If they be considered as a nation,
whose general advancement and acquisitions are to be weighed, they
certainly rank very low, even in the scale of savages. (Captain Watkin Tench, Complete
Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson, in New South Wales, London,
1793, p. 187.)
David Collins recounted various
early interactions between Governor Phillip and Bennelong in 1790,
describing the Europeans as intrigued and diverted by "these children
of ignorance". (David Collins, An Account of
the English Colony in New South Wales, Volume 1, Chapter 11. Published
1798)