Editing Bennelong (section)

== Return to New South Wales ==
Bennelong arrived back in Sydney on 7 September 1795. A letter he had drafted in 1796 to Mr and Mrs Phillip, thanking Mrs Phillip for caring for him in England and asking for stockings and a handkerchief, is the first known text written in English by an Indigenous Australian.{{sfn|Brook|2001|pp=36–47}} 

Within a short time, he took to the bush, reappearing only occasionally to dine at the servants' table in [[Philip Gidley King|Governor King's residence]]. Many colonial reports complain of his refusal to rejoin "polished society".{{sfn|Smith|2009|p=19}} He participated in fighting contests over women and officiated at traditional ceremonies, including the last recorded [[initiation]] ceremony in Port Jackson in 1797.{{sfn|Karskens|2010|pp=422-423}} Bennelong also developed an [[Alcoholism|alcohol problem]] following his return to Australia.<ref name="Dark" />

===Spearing of a British soldier===
In December 1797, factional feuding between Bennelong's associates and their opponents resulted in Bennelong's colleague, Colebee, killing an Aboriginal man in a dishonourable fashion. Colebee was subsequently punished in public according to [[Indigenous Australian customary law|cultural law]], but when British soldiers interfered to protect Colebee, Bennelong became enraged. He threw a spear at the soldiers, severely wounding one after the weapon pierced right through the man's abdomen. Bennelong would have been instantly killed for this action had not the [[provost marshal]] Thomas Smyth, interceded and dragged Bennelong away. Bennelong was beaten on the head with the butt of a musket and incarcerated for a night. On being released, he threatened the white people and left the settlement.<ref name="collins">{{cite book |last1=Collins |first1=David |title=An Account of the English Colony of NSW Volume 2 |date=1802 |publisher=Cadell & Davies |location=London |url=https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks/e00011.html#chapter7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Turbet |first1=Peter |title=The First Frontier |date=2011 |publisher=Rosenberg |location=Dural |isbn=9781921719073}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=November 2024}}

After this incident, Bennelong became a disreputable person amongst the colonists, being described as "a most insolent and troublesome savage" whose retaliatory action of spearing a soldier had "rendered him more hateful than any of his countrymen". Bennelong also apparently expressed a desire "of spearing the governor whenever he saw him".<ref name="collins" />

===Leader of the Kissing Point clan===
Despite the disparaging view the colonists held toward Bennelong, by the early 1800s he had become the leader of a 100-strong group of Aboriginal people, remnants of the dispossessed Port Jackson clans, living on the north side of the [[Parramatta River]] to the west of [[Kissing Point, New South Wales|Kissing Point]] in [[Wallumettagal|Wallumedagal]] country. He was held in respect as an authoritative elder not only by his own group, but also by the remaining Kamaygal and [[Gweagal]] people of [[Botany Bay]].{{sfn|Smith|2009|p=22}}{{sfn|Karskens|2010|pp=423}}