I cannot help lamenting that
the wise and humane instructions of my predecessors, relative to
the necessity of cultivating the good-will of the natives, do not
appear to have been observed in earlier periods of the establishment
of the colony with an attention corresponding to the importance
of the object. The evils resulting from this neglect seem to be
now sensibly experienced ….
(Historical Records of New South
Wales, Volume 4, p. 684.)