Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/161

that he was going to seize him as a prisoner, lifted a spear from the grass with his foot, and fixing it on his throwing-stick, in an instant darted it at the Governor." As on two occasions natives had been violently seized by Phillip's command, the fears of the savage were not unnatural. The spear entered above the collar-bone, and the barb passed out at Phillip's back. Other spears were thrown, but without effect. The boatmen landed with their muskets, only one of which would go off. The Governor's party retired, Lt. Waterhouse having with difficulty broken the offending spear, and in about two hours the Governor reached Sydney, where the spear was extracted, and the wound pronounced not mortal. Phillip gave strict orders that the natives should not be fired at.^[1] The untoward occurrence, which might have embittered more and more the relations between the whites and blacks, really led to their improvement.

Bennilong promptly resumed intercourse with the settlement. The native girl, who had been kindly treated, and lived with the clergyman's wife, played her part in bringing about a reconciliation. Some officers accompanied her to the North Shore to meet Bennilong and his friends, and Bennilong declared that he had severely beaten Willemering for wounding the Governor, but that the spear had been thrown by Willemering under the influence of fear, and an impulse of self-preservation. In ten days the Governor himself, with an armed party, visited Bennilong, and received his explanations, presenting at the same time to the natives some fish taken the preceding day, when the largest quantity ever caught (nearly 4000 of 5 lbs. average weight) had been taken "in two hauls of the seine."

Proof that the Governor was not angered by the assault upon him bore appropriate fruit. Bennilong, after some days, kept his promise to visit the Governor; and being now convinced of Phillip's sincerity, applied in October for a hut in the settlement. It was built for him of brick, twelve feet square. In November he took possession of it, and Phillip's kindness and perseverance were rewarded by the establishment of complete and friendly communication. Writing on