Little or no missionary zeal prevailed in the churches. At this period vital Christianity was lost sight of under mere moral teaching, yet a few names, as in Sardis, were found for the truth, but the heathen world was but little thought of.
The first mission to the Pacific was that of the London Missionary Society to Tahiti, so unscrupulously desecrated by the French.
No doubt the natives were surprised at their visitors, and were too soon convinced of their unscrupulous invasion of the land, but right had to submit to might.
Various conflicts took place between the races; a kind of guerrilla warfare was carried on, and lives were sacrificed, although strict orders were given against violence or the prisoners going without bounds, and the severe punishment of 700 lashes was administered, and even hanging resorted to, for disobedience and robbery, yet temptations were too strong to check these evils.
The Governor exercised the kindest feelings toward the aborigines, so as to win their confidence, as may be seen by the following extracts from our earliest historian, Collins.
Many affrays took place between the natives and the Europeans, in which life was lost on both sides, but at length the natives became more familiar, and often danced and fought in the settlement, to the amusement of the people; when wounded they submitted to the surgeon’s operations.
In these affrays the natives exhibited much bravery and became formidable to the settler, so that frequent conflicts took place, in which much life was lost on both sides. They carried away considerable plunder, and even made piratical attacks on vessels conveying corn, and killed the crews. It is thought that the runaway convicts gave them assistance. They had attacked a farm near Kissing Point, murdered a man and woman, and having been pursued, an encounter took place near Parramatta, headed by their chief, Pemulwy, who threw spears at one of the soldiers. They were fired on, five natives were killed, and their chief, Pemulwy, received five buck-shot wounds in his head and parts of his body; he was captured and taken to the hospital.
The chief cause of warfare was the blacks plundering the maize crops, the whites having thinned out their game, and the blacks, driven by hunger, retaliated.
The animosity increased to such a degree that wanton acts of violence were resorted to. In one instance, the natives murdered two men who had farms. The settlers, in retaliation, seized three boys residing with the settlers, and having obtained through them the muskets of the murdered men, they tied their hands, and beat the boys to death in a barn; the others escaped. The Governor, on hearing of this cruelty, had the perpetrators tried, but from some interposing evidence, although convicted of being guilty of killing, they were not executed, but released on bail; they asserted that several whites had been murdered.
The natives however were not altogether idle; they robbed, burnt down houses, and assembled in large bodies, it is supposed instigated by runaway convicts.