Bennelong’s group at Kissing Point appears to have survived intact. In 1816, Governor Macquarie rewarded Bidgee Bidgee with a suit of slop clothing, a blanket, four days provision, a half pint of spirits and a half pound of tobacco for services rendered as a ‘Native Guide’ in tracking ‘hostile’ Aborigines in the Appin district.[1] As a further reward Bidgee Bidgee was appointed by Macquarie as ‘Chief of the Kissing Point tribe’.[2]
On 12 August 1821 Nanbarry, identified in the Sydney Gazette by his baptismal name of 'Andrew Sneap Hammond [sic] Douglass White’ died at Kissing Point on 12 August 1821 was buried in the same grave as Bennelong and Boorong.[3] Nanbarry’s death may have been the result of a battle that took place near Squire’s farm at Kissing Point thirteen days earlier. Allen Gardiner, a Lieutenant aboard HMS Dauntless witnessed the incident and reported Aboriginal men and women, including Bennelong’s sister, (probably Carangarang), singing and dancing in a ‘Corrobera’.[4] The ritual combat that followed may have resulted in Nanbarry’s death. It is unclear if Nanbarry chose to be buried with Bennelong, or if this was Squire’s initiative. If Nanbarry had chosen to be buried with Bennelong this would certainly be as a mark of respect.
In the same year as Nanbarry’s death the Methodist missionary the reverend Samuel Leigh, while conducting the newly arrived Rev. William Walker through the Colony met a group of Aboriginal people and ‘I happened,’ said Mr Leigh, ‘to have a portrait of this celebrated chieftain, which had been taken in England in my pocket at the time. I took it out, and showed it to them. When they looked upon his features, they were astonished, and wept aloud.’ “It is Bennellong!” they cried. “He it is! Bennellong!, he was our brother and our friend!”.[5] Bennelong was far from forgotten by his own people. A further indication of this respect was recorded in 1828 by the Reverend Charles Wilton Anglican Minister of the Field of Mars. While visiting Squire’s estate he stated that: ‘Bidgee Bidgee the present representative of the Kissing Point Tribe, is a frequent visitor to these premises and expresses a wish to be buried by the side of his friend Bennelong’.[6] It is uncertain if Bidgee Bidgee’s request was carried out. He was named on a list of Indigenous Australian people issued with blankets at Parramatta by the New South Wales colonial government in May 1836 and is assumed to have died not long after. The evidence from Bennelong’s Eora contemporaries suggests that he was respected in his final years and that his memory remained with them after his death. This contrasts with the view perpetuated by non-Indigenous writers since Bennelong’s death. Relying on the Sydney Gazette obituary the view was formed of Bennelong as an outcast from both societies.
[1] Macquarie, ‘Memorandum’, 1816, Dixson Library, State Library of New South Wales, DL Doc 132
[2] I this day appointed Bidgee-Bidgee Black-Native, to be the Chief of the Kissing Point Tribe, and invested formally with a Brass Gorget having his name and Title engraved thereon.
Bidgee Bidgee brought in Coggie, the late Chief of the Cow Pasture Tribe, who made his Submission, delivered up his arms, and promised to be friendly in future to all White People. (Macquarie,Journal, 6 June 1816, ML A773:32)
[3] On the 12th of last month died, at the residence of Mr. James Squire, Kissing-point, Andrew Sneap Hammond Douglass White, a black native of this Colony. He was about 37 years old, and was taken from the woods in a few months after the first establishment in 1788, by Dr. White, after whom he was named. His mother died just before of the small pox, which raged horribly among the poor natives at that time, and was buried by Mr. Squire. Up to the period of his kind protector's departure for Europe, he was employed as gamekeeper; when he voluntarily entered himself on board of His Majesty's ship Reliance, Captain Waterhouse, and was much esteemed for his strict attention to the duties of a seaman.
Subsequently he went on a voyage in the Investigator with Captain Flinders, the crew of which ship were also much delighted with his orderly behaviour, and uncommon alertness. Upon his return, however, he betook himself to his native wilds, which were mostly in the vicinity of Kissing-point. From the woods he only occasionally emerged, for a number of years, in order to return with renewed avidity and satisfaction. Mr. Squire, we have every reason to believe, treated him with particular tenderness, and had recourse to many stratagems to rescue him from wretchedness; and, with this view, occasionally gave him amusing employment, accompanied with plenty of indulgence, but all proved unavailing—ancestral habits being too indelibly engendered ever to be eradicated by human effort, however strained in its benevolent design. He lies interred in the same grave with Bennelong and his wife, in Mr. Squire's garden. (Sydney Gazette, 8 September 1821)
[4] Allen Francis Gardiner, Letters from the South Seas written during the years 1821–1822, Sydney Cove, 1 August 1821, ML MSS 8112, pp 47–50
[5] The first tribe they met with were related to the chief Bennelong, who had died a short time before. ‘I happened,’ said Mr Leigh, ‘to have a portrait of this celebrated chieftain, which had been taken in England in my pocket at the time. I took it out, and showed it to them. When they looked upon his features, they were astonished, and wept aloud.’
“It is Bennellong!” they cried. “He it is! Bennellong!, he was our brother and our friend!” The scene was so affecting, that Mrs. Leigh and the missionary [William Walker], who were present, mingled their tears of sympathy with the Heathen. As soon as they had recovered from their grief, we entered into conversation with them, for this tribe can speak English. (Strachan (1873): 147)
[6] Wilton 1828: 137