Travellers

In December 1792 Governor Arthur Phillip returned to England accompanied by Bennelong and Yemmerawanne. Following a six-month voyage, they landed in Falmouth, England on 19 May 1793. Bennelong and Yemmerawanne stepped ashore into an alien world where they were cast as both colonial exhibits and Eora diplomats.

 

Quotes


They are cruel, particularly to their women, whom they beat in a most barbarous manner on every occasion. That instinct which teaches to propagate and preserve the species, they possess in common with the beasts of the field, and seem exactly on a par with them in respect to any further knowledge of, or attachment to kindred. 

 - Lloyd's Evening Post, 29 May 1793

 


 

From the description given of the natives of Jackson’s Bay they appear to be a race totally incapable of civilization, every attempt to that end having proved ineffectual … no inducement, and every means have been perseveringly tried, can draw them from a state of nature …

- Lloyd's Evening Post, 29 May 1793

 


 

Governor Phillip signified a determination of quitting his government, and returning to England in the Atlantic. To this he was induced by perceiving that his health hourly grew worse, and hoping that a change of air might contribute to his recovery

- Judge Advocate David Collins, An account of the English colony in New South Wales, Volume 1, (October 1792) 1802

  


 

With the governor there embarked, voluntarily and cheerfully, two natives of this country, Bennillong and Yem-mer-ra-wan-nie, two men who were much attached to this person; and who withstood at the moment of their departure the united distress of their wives, and the dismal lamentations of their friends, to accompany him to England, a place that they well knew was at a great distance from them.

- Judge Advocate David Collins, An account of the English colony in New South Wales, Volume 1, (December 1792) 1802

 


 

Governor Philip has brought home with him two natives of New Holland, a man and a boy, and brought them to town. The Atlantic has also on board four kangaroos, lively and healthy, and some other animals peculiar to that country.

- Lloyd's Evening Post, 29 May 1793

 

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