian station, and is one of the most important naval establishments outside of Great Britain.
This outbreak of hostilities was followed soon afterwards by more serious disturbances. Convicts who straggled away from the settlement were often attacked and seriously wounded, and later on some were killed. In all these cases there was evidence that some provocation had, either through wantonness or ignorance of native susceptibilities, been given.
Phillip, anxious to put a stop to these disorders, determined as a first means to that end to capture a native and teach him some English, or learn from him enough of his language to establish communication between the two races.
Accordingly, a young man was seized and placed in charge of a trustworthy convict, the two being lodged in a hut near the main guardhouse. The black took it very coolly, and the convict reported that he slept and ate and drank with perfect indifference. Captain Hunter, whose account of what he saw and did is invaluable for the reason that his narrative is always in the unembellished log-book style of a plain sailor, thus tells the story:—
'As soon as the ship was secured, I went on shore
