Cowits

Cowits[lower-alpha 1] was Western Australia's first Aboriginal policeman, and was a member of a number of early exploratory expeditions.

Cowits and his brother, Souper

Cowits came from the York area. He was born around 1832.[1] He had a brother named Souper.[2]

In July 1834 Rivett Henry Bland[lower-alpha 2] was returning from Guildford when the following incident occurred:

Bland loaded his dray with flour [at Guildford] and set off for York, accompanied by a young boy named Souper. A short distance out of Guildford, the party was overtaken by about 30 blacks who Bland said “evinced the most perfect amity and shook hands with his party, indicative of a cordial good understanding” which understanding Mr Bland fully understood. The next thing was a cry from Souper that he had been speared. The spear thrown from a screening bush passed through Souper’s arm, grazing the lapel of his coat. Bland immediately fired into the bushes where he could hear a rustling sound. The ambushers promptly made off.[3]

In 1837, Souper assisted Arthur Trimmer to capture the aborigine who had speared William Knott near York in September 1836.[4][5]

Souper was sentenced to two years prison on Rottnest Island for stealing a sheep from Burges’ farm. His story was set out in a report to Benefit Societies in England, and published in the Perth Gazette in September 1844.[6] In that story, he gives an account of his time at Rottnest and says that his mother and father and uncles were all dead, but he had a brother in York.

Henry Landor

From about the age of about nine, if Lefroy's age estimate is correct, Cowits was brought up in the house of Dr Henry Landor,[7][lower-alpha 3] a settler, physician, scientist and explorer, and one of three brothers who came to the Swan River Colony in 1841 intending to make a fortune in six or seven years from sheep farming.[8] In the York census of 1842, Cowits is referred to as “working for settlers in the York (Avon) District”.[9]

Landor farmed in partnership with Nathan Elias Knight, leasing Bland and Trimmer's 4,000-acre farm in York.[lower-alpha 4] While there, Landor became concerned with the spread of disease among the Aborigines. It was his opinion that contact with white settlers had been the cause of the virulent diseases. He took it upon himself to gather as many Aborigines as he could to look after them properly, and he applied unsuccessfully for government money for a hospital, though received some funds for medical treatment.[10]

In January 1843, Landor and Henry Maxwell Lefroy explored east of “the Dale” (Beverley) and took Cowits with them “to shoot kangaroos, and to act as interpreter when our guides were unintelligible to us”.[11][lower-alpha 5]

Landor left the Colony in 1845.[lower-alpha 6]

Cowits begins to assist the police

Cowits assisted John Drummond, head of police in Toodyay.[12] When Walkinshaw Cowan was appointed Protector of Natives in York, Cowits conveyed a message to Cowan via Cowits. Cowits was about 16 at the time.[13] Cowan thought Cowits was very efficient and recommended that he be appointed as the first native assistant policeman in York.[14] Cowan recorded in his diary and also wrote in 1868 about this:

Drummond sent a message to me from Toodyay, forty-five miles distant, by a native named Cowits. This message was received and delivered to me between sunrise and sunset of the same day. Finding how efficiently this native acted with Mr Drummond, and seeing the great benefit that would attend the permanent appointment of native assitants to the police force, I recommended their appointment, and Governor Fitzgerald having agreed to it, Cowits was the first native police assistant in York. Another was appointed for Toodyay, and the employment of them became general throughout the colony. Cowits showed the greatest intelligence in the profession. His word was always to be depended upon, and his pluck and endurance were of the first description. When Mr Drummond left the police, soldiers were appointed in York and Toodyay as police constables. Entirely ignorant of the language, the police constables had to depend on Cowits, who from that time considered himself the head of the police.[15]

Cowan tries to get a house for Cowits

On 26 August 1850, Cowan wrote to the Governor on behalf of Cowits:[16]

The Native Policeman Cowit appears very anxious to obtain an allotment in the Town of York where he might have a house built and make a garden for himself. He has now got wife and I would be glad if His Excellency would assign him an allotment near to the Barracks, or opposite my house, in order to see what effect it might have on the Natives of the District. He has a number of brothers more or less employed by the settlers, one indeed has the sole charge of Mr Carter’s shop[lower-alpha 7], and the example of the Native Policeman established in a comfortable house might lead them to desire to be similarly settled and to abandon their roaming life. A nucleus might thus be formed around which a throng of the Aborigines might congregate”.

Cowan did not receive a reply to his letter on behalf of Cowits and wrote again on 28 October 1851:

Some time back I applied for an allotment on the Townsite of York for the Native Cowit, attached to the Mounted Police, to build a House and make a garden on, but have had no official reply to my letter. The upper part of the allotment on which the Barrack stables are built on is vacant, and as it is desirable that he should be near my house, it would be convenient His Excellency should give him permission to build on this and enclose it for a garden. At their leisure the Police Constable Bailey and Cowit might do a good deal towards building the house and enclosing the allotment. But I trust His Excellency will grant the assistance of a Ticket of Leave man to construct the walls.

Governor Fitzgerald responded:

There is no objection to allowing this native to erect a building on the allotment in question but he must be his own architect.[17]

In 1852, the prison cells were constructed in York on the area selected by Cowan for Cowits' house, being the first buildings of the current York Courthouse Complex.

Brothers

Apart from Souper, Cowits' brothers were Nurgap, Dide, Nortap and Billiup.[18] Souper also became an Aboriginal policeman, as did other brothers. Souper accidentally shot himself in the thigh in February 1853 in the course of arresting an Aboriginal escapee named Paddy.[19] In 1852, one brother was a servant of Mr Parker.[lower-alpha 8][20]

Further expeditions

In 1854, Cowits accompanied Assistant Surveyor Robert Austin on an expedition to “Shark’s Bay”, but Cowits became sick and had to stay at “Nombekine”.[21]

In 1863, Cowits accompanied Lefroy on his expedition east of York to the interior. Cowits was described by Lefroy as

well known to all the settlers of the York district as an intelligent, sensible, courageous and trustworthy native; an estimate of his character which my observation and experience in this expedition is fully confirmed.

one of the most intelligent and sensible natives that I ever knew”.[22]

The journal of the expedition frequently refers to Cowits’ active and important role in the exploration. Lefroy comments with amusement that Cowits always called their camp “home”.[23] The expedition also took with them a friend of Cowits, Tommy Windich.[24][lower-alpha 9] John Cowan and Cowits proceeded 60 miles beyond Smith’s station, and that both had returned to York by mid October 1863.[25]

Cowits also accompanied an expedition of Charles Cooke Hunt to the east of York in 1864, and again in July l866 (including Windich), and an expedition of McRae and Scholl to the Fortescue in August and September 1866.[26]

Death

Cowits died of influenza, aggravated by drinking, in April 1868.[27] Cowan said of him:

Off and on he has been in the employment of the Government for nearly twenty years. He was out in the early exploration with Dr Landor. He was attached to Mr Lefroy and Mr Hunt in their several expeditions, and also was engaged in many private ones. He has accompanied me in my periodical visits from York to the Williams River and back, and from York to Dundarragan (sic), taking in Gingin and Bindoon, a stretch of 300 miles and upwards. I always felt the greatest confidence in him, and greatly preferred him with me to one of the soldiers. In this native there was no vulgarity. He was one of nature’s gentlemen. There was no end to his spirit, cheerfulness and anecdote. Every spot had its legend or tale.[28]

Notes

1. also spelt Cowitch, Cowich, Kowich, Kowit, Cowitt or Cowid
2. who with Arthur Trimmer ran what is now called Balladong Farm
3. Because he was an orphan, if Souper’s account is correct.
4. Balladong Farm was purchased by Stephen Parker in 1848 and is still mostly intact.
5. From then on, many major expeditions into Western Australia’s inland areas started from the stables of Balladong Farm including Lefroy (1862), Hunt (1864) and Forrest (1869): Heritage Trail, York, Heritage Council, 1998, p.18.
6. He became a naval surgeon in South Africa, returned to England and then emigrated again to Canada to become one of Canada’s pre-eminent experts on insanity.
7. At Daliak, refer to advertisement for T & H Carter dated 9 August 1853 in Perth Gazette & Independent Journal of Politics and News, 12 August 1853, p.2.
8. presumably at Balladong Farm.
9. Tommy Windich was born around 1840 and was about 8 years younger than Cowits.

References

1. Estimate of HM Lefroy, see Inquirer and Commercial News 2 September 1863, p.2.
2. CSO 1848 V173 (2-56).
3. The Western Australian Journal, 5 July 1834, p.314; Tuckfield, Trevor, The Old York Road, 1975.
4. Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal 22 July 1837, p.941.
5. Swan River Guardian, 16 February 1837, p.73.
6. Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal, 7 September 1844, p.2.
7. Inquirer and Commercial News 2 September 1863, p.2, from Memoir and Journal of An Expedition by Henry Maxwell Lefroy.
8. Edward Landor: The Bushman, Chapter 20. The sheep were kept at the Dale (Beverley) Chapter 21.
9. From notes by Professor Marion Kickett.
10. John E Deacon: A Survey of the Historical Development of the Avon Valley with Particular Reference to York, Western Australia During the Years 1830–1850, UWA, 1948, p.118-119; CSC Inward Letters, 30 May 1842.
11. Inquirer 8 February 1843, p.2.
12. CSO 1848 V173 (2-56).
13. Inquirer and Commercial News, 2 September 1863, p.2; K. Epton: CC Hunt's 1864 Koolyanobbing Expedition, Hesperian Press, p.viii; Peter Cowan: A Colonial Experience: Swan River 1839–1888, From the Diary and Reports of Walkingshaw Cowan, Perth, Peter Cowan, 1978, pp.79–80.
14. Diary of Walkinshaw Cowan, quoted in Pamela Statham Drew and AM (Tony) Clack: York, Western Australia: A Documentary History, p.110
15. Inquirer and Commercial News, 15 July 1868, p.3.
16. CSO 1850 V199 202.
17. CSO 1851 V212 483.
18. CSO 1848 V173 (2-56).
19. Perth Gazette and Independent Journal of Politics and News, 25 February 1853, p.2.
20. CSO 1852 V230 (6-31).
21. Inquirer, 23 August, 1864, p.2.
22. Inquirer and Commercial News 30 September 1863, p.4.
23. Inquirer and Commercial News 30 September 1863, p.4.
24. Inquirer and Commercial News 9 September 1863, p.3.
25. Inquirer and Commercial News 28 October 1863, p.2.
26. Inquirer and Commercial News 25 November 1898, p.12.
27. CC Hunt’s 1864 Koolyanobbing Expedition edited by Ken Epton, Hesperian Press, p viii; Diary of Walkinshaw Cowan, from Pamela Statham Drew and AM (Tony) Clack: York, Western Australia: A Documentary History, p.110.
28. Inquirer and Commercial News, 15 July 1868, p.3; also in diary of Walkinshaw Cowan, from Pamela Statham Drew and AM (Tony) Clack: York, Western Australia: A Documentary History, p.110.