16 Koories sign a petition asking for land: “We, the native blacks about Sydney, ask you if you would be kind enough to give us a piece of land at Jervis Bay, where we can make a home for ourselves and our people. We have been hunted about a good deal from one place to another, and we find it hard to get a living for ourselves and our children, but if we get a chance and some help from the government, we might in time get a living. As it is we find it very hard. Drink and a hard life are killing us off. White people ought to be very good to us for they got our good country for nothing. We don’t want them to pay us for it, but they ought to help us to live. We would like our boys and girls to learn to read and write like white children and we want boats and nets for fishing, so we can get money for our work and learn to live like Christians.” Goodall, Invasion to Embassy, pp. 82-83.
