During the five months I had been at King George’s Sound this was the first act of petty theft, or indeed of theft of any kind, committed by the natives; there had on several occasions been as many as two hundred in the settlement who had no means of subsistence but a chance job from the colonists, and the spontaneous productions of the earth, yet during that period the only criminals had been those above mentioned, namely, a woman, a girl, and a boy, who had rooted up some potatoes from a retired garden, and they had even purposely left the large potatoes and had only taken away the small ones, in the hope that by so doing they would lessen the crime.

RELEASE OF PEERAT’S SON.

In the afternoon I walked up to the jail attended by Peerat, his wives, and a crowd of natives, to release little Dalbean.  Peerat and myself alone entered the jail; I told the jailor to hand him the whip, he took it, and said, “Yes, yes, I will strike him; let not another beat him, Governor.”

The door of the cell was then opened and the little boy was led out:  his father ran up to him, caught him in his arms, and began kissing him; having done this he told him he was going to beat him.  The little fellow did not answer a word, but, standing as firm and erect as possible, presented his back to him, the father gave him one blow, and it was ended—­justice was satisfied; the criminals had surrendered to salutary laws, of which they had but a vague and undefined knowledge.  It was their first offence; I explained to them the nature of the laws they had broken, warned them to be careful in their future conduct, and let them go.  Little Dalbean, directly we got outside the jail, walked up to me, took my hand, and squeezed it, and then turned to his mother; he just looked at her, she cried, but did not dare to kiss him, or to show any symptom of emotion; and the whole party, after showering thanks innumerable upon my head, moved off, saying, “What a good fellow—­what a good fellow;” or, to give a literal translation, “One good man—­one good man.”

Sunday January 26.

Old Manniotte, a native dressed in an old uniform, attended the church service as usual this day and was apparently as attentive as any other member of the congregation.

JUDICIAL CASE OF ASSAULT.

February 14.

This evening a native came up to me as I was in the Commissary’s house, and said:  “Djanga kain nganya goree bomb-gur”; “A white man has just struck me.”  At the same time he showed me his side which was severely bruised.  I accompanied him to the beach and there found a number of liberty men from some American whalers walking about.  There were also several natives on the beach who were in a state of great excitement, and came hurrying up to me.  I had sent for the constable, and as I was coming up I saw a sailor moving off to the boats, on which the natives all shouted out, “Now, now, walk away.”

The natives were soon satisfied that strict justice would be done them, and as the sailor who had struck the native was a man belonging to the Russel, commanded by Captain Long, who had previously taken me to Shark Bay, it was arranged with him that the offender should be brought before me at 11 o’clock the next day to answer the charge.