Cessation of Hostilities with Natives
[Governor Macquarie Dispatch to Earl Bathurst- Dated 4/4/1817]

I ..... report that the measures I .... have subsequently adopted have been attended with the desired effect, and that all hostility on both sides has since ceased; the black natives living now peaceably and quietly in every part of the Colony, unmolested by the white inhabitants. The measure of disarming the natives had an immediate good effect upon them, and the Proclamations issued subsequently under dates 20 July 1816 and 1 November 1816, the first outlawing some of the most violent and atrocious natives, and the second holding out indemnity to such as delivered themselves within a prescribed period, made them at length fully sensible of the folly of their conduct, and soon afterwards induced the Principal Chiefs to come in at the heads of their respective tribes to sue for peace and to deliver up their arms in all due form in terms of the Proclamation of 4 May 1816.

I .... transmit .... further information (on) my Proclamations under dates 20 July and 1 November 1816, relative to the hostile natives; a numerous friendly meeting of whom took place at Parramatta on the 28 December 1816, when I gave them a plentiful treat of meat and drink; on which occasion 179 men, women and children were assembled, being a greater number than had been seen together at any one time for several years past; they all appeared happy and perfectly satisfied at the meeting; and some of them of their own free will and accord gave up their children for the Native Institution, which I had established at Parramatta some time before; and this Institution, from the progress the children have made, gives great hope that it will ultimately pave the way for the civilization of a large portion of the aborigines of the country.

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