as soon as acquaintance was made conflict commenced. The cause of collision was not equally apparent to the parties in question. Captain Marion evidently regarded himself as an injured party, and his assault on the Natives as a justifiable and gentlemanly act. His countrymen in 1802 acted with more sense, forbearance, and kindness. When the draughtsman was defending his property from the rude clutch of a savage, he narrowly escaped a broken head; and when his comrades rescued him they were roughly stoned, and even Captain Hamelin received a severe contusion. But to the honour of his nation, the historian was able to write at the close of the day, "not a single charge of musketry was drawn against them." But the French writer's words have such sound philosophy and right feeling to commend them, that they bear reciting:—
"Those last hostilities were committed on the part of the Aborigines, without our having given occasion for them in any manner; on the contrary we had laden them with presents and good deeds, and nothing in our conduct could have offended them. I confess I am surprised, after so many examples of treachery and cruelty reported in all voyages of discovery, to hear it repeated by sensible persons that men in a state of nature are not wicked, that one may trust in them, and that they would not be the aggressors, if they were not excited by vengeance, &c. Unfortunately, many travellers have been the victims of these vain sophisms. For myself, after all that we saw, I think that one cannot sufficiently know how to mistrust men whose character has not yet been softened by civilization, and that one ought to land with prudence upon shores inhabited by such persons."
It is not easy for the cultivated man to appreciate the impulses of the boor, nor for the latter to sympathise with the more refined ideas of the educated. How much more difficult for the civilized and barbarian to meet on equal terms, and understand each other's motives and principles! Certain it is that the Blacks resented the occupancy of their country when they found themselves put to some inconvenience from the supposed trespass, and made most unmistakeably to feel their sense of inferiority. But it is probable that their notions of patriotism would not otherwise have developed themselves, nor would they have perceived in the camp of the strangers any necessary
