Civil Action: February 1811

On Saturday last a complaint preferred to His Excellency the GOVERNOR By a NATIVE who had gone the last voyage in the King George, was by HIS EXCELLENCY transmitted to A. RILEY, Esq. the Sitting Magistrate, with a request that every possible pains might be taken to come at the facts, and strictly to redress the grievance, if any should appear. The circumstances of the case were, that the Native had shipped on lay as others did, and returned with a broken voyage, the cargo procured being scarcely sufficient to cover the men's advances; independent of which, the complainant, whose natural inclinations were his greatest bias, had deserted the ship at Port Dalrymple, and put the owners to the expence of a reward for his caption. [sic] The result of the enquiry therefore was, that nothing was due, and of course the complaint was dismissed. The care bestowed in the foregoing enquiry is satisfactory of the determination of Government to afford every protection and support to the Natives that they way stand in need of; and particularly to encourage them to useful industry by requiring a scrupulous observance of every contract in which they may be interested.

Provenance
Sydney Gazette, 23 February 1811 p.1c.
This is the earliest surviving record of a civil action by an Aborigine in an Australian court. The report indicates more about the humanitarian and Christian reformist values of Macquarie's administration than the views or circumstances of the claimant (who currently remains unidentified).

See: Kercher, Bruce. An Unruly Child: a history of law in Australia. St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 1995 pp.3-4.

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