[4] From 1841, Cowits was being brought up in the house of Dr Henry Landor,[5][c] 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.
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.
[8] 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”.
Cowan recorded in his diary and also wrote in 1868 about this:[15][16] Drummond sent a message to me from Toodyay, forty-five miles distant, by a native named Cowits.
One of these was that Drummond went drinking at the Kings Head Hotel with Cowits and Tommy the native mail carrier, and did not report or charge anyone.
[18] Also in April 1850, Cowits is recorded as having given evidence in a trial of three Aboriginal people for the murder of Yadupwert; all three were convicted and sentenced to death.
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,[k] 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:[21] 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.
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.
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.
[30][n] John Cowan and Cowits proceeded 97 kilometres (60 mi) beyond Smith’s station, and both had returned to York by mid October 1863.