Many Aborigines lived along the route. They sometimes received "injudicious treatment" from the Europeans—in the words of Governor George Gawler. Such treatment included sexual abuse of Aboriginal women and wanton shooting of Aborigines. That led to an escalating cycle of conflicts between Aborigines and Europeans. For example, drover Henry Inman lost all 5000 of his sheep, when Aborigines attacked his party, in April 1841. And in August 1841, drover William Robinson and his party, together with a policing force, killed at least 30 Aborigines, in the Rufus River massacre.