SECTION I.

E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Jane Hyland, and the Project Gutenberg

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THE

HISTORY OF TASMANIA:

by

JOHN WEST,

Minister of St. John Square Chapel, Launceston.

VOLUME II,

Tasmania:

Henry Dowling, Launceston.

1852.

Tasmania:

Printed By J. S. Waddell, Launceston

Facsimile edition 1966

CONTENTS.--VOL. II.

THE ABORIGINES.

SECTION I. p. 1.

Tasman's account of the natives--Cook's--Labillardiere's--Flinders'.

SECTION II. p. 6.

Conflict at Risdon--cruelty to natives--tribe visits Hobart

Town--child-stealing.

SECTION III. p. 12.

Causes of conflict--Musquito--execution of blacks--unavailing attempts

to civilise--ill-treatment by bushrangers--cruelty to the women--effects

of civilization--the food destroyed--abduction of the women--natives not

naturally cruel.

SECTION IV. p. 26.

Proclamation against them--forbidden to enter the colony--martial

law proclaimed--captures--escape--efforts of Mr. Batman--commandoes.

SECTION V. p. 32.

Murders committed by natives--instances of female courage--odd

expedients--difficulty of capture--humane efforts of Arthur--list

of atrocities.

SECTION VI. p. 44.

Conciliation proposed by Mr. Robinson--project to drive them into

Tasman's Peninsula--forces assembled--line of posts fixed--great

preparations--martial law proclaimed--advance--line crossed by

natives--Walpole's party--white man traced--plan unsuccessful.

SECTION VII. p. 55.

Mr. Robinson's efforts--his plan reasonable--well-timed--opinions of the

press--aborigines' committee--proposal to destroy the natives--Robinson

goes round the island--Sydney natives--captures--instances of

intrepidity--murder of Captain Thomas--Robinson takes the

murderers--rewards given to Mr. Robinson--further success.

SECTION VIII. p. 67.

Disposal of the natives--removal to Flinders' Island--opinions of Sir

John Pedder--Backhouse's visit--Robinson's management--removal to New

Holland--some executed.

SECTION IX. p. 71.

Rapid extinction--original number--cause of decline--clothing--change of

habits--restraint--bad water--sight of Van Diemen's Land--notion of

Strzelecki--brought back to Van Diemen's Land--Arthur's opinion of the

natives.

SECTION X. p. 76.

Origin of the natives--consanguinity--stature--general

appearance--families--infanticide--half-caste--tribes--huts--food--dress

and ornaments--arms and implements--corrobories and

dances--language--disposition--religious ideas--the

sick--funeral--conclusion--right of occupation--native rights--exposure

to robbers--necessity for protecting the whites--lamentable results of

colonization--inevitable.

TRANSPORTATION.

SECTION I. p. 101.

Exile--Roman custom--abjuring the realm--Spaniards the first who

transported--practice in the time of Elizabeth--James--Charles the

second--James the second--George the first--America--kidnapping--America

resists--numbers transported.

SECTION II. p. 106.

State of English gaols--Howard--labor bill.

SECTION III. p. 108.

Bentham's project--New South Wales occupied.

SECTION IV. p. 111.

Voyage--surgeon-superintendents--convict ship--treatment of

women--abuses--systems of management--Dr.

Reid--Cunningham--Browning--general safety of convict vessels--loss of

the _George the Third_--the _Neva_--the _Governor Phillip_.

SECTION V. p. 123.

Early difficulties of convict management--assignment established--disposal

of the prisoners.

SECTION VI. p. 129.

Origin of bushranging--Howe--his career.

SECTION VII. p. 138.

Habits of convict population--1824.

SECTION VIII. p. 143.

The colonies re-act on each other--N. S. Wales--state of

Parramatta--rocks--allurements of transportation--Macquarie's

views--wealth and claims of emancipists--Biggs's

views--pardons--emancipists form associations--petition

parliament--their alleged reformation--Bigge's commission--Macquarie's

recall--character--Rev. S. Marsden.

SECTION IX. p. 172.

Bigge's recommendations--his reports--Macquarie Harbor--emigration

proposed--demand for labor.

SECTION X. p. 186.

Land granted to settlers employing convicts--large immigration

of capitalists.

SECTION XI. p. 188.

Assignment established in America--debarkation of prisoners--their

identification--curious practice--law of assignment--transfer of

servants.

SECTION XII. p. 194.

Escapes from Macquarie Harbor--Brady--executions--state of

colony--causes of bushranging.

SECTION XIII. p. 214.

Macquarie Harbor--visit of Backhouse and Walker--seizure of the

_Cyprus_--_Frederic_--_Badger_.

SECTION XIV. p. 222.

Escape of prisoners--seek for China--curious narrative--the

_Young Lachlan_ seized--penalty of escape.

SECTION XV. p. 228.

Arthur's principles of penal government--number reclaimable--Arthur's

system--view of the real state of prisoners--representation of

society--of transportation--idea of New South Wales at home--writings of

Archbishop Whately--Mr. Secretary Stanley's "certain and severe"

system--tickets-of-leave.

SECTION XVI. p. 240.

Disposal of mechanics and specials--convict clerks--wives of

prisoners--Savary--Port Arthur--Boothe's system--Point Puer--young

convicts.

SECTION XVII. p. 248.

Views of ministers--certain severe system--conduct of

overseers--retaliation--executions--effects of immigration--colonial

protests--curious contrast.

SECTION XVIII. p. 255.

Convict system of New South Wales--Governor Bourke--corporal

punishment--Major Mudie--Watt--abuses--Burton's charge--its

effect--Molesworth's motion.

SECTION XIX. p. 263.

Franklin's appointment--Maconochie's commission--his reports--his

opinions--his system--board refute him--different sources of his

system--Dr. Henderson's scheme.

SECTION XX. p. 274.

Remarks on Maconochie's system--partly erroneous--useful results of

assignment--Franklin's opinions.

SECTION XXI. p. 278.

Sir Wm. Molesworth's committee--stoppage of transportation to New South

Wales--Archbishop Wheately's opinions--Bourke's

views--exaggerations--Captain Wood--remonstrance--new plan for Norfolk

Island--Maconochie appointed commandant--his mark system--the

birthday--the _Governor Phillip_ seized--failure of his system--opinions

of Sir G. Gipps--of Captain Forster.

SECTION XXII. p. 291.

Lord John Russell's plan--Sir Wm. Molesworth's proposal to anticipate

the land fund--Mr. Innes's pamphlet--resolutions of the Commons--Captain

Montagu's visit to England--assignment stopped--gangs

formed--evils--Franklin's representations.

SECTION XXIII. p. 294.

Lord Stanley's probation system--effects at Norfolk

Island--insurrection--murders--Major Childs--cruelties--Earl Grey's

orders.

SECTION XXIV. p. 305.

System in Van Diemen's Land--large arrivals--incompetent

officers--errors on which the system-was founded--Lord Stanley's

defiance of the settlers--re-emigration--hiring depots--representations

of Forster--Hampton--Boyd--Fry--crimes increase--laxity of

discipline--Mr. Bishton's views--North Australia--Mr. Latrobe--his

representations--ticket system.

SECTION XXV. p. 318.

Treatment of female prisoners--their transportation a great

evil--numbers--Sir G. Murray's scheme.

SECTION XXVI. p. 321.

Lord Stanley's directions for the disposal of women--Mrs.

Bowden--married female prisoners.

SECTION XXVII. p. 323.

Views of transportation often governed by interest--old

system--incompatible objects sought--frequent changes--every theory

contradicted by results--Arthur's opinion--progress from 1830--capital

expended--value of convict labor--sacrifices of the settlers--effects of

transportation--public works--numbers transported--character of

convicts--repetition of crimes--views of statesmen--moral effects of

transportation--cause of opposition to transportation.

CONCLUSION.

p. 339.

History of Tasmania a type of the Australasian world--early despotism

unavoidable--American and Australian colonists--the despotism moderated

by home associations--by the press--the union of the colonists--advances

of liberty at home--changes required--advantages of the connection with

Great Britain--its dangers--federal government--importance of political

influence--social state--wonderful prospects--resources--position--exports

--gold discovery--the happiness of the people in their own power.

ALPHABETICAL ACCOUNT OF THE CHIEF PLACES IN TASMANIA.

p. 355.

HISTORY OF TASMANIA.

THE ABORIGINES.

THE ABORIGINES.

SECTION I.

[1643.] At the era of discovery by Tasman, Van Diemen's Land was

inhabited. He heard, or thought he heard, the voices of people and the

sound of a trumpet: he noticed the recently cut notches, five feet

asunder, on the bark of the trees, and he saw the smoke of fires. He

inferred that they possessed some unusual method of climbing, or that

their stature was gigantic. In the sound, the colonist recognises the

vocal _cooey_ of the aborigines, and learns from the steps "to the

_birds' nests_," that they then hunted the opossum, and employed that

method of ascent, which, for agility and daring has never been

surpassed. Thus, during more than 150 years, this country was forgotten;

and such were the limits of European knowledge, when the expedition of

Cook was dispatched by Great Britain to explore this hemisphere. No

navigator brought larger views, and a temper more benevolent, to the

task of discovery. To some nations he opened the path of civilisation

and religion: to this race he was the harbinger of death.

[1773.] Furneaux, Captain Cook's second in command, first visited this

country. He saw the fires of the natives, ten miles off. They had left

their huts, formed but for a day, in which were fragments of fish,

baskets, and spears. The British deposited gun-flints, barrels, and

nails, in payment for the relics they removed; and they left Adventure

Bay, concluding that a most miserable race of mortals inhabited a

country capable of producing all the necessaries of life, "and the

finest climate in the world."

One year before, Captain Marian, a Frenchman, according to the authors

of his country, visited this island. The intercourse was hostile and

left traces of blood; and to this may be attributed the absence of the

natives when Furneaux appeared on the coast.

[1777.] The descriptions of Cook are founded on his own observations,

and are, on the whole, favorable to the natives. The English, while

wooding and watering, were surprised by the visit of eight men and a

boy. They were unarmed, except that one of them carried a stick, pointed

at the end. They were of middling stature, slender, and naked. On

different parts of their bodies were ridges, both straight and curved,

raised in the skin: the hair of the head and beard was smeared with red

ointment. They were indifferent to presents; they rejected bread, and

the flesh of the sea elephant, but accepted some birds, which they

signified their intention to eat. Cook prevailed on a native to throw

the stick at a mark thirty yards distant, but he failed after repeated

trial. The Otaheitian, Omai,[1] to exhibit his skill, fired off a

musket: at the report they fled, and so great was their fear, that they

dropped the axe and knives they had received.

A dead calm retarded the departure of the vessels next day, and the

parties sent ashore, were accompanied by Cook. About twenty natives soon

joined them: one, who was conspicuously deformed, amused them by the

drollery of his gestures, and the seeming humour of his speeches. Some,

wore three or four folds round the neck, made of fur; and round the

ancles a slip of the skin of kangaroo. Captain Cook returned to the

vessel, leaving Lieutenant King in charge: soon after, the women and

children arrived: they were introduced by the men to the English. The

children were thought pretty; of the beauty of the women the account was

not equally favorable. They rejected with disdain the presents and

freedoms of the officers, and were ordered by an elderly man to

retire--a command, to which they submitted with reluctance.

Dr. Anderson, the surgeon of the _Resolution_, describes the natives as

a mild, cheerful race, with an appearance less wild than is common to

savages. He considered them devoid of activity, genius, and

intelligence; their countenance, he delineates as plump and pleasing.

[1792.] But though later on the spot, assisted by the remarks of

previous observers, Labillardiere, of all, was the most assiduous and

exact. The naturalist of D'Entrecasteaux's expedition, he saw mankind

with the eye of a philosopher. He was pleased to examine the passions of

a race, least of all indebted to art; yet the prevailing notions of

Citizen Frenchmen, perhaps, gave him a bias, when estimating an

uncivilised people. He left Europe when the dreams of Rousseau were the

toys of the speculative, and before they became the phantoms of the

populace. His observations were, doubtlessly, correct; but his grouping

is artistic, and not without illusion. In his work, the Tasmanian blacks

appear in the most charming simplicity, harmless and content; an

extraordinary remnant of primitive innocence. At first they fled from

the French: an old woman they chased, took a leap which, if credible,

was terrific; she dashed over a precipice forty feet high, and was lost

among the rocks!

Labillardiere having landed, with several companions, proceeded towards

a lake; hearing human voices, they followed the direction of the sound;

the sudden cry of the natives induced them to return for their arms.

Then proceeding towards the woods, they met the tribe--the men and boys

in a semicircle, with the women and children behind. Labillardiere

offered a piece of biscuit, and held out his hand, which a savage chief

accepted, and smiling drew back one foot, and bowed with admirable

grace. He gave to the French a necklace, which he called _cantaride_,

formed of wilk shells, in exchange for articles of dress, a poll-axe,

and knives.

The proportions are worth remarking: in a party of forty, there were

eight men and seven women; of forty-eight, there were ten men and

fourteen women. Thus the females were most numerous, and the rising

generation nearly one-third more than the adults. They were generally

healthy; one only suffered from cutaneous disease, one from a defect of

vision, and several from slight wounds. It will be told, that a sad

reverse was afterwards their fate. The French, supposing they subsisted

on fish, expected to find leprosy, and concluded, not that other food

was procured, but that the doctors were mistaken. The women and girls

were the fishers: they plunged amidst sea weed, and raised the shell

fish from rocks by the spatula. They killed the cray fish before

landing. They could endure the water twice as long as Europeans. In the

intervals of diving they roasted their spoil, and warmed themselves

between two fires; sometimes feeding their children, or themselves. Thus

they continued alternately fishing and cooking, until all were

satisfied.

The men seemed indolent; nothing could persuade them to dive: they

sauntered about, with the right hand passed behind, and holding the left

fore-arm in its grasp. As the elders moved with gravity on the beach,

the girls romped and raced with the seamen--repelling, without

resenting, their rudeness. They were sprightly and voluble, and chatted

on without intermission. On one occasion they were missed, when, turning

to a tree, they were seen perched naked in the branches, about nine feet

from the ground: an interesting group, remarks the naturalist.

In the incidents of their social life, he saw their character. The

children cried! their mothers soothed them with those maternal caresses,

which art has not improved. They held them to be decorated by the

French, and placed them in their arms. A father corrected a little boy

for the ancient diversion of throwing stones at another, and the culprit

wept! A lad concealed a basket from a seaman, to amuse by his perplexity

and its dexterous replacement! The clothes given by the French they hung

on the bushes, but they valued the tin ware, the axes and saws. The

liberality of their visitors induced them to take more than was given;

but they seemed unconscious of offence, and whatever was required they

restored without reluctance. A girl, refusing the French a skin they

desired to possess, retreated to the woods: her friends were distressed

at her ill-nature. She, at last, complied. A pair of trousers were given

in exchange; she stood between two Frenchmen, leaning on the shoulder of

each, while they guided her errant legs into these novelties of Europe.

Their refusal of food, for themselves and children, was from distaste

rather than distrust; and they only discovered suspicion, when the

French penetrated the country. They posted a guard, to give notice of

any movement, and when an attempt was made, it was interrupted by the

loud screams of the women, and the entreaties of the men. They resisted

the intrusion with displeasure, and even menace.

On other occasions, they tended on the French with great kindness,

removing fallen branches from their path; and when the ground was

sloping and slippery, they walked beside them, and held them up.[2] They

rested every half mile, saying _medi_, "sit down;" then rising again,

after a few minutes' rest.

They themselves first saw the French: who, having travelled several

miles, lay down for the night near a brook: their fires betrayed them. A

native, next morning, pointed to their resting place: laid his head on

his hand, and closed his eyes. The good-nature of these people never

languished: twice, when the French lost their way, they directed them to

their ships. They welcomed their visits by raising their hands over

their heads, shouting and stamping on the ground. They greeted them as

often as their wanderings brought them in sight of the vessels, and with

the same friendly sounds bade them adieu.

[1798.] We owe to Captain Flinders and Dr. Bass the next description of

the natives. They were saluted by voices from the hills which border the

Derwent; one of these they ascended and saw a man, and two women, who,

catching up their baskets, scampered away. The man met them with

confidence: they tried, in vain, to converse with him in the dialects of

New Holland. They desired him to lead them to his hut; but he hesitated,

and moved slowly in the direction to which he had pointed. Consulting

his apparent feelings they desisted, and parted in friendship. This was

the first man they had seen in the island. His countenance, they

describe as unusually benignant; his features less negro-like than

common, and his manners frank and open. He exhibited neither curiosity

nor fear, nor did he seem attracted by any part of their dress, except

their cravats!

Mr. Bass made several expeditions into the country, attended only by his

dogs, and meeting no inhabitants he concluded that their numbers were

inconsiderable.

The accounts descriptive of native customs, by these authorities, are

full of errors; but they are the errors of inference, not of

observation: it is useless to repeat, in order to correct them. The

colonists have possessed better opportunities, and their acquaintance

with aboriginal habits supplies more accurate information, than could be

expected in the volumes of navigators.

Such as we have given, is their testimony to the social aspect of the

native character: nothing unfavorable is omitted. In a people so gentle

and affable, it is difficult to recognise the race afterwards covered

with sores, wasted by want and vice, or animated with revenge; and who

filled the colony with disgust and terror.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: This Otaheitian was returning from England to his native

country. In London, he was the lion of the day: he was introduced to the

first circles, and saw whatever in a great city could elevate his ideas:

his manners acquired the polish of society. Grenville Sharpe (he who

secured the decision that the soil of Britain gives freedom to the slave

that touches it) endeavoured to improve his moral sentiments. He pointed

out the practical injustice of polygamy. Omai replied, "one wife,

good--two wife, very good--three wife, very very good;" but he had not

misunderstood the argument. Taking three knives, he put two of them side

by side, and the other at a distance, and referring to a nobleman who

had left his wife for a mistress, said--"there Lord A., and there

Miss ----; and there Lady A. lie down and cry." (Life of G. Sharpe.)

But the moment he landed, he resumed all the customs of his countrymen,

and employed his knowledge of arms to destroy them. This was the only

trace of his civilisation which survived the voyage: he had seen regal

grandeur and mercantile power, but he retained his preference for the

habits of his then heathen race.]

[Footnote 2: "But these good savages took hold of our arms, and

supported us."]

SECTION II.

The party dispatched from Sydney, to take possession of the island, and

who landed in August, on their arrival at Risdon saw nothing of the

natives. A solitary savage, armed with a spear, afterwards entered the

camp, and was cordially greeted. He accepted the trinkets which they

offered, but he looked on the novelties scattered about without

betraying surprise. By his gestures they inferred that he discharged

them from their trespass. He then turned towards the woods, and when

they attempted to follow, he placed himself in the attitude of menace,

and poised his spear.

On the 3rd of May, 1804, during the absence of Lieutenant Bowen, the

officer in command, the first severe collision occurred. Five hundred

blacks, supposed to belong to the Oyster Bay tribe, gathered on the

hills which overlooked the camp: their presence occasioned alarm, and

the convicts and soldiers were drawn up to oppose them. A discharge of

fire-arms threw them into momentary panic, but they soon re-united. A

second, of ball cartridge, brought down many; the rest fled in terror,

and were pursued: it is conjectured that fifty fell.

The accounts of this affair differ greatly. By one party they are said

to have assailed a man and woman living in advance of the camp, and to

have burned their hut. William White, who saw them earliest, and gave

notice of their approach, declared they then exhibited no hostility, and

were not near the hut before the collision. They came down in a

semicircle, carrying waddies but not spears; a flock of kangaroo hemmed

in between them. The women and children attended them. They came

singing, and bearing branches of trees.

This curvilinear mode of marching was noticed by Labillardiere: they

probably assembled for a corrobory. "They looked at me," said the

witness, "with all their eye;" but they did not attempt to molest him.

For the British, it may be alleged that customs, afterwards understood,

were then less known. They were ignorant of the language and temper of

the blacks, and the preservation of the settlement was the first

military duty of Lieutenant Moore, who directed the fire. The action was

sudden, and perhaps no statement is exact. The natives were provoked, by

the occupation of their common place of resort, and it is no discredit

to their character, if even they attempted to expel the intruders.

A current report, respecting a conflict on the site of the hospital at

Hobart Town, received a curious exposition from the Rev. Mr. Knopwood.

It was a tradition, that a party of blacks assembled there, were

dispersed by a volley of grape shot, and that several fell. Human bones

and grape shot were found; but the reverend gentleman stated that the

bones were the remains of persons who came from India, and who were

buried there; and that the shot were accidentally dropped when the

stores, once kept there, were removed.

The consequences of these events were lamentable. The losses of the

natives, in their ordinary warfare, rarely extended beyond two or three;

but the havock of their new enemy awakened irremediable distrust. The

sorrows of a savage are transient: not so, his resentment. Every wrong

is new, until it is revenged; and there is no reason to suppose these

terrible sacrifices were ever forgotten.

In these collisions, no British subject had fallen; but in the

succeeding year (1805) a prisoner of the crown was speared, while

following a kangaroo; and two years after (1807) another, named Mundy,

met with a similar fate. The black had received presents from his hands,

and approaching him in pretended amity, trailed between his toes the

fatal spear. These facts are given to illustrate the cruelty of the

natives; and it may be presumed that, from the slaughter of Risdon, not

many could be added to the number. These were, however, the acts of

individuals, and without concert or much premeditation. It is

conjectured that the first European who perished was Mange, the surgeon

of the _Geographe_, in 1802. The attack was unprovoked, and it is said

unavenged.

The scarcity of food compelled the British to adopt a mode of life

somewhat resembling that of the aborigines. Germain, a marine, was

employed, from 1805 to 1810, in procuring kangaroo, which he hunted

with dogs: he but rarely carried a gun, slept on the ground in the

summer, and in the winter on the branches of trees. During his

wanderings, he often encountered the natives, but they offered no

violence; and he stated, as the result of his experience, that until

bushrangers excited them by cruelties, "there was no harm in them." The

daughter of a settler of 1804, was left sometimes in their care; their

kindness was among the recollections of her childhood.

The prisoners were dispersed. The government, unable to supply the

common necessaries of life, gave them license to forage: labor could not

be exacted, nor discipline enforced; and when circumstances altered, it

was difficult to recall the wanderers, or to recover authority so long

relaxed. In their intercourse with the natives, licentious and cruel

outlaws committed every species of atrocity which could be suffered by

the weak in contact with the wicked.

Lord Hobart, under whose auspices the colony was planted, directed the

Lieutenant-Governor to conciliate the natives: to preserve them from

oppression, and to encourage them to resort for protection to his

authority. Their natural rights were recognised, but unhappily no

provision was made to define their interest in the soil of their

country. Their migratory habits were unfavorable to official

supervision, and the success of humane suggestions depended on the

doubtful concurrence of ignorant cotters and wandering shepherds.

In 1810, an order was issued by Governor Collins, forcibly describing

the wrongs of the natives, and the revenge to which they were prompted.

They had pursued an officer, residing at Herdsman's Cove, and failing to

capture him they fired his premises. Two persons, George Getley and

William Russell, had disappeared: it was supposed, the victims of

resentment, awakened by the "abominable cruelties and murders" (such is

the language of Collins) perpetrated by the white people. This Russell

was himself notorious for skill in their torture--the subject of his

boast. The government declared that persons who wantonly fired on the

natives, or murdered them "in cold blood," should suffer the last

penalties of the law.[3]

The official treatment of the aborigines was not always judicious, or

calculated to impress the whites with the notion of civil equality. A

native, whom it was deemed desirable to detain, was fettered by Colonel

Collins. Notwithstanding, he escaped, and was seen long after with the

iron on his leg; nor can the punishments inflicted for crimes committed

against the blacks, unusual as those punishments were, be given in proof

that both races were valued alike. It is not, however, true, that

cruelty was always unpunished. A man was severely flogged for exposing

the ears of a boy he had mutilated; and another for cutting off the

little finger of a native, and using it as a tobacco stopper.[4]

The natives continued to shun the settlement for many years, but their

confidence was easily renewed by gentle treatment; it was, however,

capricious, or more probably it was soon shaken by insult, unknown to

all but themselves. It was desired by Colonel Davey to establish a

friendly intercourse, and he instructed the men to invite the tribes

they might encounter. A servant of this governor, employed at South Arm,

suddenly came on a tribe of thirty-six persons. A native woman, living

with a white, willingly went forth to communicate the wishes of the

Governor. They consented to visit Hobart Town, to which they were

transferred by water. Davey endeavoured to win their confidence, and

they remained about town for weeks. Having received some offence from

worthless Europeans, they retreated to their woods, and never returned.

This party attempted to reach Brune Island, and all were drowned, except

one woman.

Mr. Knopwood remembered that, in 1813 and 1814, the natives were fed at

his door. A number of children were forcibly taken from them, and they

disappeared from the camp.

Colonel Davey bears witness to the continuance of cruelty, which he

censured in the strongest language of indignation. Certain settlers

established a species of juvenile slavery: they followed up the mother,

retarded by the encumbrance of her children, until she was compelled in

her terror to leave them. Well might the Governor declare, that crime so

enormous had fixed a lasting stigma on the British name. These

provocations produced their usual consequences: by spearing cattle, and

other acts of hostility, a tribe at the Coal River revenged the robbery

of their children; surely, a slight retaliation for such incredible

wickedness.

An expedition to Macquarie Harbour, in 1817, discovered a tribe hitherto

unknown. They received the first visit with the usual friendliness--a

feeling which was, however, of short duration.

The Oyster Bay tribe are mentioned. They had begun to exhibit that

spirit of hostility which made them a terror to the colony, and armed

the entire community against them. They had speared one man, and killed

another; but the origin of this feeling is distinctly stated: a native

had been shot in an expedition to capture some aboriginal children.

Sorell prolongs the testimony that tells so mournfully in behalf of the

natives. He speaks of firing on the blacks as a _habit_; that

child-stealing was practised in the remoter districts; that settlers had

adopted groundless prejudices against the unfortunate people, as alike

incapable and unworthy of conciliation; that they offered no serious

discountenance to the cruelty of their servants. Thus several whites had

perished, and cattle had been speared, in revenge.[5] He reminded the

colonists that, as their flocks increased and the shepherds extended

their range, this obvious method of retaliation, then rarely adopted,

would multiply the loss both of property and human life. The danger was

proved by examples:--In 1819, a collision occurred; a man on each side

killed, and cattle and sheep were speared; but, the account continues,

the stock-keepers detained and maltreated the wife of a chief. Either on

this, or some such occasion, they were pursued by a party of the 48th

regiment, and seventeen were slain. He maintains very strenuously the

opinion of his predecessors, that the aborigines were not often the

aggressors, and that the injuries they inflicted were committed under

the impulse of recent provocation.

Sorell provided for the native children, except those committed to

private hands by their parents, or retained with the express sanction

of himself. There is no reason to doubt, that several of these were

orphans, and adopted and reared with the utmost humanity. Among the

expenses of the times, it is gratifying to observe one item, in the

rental of a house for the entertainment of the aborigines. The

sentiments of Governor Sorell are honorable to his character, and cannot

be doubted; but we are startled to find, that when charges, so solemnly

imputed, must have been founded upon particular facts, no equal

punishment seems to have overtaken the crimes proclaimed. The government

disapproved of oppression, but it was either too weak, or too indolent,

to visit the guilty.

Mr. Commissioner Bigge, who came to the colony 1820, in his voluminous

reports, rarely alludes to the natives of these seas. Those of Van

Diemen's Land engaged a very small share of his attention, and in two

brief paragraphs he describes their character, and disposes of their

claims. He remarks, that an act of unjustifiable hostility had awakened

their resentment, passes over an interval of sixteen years, and

expresses his conviction that no obstacle they could oppose to

colonisation, need excite alarm. It is probable, that his instructions

would but briefly touch on questions relating to these children of the

soil; but considering that the notices and orders of government must

have apprised him of their sufferings, he dismisses their case with

astonishing indifference.[6]

Several Wesleyan missionaries visited this island during the years 1821

and 1822. The natives attracted their notice: they described, with

brevity, their moral and social state; but they did not intimate the

smallest apprehension of their malice.

For several years reference to the aborigines is of rare occurrence. The

year preceding the first series of outrages, furnished no incident worth

contemporary record. We are reminded, however, that they survived, by an

act of equestrian audacity. Mr. Risely, looking down Allan Vale, saw a

naked girl dashing off at full speed, on a valuable horse, which she

bridled by the tether--the first of her race ever known to gallop.

Horsemen pursued her for two days, without overtaking her.

In those numerous publications, which precede 1824, the

aborigines are always represented as originally friendly, and only

dangerous when excited by cruelty. It was the boast of the times, that

the whole island could be crossed in safety by two persons armed with

muskets; and Curr, who wrote latest, does not even mention their

existence. It is difficult to imagine more decided proof, that at this

time the depredations of the blacks were neither numerous nor

sanguinary.

It is the general opinion, however, that the remonstrances of Sorell had

been attended with some success, and that the settlers and stock-keepers

were not unimpressed with his predictions of a more concerted and

continuous revenge; nor can we doubt that many persons of humanity even

exaggerated this peril, to restrain those brutal natures which are

sensible only of personal risk.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 3: "The natives, who have been rendered desperate by the

cruelties they have experienced from our people, have now begun to

distress us by attacking our cattle. Two were lately wounded by them at

Collins-vale; and three, it is reported, belonging to George Guest, have

been killed at Blackman's Bay. As this tribe of natives have hitherto

been considered friendly, the change in their conduct must be occasioned

by some outrage on our part, No account having been received up to this

time of William Russell and George Getley, there can be no doubt of the

miserable death they have been put to. This unfortunate man, Russell, is

a striking instance of divine agency, which has overtaken him at last,

and punished him by the hands of those very people who have suffered so

much from him; he being well known to have exercised his barbarous

disposition in murdering or torturing any who unfortunately came within

his reach."--_The Derwent Star, January 29th, 1810._]

[Footnote 4: Eye-witness.]

[Footnote 5: "ORDER.--From the conduct of the native people, when free

from any feeling of injury towards those who have held intercourse with

them, there is strong reason to hope, that they might be conciliated. On

the north-eastern coast, where boats occasionally touch, and at

Macquarie Harbour, where the natives have been lately seen, they have

been found inoffensive and peaceable, _and they are known to be equally

inoffensive, where the stock-keepers treat them with mildness_."--March

19, 1819.]

[Footnote 6: Dual, mentioned by Bigge, was transported from Sydney, for

chopping off the right arm of his wife: he said she should "make no more

_dough-boy_." The whites persuaded the natives, that the lighter hue of

their half-caste children resulted from the too free use of flour.]

SECTION III.

It would be useful to mankind, to trace the causes which led to that

long and disastrous conflict, in which so many lives were sacrificed,

and a people, all but a fading fragment, became extinct. Among those

mentioned by the government, was the admission into the colony of Sydney

blacks, and the ascendancy which one of them acquired.

The emigrants of 1822 remember a number of natives, who roamed about the

district, and were known as the "tame mob;" they were absconders from

different tribes, and separated from their chiefs. They often entered

the town and obtained bread, tobacco, and even rum from the inhabitants.

Their importunity was troublesome, and their appearance offensive: the

eruptive disease which covered their skin, especially on the legs, most

exposed to the heat of their fires, added to their squalor and

wretchedness. They are thus described by the Rev. Mr. Horton: he saw

them at Pittwater, crouching round their fires, and entirely naked--a

company of demoralised savages.

Musquito became their head. He was transported from Sydney to this

colony for the murder of a woman. For some time he acted as a

stock-keeper; he was then employed as a guide, in tracking the

bushrangers, having the keenness of vision, and almost canine instinct,

by which in the slightest traces he discovered a certain clue. For this

service, it is said, he was promised restoration to his country--a

promise, unhappily, forgotten. He was odious to the prisoners, who

taunted him as a _nose_ for the hangman; his resentful nature could not

brook the insult, and he struck down a convict who thus reviled him. He

was then taken into custody; in alarm, he escaped to the bush. The

muscular strength and superior skill of this man were supposed to have

recommended him to the natives as their chief. He was seen, by

Robertson, to cut off the head of a pigeon with a stick, while flying.

Musquito answered Mr. Horton with intelligence, when that gentleman

represented the misery of a vagrant life; he said that he should prefer

to live like the white man, tilling the ground, but that none of his

companions would join him. Before he united with the natives, he was

accustomed to pursue them with all the virulence of a savage. In company

with a convict servant he would face the darkness, and go out "to storm

the huts" he had seen in the day. On one such occasion, in spite of

prohibitions, he set out at night; but the natives had observed him, and

decamped, leaving behind them large fires to deceive their enemy.

Returning at midnight, he was mistaken for a Tasmanian black; and, but

for discovery at the moment, would have suffered the fate he deserved.

It was said by Mr. G. Robertson, that the first murders of Musquito were

committed in self defence. He associated with the Oyster Bay tribe, and

his power over them was great: he even prevailed on them to perform some

rude agricultural labor. He had high notions of his own worth: he would

stalk into the cottages of the settlers, seat himself with great

dignity: his followers, to the number of one or two hundred, patiently

awaiting his signal to approach.

As the influence of Musquito enlarged, it became more pernicious. He not

only misled his immediate followers, but propagated his spirit. Deeds of

great enormity were committed at his direction; several by his own hand.

He drew a man from his house at Pittwater, by the _cooey_, and then

speared him to death. A servant of Mr. Cassidy, and another of Mr.

Evans, met a similar fate. In concert with Tom, a Tasmanian black, he

became a terror to the colony. Their parties moved in large bodies, and

acted under a common impulse. In carrying on their depredations, their

tactics aimed at military unity and skill. A party of sixty appeared

before the premises of Mr. Hobbs, at the Eastern Marshes (1824): they

watched the servants deliver their fire, and before they could reload

their muskets, they rushed upon them, and by weight of numbers drove

them off the ground. A few days after, the natives again appeared: a

small party came forward first, and reconnoitred; then returning to a

hill, they made signals to a body of a hundred and fifty, in an opposite

direction. Both divisions bore down on the establishment. The English

were now well armed, and maintained the post for five hours; but escaped

when they saw the natives prepare to surround the dwelling with fire.

Overcome with terror, for several days they refused to return, and the

property was left to its fate. Mr. Hobbs was specially unfortunate: his

house lay in the track, both of the natives and bushrangers, and thrice

in one season his premises were pillaged.

The arrest of Musquito became an object of importance, and Colonel

Arthur, then Governor, offered a reward for his capture. Teague, an

aboriginal boy, brought up by Dr. Luttrel, was dispatched with two

constables. They overtook Musquito at Oyster Bay: he resisted, but was

shot in the groin, and being unarmed was captured, with two women, and

conveyed to Hobart town.

It was resolved to bring him to justice. By the care of Dr. Scott he was

cured, and transferred from the hospital to gaol. Black Tom was

subsequently taken, and both were tried for the murder of William

Holyhoak and Patrick M'Arthur. Of the last of these offences the

Tasmanian was found guilty, but Musquito was convicted of both.

Marmoa, an Otaheitian, was killed with Holyhoak: Musquito had lingered

in their neighbourhood, and watched their movements for days; he had

visited their hut, and received provisions from their hands; but on the

morning of the murder he purloined the guns and removed the dogs. Mamoa

fell instantly; but the Englishman endured the misery of long pursuit

and several wounds, and dropped at last, pierced through and through

with spears.

A murder, ascribed to black Tom, for which he was not put on trial,

displayed extraordinary perfidy. This black went to the residence of Mr.

Osborne, of Jericho, demanding bread. His appearance excited great

alarm: Mrs. Osborne was there alone; he, however, left her uninjured.

Next morning her husband ran into the house, exclaiming, "the hill is

covered with savages." He stood at the door on guard, and endeavoured to

soothe them. "What do you want--are you hungry?" "Yes, white man," said

Tom. Mrs. Osborne requested them to put down their spears. Tom

consented, if the gun were laid aside: this was done. On returning the

second time with food, Osborne missed his musket, and then said, "I am a

dead man." Two blacks came forward, and, as if in friendship, each took

him by the hand. At that moment, a savage behind him thrust a spear

through his back; he uttered a loud shriek, sprang convulsively forward,

and fell dead!

Such were the men who, in February, 1825, suffered death with six

European criminals. They were unassisted by counsel, and perhaps the

evidence was not fully understood by them. It is useless, however, to

extenuate their treachery: and their execution, whether politic or not,

can scarcely be accounted unjust. But, unhappily, these deeds of

barbarity were not left to the vengeance of the law. The colonists, of

higher grades, preserved the distinction between the guilty and the

innocent, which it is the object of public trials to establish; but the

lower orders, and especially the dissolute and the worthless, justified

hatred to the race, and finally, systematic massacre by the individual

acts of such men as Musquito.

It is instructive, if not amusing, to observe how nicely the theory of

some philosophers and the sentiments of the lowest European robbers,

meet together; how, what one predicts, the other executes. The supposed

eternal laws of nature are accomplished by the wild license of an

English savage. It became the serious conviction of stockmen, that

blacks are brutes, only of a more cunning and dangerous order--an

impression which has long ceased in this colony, but which still

flourishes in Australia Felix.

Bent, the proprietor of the only newspaper published at that time,

referring to the outrages of the hostile blacks, seemed to dread these

doctrines. With great consideration he detaches Musquito's guilt from

the tribes in general: a distinction by no means trite or universally

recognised. "Until corrupted by the Sydney natives they were," he

asserts, "the most peaceable race in existence." These suggestions

deserve more praise than the highest literary skill.

The disposition to conciliate the blacks eventually contributed to the

same disastrous consequences. A tribe, of sixty, appeared in Hobart

Town, November, 1824: they came in a peaceable manner, their visit was

unexpected, and its cause unknown. On the first notice of their

approach, the Governor went forth to meet them: he assigned three places

for their fires, supplied them with food and blankets, and appointed

constables to protect them. They departed suddenly, and on their journey

attempted to spear a white man. Whether the abrupt retreat resulted

from caprice or distrust, it did not prevent a similar visit to

Launceston in the following December. There were 200 in this party. When

crossing Patterson's Plains they were wantonly fired on by the whites,

and in their return some of their women were treated with indescribable

brutality.[7] When they reached the Lake River, two sawyers, who had

never before suffered molestation, were wounded by their spears. The

recent cruelty they had experienced fully accounted for their rage.

It was the anxious desire of the Governor to establish a native

institution, deriving its funds partly from the public purse and partly

from private benevolence. A code was prepared by the Rev. Messrs.

Bedford and Mansfield; and a public meeting held in the church of St.

David, the Governor presiding, approved the regulations; but at that

time the colony was distracted by the ravages of robbers, and its

financial resources were depressed: and the prevailing opinion that

civilisation was impossible, still further embarrassed the project, and

confined the hopes of the most sanguine to the rising generation. Mr.

Mansfield rested his expectation rather on the power of God than upon

human probabilities.

The civilisation of a barbarous people is, perhaps, impossible, in the

presence of organised communities of white men. The contrast is too

great, and the points of contact too numerous and irritating. Never have

colonists civilised aborigines; but the failure is easily explained,

without recourse to egotistical superstition, that the white man's

shadow is, to men of every other hue, by law of Heaven, the shadow of

death.

The children of aborigines, adopted by the whites, when they grew to

maturity, were drawn to the woods, and resumed the habits of their

kindred. A black girl, trained in Launceston, thus allured, laid aside

her clothing, which she had worn nearly from infancy. It was thus with

many: a sense of inferiority to the youth about them, united with the

mysterious interest which every heart feels in kindred sympathies, is

sufficient to account for these relapses. Examples will crowd upon the

memory of the reader, in which the polish and caresses of the British

capital did not disqualify the savage to re-enter with zest on the

barbarous pursuits of his forefathers.

The desire for sugar, bread, and blankets, could only be regularly

gratified by an abandonment of migratory habits.

When remote from the government stores, the natives still coveted what

they could not obtain, but as spoil. They had learned to prefer articles

of steel to the crystal, and they acquired an imperfect mastery of

fire-arms. Some were, however, exceedingly expert; a chief, conciliated

by Robinson, brought down an eagle hawk, with all the airs of a

practised sportsman. Thus their untutored nature could not resist the

temptation created by new wants: they watched the hut of the

stock-keeper, which they stripped during his absence; till, growing more

daring, they disregarded his presence; and even the populous districts,

and establishments of considerable force, were not safe from their

depredations.

At the time when they first became formidable, armed bushrangers scoured

the colony; sometimes the allies of the natives, much oftener their

oppressors.[8] Outlaws themselves, they inculcated the arts of violence.

The improved caution and cunning of the natives, so often noticed by the

government, were ascribed, in no small degree, to the treacherous

lessons of degraded Europeans. But when the bushranger did not employ

these people as the instrument of his designs, by fear or cruelty, often

he destroyed them: thus Lemon and Brown set up the natives as marks to

fire at. The irritated savage confounded the armed, though unoffending

stock-keeper, with his marauding countrymen, and missing the object of

his premeditated vengeance, speared the first substitute he encountered.

This conclusion is amply supported by facts. The common principles which

affect the minds of nations towards each other; the reprisals, which are

vindicated in civilised war, only differ in circumstance. A thousand

injuries, never recorded, if stated in a connexion with these results,

would enable us to see how often the harmless settler was sacrificed to

passions, provoked by his robber countrymen.

In 1826, a remarkable instance was brought under the notice of

government. Dunne, who at length met the punishment he deserved, seized

a woman, and forced her to the hut of Mr. Thompson, on the Shannon,

where he detained her with violence; she, however, escaped to her

people, and roused them to avenge her. Dunne, next morning, suddenly

found himself in their midst: his musket protected him, and after hours

of such torture as his conscience and fears might inflict, he managed to

get off. On the following day, the woman led her tribe, vociferating

threats, to the hut in which she had been maltreated, where they

massacred James Scott, a man with whom they had lived in friendship for

many years, and who, when warned a few days before to be on his guard,

smiled at the notion of danger.

The treatment of some of these women was such, as no one can be expected

to credit, until prepared by extensive acquaintance with human

depravation. A monster boasted that, having captured a native woman,

whose husband he had killed, he strung the bleeding head to her neck,

and drove her before him as his prize. Had not this fact been guaranteed

by formal enquiry, it could only have been admitted as a specimen of

brutal gasconade, and in proof of how much a cruel fancy could exceed

the actual guilt of mankind. It sometimes happened, that an unfortunate

servant would receive the spear intended for his predecessor in the same

employ, to whom it was justly due. Among the whites, there were men

distinguished for the malicious vigour with which they tracked and

murdered the native people. A lad, on his arrival from England, was sent

into the interior, and warned never to wander from his dwelling; but he

forgot the danger he did not see, and straying a short distance, he was

murdered. He had never injured his destroyers; but then he lived on the

lands just before in charge of a villain, and who, like a Roman warrior,

took his name of "Abyssinian Tom," from the locality of his exploits.

The infliction of judicial punishments, interrupted the friendly

intercourse of the tribe that visited Hobart Town, and who were

encouraged to resort to Kangaroo Point, where huts were erected for

their use. The arrest of two of their number filled them with

apprehension. The aborigines, Jack and Dick, were executed on the 16th

September, 1826, an event which terminated all present hope of amicable

relations. The murder of a shepherd at Oyster Bay, Great Swan Port, was

proved against them by the evidence of convict stock-keepers; a topic of

contemporary complaint: but the courts regularly relied on the same

class of witnesses, and in this case there is no special reason for

suspicion. The fact was not questioned: the culprits had been treated

with kindness by the government, and efforts had been made by Colonel

Arthur to acquaint them with the obligations of British subjects. He

asserts that, by personal interviews, he was fully convinced that they

understood the benevolent views of the crown. One of these blacks was so

far civilised, as to be admitted to the sacrament of the English church.

His companion was a youth, and denied his guilt. The old black was

carried to the scaffold, and resisted the execution: the younger,

disentangled his arms, and struggled for his life. It was, indeed, a

melancholy spectacle. Successive Governors had witnessed crimes against

their race, atrocious and unpunished: hundreds had fallen unavenged by

that public justice which treated them as murderers.

On the day of their execution, the Governor addressed the colony. He

vindicated this act of severity, as requisite to intimidate the blacks;

but he solemnly pledged his government to equal justice, and that the

law should take its course on individuals of either race, who might

violate "the common law of mankind."

The discussions which followed, proved the division of public opinion on

the propriety of this measure. It was not clear, to many, that the

natives were legally accountable, or that their punishment was just.

Grotius and Vattel were quoted; writers, who have discoursed upon the

relations of man, and distinguished the felon from the enemy. It was,

however, simply a question between judicial and private vengeance: the

interference of the court could alone prevent a general proscription. In

the heat of anger, no provocation would be weighed--no palliative

admitted; and the innocent would perish with the guilty.[9]

The impression on the aborigines was unfavorable: they saw only the

death of an unfortunate countryman, and, perhaps, the last act of the

white man's warfare. Its moral influence was not great on either race:

it neither softened the resentment of the British, nor intimidated the

blacks: it was a mere variety in the forms of destruction. The brother

of one of these men led the Oyster Bay tribe, and prompted the murders

which, in 1830, filled the colony with wailing.

The rapid colonisation of the island from 1821 to 1824, and the

diffusion of settlers and servants through districts hitherto

unlocated, added to the irritation of the natives, and multiplied the

agents of destruction. Land unfenced, and flocks and herds moving on

hill and dale, left the motions of the native hunters free; but hedges

and homesteads were signals which even the least rationality could not

fail to understand, and on every re-appearance the natives found some

favorite spot surrounded by new enclosures, and no longer theirs.

The proclamations of the government assumed the fixed relations of the

different tribes to particular districts. Oyster Bay and the Big River

were deemed sufficiently precise definitions of those tribes, exposed to

public jealousy and prosecution. It is true, they had no permanent

villages, and accordingly no individual property in land; but the

boundaries of each horde were known, and trespass was a declaration of

war.

The English, of modern times, will not comprehend joint ownership,

notwithstanding the once "common" property of the nation has been only

lately distributed by law. The rights of the aborigines were never

recognised by the crown; yet it is not less certain that they saw with

intelligence the progress of occupation, and felt that the gradual

alienation of their hunting grounds implied their expulsion and

extinction.

Native topography is, indeed, limited; but it is exact. Every mountain,

valley, and river, is distinguished and named. The English have often

been indebted to these primitive surveyors, for guidance through the

forests which they came to divide. The tribes took up their periodical

stations, and moved with intervals so regular, that their migrations

were anticipated, as well as the season of their return. The person

employed in their pursuit, by the aid of his native allies, was able to

predict at what period and place he should find a tribe, the object of

his mission; and though months intervened, he found them in the valley,

and at the time he had foretold. Expectations of this sort could only be

justified by the regularity of their movements, and the exact knowledge

of the guides.[10] Nor were they indifferent to the charms of a native

land. A visitor enquired of a native woman at Flinders, whether she

preferred that place to several others mentioned, where she had lived at

times, and she answered with indifference; but when, to test her

attachment to her early haunts, the querist said, "and not Ringarooma?"

she exclaimed, with touching animation, "Oh yes! Ringarooma!

Ringarooma!"

A chief accompanied the commandant to Launceston in 1847. At his own

earnest request, he was taken to see the Cataract Basin of the South

Esk, a river which foams and dashes through a narrow channel of

precipitous rocks, until a wider space affords it tranquillity. It was a

station of his people; precisely the kind of spot which gypsies, on the

"business of Egypt," would choose for their tents. As he drew nigh, his

excitement was intense: he leaped from rock to rock, with the gestures

and exclamations of delight. So powerful were his emotions, that the lad

with him became alarmed, lest the associations of the scene should

destroy the discipline of twelve years exile: but the woods were silent:

he heard no voice save his own, and he returned pensively with his young

companion. These examples shew, that the native was not an indifferent

spectator of that rapid occupation, which must have appeared prodigious

to scattered tribes.

A further cause of exasperation, consequent on the preceding, was the

destruction of game. The extent to which it was carried was enormous.

The skin of the kangaroo sold for a few pence, was the perquisite of the

stock-keepers, and long the chief object of their daily enterprise.

Their rugs, their clothing, were composed often of these spoils, and the

pursuit did not slacken until the persecuted animal retired. Jeffery,

describing the field sports of his day (1810), tells us that flocks of

emu and kangaroo were found at short intervals, and that a cart might be

loaded with their flesh by the sport of a morning; but he remained long

enough, to observe a sensible diminution, and proposed limitations by

law to the havoc of the whites; an idea, subsequently entertained by the

_Aborigines' Committee_, which sat in 1830. The dogs, trained to hunt

the kangaroo, were at first serviceable to the natives, but they often

increased the destruction by their spontaneous ravening. It is observed

by a writer of 1827, that forty or fifty would be found within short

distances, run down by the dogs, and left to rot.

Thus the food, on which the people depended for subsistence, was

diminished, and the temptation to rob the settlers was regularly

augmented at every return. Sir George Arthur, in his letter to the

Secretary of State in 1828, notices this topic as a complaint of the

natives against the intrusion of the whites, and seems to admit its

truth; but three years after, he affirms that game was still abundant in

the districts appointed for the tribes. It is, however, to be observed,

that he wrote when the blacks, as a people, were dead; and when the high

value of labor had withdrawn many from the chase; and that he implies a

local, rather than a pervading abundance. As the natives passed through

the settled districts to the sea shore, if numerous, their requirements

would be great; but, by scattering themselves abroad, to obtain a

sufficiency, their dangers would increase, and every evening they would

muster fewer than in the morning.[11]

Among the causes of enmity, referred to by writers of every period, the

abduction of the women by sealers and others, is noticed the earliest,

and continued to the last. The sealers were, chiefly, either convicts

whose sentences had expired, or such as contrived to escape. In the

islands of the Straits, they indulged the boundless license of their

passions, blending the professions of the petty pirate and the

fisherman. A chain of rocks enabled them to rove to a considerable

distance, picking up the refuse of the sea, and feeding on the aquatic

birds which frequented the islets in great abundance. Many, however,

perished, with the frail boats to which they committed their lives.

Their first stage was known as "Clarke's Island;" from thence they made

"Preservation Island:" a succession of rocks formed land marks in their

course to New Holland, from which many found their way to Kangaroo

Island, the Ultima Thule of their geography. In these places, they

engaged in sealing; the produce of which they sold to the small craft

trading among them, for guns, spirits, and tobacco. When the season was

over, they retired to the interior, and passed their days in alternate

slumber and intoxication.

So secure were some of these retreats, that they justified the

apprehension, that formidable pirates would be trained up in their

lawless and licentious communities. They were perpetually disturbed by

violence. One old man spent thirteen years on an island, alone. He

cultivated a plot of ground, and sold the produce to the boats which

floated about. Several times robbed of his crops and clothing, by these

contemptible spoilers, he, at last, was compelled to renounce his rude

independence. In King's Island, families sat down; but Colonel Arthur,

sensible of the great danger of these associations, sent the harbour

master to the Straits, who arrested absconders, and released native

women from slavery.

By these men, the black women and female children were captured in

excursions to this island, and were liable to the ill-treatment, which

might be expected from men who regarded them with passion and contempt.

They were employed as slaves on some islands, to strip the mutton bird,

and in whatever irksome labor was within their capacity. It is said that

one man (Harrison), had fourteen women in his service, whom he flogged

with military severity, and some of whom he put to death.

Boatswain, an aged woman, stolen in her youth, related the manner of her

abduction. She was induced to enter a boat, without suspicion of the

design, when her captors rowed away, and confined her on an island in

the Straits. She told her treatment, in broken English and expressive

pantomime; first spreading forth her hands, as if fastened to the wall;

then, with loud cries, gradually becoming fainter, she fell down into a

pretended swoon: thus describing the mode and severity of her torture.

These men acquired an extraordinary dominion over the fears of the

women, sufficient to induce them to dissemble in the presence of

strangers. Backhouse relates, that two girls, Jumbo and Jackey,

pretended, while in the company of their masters, either by silence, or

feigned anger, to resent the proposal to take them away; but when they

were assured that their liberty would be protected, they embraced it

with joy.

Jeffreys, whose narrative is tinged with romance, depicts the fondness

and contentment of the women in lively colors. Glad to escape the

tyranny of their countrymen, they displayed to these amiable white men,

warm, though jealous, affection;--whose occasional absence they

regretted, and for whose speedy return they invoked some imaginary deity

in plaintive melodies! It is not improbable, that they were sensible of

kindness, but it is very certain that this was not their ordinary lot.

Unanimous testimony permits no doubt that they experienced the severity,

which men of low intellect, and of fierce and capricious passions,

inflict on women of an inferior race.

The sealers, when they came to the main land, rarely brought their

captives: they were in danger of losing them. Their fickleness or

revenge, was sometimes fatal: in 1824, a party, engaged in an expedition

to entice the girls of a tribe, took with them one who had a half-caste

infant, and sent her on shore as a decoy. She returned, bringing

promises from her countrywomen to appear the following day; but at that

time the blacks descended in great force, and all the adventurers,

except one, were slain.

The sealers, by the names they gave the women, which were rarely

feminine, and were sometimes ludicrously absurd, indicated the notions

which prevailed. However slight their apparent importance, it has been

justly observed, they betray the low civilisation of the persons who

invented, and the degraded condition of those who bore them.

The intercourse of the stockmen was generally confined to the periods of

migration: sometimes with the connivance, at others, the express consent

of the men; but the detention was often compulsory. Dr. Ross found a

stock-keeper seated on a fallen tree, exhausted with hunger. He had

chained a woman to a log, "to tame her;" but she escaped, with his only

shirt, which he had bestowed in his fondness. For five hours he had

pursued her, catching glimpses of his shirt through the breaks of the

forest: at last, this signal disappeared; and having lost his way for

two days, he was in danger of starvation.

Such were the various causes, which combined first to alarm, and then to

goad into madness, this unhappy people. They were troublesome, and were

repelled. Wantonly wounded and shot down, they retaliated. Fresh wrongs

produced their kind: at length, every white man was a _guerilla_, and

every black an assassin. The original temper of both parties was

changed. Dread detestation and treachery embittered every mind: even the

humane yielded to the general sentiment. It became a question, which

race should perish, and every man's verdict was in favor of his own.

From this, however, it is not to be inferred, that the natives were

originally treacherous and cruel. It was stated by the Aborigines'

Committee, in the middle of the conflict, that such dispositions were

the substratum of their character, which, though disguised, only waited

for time and opportunity. The colonists in general, at last, believed

them to delight in blood, by an innate cruelty of temper--to find

pleasure in the terrors they excited, and the convulsive agonies of the

dying; but the records of mankind are full of such moral

transformations. The Indians of America, we are informed by Dr. Dwight,

became corrupt, to a degree "enormous and dreadful: full of malice,

cruelty, and murders." But he himself, elsewhere remarks, that within

his observation white men, commonly sober, moral, and orderly, on

joining a mob, lost every one of these qualities; and, in a few hours of

excitement, exhibited more vice than he had witnessed for years. The

causes of degeneracy are not examined, when its mischief is suffered.

Sir George Arthur, in his despatches, asserted that the natives were,

and had been, "a most treacherous race,"--a view, which the Committee

adopted: these opinions were afterwards greatly modified; nor would it

be just to admit their truth, without stronger evidence than history

affords. Among the aborigines, some were distinguished for ferocity:

such was a woman who led on the Big River tribe, and who was called by

Mr. Robinson, the "Amazon." A few were guilty of the crimes imputed to

the race: and who were often their oppressors, rather than their

avengers.

Though individuals, undoubtedly, displayed the vices imputed, who will

condemn the natural disposition of a people for actions committed at

lone intervals, by solitary assassins and marauders? The English alone

could preserve a record of the past, and after a careful examination no

other conclusion is possible, than that whoever continued acts of

ferocity and cruelty, the impulse and the example were European.

Dr. Ross, arriving in 1822, passed into the interior, and settled on a

farm. He was soon visited by the natives, whom he entertained with the

consideration due to their ignorance and their rights. They had kindled

their fires in perilous contiguity, and the flames threatened to destroy

his crops. He pointed out his danger, and they instantly combined to

extinguish the flame, and transferred their temporary resting place to a

spot, from which no harm could be communicated. Dr. Ross stood by, and

watched their cookery, and they offered him a part of their food: he

suffered himself to be amused with their loud merriment, and their

evolutions in the water. They often renewed their visits, and rather

contributed to his safety, by assisting in the pursuit of white robbers:

and even when they inflicted dreadful outrages on many others, provoked

by extraordinary mal-treatment, they still preserved their kindness for

this amiable man, until they were finally removed to Flinders' Island.

These incidents were not uncommon:--the cross lights, which seem to

exhibit variously the character of a race, but in reality identify the

family of man. To judge of a people, during a season of extraordinary

excitement, must tend to erroneous conclusions: thus, when we turn to

contemporary writings, we are amazed at the ferocity of expression--the

sweeping and sanguinary appeals, by which they are disfigured; but this

astonishment is corrected, when we examine the incidents they record,

and recollect how little qualified men are to reason, when they are

doomed to suffer. So with the native: the delirium of rage, and the

taste for blood, had been produced by causes of long operation; and he

appeared to be a fiend full of mischief and spite, marked out by his

crimes for utter extinction.[12]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 7: The ruffians who maltreated them were, indeed, punished

with 25 lashes!]

[Footnote 8: Whether from policy or humanity, Michael Howe formed an

exception. He did not allow them to be molested, except "in battle;" and

he flogged with the _cat_ one of his comrades, who had broken "the

articles," by wantonly wounding a native.--Stated by a companion.]

[Footnote 9: In sentencing Rodger, at Port Phillip, 1842, Judge Willis

told him that he had been tried by an intelligent jury; that he could

have challenged any of them; that to say he had never been in a court of

justice before, was a common plea with white malefactors, and that he

knew as much on the subject as many immigrants. When he was sentenced,

the Rev. Mr. Hurst explained to him, that he would be hanged! This was

requisite, as the judge's address was utterly unintelligible.]

[Footnote 10: "The natives are tenacious of their hunting grounds, as

the settlers are of their farms, and are displeased when they find

houses upon them. This caused the attack of live stock and huts."--_R.

O'Connor, Esq._

"When a chart of Tasmania is presented to them, it seems only to embody

the form and dimensions, which their own fancy enabled them to

sketch."--_Tasmanian Journal--Rev. T. Dove._

"It was a great oversight, that a treaty was not made with the natives;

_that_ _feeling of injustice, which I am persuaded they have always

entertained_, would have then had no existence."--_Sir George Arthur's

Despatch to Lord Glenelg_, 1835.]

[Footnote 11: "The extension of the settled districts upon their usual

hunting grounds, has either driven them entirely from them, or removed

the kangaroo. They are quite disappointed of their usual supplies. We

have never known them to eat the flesh of either sheep or

cattle."--_Courier_, 1830.

The extent of their consumption, might be inferred from the increase

after their exit. To preserve their crops, some settlers were obliged to

employ hunters. In 1831, from Bothwell only, 100,000 skins were sent to

Hobart Town, bearing a value of L2,000.]

SECTION IV.

The violence of the natives seemed to require some extraordinary means

for its repression, and (in November, 1826) it was resolved to capture

the leaders, by the usual methods of arrest. The magistrates were

authorised, by the Governor, when danger was feared, to drive them to a

safe distance by force: to repress their attempts at disturbance, by

treating them as rioters; to seize those charged with felonies, whether

known by marks or by names, or by the denomination of their tribe; and

any person was authorised to raise the neighbourhood, on witnessing the

commission of a crime. This notice was renewed the following year, and

the military stationed in the interior, were instructed to render such

assistance as might be necessary, for its practical application.

But these measures were not attended with much success, and in April,

1828, the natives were forbidden to enter the settled districts of the

colony. They were permitted to pass through them, when on their passage

to the shore, provided their chiefs guaranteed their quietness, and

possessed a pass under the hand and seal of the Governor. A line, drawn

from Piper's River to St. Patrick's Head, separated the regions allotted

to them on that side; another, included Tasman's Peninsula; a third,

southward of Mount Wellington to the ocean; and the fourth, from the

Huon, by Western Bluff, south-west to the sea. Thus the proclamation cut

out the centre of the island: a square at the north-west,

belonged to the Van Diemen's Land Company, and others; southward, from

Ben Lomond, including most of the rivers, plains, and lagoons. Into

these, they were forbidden to intrude. There remained, the forests

of the south-west; the western coasts, where the skies for ever weep;

and the barren shores of the north-east. To drive them on these regions

was the duty of the forces, and their employment for years. The natives

returned regularly with the season, like birds of passage--avenging

the losses of their last retreat: they retired at the usual

time--diminished, but unsubdued.

In looking at these orders and proclamations, it is impossible to regard

them in any other light than as plans of military operation. That the

natives would surrender to a warrant or a challenge; that they would

remain in remote regions, from which they had always been accustomed to

come forth; that their chiefs had power to enforce the mandates of the

Governor, or that they would preserve an official document, they could

neither read nor understand--these were contingencies which, though

desirable, were certainly not probable. The precise and legal language

of the instruments, provoked much ridicule, and might justify a smile.

They were chiefly dictated by a gentleman, whose mental aberration led

to his removal from office. It is, however, difficult to suggest more

explicit forms, and the announcement of the plans of government was a

proper preliminary to their execution.

It was the desire of the Governor, earnestly expressed, to protect the

settlers, and yet to mitigate their resentment. The use of arms was

forbidden, while other means were untried, and rewards were offered to

any person who might venture into communication with the natives, to

explain the objects of the government. They were invited to seek redress

of their grievances; and pictures were suspended in the wood, in which

the white man was represented shooting the native, and the Governor

hanging the white.

These remedies were, however, ineffectual; and in November, 1828, the

settled districts were placed under the protection of martial law. Nine

parties, under Messrs. G. Robertson, Batman, and Jorgenson, consisting

of seven persons each, and assisted by the military when requisite, were

employed to enforce the proclamation. Mr. Anstey, the magistrate,

directed the operations in the centre of the island, and volunteers not

unfrequently joined in the repulsion or pursuit of this unhappy people.

The celebrated chief, Eumarrah, was captured by Mr. Gilbert Robertson,

in the Eastern Marshes, in 1828. This euphonius name, which so interests

the ear, it is said, was a corruption or improvement of the name of a

colonist, Hugh Murray, and adopted by the savage. A strong party,

consisting of military and constables, surrounded the hut, in which this

chief and others were sheltered. Five furious dogs rush towards Mr.

Robertson, the foremost of the party: having fired off his piece, and

seized a lad scrambling away, by him he was directed to a sheet of bark,

under which Eumarrah was concealed. While prostrate, a shot was fired at

him, which inflicted a flesh wound, and the musket of a soldier was

broken by beating him. Such is Robertson's indignant account of his

capture. With the chief, three others, Jack, Dolly, and Jemmy, were

taken: the portrait of the last has rather an innocent expression, and

has been honored with publication. This party, removed first to

Richmond, and then to Hobart Town, soon appeared reconciled to their

captivity: all, but Eumarrah. He was pensive and reserved, and, for a

time, resented his bondage. It is said, the outrages he had committed,

would have forfeited his life, had not his captor earnestly maintained

that he was a prisoner of war; and that to put him to death, would be to

equal his crimes.

The expeditions were attended with the same general incidents, and it

would be tedious to multiply examples. The number of prisoners was

lamentably disproportioned to the many that perished. To identify a

particular offender was impossible, nor was it of much importance, since

the natives now were animated by one spirit. The amazing agility with

which they moved; their magical powers of self concealment; their

destitution of dress, the greasing of their skin, and the vigilance of

their watch-dogs, rendered it nearly impossible to seize them in open

day.

An alarm would be given, that the blacks were approaching, and a party,

commissioned to repress them, would immediately advance; often

blundering and incautious, shouting, smoking, and straggling about;

carelessly firing their pieces, and affording abundant information of

their approach. Thus, after a fatiguing march, the natives, whom they

were sent out to meet, would be observed in their rear, having already

committed the premeditated depredation. Not that it was easy to elude

their observation, if they were conscious of pursuit, and it was nearly

impossible to overtake them.

Mr. Gilbert Robertson, after capturing Eumarrah, was twelve months

without success. One tribe he followed with pertinacity, were not far

off through the whole chase. Their fires were visible: they were, for

several days, on the hills, not more than four miles from the British;

but they "beat round and round, like a hare." A tribe, after a hot

pursuit, concealed their tracks, and suddenly vanished. They regularly

posted sentinels: passed over the most dangerous ground, and, on the

margin of fearful precipices: they would lie down beside a log--stone

dead, and could not be distinguished from the charred fragments of the

forest. Those who imagined that their eyes had never been averted, would

yet lose sight of the subtle enemy. They could not catch them, except by

stratagem; or, when they were caught, they could not hold them.[13] The

few captives that were obtained, when they thought proper, easily made

their escape. They confined them in a room: next morning, they had

passed through the flue into the open air, and freedom.

The extreme difficulty connected with their arrest by day, led to their

rapid destruction. The pursuers would watch, as the evening gathered in,

the thin smoke of the distant fires: they would cautiously advance, and

conceal themselves till midnight. The superstitious terror of the black,

prevented his wandering from the camp, lest the evil spirit that

haunted the darkness should carry him away. Thus, stretched around the

fire, the natives were easily seen, and musketry told with terrible

effect. Their dogs, instead of promoting their safety, sometimes led to

their sacrifice. A party, preparing to surround and capture them without

bloodshed, would move with quiet steps, without giving notice to the

aborigines; but just when all was prepared for the last movement, some

cur of ill omen would start up, and rouse them. They would seize their

spears and attempt to flee; and the whites, now disappointed of a

bloodless capture, would commence the slaughter.

In 1828, a tribe of natives threw stones at the constables, from a hill.

They returned a volley of shot; then charged with the bayonet: the whole

were slain. The excuse for the massacre was, that having no more

ammunition, the constables had no other means of defence, and that to

retreat was dangerous. An exploit, claimed by a corporal and party of

the 40th regiment, is disputed. They professed to have discovered a

tribe lodged on the shelf of a rock, inclosed by wall-like heights. They

poured in their fire, and dragged the women and children from their

shelter: all perished. This was stated to be a mere tale of pretended

success, and devised to satisfy the neighbourhood, that the men had done

their duty. It proves, at least, that such achievements were in request.

How fearful a condition for the government to tolerate, or for a colony

to approve.

In these expeditions, natives were often the guides, and were enabled to

follow up the track of their countrymen, when the English were

confounded. In those troublesome times, individuals of the tribes were

often left behind. It was the custom to fix small pieces of stick at

short distances, to assist the stragglers in rejoining their main body.

For a time, these signals being understood by the black guides, brought

them quickly on the route of the fugitives; but the guides soon betrayed

or exhausted this device, and though they continued to leave direction

sticks, they reversed their meaning, and distracted their pursuers.

The Tasmanian allies themselves, were exceedingly uncertain, and prone

to escape. They disclosed to their countrymen the plans adopted for

their capture, related the expeditions they had witnessed, and added new

excitements to rage. Sydney natives were obtained, to assist in the

capture: Pigeon and John Crook, under the care of Mr. Batman, promoted

the success of the undertaking. Pigeon narrowly escaped being shot: he

wandered from his party, and was seen by a stockman in a tree, who

fired, in spite of his endeavours to explain. Pigeon then slipped down,

and reached his friends, only in time to avoid the second charge of his

pertinacious antagonist. The story is worth relating, not on account of

the actors, but because it displays how cheap, at that hour, was the

life of a native, although peaceably living in the forests of his

country.

Among those distinguished for the knowledge of the bush, compassion for

the natives, and skill in pursuing them, Mr. Batman was the subject of

frequent and approving mention. It is said by Backhouse, that his

parties killed thirty, and captured five. Occasionally, natives were

found in the neighbourhood of Ben Lomond. In one instance, it is

recorded, that ten fell, and that two were taken; and in another, that

forty received the fire, and left behind them trails of blood, but no

captives. On another, fifteen or sixteen were said to fall, out of a

party of seventy: three hundred buck shot were poured into an

encampment, at twenty yards distance. It would be endless to recite

conflicts of this kind: they probably were but a multiplication of a

short bulletin, referring to an expedition--"_five shot, and one

taken_." Looked at alone, even in the mildest form, these measures are

revolting; but to Mr. Batman belongs the praise of mingling humanity

with severity: of perceiving human affections in the creatures he was

commissioned to resist. His mission cannot be compared with that of his

successor, but he certainly began in the midst of conflict and

bloodshed, to try the softer influences of conciliation and charity. He

received a party into his house, endeavoured to win their regard; fed,

clothed, and soothed them; and when some of them disappointed his hopes,

by throwing off their garments and retiring into the bush, he still

persevered in attempting their reclamation.

But if the authorised system was attended with a sad sacrifice of native

life, no one will question the atrocities committed by _commandoes_,

first formed by stock-keepers, and some settlers, under the influence of

anger, and then continued from habit. The smoke of a fire was the signal

for a black hunt. The sportsmen having taken up their positions, perhaps

on a precipitous hill, would first discharge their guns, then rush

towards the fires, and sweep away the whole party. The wounded were

brained; the infant cast into the flames; the musket was driven into the

quivering flesh; and the social fire, around which the natives gathered

to slumber, became, before morning, their funeral pile.[14]

A detail of such facts, is in the hand of the writer, the recital of

which would disgrace, without improving mankind; and it is rather in

deference to a general principle than personal considerations, that the

crimes of amateur assassins are left to oblivion.[15]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 12: "Unless the blacks are exterminated, or removed,

conciliation is in vain. Shall the sons of a country give way before the

aborigines, _after having repulsed the arms of France_? They are now

shot, with as little remorse as so many crows!!"--_Col. Advocate_,

1828.]

[Footnote 13: A party, under Major Grey, went out in pursuit: overtook a

few blacks; one was seized; but he was so smeared with grease, that he

slipped through the hands of his captors. A paper of the day recommends,

that the arms of the pursuer be thrust under the arms of the black; and,

the hands being raised, to be firmly clasped over the back of the

fugitive's neck--an expedient, that reminds us of the salt specific for

catching birds, with which most children have been delighted and

disappointed.]

SECTION V.

However just these representations of individual conduct, and with

whatever severity the measures of government bore upon the aborigines,

that unhappy people afforded ample reason for apprehension, and even

abhorrence. Their crimes were fearful, and the effect of their outrage

on the colonial mind can only be imagined. The fierce robbers, of

European origin, who had infested the land, were not half so terrible:

these were at least restrained by early associations and national

sympathies; often by conscience, and even by each other. But the natives

now united the antipathy of a national foe, and the rapacity of a

banditti, with the spite of individual revenge: they were at once a

people in arms, and a distributed band of assassins.

The correspondence between the local and imperial authorities exhibits

the feelings of the Governor, and his full consciousness, that however

necessary his proceedings might seem on the spot, surveyed from the

distance, they would wear the aspect of cruelty. In 1828, he apprised

Lord Goderich, that the proposal to remove the natives from the island,

had not met his concurrence; and that the commissioners for lands had

pointed out the north-east coast as adapted to their wants, well

sheltered and warm, abounding with game, accessible by water, and easy

to guard. It was stated by Colonel Arthur that harsh measures were

demanded by the colonists; but that he could not dismiss from his

recollection, that the whites were the aggressors, and that every plan

should be tried before treating the natives as accredited enemies. Three

months after, he forwarded another communication, which referred to the

murders recently committed, and justified the proclamation which he had

issued for their expulsion. So exasperated were the settlers, that the

safety of the blacks themselves seemed to demand this precaution. He

had, however, found it impossible to assign one district, owing to the

animosities of the tribes against each other, and therefore he resolved

to expel them to the remoter portions of their several territories. In

two other communications of the same year, the Governor reported the

temporary retirement of the natives, in search of marine subsistence,

and their return from their winter quarters in the November following,

when their animosity had not abated: a dark catalogue of murders,

including every age, condition, and sex, attested their subtlety and

sanguinary spirit. He still declared that no means were neglected to

conciliate and reclaim them, consistent with the interests of the colony

at large; but their indiscriminate attacks were equally directed against

their benefactors and their enemies. Communication had become difficult,

a risk of life, and almost impossible.

These statements are, unhappily, sustained by ample proof. It would be a

waste of time even to condense, in the most succinct relation, all the

incidents that occurred. Narrative is tedious by the monotony of detail,

and the events themselves were recorded by those who witnessed them,

with ominous brevity. Such crimes were of daily occurrence; perhaps

sometimes multiplied by rumour, but often unheard of and unrecorded. The

perils of the stockmen were constant: many of them were repeatedly

wounded; and one, named Cubit, was nine times speared, and yet survived.

Death assumed new forms daily: the poet of the Iliad did not describe

more numerous varieties, in the slaughter of his heroes.

The shepherd went from home in the morning, attended by his dog, and

armed with a gun, now unavailing for his defence: he never returned. Had

he escaped to the bush? Such a step was improbable. His employers are

soon informed that the blacks have been near; that the sheep have been

wounded, or beaten to death. The search now becomes diligent: at length,

the melancholy reality is clear; they find a mutilated form, which still

preserves sufficient proof that the lost shepherd lies there. The sad

catastrophe excites the compassion of the master; but it provokes the

fellow servants to rage, and they devote themselves to the destruction

of the murderous race.

The little child strays outside the cottage of her parent--fresh as the

morning, and warmed with the hilarity of young life: a shriek is heard

to succeed quickly the loud laugh of pleasure. The mother rushes

forward; sees a black boy fleeing in the distance, and then beholds the

victim of his malice: she draws forth the spear, and her child is dead.

The settler, now grown rich by his flocks and tillage, looks forward to

the enjoyment of his opulence in domestic happiness. The companion of

his early labors and privations forms the chief object in the picture;

but while he was dreaming of future bliss, the envious eye of a savage,

which had recognised in that prosperous homestead a station of his

fathers, had glanced over and blighted all.

Those who were compelled to travel from home, left their families the

prey to inexpressible anxiety. Every moment of delay awakened new

forebodings. Often would the settler see his wife and children, on some

prominent spot, the subjects of fears which required no interpreter,

shading the eyes in the attitude of earnest attention; and when they

caught the first glimpse of his approach, the rushing together, and

marks of gratulation, indicated the gladness of watchers, whose painful

task is done. To appear in safety, was a new though daily deliverance.

But if such were the fears at home, the traveller himself was not free

from perturbation. He would neglect the common dangers of a rocky

descent, and "sidling" way, to guard against perils far more dreaded: he

would often pause, to listen; the moving of the leaf, would terrify him.

He would hear a rush--it was but the cattle: he would gaze steadfastly

at some black substance far off, until convinced that it was the stock

of a tree; then reproaching his fears, he would gallop on rapidly--then

moving round some overhanging rock, he would see savage faces and poised

spears! Retreat is now impossible: he spurs his horse, which seems

almost to be conscious of danger, and perhaps reaches his home exhausted

with fatigue and dread; happy, however, to have been once more

preserved.

Nor is it possible to describe the emotions which were wrought up, by

the consciousness that a feeble woman and helpless children were exposed

to the clubs and spears of the savage. Men know, when they pass their

threshold, that the ties of life are uncertain, and that desolation may

blast whatever they leave tranquil and beloved; but there was an intense

realisation of this hazard, in those parts of the colony where

protection was least accessible.

Death, by the hands of a savage, is indeed invested with the darkest

terrors: it was rarely instantaneous--it was often the effect of

protracted torment, and of repeated blows: often, after a long pursuit,

in which hope might occasionally gleam for a moment, to render death to

the exhausted fugitive more distinct and terrible; or, perhaps, at once

wounded mortally and prostrate, when the rush of early affections and

long forgotten truth and brief supplication would come with that swoon,

by which nature sometimes ushers in the fatal moment; the dying man

would be roused by infernal shouts, and there would swim before him

brandished clubs, and horrid visages distorted with demoniac rage. Such

were the recollections of some who recovered; and such, we may be

assured, were the emotions of many that died.

Comparatively, the natives did not frequently injure women and children;

partly, perhaps, that they were less exposed, and partly from natural

compassion. Thus, when the house of Clarke was destroyed by the Big

River tribe, and its owner perished in the flames, the woman with him

escaped with her clothes ignited--ran to the savages, and fell down upon

her knees, imploring their pity. One of their number extinguished the

flames, and bade her be gone. It may be doubted, if this instance of

compassion always found a parallel in the conduct of the white. About

the same time, a wretch boasted to Mr. O'Connor, that he had thrown a

native woman on the fire, and burnt her to death. The equity of

Providence seems vindicated by the fact, that he perished by the spears

of the race, who watched him continually, until he fell into their

power.

Long after the pacific mission of Robinson, it was found necessary to

restrain the wanderings of the women, to prevent their sacrifice to

white vengeance. But, on the part of the natives, there were not wanting

fearful examples of implacable and treacherous violence. Such was the

murder of Mrs. Gough and her children. In 1828, about twenty men,

unattended by their families, had re-appeared in the centre of the

island, and approached the neighbourhood of Oatlands: they attacked the

cottage of one Moor, as a feint, and thus drew off the husband of the

unfortunate woman, to the assistance of his neighbour. On returning, he

met his daughter, with the sad intelligence, that children and wife were

murdered, and that she only had escaped. He found the mother leaning

against a fence, covered with blood: "Dear Gough," she said, "it is all

over with me; the blacks have killed me!" He endeavoured to staunch her

wounds; then hastened to his children, and found them, not dead, but

dying. The blacks had inflicted reiterated blows, and answered

entreaties with threats of murder. Mrs. Gough was shortly afterwards

laid beside her children. The attack was more fierce, and yet

deliberate, than common: but not long before, some stockmen at the Lakes

requested two women to ascend the trees: while there, they shot them. It

is necessary to add, that the women sometimes approached the huts, as

spies, or such actions would be incredible.

The government and the press complained repeatedly, that no regular

resistance was offered to the depredators; that the settlers did not

instantly pursue, and, by combined efforts, intimidate or destroy them.

It was said, that they easily forgot the danger, so soon as the blacks

had withdrawn, and abated even the ordinary vigilance, which such

formidable enemies might inspire. Thus, the slaughter of a shepherd had

become too frequent to produce much sensation, and was set down as a

common risk of colonial life. When they heard that a servant was

speared, they would exclaim, "Ah! is he killed? poor fellow!"--and

having brought in a verdict of wilful murder, they left him to the

forgetfulness of the grave.

It was said, that as the passenger approached the towns, he found the

anxiety of the people diminished, and their feeling revolutionised. In

the interior, the blacks were spoken of with intense fear, and

detestation: in the capital, even their depredations were questioned,

and the subjects of conversation, were rather their sufferings than

their crimes.

Governor Arthur strongly censured the negligence of farmers; but this

was rather to arouse them, than to decide finally the fact, or

culpability of their inaction. In truth, the pursuit of a party of

aborigines, was a very hopeless affair: it required a minute

preparation; and to a well fleshed, and not perhaps youthful yeoman, was

attended with vast fatigue, and almost certain failure. An organised

enemy may be found: not so, naked and scattered blacks,

undistinguishable from the trees of the wood; who could crouch in a

gulley--creep almost as rapidly as a dog. The appearance of apathy, in

reality resulted from the uselessness or danger of action; nor can it be

a matter of surprise, that men expelled from their minds an evil merely

possible, which they hoped to escape, and which no forethought would

avoid. Whether these imputations were just, or not, they were revived in

various forms, by the Governor's private and public addresses. They

constitute a large portion of his correspondence with the Home

Government; but they drew forth from the Secretary of State what,

perhaps, was chiefly desired--an approbation of his measures of

protection; for, however apathetic individuals, it was admitted, that

the repression of outrage, from whatever cause, and at whatever cost,

was an obligation on government. There were, nevertheless, several

instances of courageous defence: large numbers were successfully

resisted by a single musket; and it was stated by Governor Arthur, that

two armed men would strike a whole mob with panic--a contempt of their

valour, which was often provoked by the subtlety of their escape. Such

is commonly the case: savages, even when courageous, are unwilling to

face the deadly weapon of the white man. They, however, lost much of

their alarm; and, at length, would pause for the report, and rush on

with shouts of defiance, when the English had discharged their guns.

The most courageous instances of defence, were furnished by females:

they were sometimes surprised by a visit, when escape was hopeless, and

relief unattainable. Mrs. Maclanachan maintained a post, purely by her

resolution. Mrs. Dalrymple Brigge, a half-caste woman, was rewarded

with twenty acres of land, for her heroism. She drew inside her house

her wounded child, barricaded her door, and fired through a crevice. The

blacks attempted, first to pull down her cottage, and then to destroy it

by fire. The conflict lasted more than an hour, when relief came.

Another: Mrs. Connel defended her house with the musket; a little child,

of four years, bringing one to her as she fired off another: she was

within a few days of her confinement. The fortitude displayed, on these

occasions, was very justly admired: we cannot, however, but be sensible,

that few possessed either the physical strength, or the knowledge of

arms, equal to a task so hard.

In this colony, 1830 will be ever memorable, as the year of the Black

War--that campaign, which formed the first military lesson given to the

colonists. In the ferment of the public mind, innumerable plans were

propounded for their capture: some merit remembrance from their oddity,

and some for their kindness. It was suggested, that those natives in

custody should be driven forward, secured by a tether, and thus

compelled to guide the pursuit. It was also proposed, that depots of

flour, sugar, and other tempting articles of food should be placed in

the tracks, and when natives were engaged in seizing the prize, the

Philistines would be upon them. A third plan recommended, that four or

five persons should be placed in the vicinity of huts, to be erected for

the purpose: they were to stand outside, and allure the natives; and

when seen by them, to feign alarm, and run. The natives, it was

expected, would make for the seemingly abandoned dwellings, to be

surprised by the English, lying in ambush. Their dogs often gave them

notice of approach: a scheme was propounded, to turn this advantage

against them. The English were to be furnished with two sets of dogs:

one leash, swift and fierce, to pursue the dogs of the natives; but as

both would soon vanish from the sight of the pursuers, the second

species were to be retained, to scent their course. Thus, the native

would run first,--his dogs after him; then would come the large dogs of

the English--then their little dogs; and, finally, the captors! An old

mariner, who had witnessed the effect of music in taming savage tribes,

proposed to try the persuasion of sweet sounds. He was not aware, that

the expedient had been in vain tested under happier auspices; even had

it been possible for a military band to career along with the requisite

speed. The musician of the _Recherche_ carried his instrument on shore,

and played his sweetest melodies: the natives took no notice. Unwilling

to doubt the efficacy of his art, on his next visit he used sharper

tones and quicker measures: the aborigines put their fingers to their

ears, and the Frenchman dropped his fiddle in despair.

It will be proper briefly to notice the state of the public mind at the

moment. The natives were now a mere handful: an irregular contest of

several years duration, now and then slackened, was ever adding some new

victim to the slain. The constables occasionally fell in with the

temporary huts, which told the mournful tale of rapid depopulation. In

tracks, where thirty or forty huts had, in former years, indicated a

considerable clan, four or five only were reared; but while the natives

diminished, they seemed to increase their activity, moving to various

places with almost incredible swiftness. It is said, that they would

travel fifty miles in a day. Their superior knowledge of the country

enabled them to reach stations more remote in appearance than reality. A

colonist, of the present time, by better acquaintance with the road, can

pass in a few hours to places, once several days journey distant. Such

rapid progress may perhaps be doubted, but it was sufficient to give

them the appearance of ubiquity; and since they now were no longer

casual but habitual robbers, the havoc and alarm they created had rather

augmented, as their numbers declined. The colony, then prosperous in its

general affairs, was deeply depressed by their continued outrages:

shepherds would no longer tend their flocks, unless accompanied by armed

companions. On the slightest signal of the approaching foe, they would

flee with precipitation: ten times a day the quiet of domestic life

would be broken by the fears, feigned or real, of the workmen. If they

idled on the road, it was the blacks that retarded them: if they lost

provisions, the hut had been robbed by the blacks. Often, too, these

vexations were tinged with the ludicrous: the rumour would reach the

township that an unfortunate had been speared, who, when more closely

examined, was found dead drunk. Some imaginative settler would return,

with the sure information that the blacks were lurking in the woods: the

cautious whites, well armed and skilfully disposed, would march round

the hiding place, and stealthily approach a stump of more than usual

likeness to animated nature.

An officer, newly arrived, when the depredations were most alarming and

frequent, looked from the window of his cottage, in the twilight, and

discerned many blacks crouching among the stubble of a corn field

lately reaped. He hastened and ordered out his men: they cautiously

crept round the inclosure, and were gratified as they drew nigh to

discover that the enemy had not moved. Another small party of soldiers

observed a body of fifty or sixty, on the borders of a creek, flowing

into Oyster Bay: as they were approached by the British, they made for a

point of land. It was, apparently, a certain capture: the soldiers and

constables rushed on, when the foe took the water. In these adversaries

the colonist will recognise the black stumps, left by imperfect farming,

and the black swans which adorn our waters. Notice was brought, that

some one in the far interior was killed: the coroner's jury was

summoned; the verdict was, of necessity, "_not yet dead_."[16]

The disquietude occasioned by an enemy, so insignificant; the constant

vigilance imposed, and the not infrequent heavy calamities inflicted,

are events justly exhibited by the _Aborigines' Committee_, as a lesson

to mankind. The long oppression of a race, not prone to violence, was

now productive of its fruit, and exacted from the colonists a fearful

retribution.

The most alarming movement of the natives was, the systematic

destruction of premises by fire. This was revenge within their reach, at

any hour; and its previous infrequency is a matter of astonishment. In

three months, the huts of Messrs. Howel, Sherwin, and Clarke, had been

destroyed. The property of Mr. Sherwin, lying between hills, was easily

watched, and spies were posted on the heights. The mode of firing the

premises was deliberate: they kindled the flames at twenty yards apart,

so that the whole was simultaneously burned; this done, they went off,

shouting and crying out to the English to go away. The extent of the

mischief was not so alarming as its forebodings. That element, which

nature has placed at man's disposal, and can be turned, by a moment's

effort to the destruction of a fortune, might long have proved an

effectual scourge, and made colonisation hopeless. The retention of

properties, as well as the security of dependents, required decided and

unanimous measures.

No part of Governor Arthur's character conciliates greater esteem, than

his promptitude to encourage humanity in the whites, and to win the

confidence of the natives. At the commencement of this year, he offered

a liberal reward to any one who should open a pacific communication, or

if a convict free pardon. He promised five pounds for every adult, and

two pounds for every child, taken alive. He entreated the colonists to

enjoin the utmost tenderness on their servants, and invariably to spare

the women and children. These merciful intentions were but little

successful: the rewards were rarely claimed. But no effort, in a right

direction, is ever lost: the conduct of John Benfield, a convict, was

distinguished for intrepidity and coolness in a capture, and Colonel

Arthur bestowed warm praise. Observing a fire, at a short distance, he

approached three aborigines, to whom he offered bread: one of them

promised to accompany him, if he would put aside his gun; this risk he

incurred. He led the black to his hut, and gave him food and blankets

for his companions; and soon succeeded in completely conciliating them

all. They joined him in hunting the opossum: thus he drew them on to the

military party stationed at Captain Moriarty's. This man certainly

deserved the reward he obtained, and the government notice of an action

so courageous and humane, must have mitigated the fierce spirit of his

class.

The orders and notices issued by the Governor during this year,

represent the powerful agitation of the public mind, and from which he

himself was by no means free. Sometimes, the hope of reconciliation

seemed strong; thus, August 19th, he states that Captain Welch and Mr.

G. A. Robinson had obtained a friendly parley with a hostile tribe. It

was ordered, that no attempt should be made to capture or restrain such

aborigines as might approach the settlement; but that, after supplying

them with food, they should be suffered to depart.

He found it necessary to explain the conditions on which rewards were

offered for capture, which had been abused, by the violent detention of

inoffensive natives: those who, in attempting to arrest them, were

guilty of wanton mischief, were threatened with the penalties of the

law. These orders were followed by outrages, which threw doubt on the

propriety of distinctions: the ally of to-day, was the robber of

yesterday, and the assassin of the morrow. The natives of the south-west

districts of the colony, and of the islands, were still exempted from

proscription; but an explanatory notice, authorised the settlers, by

whatever necessary means, to anticipate, or repel, the barbarous

attacks, now renewed with terrible frequency and atrocity.

These public instructions indicate the alternate feelings which

prevailed: they were natural to men who, reflecting on the origin of the

warfare, felt that measures, now indispensable, were not wholly

guiltless.

* * * * *

OFFICIAL LIST OF ATROCITIES COMMITTED BY THE NATIVES.

1830.--January 1. William Smith, in the employ of ---- Triffet,

jun., killed near the river Ouse. Piper's hut, at Bark Hut Plains,

broken open and plundered of a musket, blankets, sugar, &c. Captain

Clark's hut, at Bark Hut Plains, robbed, and his house entered by

the natives.

February 1st. Mr. Brodie's hut, near the Clyde, was attacked while

he was in it; he was speared in several parts of his body, but not

mortally; they stole blankets, tea, sugar, &c. 9th. Mr. Mazetti's

hut robbed; Lawrence Dering, servant to Mr. Bell, killed. 11th. Mr.

Bell's house and servants attacked on Great Jordan Lagoon; the

natives kept at bay from the house, but one man received a spear

through the thigh. Mr. Hopley murdered about a mile from Mr.

Betts'; James M'Carthy desperately wounded. 12th. Mr. Howell's

dwelling hut burned. Mrs. Howell and her children narrowly escaping

the flames. Twenty of Mr. Espie's sheep killed and maimed. Mr.

Thomson's hut attacked by forty or fifty. Mr. Paterson's shepherd

pursued by the natives. 17th. John Bluchaby and Philip Norboy

killed at Dysart parish, Oatlands, at noon day. Lawrence Murray,

servant to Mr. Bell, killed. A child killed at Bagdad, near the

road side. 20th. Mr. M'Rae's house, near Bothwell, plundered of

flour, and within a mile of the military station, at Bothwell. Mr.

Sherwin's house burned to the ground, with the greater part of his

property; his servants' hut and fences also consumed. The Weazle

Plains Hut burned down; a black man wounded, in the act of setting

fire to it. 22nd. Captain Clark's barn and corn stacks consumed,

containing 1,200 bushels of grain.

March 2nd. A hut, near Captain Clark's, fired. A hut, at Davis'

Marsh, plundered. 9th. A mob of natives appeared at Captain Smith's

hut, at his run; a part of them killed 100 of his sheep. 10th.

Piper's hut fired, and partly destroyed, 11th. Captain Wood's hut,

at Poole's Marsh, robbed. Mr. Jones' hut, Side Line Marsh,

threatened. Mr. Bisdee's hut attacked; also Mr. Thomson's stock

hut, and Mr. Brodribb's, at the Black Marsh. Mr. Denholme's hut, at

the same place, attacked, and his servant speared. 13th. M'Gennis'

hut, Richmond district, plundered of muskets, powder, and ball, and

every thing of value in the house. 15th. A hut, near the mouth of

the Carlton River, attacked, a man and woman dangerously wounded;

four spear wounds, and a cut on the head, supposed mortal. Another

woman speared through the arm. 19th. About forty natives attacked

the house of Mr. Brodribb, Black Marsh: they were divided into

small parties, and made their attacks simultaneously: one man

speared. On their being driven back, they proceeded to the hut of

Mr. Thomson, which they robbed of every thing in it. On the same

day, a man was speared in bed, at E. Danoven's, Black Marsh.

April 1st. John Rayner speared in several places, and dreadfully

beaten by natives, at Spring Bay.

May 18th. Mr. Lord's hut, at Eastern Marshes, attacked; of two men

in it, one was dangerously speared, and the other dreadfully

beaten. The natives then plundered the hut, and retired.

June 1st. Mr. Sherwin's hut, Weazel Plains, plundered by the

natives. 15th. The aborigines plundered the Den hut on the Lake

River, of every thing in it, and murdered Mary Daniels, and her two

infants, in cold blood.

August 7th. S. Stockman's hut, Green Pounds, plundered by natives.

9th. The death of Mr. Sharland (surveyor), and his men robbed of

muskets, powder, and shot, by the natives; on the same day, government

hut, between Bothwell and Blue-hill, robbed by natives, as well as the

houses of Mr. Wood and Mr. Pitcairn. A man servant of Mr. Barrs,

wounded. About forty natives met by Mr. Howell's party: a woman

wounded. 23rd. The huts of J. Connell and Mr. Robertson attacked; the

latter plundered. Mr. Sutherland's shepherds attacked, and their arms

taken; one of them speared: arms taken from Mr. Taylor's hut. 24th.

James Hooper killed, and his hut plundered of everything in it. The

huts of Lieutenant Bell and Watts attacked by natives, who were

repulsed from both.

September 8th. Captain Clark's shepherd attacked, but escaped.

13th. One man killed, and one man wounded, by the natives, on the

banks of the Tamar. 14th. A man, employed by government at the lime

kilns, near Bothwell, chased by natives, but escaped. 18th. A

private, of the 63rd regiment, killed by natives: two sawyers

speared, one of whom died of his wounds. 27th. Francis Broken

speared and killed. 28th. Three men, at Major Grey's, wounded by

natives, and one dangerously wounded with stones. 30th. Mr. G.

Scott's house attacked by a mob of natives; they speared one man,

and killed another--the body of whom they threw into the river.

They ransacked the house of every thing they could find, and even

went up stairs, and broke the doors open--a proceeding to which

they had never before resorted. They took away blankets, shirts,

sheets, knives, 600 or 700 lbs. of flour (which they tied up), half

a basket of tobacco, 100 lbs. of sugar, a bag of tea, and a

considerable quantity of slop clothing: so great ingenuity was

displayed in the attack, that for some time it was supposed that

Europeans had conducted it. On the same day, the natives plundered

a hut, opposite to Mr. Scott's, of all the tea, sugar, flour, and

bedding, that were in it.

October 16th. The settlement at Sorell attacked by natives: one

severely wounded; four houses plundered of blankets, flour, tea and

sugar, and clothes of every description. 18th. Captain Stewart's

shepherd wounded by spears, and Mr. Guildas, a settler, killed by

two spear wounds. 19th, Natives showed themselves on the farms of

Messrs. Gatehouse and Gordon, and attacked the house of Mr. Gough,

whom they wounded severely.

November 16th. Two huts robbed on the Ouse. 18th. Captain Wight's

shepherd killed by natives; dreadfully mangled twenty-seven sheep.

A hut on the South Esk attacked by natives: every thing portable

sent off.

February 3rd, 1831. The natives attacked Mr. Bursby's house, on the

Tamar; speared Mr. Wallace in several parts of the body, and

inflicted several severe and dangerous wounds on his head: they

likewise wounded a child. The hut of Allright attacked by them;

plundered of every thing it had in it. The hut of Mr. Sutherland,

Nork Esk, robbed: three horses speared, three others wounded. A

woman, named M'Haskell, killed at Retreat, near Westbury: house

robbed of 300 lbs. of flour, knives and forks, blankets, chest of

tea, 100 lbs. of sugar, tobacco, two casks of butter, three

muskets, and powder. 7th. Stewart's house attacked by natives, who

were beaten off.

March 8th. Two sawyers attacked by natives; severely wounded. Two

huts, near New Norfolk, plundered. 12th. Mrs. Cunningham's hut, at

East Arm, robbed by natives: she and the child wounded, very

dangerously. 21st. Mr. Lawrence's servant murdered, and three men

dangerously wounded by the natives, on Norfolk Plains.

April 5th. J. Ralton speared through the body, whilst at work

splitting wood. 6th. N. Fitzgerald speared twice through the body,

whilst sitting reading at the door of his cottage; the house

plundered by the natives of guns, blankets, and other things. 7th.

The same house again attacked.

May 10th. Hut on Patrick's Plains, containing government stores,

burnt to the ground, by natives. Mr. Kemp's establishment, at Lake

Sorell, attacked by a considerable mob of natives: the fire arms

carried away, buildings totally consumed by fire; two men murdered,

and one wounded.

June 6th. Several huts attacked, near Hunter's Hill; J. Triffits

speared. Mr. Baretti's hut robbed, likewise Mrs. Bell's, of every

thing in it, and the wife of N. Long murdered. Mr. Clark's hut

plundered.

September 5th. Thomas Smith, hut-keeper, at Tapsly, murdered: hut

plundered. John Hignston speared, and hut robbed; four sawyers'

huts robbed. 7th. B. B. Thomas, Esq., and his overseer, Mr. Parker,

murdered near Port Sorell, by a mob of natives, whilst, actuated by

the most humane views, they were endeavouring to carry the

conciliatory measures of government into effect. Mr. Thomas had

received ten spear wounds, and Mr. Parker eleven. Stocker's hut

desperately attacked; a child wounded; a man, named Cubit, speared.

22nd. Mr. Dawson's hut, on Brushy Plains, attacked, and his servant

severely beaten with waddies. 23rd. Mr. Dawson's servant, Hughes,

severely beaten by natives, nearly losing his life.

October 3rd. The natives, having possession of fire-arms, attacked

and robbed the premises of constable Bird, and plundered the house

of Mr. Amos, jun.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 14: In the western districts, the stockmen were usually

mounted. When they saw the natives, these armed murderers galloped after

them, and delivered their fire without danger to themselves.

An estate is called "_Quambys_:" the name is a cry of distress and

entreaty, and signifies, _spare me!_. It was uttered by a black, who was

found there, when imploring compassion; as the supplication is

remembered, perhaps not then in vain: but mercy was rarely shown. A

volunteer party discovered a tribe in a valley, surrounded by steep

mountains; from the heights they poured down a volley of musketry, and

then heaped the slain on the ashes of their fires. Another party

overtook a tribe who had displayed a hostile spirit: they were on the

banks of a lagoon, and all around were plains; escape was hopeless. They

rushed into the water; as their heads rose above the surface, they were

shot. These are specimens which rest on authority not to be disputed.

The slaughter of thirty aborigines, in 1838, at a remote station in New

Holland, instanced the cool deliberation with which they were too often

sacrificed. The deed was planned several days before, and the leisure of

the sabbath was employed for its perpetration. The seven murderers had

been all prisoners of the crown: a subscription was made for their

defence; but in spite of strong sympathy in their behalf, they were

sentenced to death, and ultimately executed. There had been no

provocation: being on horseback, they surrounded the natives, who were

reposing beside their evening fires. These ran to the hut of one of the

assassins, with whom they had lived on terms of amity. There they were

bound, and, amidst their groans, cries, and tears--men, and women with

children at the breast--they were led off to a spot selected for the

immolation. Great pains were taken to conceal the crime; but through a

fall of rain the day preceding, their tracks were visible, and birds of

prey attracted attention to the slaughter! The strongest suspicion

existed, that the murderers were the miserable agents of persons still

more guilty.]

[Footnote 15: The Aborigines' Committee observed, "that an opinion was

gaining ground in the colony, that small parties should be formed by the

settlers, for the extirpation of the blacks; an idea, which they

contemplated with horror." It was more than an opinion--it was a

terrible reality.]

[Footnote 16: _Hobart Town Courier._]

SECTION VI.

Efforts of conciliation, were made through the medium of three women,

captured by the police; and who, after being treated with kindness, were

permitted to return to their tribe, and to invite their submission. One

of these was seen in the journey, and slain, in error! After the absence

of a few weeks, the survivors prevailed on the chief, and nine other men

of the tribe, to accompany them to the residence of Mr. Batman: this

gentleman, and his family, assiduously cultivated their good will, being

one of the few who entertained a strong confidence in the power of

kindness; notwithstanding, after remaining nine days, they eloped, it is

said laden with plunder--displaying, in their progress, unmitigated

hostility. Two natives, who delivered themselves up to a shepherd, and

were lodged in the penitentiary at Launceston, after being supplied with

abundance of food and clothing, within a month effected their escape,

and were traced by their outrages. The celebrated chief, Eumarrah,

captured by Robertson, after two years detention, when his artless

manner and apparent reconciliation to his lot, threw his keepers off

their guard, contrived to abscond. Justice is, however, due to the

reputation of a savage. Eumarrah, afterwards complained, that when

employed on the LINE, he was beaten by a constable: Jemmy, who escaped

at the same time, had been chained to a bench all night, by a similar

functionary. The newspapers of the day complain, that in gaol food

sufficient for their appetites had not been always supplied them. The

women were declining in health, when allowed their liberty. This last,

was the great cause of their restlessness; they felt the oppression of

civilisation; they were weary of clothing; the skin was irritated. The

instinct which prompts a bird to seek some way of exit, also moves a

savage: it was not so much indifference to kindness, as the passion for

roaming--the habit of the race. Nor were they managed always with

prudence: they were left to the mischievous influence of low white men,

who delighted to terrify, even when they did not positively injure them.

It was not until thirty had escaped, nearly equal to the whole number

taken, that it was discovered, that to retain them, even their

prejudices required tenderness, and that they were deeply sensible of

contempt.

These retreats tended to extinguish the hopes cherished by the friends

of the natives, and rooted the conviction more firmly in the colonial

mind, that all efforts to tame them were unavailing. All the plans laid

down for their expulsion, had been tried, and had proved to be

impracticable. They still recurred to their usual haunts, and made up

for their diminished numbers by their improved method, cunning, and

audacity. Having committed depredations, they retired, with their

plunder, to the districts reserved for their occupation, and whither it

was unlawful to follow them, except for sworn offences. The Governor

determined to try a movement, _en masse_, and by the united force of the

entire population, to drive the Austral tribes within Tasman's

Peninsula--a territory, joined to the main land by a neck, about one

quarter of a mile in breadth. The success of this plan could never have

been considered very promising. The Governor expressed his doubt

respecting the result, while it was in progress; and there is no reason

to question that, in putting it to the test, he was moved by the earnest

entreaties of the colonists, and a conviction that nothing should be

left untried, to preserve the people committed to his charge.

On the 7th September, 1830, the intention of the Governor was officially

announced. Referring to the outrages of the natives, he asserted that

their expulsion was impossible, but by a simultaneous effort. He called

on every settler, whether residing in the town or country, to place

himself under the direction of a magistrate, whoever he might prefer;

that the whole military and police strength, combined with such

assistance, might capture the hostile tribes, or permanently expel them.

The solemnity of the engagement, no less than the preservation of the

lives and property of the whole community, would require a serious and

resolute co-operation. On former occasions, he observed such campaigns

had been greatly perverted, and transformed into amusement and

recreation. The Governor gave no promise of recompense, and insisted

that the effort, however meritorious, was simply the duty of all; but

with his accustomed tact, he chose this moment to reward, with large

grants of land, those persons already distinguished for enterprise and

success, and to distribute indulgences to prisoners who had been

actively employed in the service. Mr. Batman, who had devoted twelve

months to the pursuit of the blacks, obtained 2,000 acres of land. Mr.

Howel, of the Clyde, whose losses had been great, but who was

represented as displaying an untiring spirit of humanity, was consoled

with 1,000 acres. The aboriginal Sydney guides, and Black Bill, a

Tasmanian, received each 100 acres.

The volunteer parties from Hobart Town, were to join the force at New

Norfolk, the Clyde, or Richmond: those from Launceston, were to patrol

the westward and Norfolk Plains, the west bank of the Tamar, or the

country extending from Ben Lomond to George Town. Enterprising young

men, inured to the bush, were requested to attach themselves to the

small military parties at the out stations, and, under military

officers, to scour the northern country.

Men, holding tickets-of-leave, were required to enrol under the

magistrate of their district, and settlers were enjoined to equip and

detach whatever servants they could spare, reserving only sufficient

strength for the protection of their families. The inhabitants of Hobart

Town, in public meeting assembled, tendered their service to the

government, for the furtherance of the object. The peace-loving Joseph

Hone, Esq., was chairman of this warlike meeting: most of the leading

speakers belonged to the profession of the gown. Mr. Kemp, one of the

elder colonists, once an officer of the 102nd regiment, who had seen the

process of extermination throughout, declared that the English were

chiefly the agressors. Dr. Turnbull contrasted the effects of a vigorous

resistance by government and the conflict of individuals: united effort

might be followed by bloodshed, but would tend to repress the habits of

violence, and, at least, save a remnant from destruction. A tribe, one

hundred and sixty strong four years before, that frequented the

Elizabeth River, was reduced to sixty by daily skirmishes with the

stock-keepers. A question, however, arose, whether it were lawful to

shoot aborigines refusing to surrender on challenge. Against this

construction of law, Mr. Gellibrand earnestly protested; and

maintained, in warm terms, their claims to sympathy and

compassion--himself, alas! destined to die by the hands of the race. It

seemed, however, generally understood, that capture should be attempted

by the most merciful methods, but accomplished at all events.

Colonisation by the French, was exhibited by Mr. Hackett, the distiller,

in contrast with English; but Dr. Ross rose in reply, and stated that

there was a rock which bore the name of _The Leap_, from which the last

sixty natives of Grenada were precipitated. Mr. R. L. Murray treated the

prevailing notion of danger with derision: three women, he said, would

put a whole tribe to flight; but Mr. Home reminded the meeting, that the

grass had not yet covered the graves of a mother and her children,

recently slain. Thus, like the warriors of the heroic age, they debated

before they armed; but it is difficult to reconcile the civic temper

with military subordination: the committee nominated by the meeting to

enrol the town guard, suggested that volunteers should be allowed to

choose each their own company, as well as their own officers. One party

of twenty-four, required the choice of their post, and the right to act

as an independent division.

On the 22nd September, the plan of the campaign was minutely described

in a government order, and operations were fixed for the 7th of October.

Its main features may be briefly stated:--The Oyster Bay and Big River

tribes, as the most sanguinary, were first marked out for pursuit. They

were to be driven within the county of Buckingham; the utmost care being

employed to prevent escape through the lines, while chasing them to

Tasman's Peninsula.

A chain of posts was occupied, under Captain Welman, from St. Patrick's

Head on the east coast; including the source of St. Paul's River, and

stretching to Campbell Town. A second chain, under Major Douglas,

extending from Campbell Town, passed south of the Macquarie, to its

junction with the Lake River. Both divisions, marching in a southerly

direction, formed a line from Oyster Bay tier to Lackey's Mills. During

these manoeuvres, a party were sent to examine the tier, extending

from Swan River to Spring Bay; carefully, however, concealing the

movement from the natives, lest they should be deterred from passing the

subjacent isthmus. Other parties were employed, under Captain Wentworth,

to force the aborigines from the neighbourhood of the lakes in the west,

towards the same centre, advancing due east to the Jordan. The lines

being compressed and thickened, and joined by the settlers on their

march, were then moved forward, followed by scouring parties, to guard

against their escape, should the natives cross the line. Fires were kept

burning to direct the troops, who were expected to march in unbroken

order.

Captain Donaldson, who directed the operations in the north of the

island, swept over the vast extent of country from Norfolk Plains to the

Ouse--from Sorell Lake to Lake Echo. There he remained, closing the

avenues of escape, while Douglass and Wentworth advanced to their last

position: he then joined the main body. Twenty-two parties, under Major

Douglas, and fifteen under Captain Wentworth, were then sent within the

lines, to catch the natives, or drive them toward Tasman's Peninsula.

The distribution of provisions to this force, was entrusted to Messrs.

Scott, Wedge, and Sharland, surveyors. The rations were delivered to the

leader of each party weekly, and consisted of sugar, tea, flour, and

meat, in considerable proportions. The principle depot was at Oatlands:

where 1,000 muskets were provided, 30,000 rounds blank cartridges, 300

pairs of handcuffs, and whatever might contribute to the success of the

assailants. Many thousands of rations were stored, and the settlers saw,

with pleasure, their produce rise in the neighbourhood of this

formidable band, to twice its recent value. L2,000 was paid to one

merchant for the tobacco. The officers, to avoid its destruction,

inevitable on so long a march, mostly threw off their military clothing,

and assumed an uniform of Maria Island cloth, thus reserving their full

dress to celebrate the coming triumph. The enthusiasm was universal: a

blacksmith, at Sorell, unable to follow the army, offered to repair all

the guns belonging to the volunteers of his district. His example was

followed by another, who, having but one leg, contributed the same

service to the common cause. Nor was supplication forgotten: a form of

prayer was composed for those who used formulas, and extempore petitions

were offered by other denominations. The colony, at large, cheerfully

responded to the call of government: the military character of the plan

excited the young, without much alarming the mature. The inhabitants of

the towns readily enrolled, and the discussions every where exhibited a

curious mixture of martial ardour and civil pertinacity.

There were many old soldiers in the colony, who were amused, without

being repelled by this mimicry of war. More busy civilians, were

anxious for the formality of incorporation, and the gradations of

command. The townspeople were allowed their choice, between more active

service and garrison duties. "Gentlemen," said an old soldier, "you may

call yourselves marshals, generals, and colonels, but the duties

assigned you are usually performed by a corporal's guard." It is

gratifying to observe, that the last injunction of the Governor, and the

last lesson of the press, suggested humanity. Under the excitement of

losses and bereavement, the destruction of the natives had been invoked;

but now, softened by the belief that the whites were about to complete a

work which had been twenty-six years in progress, and to expatriate the

race, with one voice all said, "spare them!"

The forces, including the military and constabulary, amounted to nearly

five thousand; of these, 1,500 were contributed by Hobart Town, and 500

by Launceston. No army ever departed from their homes less agitated by

the uncertainties of the future; and notwithstanding the dreary picture

of the service, drawn by the colonel commanding, there was no danger

that a bridge of Lodi, or a plain of Waterloo, would be found in the

campaign. Some went out with the keenness of sportsmen who might at

least catch a kangaroo: others were contented to live moderately well at

government charge. The clerks, released from their offices, gladly

embraced a holiday: the poor prisoner acted and felt as a free man, and

rejoiced in the interval of his servitude; and keen and canny volunteers

embraced the opportunity to range the unknown territory, for the

discovery of some neglected spot, which might offer a future home.

On the 1st of October, the whole country was declared under martial law;

excepting, however, from its operation, not only the British, but such

of the aborigines as were pacific. This measure was of no great moment,

except that it authorised the pursuit of all natives in every quarter.

The journals not favorable to the scheme, predicted its failure. There

were vast probabilities against it: the nature of the force--the seat of

war--the foe--the discipline--even the orders not to kill, were all

peculiar and discouraging. Townsmen, little accustomed to fatigue, and

sportsmen not disposed to be silent, were to move sometimes in a regular

and quiet line. A shot carelessly fired, the momentary slumber of an

undisciplined sentinel, or the lazy evasion of a scout, might disconcert

the whole campaign. No Englishman could follow up the native: the array,

the number and the glancing of muskets, gave warning from afar. An

European, encumbered with his dress, could only move slowly, and when

passing the bush must pause every moment, or be tortured at every step;

but the native could swing from bough to bough, mount to the topmast

branch like an opossum, move past the people seeking him diligently, or

lie down until they were gone. To many of the colonists, the campaign

was no child's play. The pursuit of solitary white or black rangers of

the wood, was exhilarating to men of great animal courage, and who could

enjoy long intervals of rest; but a regular march, through such a

country, soon wore out the patience of many, and they were glad to

resign the glorious undertaking to more ardent warriors.

As the campaign advanced, the weather was unpropitious: crossing the

rivers became dangerous; trees had to be cut down to form temporary

bridges. These obstacles cooled the spirit of volunteers, who passed

rapidly from discontent to criticism, and from criticism to despair.

"Many crawled home:" such was the indignant description of their

retreat, given by their comrades; and whilst the drenched, but

decreasing forces lay along the line, young men, it was said, crowded

the streets of the capital, ignobly forgetful of the common cause.

Parties were divided into threes, each forming a night watch: fires were

lighted for the night, and illumined the whole distance of thirty miles,

from Prosser's River to Sorell; and sentinels paced within hail of each

other. The police magistrates visited the several posts on horseback,

and the Governor rode rapidly along the line, from the Clyde to Spring

Bay. Dr. Ross recording his Excellency's exertions, states, that to

allow them a full description, would leave no room for any other topic!

His labours and perils were the theme of admiration and sympathy: it was

reported, that he was lost three days in Paradise--a place renowned for

its miserable vegetation, and the dreariness of its scenery. The warlike

tone of the day may excite a smile, but the fatigue was indisputable;

and although the slipperiness of the foe gave the air of mock heroism to

the service, the watchers of the line were reminded, by frequent tidings

from homeward, that their enemy was strong enough to deal death to the

aged and the innocent. Four blacks, who crossed the line, and hung upon

its rear, inflicted terrible vengeance. One attacked a settler, who

returned a mortal wound with a pitchfork. The survivors hovered about

the place to avenge his death: they at length found a victim in an

amiable young lady, Miss Peters; who was speared in the breast. She

felt, from the first, that the wound was mortal, and calmly resigned

herself to her destiny. Others, left by their friends and dependants,

were liable to the same perils: of this, Mr. Gildas, a settler on the

Tamar, was a remarkable instance: he had sent his men to the line, and

was thus alone. He left his house to seek for fire-wood, and was

speared. The savages plundered his house, and defaced the pictures on

the walls. A pilot, calling at his dwelling, found it pillaged and

desolate. This man was at the battle of Trafalgar, and present when

Nelson fell--himself reserved to perish in Tasmania, by savage hands.

The division under Captain Donaldson, which followed up the main body of

the forces, arrived on the 31st of October. Colonel Arthur issued from

the camp (Sorell Rivulet), a statement that the final decisive movement

was at hand, and that those who had been exposed to great privations,

would soon be released to their homes. Having been compelled to await

reinforcements, the campaign had been unavoidably prolonged: to have

moved without them, would have risked the success of the enterprise; the

two dangerous tribes would attempt to escape, and the forces in charge

were exhorted to redouble their vigilance, to prevent their breaking

through the position.

These notices indicate a confidence of success, doomed to

disappointment. To the precipitation of Mr. Walpole's party, Colonel

Arthur attributed the failure of the expedition. They were instructed

not to attempt a capture, unless a considerable number could be taken;

but the sight of the slumbering enemy probably suspended the

recollection of this order, and was one of those casualties which could

hardly be avoided, in such a wide distribution of command. It was on the

22nd of October this misfortune happened: the natives were discovered

hunting, and were watched, until their evening fires were formed for the

night. No noise being heard, Mr. Walpole supposed they had taken an

alarm, and advanced at twilight towards the first hut, where he saw five

blacks, with their dogs, fast asleep. He seized one man by the feet, and

after a severe struggle detained him: a boy, ornamented with figures on

his body, about fifteen years of age, shared the same lot; but two

others were shot: the remainder fled. The quantity of spears and baskets

left behind, proved that their flight was sudden, and their numbers

considerable.

An attempt was made by the natives to cross the line on the 27th

October. The sentry had set down his piece, and was putting some wood

on the fire, when a spear was thrown at him: he threw the billet in his

hand, and was reaching his musket when he received another spear; an

alarm being given to an adjoining party, the blacks were driven back, of

whom, however, six only were seen.

A circumstance occurred, which strongly confirmed the impression, that

some treacherous whites had directed the natives. In pursuing them as

far as the isthmus, they discovered in their tracks the impression of

shoe-nails, and other evidence of the presence of white men. The reports

were soon spread, that the Oyster Bay and Big River tribes were in the

rear. The hopes of the colony rapidly gave way, and the Governor,

writing to the Secretary of State, on the 21st of November, intimated

his suspicion that the movement would be in vain.

These reports were, indeed, constantly circulated, and tended to damp

the ardour and diminish the vigilance of the line. Some scouring parties

from Norfolk Plains fell in with a tribe of forty, whom they pursued

beyond the Shannon. They followed them for three days, but were

compelled to return: the blacks, in their progress, had surprised a

settler, and murdered him. The rumours of escape were aggravated by

imagination: a party of the whites were seen by some sawyers, who ran

away and reported them as natives; and it was several days before they

could be persuaded of their error.

The settlers, worn out with fatigue and longing for their homes, were

impatient to advance, and afforded ample opportunities for concealment

and escape. Among the rest a place is noticed, which enabled the natives

to defy intrusion or discovery, near the "Three Thumbs' Mountain,"--an

almost impenetrable forest, of seven miles extent: the spreading

branches obscure the sky, and lofty plants grow entwined, and conceal an

object at the distance of a few feet. The attempt of the blacks to cross

the line discovered their retreat. It was resolved to assemble forces

sufficient to surround, break through, and storm this thicket: it was

penetrated by about 300 men, who kept up a constant fire of musketry. A

party, hearing the rustling of leaves like the noise of cattle, followed

the sound: they came up to an encampment, where the fires were

unextinguished, and where half-formed weapons indicated a hasty

dispersion. Here they found the impression of nails, and what were

deemed sure proofs of a superior directing intelligence. The

presumption, that some convicts were incorporated with the blacks, was

certainly strong, but it was probably but a temporary or casual

intercourse, of not much utility to the natives. The Governor had,

however, a full conviction that to this circumstance the failure might

be partly ascribed. In the middle of the march, he ordered the

publication of a report, which appeared decisive of the fact. Savage, a

servant of Mr. Bisdee, was met half naked by the Governor, near Mills'

Lagoon, to whom he stated he had been surrounded by a tribe, and rescued

from violence by a man named Brown, who was with them. This person he

had known in gaol. Savage advised Brown to bring in the natives, but he

refused: he said that he had been frequently at Hobart Town, where he

had bought clothes for the women: he had a double-barrelled gun, and

seemed to have complete control over them. They carried Savage with them

as far as Mills' Lagoon, when he was told he might go. The Governor and

his party instantly set off in the pursuit, but they discovered no

traces of the natives. The truth of this narrative has been questioned,

yet from the number of points in which a correct memory, or

extraordinary powers of invention would be requisite, the Governor might

have easily detected imposition. The man stated that fright cured him of

rheumatism; his rags were consistent with his story. It is, however, the

only clear testimony to the presence of white men with the blacks at

that period.

On the 26th of November, it was announced by the Governor, that the

first series of operations was brought to a close; and except a few,

requisite to protect the country, the colonists and their servants were

released, and the town guards replaced.[17]

Those who had condemned the plan, now censured its precipitate

abandonment: they said that hundreds of blacks were enclosed when the

troops were withdrawn. It is not likely, however, that the Governor was

deceived on this point. It is certain that many blacks were in the rear,

and the dispersion of the force was equal to a confession, that the

object was impracticable--that it had failed.

Thus closed the Black War. This campaign of a month, supplied many

adventures, and many an amusing tale; and, notwithstanding the gravity

of his Excellency, much fun and folly. The settler soldiers returned

to their homes, their shoes worn out, their garments tattered, their

hair long and shaggy, with beards unshaven, their arms tarnished;

but neither blood-stained nor disgraced. They had seen much and dreaded

more; but, in general, they met no other enemies than scrub and thorns,

and they sat down on their own hearths, happy in having escaped the

ramrods of their friends. The odd tactics, awkward movements--the

skulking and the foraging, and all the various small accomplishments of

a bivouac, were long topics of conversation and laughter. The accidents

were few, though of these some were fatal: two aborigines only were

captured, and one soldier was wounded. Yet though not very glorious,

perhaps no evening in the year passes, but some settler's fireside is

enlivened by a story of the fatigues and frolics of the Black War.

When the last movement was completing, the _Science_ sailed for England

with despatches from Colonel Arthur: they indicate his expectation of a

failure, and scarcely conceal his mortification. Either the original

impossibility of the plan, or the indolence or incaution of those who

carried it out, had exposed the government to more than ridicule. Five

thousand men had taken the field, beside the town guard. Nearly L30,000

had been expended, and probably not much less value in time and outlay

by the settlers, and two persons only were captured! Those who

prophecied the result, of course exulted in their sagacity: for the

rest, they either praised the motive or the details. An impartial

retrospect will not permit a commendation of the plan. The arrangements

were ably made, and the parties, though they encountered difficulties

unusual, reached the appointed places with considerable precision.

A public meeting was called to thank the Governor for his exertions in

the field. This assembly was summoned, says the chronicler of the times,

by the largest placard ever published in the colony! The resolutions and

addresses were nearly unanimous; Mr. Gregson being almost singly opposed

to this tribute of gratitude. It was objected by this gentleman, that

while the activity of the Governor was not to be disputed, exertions

wisely directed were alone worthy of praise; and he compared the project

for netting the aborigines, with an attempt to harpoon a whale from the

heights of Mount Wellington. The ardour of the people would not,

however, admit a comparison which it required at that moment some

political resentment to perceive. Nor is it precisely just to estimate

the merits of a plan, by the success of its application. A colonist at a

glance sees, in the names which were attached to the addresses, that the

war was popular: all parties, of every shade, contributed something to

that warmth of commendation, which had been hitherto paid by one alone.

In every district of the colony, the applauses of Hobart Town were

re-echoed, and the Governor's replies gave back an exchange of praise.

To suppose that Colonel Arthur expected military renown from such an

enterprise, is certainly to under-estimate his ambition: to imagine that

he valued a military spectacle, is not consistent with a mind much too

practical for chivalry. His avowed and real object was to stop the

murder of his countrymen, and to arrest the extinction of the natives;

and it was not unworthy the public gratitude.[18] The Governor was

delighted, however, by those proofs of the discipline of the prisoners,

which were afforded through the campaign: many hundreds were in arms:

they performed their duty with exemplary diligence and sobriety, and

thus afforded the only spectacle which Colonel Arthur valued. It was

certainly unprecedented. Slaves have been armed by their masters--their

wives and children were hostages--but convicts, never. Robberies were

less frequent than usual, and the journals singularly free from the

details of crime. The animating influence of confidence reposed,

elevates the least romantic natures: since they were trusted, they were

faithful: all returned home to their servitude.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 17: The sheriff, Mr. Dudley Fereday, had before dismissed that

portion which guarded the gaol: he affected to believe that the

prisoners were not safe. There was small chance of escaping, so observed

the newspapers, while the civilians were on guard--the prisoners

themselves had given up all hope! But the sheriff thought otherwise, or

more probably availed himself of his office, to cast into the dirt the

honors of the civic guard; who had observed the forms of military

discipline, and who merited a more distinguished termination to their

service.]

SECTION VII.

While the hostile proceeding was in progress, the future preserver of

the natives, Mr. Robinson, had already given his thoughts to their

conciliation. In 1829, he was appointed to take charge of Brune Island,

where twelve natives, captured, were located, and mixed with others who

had attained a partial civilisation. Mr. Robinson attempted to acquire

their language, and was soon able to understand them. The pecuniary

advantages of his office were not very alluring: L50 a-year, and

rations, were thought equal to obtain a person of good character to

manage the infant establishment, and to effect the proposed intercourse

with this unfortunate race. Mr. Robinson described his plan, _as the

employment of persuasion only_, and requiring the withdrawment of

intimidation. He first laboured to acquire the language--a task of some

difficulty: the English were scarcely less ignorant on this subject,

than when they first landed, and the dialects of the tribes differed

considerably. The aborigines were supposed to understand the English

tongue much more extensively; but the words with which they were most

familiar, were the imprecations so often addressed to them--they were

able to retort common terms of menace. Their intercourse with

bushrangers and stock-keepers on remote stations, was the chief source

of their knowledge. To learn the language as an instrument of

civilisation, would be the first idea of a Christian missionary; but it

was a conception, too lofty for the colonial mind. It was forgotten that

by no other means can savages be softened, or permanently conciliated.

The effect, when adopted, was electric: they learned to address Mr.

Robinson as their _marmanake_, or father, and thus to distinguish him

from other white men. The stupidity attributed to barbarians, and the

vacant laughter, with which they receive the announcement of new ideas

in a foreign tongue, would be ascribed, by experienced teachers, to the

absurdity of such a medium of communication.[19]

The plan adopted by Mr. Robinson, was not only humane--it was

reasonable. The natives were proud of freedom: their restraint was

disguised, and by unvarying kindness he taught them to regard him as

their friend; and thus they were prepared, not only to submit to his

authority, but to rely upon his promises. White men had thought it a

merit to deceive, and it required some skill to convince them. Having

explained the proposals of the government, he took with him several of

their number, and went on his errand of mercy. The aborigines were

evidently prepared for his mission. Most of the tribes had occasionally

direct intercourse with Europeans--true, the more frequent, the more

hostile; but while they regarded the whites with hatred, this commerce

enabled them to appreciate the presents provided to entice them, and

facilitated friendly communication. All on the east side of the island

were confederated; and when any were gained, they became agents in each

other's pacification. The late pursuit, though it had not subdued their

enmity, or even their courage, had convinced many that there was no

security but by peace. Others, however, long resolved to confide in

their own strength, and to take refuge in the fastnesses of the island.

Such was the answer they gave to the messages of Robinson; but the late

events had separated them from each other--it had scattered their

tribes: members of the same family were part in captivity, and the

knowledge of their condition moved the sympathies of relations still at

large. Of this, an affecting instance transpired in 1831. Some, who gave

themselves up, stated that they had been very unhappy: they had gone

over the country, searching for their lost friends, of whom they could

gain no tidings. We realise a softening scene, in contemplating these

fragmentary tribes, traversing their ancient haunts, and uttering the

unanswered, and then melancholy call which distinguishes their race.

When this party were told that their relations were living under the

protection of Robinson, they expressed an anxious wish to join them, and

met them with exclamations of joy.

The numerous islands that surround the coast, greatly facilitated the

detention of captives: few of the male natives could swim; few

understood the structure of a catamaran. The means of escape were not

easily obtained, and for a time the novelty and repose of their bondage

mitigated their dislike to its restrictions: these natural fortresses

kept them in safety, without the aspect of a prison; and one or other

island was accessible from most points of the Tasmanian shore.

Colonel Arthur implied, by his closing proclamation, when he dismissed

the forces, that their labors formed the first series of a connected

plan, only partially developed. The war was, in the estimation of the

Governor and his friends, a preparation for a mission of peace. It was

fortunate that Robinson's early progress imparted to the warlike

expedition the _eclat_ of reflected success. It is not necessary to

scrutinise the notion, or to teach what this history will not

warrant--that measures of conciliation are more successful, when pursued

under the forms of hostility. Had the milder method been tested at an

earlier period, the expenses of the campaign might have been spared.

Colonel Arthur, however, warmly approved, and strenuously supported the

pacific mission: not only was he convinced that nothing further could be

expected from arms, but he felt a real compassion for the unfortunate

race. In this course, he found considerable opposition. "_We strongly

raise_ our voice," one editor remarks, "against _their civilisation_.

The natives are not to be trusted; and the lives of all engaged in the

mistaken policy of conciliation, are never safe for one moment."

The conduct of this mission, the Governor entrusted to the Aborigines'

Committee, originally consisting of Archdeacon Broughton, Rev. Messrs.

Bedford and Norman; P. A. Mulgrave, J. Thomas, S. Hill, and Charles

Arthur, Esquires. Their authenticated statements are embodied in these

pages: their sentiments accorded with their character, but were slightly

tinged by the feelings of the day.

To devise the means of capture, and superintend their application, was

their most important function. It was proposed by one gentleman,

exasperated by injuries, or perhaps unconscious of the details of his

plan, to pursue the natives with bloodhounds. Another suggested the

employment of a man, "who would soon put an end to the eastern mob; and

who had already killed half that tribe, by creeping upon them and firing

among them." He thought that "the worst men were the best to engage" in

this work. Another proposed to employ the sealers--men who had waged a

war of extermination with great success. It is but just to observe, that

proposals like these, though received, were not favored by the Governor.

They are in the records of Office, connected with the names of their

authors, and they admit no other excuse than a reference to recent acts

of aboriginal violence, which had shaken the common principles of

British humanity.

The Governor had already announced the re-capture of the natives who

escaped from Mr. Batman's, while he was absent at the war. They

re-commenced depredations: he finally re-took them without bloodshed.

But the most pleasing intelligence, and that which chiefly inspired

hope, came from the south-east extremity of the island: Mr. Robinson

went round the coast; touched at Macquarie Harbour, visited Circular

Head, and Portland: there he took Lemina Beginna, a chief, and

twenty-two others, including thirteen conciliated at George's River.

These were brought round to Gun Carriage Island; a temporary abode,

ill-suited for their entertainment, and where several soon concluded

their troubled career.

Lemina complained that, many years ago, his wife had been taken away by

sealers, and entreated the Governor to procure her restoration; another

petitioned, that his sister and his mother might be recovered from the

same vile oppressors. The sister was known as Black Jock, and seems to

have been greatly in request: she was in alliance with the leader of one

of the parties--less modest than familiar. A sealer, from whom she had

eloped, when she came back to the coast demanded her, with some

vehemence, as his wife! So much beloved was this Tasmanian belle. The

arbitration of these disputes was no easy task: though sufficiently

ridiculous, they often seriously endangered the mission. The Governor

issued an order against the interference of the sealers, and declared

Mr. Robinson under the special protection of government.

In reference to these captures, the Governor publicly expressed his

great gratification, and requested the colonists to promote pacific

intercourse, by all available means. The discretion displayed by

Robinson, not less than his courage, excited much admiration, and hopes

were entertained that the true means of safety were at last discovered.

Mr. Robinson now requested that the armed parties should be recalled,

depots established to afford an asylum to the captives, and additional

agents employed. Mr. Cotterell, and others were engaged to act in

subordination to the movements of Robinson. The Sydney blacks, ten of

whom had been brought down by Mr. Batman, for the mission, had been

found less useful: they were rewarded, and sent home. The aborigines of

New Holland despised the Tasmanian blacks--a race, ignorant of the

_womera_![20]

In the following September, 1831, Mr. Robinson obtained another

considerable accession, assisted by Lemina Beginna: they travelled,

backwards and forwards, for four hundred miles, and found old

acquaintances. Eumarrah, the chief of the Stony Creek tribe, when he saw

Mr. Robinson, ran to him and shook hands, and with five men and one

woman, gave himself up: three only of his tribe remained! The captives

were described as remarkably athletic: they talked incessantly, and

complained bitterly that their women had been stolen. The inequality of

numbers confirmed this charge. While Robinson was with them, a boat's

crew came in sight; and it required all his influence to prevent the

natives from retreating with precipitation. Thus the evil they suffered

in their first intercourse, pursued them to the last moment of their

freedom.

M'Kay, who had been employed under Mr. Robinson, added to these

captures. Two friendly native women accompanied him, and they followed

the track for a week. At last, they found the natives encamped in a

plain: in the dead of night the party dashed in among them, and took two

men, one woman, and a boy. Surrage, also assisted by two native females,

captured eight men and two women. Their method was curious: the tame

women were sent up the hill, where the fires were seen: they returned;

four men followed them down to the boat, and six others, men and women,

were speedily seen in the footsteps of their companions.

While these captures were proceeding, Mr. Robinson started for the

Surrey Hills and Circular Head. He left the party lately conciliated in

Launceston: they were cheerful, and expected their proposed voyage to

the islands with great glee. They spoke of their past outrages without

reluctance, which they justified by relating the cruelties they had

suffered.

The Governor was anxious to notice every instance of intrepidity and

kindness: it is the coward that is ferocious. The indulgences of the

crown were freely given to persons, of whatever class, who exemplified

courage and humanity. Mr. Anstey, a young gentleman of the interior, was

rewarded with five hundred acres. He had surprised and taken several,

and the skill of his arrangements prevented the effusion of blood. In a

few instances, the natives voluntarily surrendered. Mr. Charles Headlam

saw two approaching, holding up their hands--thus indicating the absence

of their spears: he was standing on the threshold when he remarked the

signal, and immediately lowered his gun. These unfortunate beings were

admitted into the house, and supplied with food; and finally conducted

to a place of safety.

These feelings were occasionally damped by acts of atrocity, committed

by the blacks. It is not to be supposed, however, that provocation

ceased, or that the impulse given by four years conflict, could be

simultaneously paralysed. The tribes frequenting the Tamar and the

Forth, were represented as becoming increasingly mischievous. The fate

of Mrs. M'Alister was deeply affecting: when wounded, she ran bleeding

from her dwelling: her servants carried off the children to a place of

safety. The unhappy mother concealed herself, for a time, in a field of

corn: unable longer to suppress her anxiety, she rushed from her hiding

place, crying out for her children. She was seen by the blacks, and

slain! The relater of this catastrophe concludes--"Let the sentence of

extermination in their hearts, be firmly sent forth on our parts." If we

shudder at such sentiments, they scarcely awaken surprise, when closing

a narrative like this.

The murder of Captain Thomas and Mr. Parker, by the Big River tribe,

renewed the exasperation. His servants, who had landed some provisions,

gave a small portion to the natives. He was told by three of the blacks,

that many were in the woods, and he resolved to follow them. Parker, who

accompanied him, advised him to take his gun. As they were walking, a

native snatched it away: they became alarmed and ran, and were pierced

with spears. This case seemed to indicate a hopeless spirit of innate

malice: Captain Thomas was known to be humane, and his object was to

conciliate. The natives had, however, experienced great cruelties from

the servants and others. A coroner's jury brought in a verdict of wilful

murder: those charged were arrested, and committed to gaol; afterwards,

they were removed to Flinders. As the vessel rounded the coast, the

scene of the murder was visible, and they became extremely agitated; but

the opinion of the colony was no longer favorable to executions, and the

government had discovered a more excellent way.

Mr. Robinson now landed at Circular Head, and assisted by his native

companions, he followed up the Big River tribe: he fell in with the

party at Lake Echo; they had moved with haste, and left behind several

stand of arms, a looking glass, and the gun of Captain Thomas. Other

encampments were passed, but when Robinson approached them, they

invariably fled. They had been to a spot twenty miles south-east of the

Van Diemen's Land Company's establishment, whither they were accustomed

to resort for a mineral, which is found in a decomposed bed of felspar.

From this place they were followed by Robinson, who overtook them thirty

miles north-west of the Peak of Teneriffe. He saw them first to the east

of the Barn Bluff Mountain, and was not more than two miles distant. He

hailed his people, and selected a few of his friendly natives, who,

together with the woman present at the murder of Captain Thomas, were

sent to meet them. The party of Robinson were concealed by a scrub. In

less than half an hour he heard the war-whoop, and perceived that they

were advancing, by the rattling of their spears. This was an awful

moment to their pacificator. On their approach, the chief, Manalanga,

leaped on his feet in great alarm, saying that the natives were coming

to spear them: he urged Mr. Robinson to run, and finding he would not,

took up his rug and spears and went away. The rest of the allies

prepared to follow him; but were prevailed on by Robinson to remain.

They inferred, that the natives sent on the embassy of peace, were

either killed, or that they had joined the hostile tribe. As these

advanced, the friendly emissaries were unseen, being hidden by the

larger number of the strangers, who still raised their cry, and

approached in warlike array. At length Robinson saw his own people: he

then went up to the chiefs and shook hands with them. He explained the

object of his visit; distributed trinkets among them, and sat down and

partook refreshment with them. From that time they placed themselves

under his control, and as they advanced towards Hobart Town, he

encouraged them to make excursions, which left their own actions free,

and prevented suspicion and distrust. With their wives and children,

this party consisted of thirty-six, and at length they were safely

lodged on Swan Island. They were fine muscular men, and excited great

interest and sympathy.

This incident suggested to the venerable artist, Mr. Duterreau, the idea

of a national picture: he depicts the interview, and delineates the

various countenances, drawn from the life, with great energy and effect.

Robinson is seen in expostulation with a listening chief; a woman,

behind him, is endeavouring to pour distrust into his ear. Others are

looking on in expectation or in doubt. The grouping is skilful and

expressive; and this picture, which has the great merit of minutely

representing the attitudes and customs of the natives, will be an

interesting memorial, in another age, of the most honorable passage in

Tasmanian history.

The results of his enterprise produced a strong impression in favor of

Mr. Robinson: he had been thought rash, and even fanatical; his death

had been predicted a hundred times--his success was attributed, half in

jest and half in earnest, to some species of animal enchantment. The

government, at the suggestion of the Committee, acknowledged his

exertions, not only with warm eulogy but substantial rewards. He

received a maximum grant, in the title of which his service to the

public was recorded, and was paid a salary more suited to the office he

filled. Others were also liberally recompensed for their contributions

to his success, of which the merit was more in its conception than in

its detail.

Having shewn the possibility of conciliation, Mr. Robinson declined the

further risk of his life, except on terms which would place his family

beyond the reach of want. The Governor fully met his just claims,

providing pensions for his wife and children, in case of his death, and

promising L1,000,--L300 in hand, and the rest when all should be brought

in. It was understood, that the future government of the aborigines

should be entrusted to his charge, when the mission had realised its

intention. The Governor granted all his requests, and spared no expense

to ensure his success. The task was not accomplished for several years,

but from this time the natives at large rarely appeared, and the

colonists enjoyed that repose to which they so long had been strangers.

His labours were attended with various and unusual perils. It was the

custom of the men belonging to the Circular Head establishment, to

approach the native fires, and destroy all they could not capture. One

night, Robinson, with his black attendants, were on a point of land six

miles from the establishment: the people were attracted by the smoke,

when turning accidentally, he saw seven men cautiously creeping round:

they had levelled their muskets: but for an instant recognition of his

voice, his labours and his life would probably have ended.

Mr. Robinson had learned, that a large party were approaching Arthur

River, on their way to their own country, and returning from a warlike

expedition against those recently captured. He resolved to send four

friendly blacks, and three recent converts, to open a communication with

this tribe: they were to make signals, if successful. Two days after,

the sign was given. On reaching the farther bank, he saw the wild

natives coming towards him with their waddies and spears. He proposed

that they should re-cross with him: they, however, desired him to

remain, promising to hunt for his entertainment. He consented, and made

them presents; but he left his son, and a small party, in the rear. He

was alarmed at night by a friendly native, who being acquainted with one

of the hostile tribe, had learned that it was intended to murder him and

his people. Robinson concealed his knowledge from his companions, lest

their fears should be too powerful to suffer their remaining with him.

The assassins extinguished their own fires, but did not lie down to

sleep: Robinson kept his burning brightly, that he might watch their

movement. They were earnestly chattering, and were trimming their

weapons, while one of their number insisted upon the cruelty of killing

the white man! On Robinson's rising, the whole seized their spears--one

grasped in their right hand, and a bundle in their left. The dogs of

Robinson's party had been secured, and their spears removed; they,

however, escaped, and he was left alone. In a moment, he darted into the

scrub: at this retreat, they seemed struck with astonishment; and

quickly covered by the thicket, their spears did not reach him. On

clearing the scrub, he hastened to Arthur River, and crossed on a

floating tree. At this instant, the natives reached the bank: he was

soon joined by his own friends, and confronted the hostile party, who

stood on the opposite bank flourishing their spears. Robinson cried out,

that he forgave their conduct, and offered them his protection. This

induced a girl and two men to join him; but his situation was perilous,

and having made fires, as if for signals, he hastened away, to deposit

the proselytes in safety.

This tribe continued at large until 1834. They had determined never to

be taken--to subsist upon the _quoib_ (badger), and to perish rather

than yield. Finding Mr. Robinson in pursuit, they endeavoured to elude

his search by false direction sticks. The blacks in his company dreaded

an ambush, and declared that they should all be slain, if they proceeded

further, now that their pursuit was known to the hostile tribe. Mr.

Robinson, however, resolved to persevere, and soothed their fears. The

march was long and harassing, the natives having divided into three

parties, the better to escape. They were captured: eight in February,

three in March, and in April, nine; and were embarked at Circular Head

for Launceston, and thence to Flinders' Island.

The Governor warmly congratulated the colony on its deliverance, but the

numbers that remained were greater than he imagined. The abolition of

martial law was deemed by some to be premature. Twenty were captured in

1834, and seventeen in 1835. Mr. Robinson, after nine months pursuit,

came up with the small relics which were known to be still at large, in

Middlesex Plains, and found one man, four women, and two children: they

had travelled as far as the head of the Derwent. Two men, sent by

Robinson with despatches from the place of their capture, were lost in

the bush, and perished. It was now announced, that no more aborigines

were at large: in this, both Mr. Robinson and the government were

mistaken. Rumours, for several years, were continually stirring, of

blacks fleeing in the distance; of the thin smoke, the native cry, and

other indications of their presence. At length it was proved, that these

were not the ghosts of the departed tribes. In December, 1842, at

Circular Head, seven persons were captured, and rejoined their long

banished countrymen. This remnant consisted of a single family: the

parents about fifty years; the rest of ages from childhood to thirty

years. They were taken by a sealer, whose boat they had pilfered, and

conveyed to Flinders'. They were more than usually intelligent in their

appearance: they did not understand one word of English, and they had

probably retained to the last the primitive manners of their race.

Mr. Robinson was a builder at Hobart Town, his family was large, and

depended on his trade. It detracts nothing from his merit, while it is

honorable to the government, that he was a gainer by successful

humanity. The munificence of the crown, alone prevented a larger

subscription by the people; he had, however, the warm and unanimous

expression of public gratitude.

The character of his mission was supported by his conduct. He went

unarmed, and if the natives approached him at all, they were devoid of

fear and therefore of ferocity. He plunged into the heart of the forest,

assumed the habits of a wanderer, and continued his absence for months

together. He shared the danger of his allies, and confided in their

affection: he encouraged their sports, and so far as could a white man,

without debasement, he became one among them. Hitherto the English had

dealt treacherously, and rarely approached their camps, but to oppress,

to mock, or to destroy them. They now discovered, that all were not

enemies, and kindness was felt more powerfully by contrast. It is said

by Backhouse, that Robinson acted under a sense of religious duty; by

Mann, that he was a fatalist or predestinarian: he was calumniated by

the base and the envious: the ascendancy he acquired over the natives,

the Christian philosopher can easily comprehend. The effect of "good

will to men," is peace on earth. Moral courage, united with generosity,

often overpowers the suspicion and hostility, of even the most

barbarous. The coward dies, while the man of bold spirit dissipates the

clouds of distrust, and wakens in others the confidence he himself

cherishes. Nor is it necessary for the writer to observe, that Divine

Providence gives back often, the "hazard of their lives," to the

resolute in right, or that an omnipotent protector attends the footsteps

of the merciful.

Thus, in their harassing life, parents and children had been divided,

and families had been broken up in melancholy confusion: indeed, they

had ceased to be tribes, and became what they were called--mobs of

natives, composed often of hereditary enemies. Infanticide and distress,

rapid flight, and all the casualties of a protracted conflict,

threatened them with speedy destruction. Had not Robinson appeared, the

last savage, hopeless of peace or safety, would have perished with his

weapon in his hand. It was a great deliverance to this colony, as well

as to the native. From the Windmill-hill at Launceston, whence a wide

and beautiful country is visible, the spectator could discern the site

of twenty aboriginal murders--settlers, servants, and infants; the aged

and the kind had fallen, as well as the base hearted and cruel. It was

something to know, that the fatal hand, which no precaution could

resist, would be raised no more.

It was, indeed, a mournful spectacle: the last Tasmanian quitting the

shores of his ancestors: forty years before, the first settler had

erected his encampment! A change so rapid in the relations of a people

to the soil, will scarcely find a parallel in this world's history; but

that banishment which, if originally contrived, had been an atrocious

crime, was at last an act of mercy--the tardy humanity of Englishmen,

which rescued a remnant, extenuated the dishonor of their cruelty to the

race. As for Mr. Robinson, he enjoyed, not only the bounty of the

government, but the affection of the natives--and the applause of all

good men. His name will be had in everlasting remembrance: happier

still, if numbered by the judge of all among his followers, who came

"not to destroy men's lives, but to save them."[21]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 18: "Gentlemen," said Mr. Kemp, of Mount Vernon at the mess at

the Macquarie Hotel, "you see a sample before you, of what this colony

can produce, which we are now, one and all, making an unanimous effort

to insure the enjoyment of in peace and comfort: if, when not only the

necessaries, but many of the luxuries of life are thus bountifully

supplied us, we are not loyal, we shall never be loyal. Fill your

glasses, gentlemen--the health of his Excellency; and success to the

volunteers. Hip, hip, hip,--hurrah!"--_Courier._]

[Footnote 19: Thus, while at some stations in New Holland clergymen

explained in English the principles of Christianity, the thoughts of the

natives strayed to subjects more familiar, and cries of "bacca" and

"sugar," disturbed the gravity of devotion.]

[Footnote 20: Throwing stick.]

[Footnote 21: It would be difficult, however, to believe Mr. Robinson

was not satirical, when he wrote as follows;--

"The system adopted toward the aborigines of this territory is quite

original. History does not furnish an instance, where _a whole nation

has been removed by so _MILD AND HUMANE A POLICY!"_--Report H.

Commons_--_Aborigines_, 1835.]

SECTION VIII.

During the progress of these captures, the question of future disposal

was slowly determined. Those lodged on Gun Carriage Island, through

injudicious restraint or want of pure water, or melancholy, rapidly

decreased. The government was bound to seek for them a more salubrious

prison, or to restore them to the main land: an event, which would have

ensured their immediate destruction. Maria Island, recommended both by

Mr. Robinson and Mr. Bedford, was desirable, as contiguous; but nothing

could prevent an escape to the colony. Kent's Group, on the coast of New

Holland, was next proposed; but the passage is difficult, and between

the islands, said the sailor witness, "the sea pours like a sluice, and

the winds drive through like a funnel." Then came King's Island,

situated 140 miles north of Van Diemen's Land; but it was said to be

infested with badgers and bandicoots, and that the natives would retire

into the woods, and be no more found. Such was the extent of official

knowledge, in reference to these dependencies, that to select a spot it

was necessary to appoint a special survey; but although the natives were

fast dying, the vessel destined to this service was first sent for a

cargo of timber!

Captain Jackson having visited the Straits, recommended Flinders',

sometimes called Great Island. The aborigines who joined in this visit,

were delighted with the country: they returned to their companions with

the spoils of hunting, and celebrated their good fortune in songs. A

soldier, who accompanied the party, wholly differed from this report: he

said the climate was bleak, the soil sterile, and destitute of springs;

and his objections, though attributed to malice, have been confirmed by

experience. After much deliberation, Flinders' Island was preferred.

The Chief Justice, Sir John Pedder, opposed the removal altogether: too

truly he judged, it would be followed by rapid extinction. In denying to

the aboriginal remnant an asylum within the country of their

forefathers, we inflicted the last penalty which can fall on a race,

whose lives the victors condescend to spare. It was too late, however,

to repent; and pioneers were forwarded to the place of exile. The usual

fatality attended the first choice of a township, but in 1832 Mr.

Backhouse, at Colonel Arthur's request, proceeded to Flinders', where

the station was finally chosen; it was called, _Wybalenna_,--the "Black

Man's Village." The natives were under disguised military control, but

were exceedingly docile and submissive. Cottages were erected for their

use. The women found some amusement in sweeping their houses, and

depositing or replacing the articles of their furniture--their beds,

bedsteads, tables, and stools: they washed the garments of their

husbands; who, when they had occasion to complain, threatened to work

for themselves. They had seen the wives of the soldiers washing, and

inferred that this exercise was the special privilege of women.

The acting commandant, in 1832, reported them as in the highest health

and spirits, full of intelligence, advancing step by step towards

civilisation: so they were described, and such was their aspect. They

were furnished with every article of domestic use, far more numerous

than usually fall to the lot of the English cottager, and which, to an

Irish peasant, would suggest the idea of shopkeeping: the men, dressed

in duck clothing and Scotch caps, voluntarily appeared with the

soldiers, and presented their necessaries for inspection.

A large group watched the landing of Mr. Backhouse in silence; but when

invited, they rose up and shook hands; and when told that provisions had

arrived, they set up shouts of joy: they wore clothing, except in their

dances, which they held thrice a-week, after sun set; they exhibited

much cheerfulness, affability, and mutual kindness, and no great

deficiency of either physical or intellectual power.

The system pursued by Mr. Robinson at Flinders', is minutely described

in papers published by the House of Commons. The establishment of--

1. An aboriginal fund. 2. A circulating medium. 3. An aboriginal police.

4. A weekly market: and 5. A weekly periodical.

The first four of these measures succeeded: the periodical _was not_

successful! but Mr. Robinson established a respectable currency: he made

the natives purchase all articles except food; and once, when the supply

of tobacco was scanty, it rose to the price of 32s. per lb.! They were

too prone to dilapidate and destroy their dwellings; they were therefore

required to pay for the locks, cupboards, and doors. They were

instructed in the Christian religion, and displayed considerable

aptitude; but of some, it is remarked, that they were inattentive to

learning, and fond of the chase!

The civil and religious administration of Flinders' Island has been

often changed, and subject to factions and disputes. The stories which

float in the colony, respecting the little empire of _Wybalenna_, are

grotesque and humorous. No modern author will venture to look into the

abyss of despatches, which develop its policy. To arrive at the truth

would require an amount of labour, perhaps not beyond its intrinsic

worth, but involving large discussions and questions not without peril.

Mr. Backhouse, before leaving the colony, renewed his visit as the envoy

of the government, to heal divisions which had broken out with virulence

between the ecclesiastical and civil powers. He observes, that they

principally resulted from misunderstandings, and with this caution we

resign them to the curious of some other age. It may, however, be

satisfactory to know, that in the order of succession, Messrs. Darling,

Robinson, Drs. Jeannerett and Milligan, have been commandants, and that

Mr. Wilkinson, Rev. Mr. Dove, and Mr. Clark, have filled the office of

chaplain.

The religious manifestations of the aborigines are differently estimated

by different minds: by some, considered purely mechanical and imitative;

by others, as the simple expressions of a genuine piety. The evidence of

their worth, would depend greatly on accompanying moral developments.

The piety of a proselyted heathen is like that of a child, more in

sensibility than concatenated dogmata: they repeated a creed, only

partially understood; but they also became conscious of a Superior

Power, and a nobler destiny. The highly intelligent appreciation of

religious knowledge, attributed by their guardians, did not appear to

the casual visitor; and was probably, unconsciously, coloured. It does

not pertain to this work to examine the evidence of their personal

religion, which, however, sometimes had a conservative influence in

life, and to several yielded consolation in their last hours.

In 1835, Mr. Robinson entered on his office as commandant: believing

that his mission was accomplished, he gathered the people together, and

made a feast, in which they were to forget the animosities of their

tribes, and join as one family. Scarcely was this union effected, when

the occupation of Port Phillip drew attention to the aborigines of New

Holland. Mr. Wedge, who visited that country, made known to the

government the barbarity of the monstrous whites; who, so soon as they

touched those shores, wantonly stained their hands with native blood. To

that gentleman we owe our ability to trace to its origin, an

extermination which has kept pace with the colonisation of that region.

Mr. Robinson proposed to remove the natives of Tasmania, then eighty-two

persons, to Port Phillip. It was expected that their presence would

excite the curiosity, and stimulate the civilisation of the New

Hollanders; that possession of a flock, then 1,300 in number, would give

useful ideas of the bounty of their benefactors. It had been thought

desirable to reward the aboriginal guides, and one hundred ewes and

three rams were forwarded to the establishment, to be distributed among

them: a large addition was made by private benevolence. The increase of

their flock, became a source of temporary profit to the natives: the

wool was brought to Launceston, and exchanged for haberdashery, and

other articles of domestic use.

The British government, after much hesitation, fearful of its

consequences to the Tasmanians, consented to their removal. In 1838, Mr.

Robinson received the appointment of Chief Protector to the Aborigines

of New Holland: the nature or the utility of that office, does not

belong to this work to discuss. By treaty with Sir George Gipps, the

government of Van Diemen's Land agreed to pay a sum annually for each

ten who might survive. The deportation was sanctioned by the blacks

themselves: the certificate, which bears their signatures, might be

supposed to represent a congress of heroes, or the pack of a

huntsman--names, which are chiefly borne by dogs and princes.[22] They

were anxious for the change, but quite incapable of estimating its

results. A party of twenty-two therefore accompanied Mr. Robinson, but

the issue was disastrous: called away by the duties of his office, he

could not extend to them a proper supervision: they were again exposed,

in another land, to their old adversaries and seducers, the

stock-keepers: they were too few to form a village, and death thinned

their numbers: two returned to Van Diemen's Land, and afterwards to

Flinders'. Of the rest, two were executed for murder. Mr. Batman had in

his house at Port Phillip, a native woman and two boys; but the New

Hollanders were rather the objects of aversion than sympathy: and,

fearful of their violence, the Tasmanians avoided their company, and

showed no disposition to forsake their protector.

During the whole period of their residence at Flinders' Island, it does

not appear that any white man on the station, or even of their own

colour, had preferred a criminal charge against one of them. The

commandant, as magistrate, possessed a summary jurisdiction; and the

restrictions in his court he could supplement with the forms and

ensignia of power. A late commandant, when he sentenced to small

penalties for petty offences, sat at night; and to impress their

imaginations, the hall of justice was guarded with drawn swords.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 22: Achilles, Ajax, Buonaparte, King George, Hannibal, Peter

Pindar, Neptune, Tippoo Saib, Washington. A few only bore the names of

ordinary mortals.]

SECTION IX.

The advances towards the final extinction of the natives, have been more

rapid than was expected; but the certainty of that event was never the

subject of doubt. Sir George Murray, on the 5th November, 1830,

anticipated, and wrote down their fate; and inferred, from their

decrease, that at no distant period the whole race would become extinct:

but he declared that the adoption of any course of conduct, with this

design, either avowed or secret, would leave an indelible stain upon the

government of Great Britain! It will be seen, however, that the progress

of decay was never arrested for a moment. The mortality at Brune and

Swan Islands was not less than at Flinders'; but from 1832, a regular

account has been preserved.[23]

Of the forty-five landed at Oyster Cove, in 1847, thirteen

were men, twenty-two women, and ten children. Such has been the progress

of their decline, and with numbers so inconsiderable, the problem of

their fate is solved.

The original amount of the natives has been a question much debated:

like a procession in a circle, a population in motion, when not

personally distinguished, will appear more numerous than the actual

census. Mr. Kelly, who often had passed the coasts, calculated them at,

originally, 7,000, but he guessed their number to be 5,000 in 1830: the

obvious error of the last estimate, would naturally suggest a doubt with

reference to the former. Several hundreds were, however, seen in one

assembly, within the last thirty years. At Hobart Town and Launceston,

from one to two hundred have appeared together. It was their custom to

distribute themselves in parties, of from forty to fifty each. Their

fires, kindled on the sea shore, were often left burning, when they had

moved on to the next stage; and those who saw the flames from

ship-board, concluded that aborigines were lying around them, and thus

telling their numbers by the fires, they were often greatly deceived.

The rapidity of their movements led to the same mistake: they appeared

at places sufficient to establish an _alibi_, according to the current

measures of distance. They had innumerable paths which shorten a

journey, then unknown to the English: it was thus, that they were twice

reckoned, even when carefully counted. No reliance, however, will be

placed by persons of experience on the rumour of numbers. Nearly all who

report an assembly, judge by imagination rather than minute inspection;

thus, mobs are spoken of as tens or hundreds of thousands, without any

intention to mislead. It will be the hope of the humane, that the lowest

estimate is the true one: it can hardly be doubted, however, that they

were originally from 4,000 to 5,000: they were estimated by Mr. Robinson

at 700, when he commenced his mission; 203 were captured--many, in the

mean time, fell by unknown violence and perpetual persecution: a

thousand muskets were charged for their destruction.

The causes of their diminution in Tasmania have been already stated; but

some of these continued their operation even after the capture: their

natural consequences followed. Towards the last days of their savage

life, the sexes were disproportionate, although the balance was partly

restored by associating the women who had been longer in captivity, with

the men whose wives had died; but many of these women had become

licentious, and by an extraordinary oversight the government permitted

unmarried convicts and others to have them in charge, or to assist in

the preliminary labor of their establishment: the result need not be

told. The infant children had perished, by the misery or contrivance of

their parents: thus in 1838, of eighty-two there were only fourteen

children, and of the remainder, eight had attained the usual term of

human life: many who surrendered, were exhausted by sickness, fatigue,

and decripitude. They were the worn out relics of their nation, and they

came in to lie down and die.

The assumption of clothing occasioned many deaths: they were sometimes

drenched with rain--perspiration was repressed, and inflammatory

diseases followed: the licentiousness, and occasional want of the few

last years, generated disorders, which a cold brought to a crisis. Among

savages, the blanket has sometimes slain more than the sword: it

destroyed the Indian of North America, and even threatened the New

Zealander with a similar fate.[24] The abundant supply of food, and

which followed destitution, tended to the same result: it was a

different diet. The habits of the chase were superseded, and perhaps

discouraged: the violent action to which they had been accustomed; the

dancing, shouting, hurling the waddy and the spear--climbing for the

opossum--diving, and leaping from rock to rock--assisted the animal

functions, and developed muscular power. To continue them required the

occasion, as well as the permission; but the stimulus was gone.

It is said, by writers not favorable to the establishment at Flinders',

that attempts to force the customs and habits of a civilised people were

unreasonably, and even ridiculously severe. However docile the blacks,

and generous the intention of their teachers, the physical effects of a

total change in the habits of a race are not to be disputed, or that

what may be harmless when the result of choice, and founded on new

mental and physical stimulants, is dangerous when the mind is vacant,

and the objects of civilised exertion unappreciated. Perhaps, no one is

blameable. In their social circumstances, we may indeed trace the

occasion of decay, but they were no longer produced by cruelty.

There were, other causes. The site of the settlement was unhealthy: they

were often destitute of good water; the tanks preserved an insufficient

supply. It is admitted that they frequently suffered this lack; but it

is stated, that they had sufficient allowed them when sick!

It is, however, clear, that many perished by that strange disease, so

often fatal to the soldiers and peasants of Switzerland, who die in

foreign lands from regret of their native country. They were within

sight of Tasmania, and as they beheld its not distant but forbidden

shore, they were often deeply melancholy: to this point the testimony of

Mr. Robinson is decisive, though not solitary.[25] They suffered much

from mental irritation: when taken with disease, they often refused

sustenance, and died in delirium. The wife, or the husband in perfect

health, when bereaved, would immediately sicken, and rapidly pine

away.[26]

Count Strzelecki has propounded a curious notion of the laws of

extinction, in reference to this race. He states that the mother of a

half-caste can never produce a black child, and thus the race dies. His

statement would need the most positive and uniform testimony; but it may

be added to the curiosities of literature. The decrease of population

among the inferior race, when harassed or licentious, is certain; but

surely there is nothing occult in this, or requiring further explanation

than is afforded by human cruelty and vice.

Among those who survive, is the wife of the native Walter George

Arthur, the half-caste daughter of Sarah an aboriginal woman. [Looking

lately at a picture of Don Quixote, she pointed him out as the man who

fought with the windmill.] Her mother has a younger son, now or lately

at the Queen's School, and of pure aboriginal blood. A natural law, by

which the extinction of a race is predicted, will not admit of such

serious deviations.

In 1844, a Finance Committee of the Legislative Council proposed the

restoration of the natives to this colony. The frequent reference to

head-quarters by the officers in charge, perplexed the government; who

alleged that the distance permitted the oppression of the natives, and

exposed them to the caprice of their guardians. The measure was delayed

for four years; but in 1847, the dismissal of the commandant revived the

project, and in October of that year they were landed in Van Diemen's

Land, and located at Oyster Bay, once a great station of their people.

The removal was unacceptable to the colonists; the outrages of former

years were remembered by many, as scenes of domestic mourning. No murmur

had ever been heard at the cost of their safety: it was deemed a small

atonement for a national wrong: nor will it be possible to state an

expenditure which the colonial public would be unwilling to sustain--to

smooth the last hours of this unfortunate race. The transfer of a part

to Port Phillip, had been attended with fatal consequences to several,

and had ended in murder and executions: it was feared that the vicinity

of their former haunts might revive their habits of wandering, and once

more expose them to those gangs of felons who set no value on aboriginal

life. These sentiments led to a spirited remonstrance, in which many

respectable settlers concurred: the government had not anticipated

opposition, or it may be presumed that a statement of the actual

condition of the natives, and the provision intended for their safety,

would have preceded this change in their abode. The dark shadows of

former years threw doubt on their present character: happily, however,

these impressions were erroneous.

The few who remain, are not likely to forsake the comforts of their

home: belonging to various tribes and different dialects, particular

districts do not present equal attractions to all. They have learned

also to rear vegetables, and the greater number are said to be familiar

with English customs. By the census, they are assigned to the Church of

England; but the distinctions of theology are beyond their

comprehension, and therefore their choice; and it is perhaps to be

lamented, that from the period of their capture, they have not been

placed entirely under the parental care of some religious communion.

Those who think lightly of missionary institutions, will find here no

ground for exultation in the disastrous surveillance of the civil

government.

Englishmen, of whatever rank, cannot fail to survey the aboriginal

youth, less in number than many a colonial household, with deep

solicitude; or when estimating their claims, to remember the fortunes of

their fathers. Or should their helplessness and dependence ever tempt a

ruler to expose them to the corrupting influence of the lowest examples,

and to assign them the meanest education, he may be recovered to some

sense of justice by the following confession of a distinguished

predecessor:--

"Undoubtedly, the being reduced to the necessity of driving a _simple

but warlike, and, as_ IT NOW APPEARS, NOBLE MINDED RACE, from their

native hunting grounds, is a measure in itself so distressing, that I am

willing to make almost any prudent sacrifice that may tend to compensate

for the injuries that government is unwillingly and unavoidably the

instrument of inflicting."--GEORGE ARTHUR.[27]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 23:

+-----+---------+-----+--------+

|Date.|Captured.|Died.|Escaped.|

+-----+---------+-----+--------+

|1831 | 54 | -- | -- |

|1832 | 68 | 5 | -- |

|1833 | 42 | 40 | 3 |

|1834 | 20 | 14 | -- |

|1835 | 17 | 14 | -- |

| |---------+-----+--------+

| | 201 | 73 | 3 |

+-----+---------+-----+--------+

The numbers were-- In 1836 In 1838 In 1847

---- ---- ----

123 82 45]

[Footnote 24: The Bishop of New Zealand has wisely protested against the

blanketing process of depopulation. The ignorant natives, accustomed to

lie down in their damp huts, were steamed into consumptions.]

[Footnote 25: "They pine away: more than one half have died, not from

any positive disease, but from a disease they (physicians) call _home

sickness_;'--a disease which is common to some Europeans, particularly

the Swiss soldiers. They die from a disease of the stomach, which comes

on entirely from a desire to return to their own country."--_Evidence of

Col. Surgeon Barnes: Par. Papers._]

[Footnote 26: The subjoined abbreviated list may give an idea of the

rapid decline:--

_Commandant's Office, Flinders' Island._

1836-- DEATHS:

December 24.--The native youth, George.

30.--The native man, Nimrod.

1837--

January 28.--The native man, Columbus.

29.--The native woman, Pupedar.

February 5.--Of acute pneumonia, the native man Samuel.

20.--Of chronic visceral inflammation, the native man, Algernon.

25.--Of the same, the native man, Matthew.

26.--Of the same, native man, Omega.

29.--Of the same, native woman, Truedeberrie.

March 16.--The native woman, Tyree.

21.--The native woman, Queen Charlotte.

30.--The native woman, Manoon, ditto Maria, and an infant.

J. ALLEN, _Surgeon_.

June 3.--Of extreme debility, Daniel.

20.--Of inflammation in the intestines, the aboriginal native, King

William.

A. AUSTIN, _Medical Attendant_.

--_Parliamentary Papers_.]

SECTION X.

_Origin._--The traditions of the natives afford no clue to their origin.

They are, perhaps, a branch of the Australasian family settled in New

Holland(?). _Mocha_, is the name for water among the western tribe of

this island: it is known by the same sound at Cape Leeuwin, on the

continent. Though boats were not employed, they constructed a catamaran

of bark, or decayed wood, of the specific gravity of cork: these

materials, tied together, enabled them to pass to the islands of the

Straits.

Lieutenant Gunn found at Maria Island, and preserved for several months,

a catamaran, sufficiently tight and strong to drift for sixteen or

twenty miles: each would convey from four to seven persons. The

catamaran described by the French naturalist, found in Adventure Bay,

was made of pieces of bark, and held together by cords made of grass,

and assumed the appearance of meshes worked in the form of a _pentagon_.

Mr. Taw, the pilot of Macquarie Harbour, saw the natives cross the

river: on this occasion, a man swam on either side of the raft--formed

of the bark of the "swamp tree." The distance between the islets is not

sufficient to shut us up to the notion of a local creation.[28] A New

Holland woman, taken to Flinders', remembered a tradition, that her

ancestors had driven out the original inhabitants--the fathers, it is

_conjectured_, of the Tasmanian race. History carries us back to the

year 1642, and it is in vain to seek authentic information from a people

destitute of records, and perpetually wandering. The time between the

first visit and colonisation, was quite sufficient to obliterate the

traces of earlier migrations.

_Consanguinity._--A comparison of the Tasmanian with the European, would

discredit a common root; but the wide spread family of man exhibits all

the shades and varieties, by which the extremes are connected.

Strzelecki observes, that to account for this connection, is not less

vainly attempted than an explanation of the existence of marsupials: but

the cases are not comparable. The difficulty, in reference to the human

race, is resolved by its intermixture: nature mingles none but kindred

blood.

_Stature._--The man of Tasmania, is from four and a-half to five and

a-half feet high. The skin is blueish black; less glossy than the native

of the continent. The facial angle is from 73 deg. to 85 deg.. The features of

the women are masculine: the mammae become pyriform, and elongate in

nursing. The hair is black, and woolly; sometimes luxuriant,

occasionally long and glossy. The eyes are full: the eyelid dropping:

the iris dark brown: the pupil large, and jet black. The forehead is

high, narrow, and running to a peak: the malar bones are prominent, the

cheeks hollow, the breast arched and full: the limbs round, lean, and

muscular: the hands small; the feet flat, and turned inwards. The frame

does not differ from the common structure of man, and by science is not

pronounced inferior, according to the rules of phrenologists.[29]

_General Appearance._--The impression made upon spectators by the

Tasmanian race, has been curiously various. By some, they are said to be

the lowest in their physical organisation, their mental capacity, and

their social condition. Those who saw them at the same period, and

compared them with the inhabitants of Port Jackson, differed entirely in

their estimate. In the aged women, there was little to admire: of them,

even Mr. Backhouse speaks with unwonted emotion: they reminded him of

the ourang outang; they were hideous! but he thought the younger women

more agreeable. Another visitor in 1830 describes them as having small

hollow eyes, broad noses, nostrils widely distended; jaws like the

ourang outang; thin limbs; shapeless bodies; and a hideous expression of

countenance! Cook described them as having lips not remarkably thick;

their noses moderately flat. Labillardiere noticed a peculiar projection

in the upper jaw of children, which recedes in adult age. They certainly

do not correspond with our notions of beauty, but they are not inferior

to millions of the human race. Among the captives, were some whose

stature and port strongly impressed the spectator. Backhouse observed

one especially, whose features had a Jewish cast, and reminded him of

the popular pictures of Abraham! Their thin and wretched appearance,

occasioned by their diet, and diseases, cannot be properly attributed to

their constitution. Half starved human beings, unclothed, are ever

unpleasing. Those acquainted with populous cities in Europe, have often

been compelled to recognise, in the squalor and emaciation of classes,

the germs of a new race. The captive blacks, when partially clothed,

relieved from anxiety, and supplied with food, soon presented a new

aspect; and their countenances were lighted up with cheerfulness and

intelligence.

_Families._--Polygamy was tolerated: women were, latterly, bigamists.

Labillardiere observed that one man had two wives: this philosopher was

held in suspense, on the comparative happiness of their condition; true,

the affections of the husband were divided--but they jointly catered for

one man instead of two! It is said that they courted with flowers: an

authenticated fact, proves that the female occasionally possessed a

negative. _Roomata_ (Bet) rejected the addresses of _Trigoonipoonata_

(Jack); but she learned the worth of his affection. She was crossing a

river, and became ill: he sprung to her relief, and carried her safely

to land; and she became his wife.[30] They daily brought game to the

residence of the superintendent, during his temporary absence--lest,

said they, he should want on his return. The woman having been left

behind, on recovery followed the tribe with the new born infant. The

toil of the journey, and of the encampment, chiefly fell to her lot: she

carried utensils of all kinds, except the spears. The infant was slung

on the back, and suckled over the shoulder: a draftsman, in the company

of Cook, drew the portrait of a young female, so burdened. The position

of the child has been pronounced, without much reason, a proof of low

maternal sensibility. Those who have carried children through a journey,

can only imagine the amount of affection requisite to convey, often more

than one, after a tribe in its rapid migrations.

_Infanticide._--Infanticide was not common; although, in the latter

days, when harassed by daily conflict, the practice, was not unknown. It

is stated by Leigh, that they were careful not to increase in number,

and that they sold their female children. At a later period, it is said,

that to suckle puppies they abandoned their offspring. Such facts are

not incredible, when they relate to individuals, but are scarcely

characteristic of a race: all nations have perpetrated infanticide, from

necessity, or pride, or barbarism. Infant life is little valued among

savages, and female children least: they run the gauntlet of a thousand

perils. Fewer were born than among settled people, and more died in

infancy.

Uncivilised man is ever harsh in his treatment of woman. The natives of

this country were less imperious than those of Port Jackson, where the

blows of the waddy solemnised matrimony. Beside the burden of travel,

they chiefly hunted the opossum, and mounted the lofty trees of the

Tasmanian forest. When the man condescended to give part of his spoil,

he handed over his shoulder the least delectable pieces to his wife, who

sat at his back. Often, however, this indulgence was refused. Mr. Horton

records an instance of unkindness, perhaps not general, nor very

uncommon: it was noon; the mother, her infant, and little boy, had been

without food all day: the father refused any part of that he had

provided. Another of the tribe, however, was more generous: when he

handed the woman a portion, at Mr. Horton's request, before she tasted

any herself, she fed her child.

They were often misunderstood; but they were sensible of domestic

affections: the tribes were scattered by the last war--some were

captives, others fugitives: eleven were already lodged at Richmond, when

Mr. Gilbert Robertson brought up two others, a man and woman: they were

recognised from afar by the party first taken; these raised the cry of

welcome; it was a family meeting, and deeply moved the spectators. The

parents embraced their children with rapture, and many tears.

Under an engraving of a Van Diemen's Land woman and child, from a

painting by J. Webber, the _Journal of Civilisation_ ventures the

following:--"Contemplate the appalling picture! see her, in fact,

without maternal affection! To such a mother, it would matter little to

see her babe fall from her back and perish!" The woman of Van Diemen's

Land, by the French artist, is most lively and maternal: her child is

leaning over her head, its feet resting on her shoulders: she looks up

towards it, with a strong expression of affection. Labillardiere

repeatedly remarks the tenderness of the women to their children, as

"very engaging." He also had a theory: but why suppose a black woman

below a tigress, in the scale of maternity. The law of nature, deadened

by circumstances, but which is even strong in the brute, was not

inactive in their hearts. In every country, it is individually variable.

There is a grave in a garden at Ben Lomond: Mr. Batman, the morning

after its little tenant was deposited, walked up to the spot; but

although he went at sunrise, one person was earlier: a Tasmanian woman;

who sat by the grave, and wept. It was the mother.

_Half-caste._--The half-caste children were oftener destroyed. A woman,

who had immolated an infant of mixed origin, excused herself by saying

it was not a _pretty_ baby; this was, however, far from universal, and

more commonly the act of the tribe than of the mother. A native woman,

who had an infant of this class, fell accidentally into the hands of her

tribe: they tore the child from her arms, and threw it into the flames.

The mother instantly snatched it from death, and quick as lightning

dashed into the bush; where she concealed herself, until she made her

escape. The injuries she received were, however, fatal. An elder

daughter, called Miss Dalrymple, was the first half-caste child born in

the colony: she was remarkably prepossessing: her eyes black, her skin

copper-colored, her cheeks rosy, and her limbs admirably modelled: she

was adopted by a settler.

A considerable number of such children grew up in the island; but they

were neglected by their parents, and often inherited the vices or

barbarism of both. The females were early debased, and presented

spectacles of nakedness and misery. When the Orphan School was formed, a

few children were admitted at the government charge; of these, a

fragment survive.

A half-caste couple were married recently at Launceston: the expression

of their countenances was extremely pleasing. They had been sent up from

the Straits to obtain a legal sanction to their union, and they went

through the ceremony with much sensibility. There is a register in St.

John's Church, Launceston, of the marriage of an aboriginal pair in

1829; the first ever celebrated in the face of the church.

_Tribes._--Their tribes were distinct: they were known as the Oyster

Bay, the Big River, the Stony Creek, and the Western. There were smaller

sub-divisions; but those enumerated were divided by dialects, and

well-established boundaries. Their chiefs were merely heads of families,

and distinguished by their strength or cunning: they were thought to

possess very trifling and uncertain control. It is said, that a

notorious bushranger (Howe) fell in with a tribe: he assisted his

companions in lifting a boat, but as he appeared in command, the chief

checked him for lowering his dignity--a sovereign instinct, which shews

the heart of a true prince. When the chiefs accompanied white men in

their sports, and were requested to carry their spoil, they often

manifested disdain and reluctance. Little is known of their policy, and

probably there was but little to be known. The natives lived in harmony

with each other, or when they quarrelled they decided by the weight of

their waddies, and the thickness of their skulls. The aggressions of

other tribes were punished by reprisals, but they rarely pursued a foe.

Offences among themselves were treated according to their supposed

enormity: the culprit had to stand while a certain number of spears were

thrown at him. By this ordeal he was cleared, and the keenness of his

eye and the agility of his motions, usually enabled him to escape a

fatal wound. Faults, of slighter consequence, were punished without

damage: the transgressor was set on the branch of a tree, and had to

endure the mockery of the by-standers. It may be gratifying to discover

such an example, in favor of the pillory!

_Huts._--Their locomotion was predetermined, and their encampments

regularly chosen; generally on the banks of a river or a lagoon. Each

family had its fire; hunted separately, and erected a hut for its own

accommodation. On the mountains, and beside the sea shore, they lodged

in caverns; or where these were not found, as in the open country, they

reared huts, or rather screens: these were of bark, half-circular,

gathered at the top, and supported by stakes: in the front they kindled

a fire. These huts formed rude villages, and were seen from seventeen to

forty together. The former number being raised by a tribe of seventy,

from four to five must have lodged under one shelter. Some, found at the

westward, were permanent: they were like bee-hives, and thatched:

several such were seen by Jorgenson, on the western shore--strong, and

apparently erected for long use. They drew water for the sick in shells:

the robust threw themselves on the bank, and drank as they lay. Boiled

water was not used in their primitive state; it is said to have been

unknown. This is scarcely credible: a heated shell or stone, filled by

rain water, might have discovered the secret. They preserved their fire,

usually by carrying a brand; if this was extinguished, they replaced it

by going back to their last encampment, where the fuel still smouldered.

It is said, that they were not ignorant of producing fire by friction.

_Food._--Their appetite was voracious: a woman was watched one day,

during which, beside a double ration of bread, she devoured more than

fifty eggs, as large as those of a duck. Mr. O'Connor saw a child, eight

years old, eat a kangaroo rat, and attack a cray-fish. The game they

cast into the fire, and when singed drew it out and extracted the

entrails; it was then returned to the embers, and when thoroughly

warmed, the process was completed. They were acquainted with the common

expedient of savage nations, who pass from repletion to hunger: they

tightened a girdle of kangaroo skin, which they wore when otherwise

naked. Fat they detested; some tribes also rejected the male, and others

the female wallaby, as food: the cause is unknown. A few vegetable

productions, as the native potato, and a fungus, which forces up the

ground, called native bread, and which tastes like cold boiled rice; the

fern and grass-tree, also yielded them food. White caterpillars and ant

eggs, and several other productions, supplemented their ordinary diet.

The animals on which they subsisted chiefly, were the emu, kangaroo,

wallaby, and the opossum: the latter living in trees. They obtained a

liquor from the cyder tree (_eucalyptus_), which grows on the Shannon,

and elsewhere: it is tapped like the maple; its juice, of the taste of

molasses, trickled down into a hole at the foot of the tree, and was

covered with a stone. By a natural fermentation, it became slightly

intoxicating; and in early days was liked by the stockmen.

During the winter, the natives visited the sea shore: they disappeared

from the settled districts about June, and returned in October. The

women were accustomed to dive for shell fish, which they placed in a

rude basket, tied round the waist. On these marine stations (as at

Pieman's River on the west coast), their huts were constructed with more

care. Heaps of oyster shells, which seem to be the accumulation of ages,

still attest their dependence on the abundance of the sea.

_Dress and Ornaments._--In summer, they were entirely naked: in the

winter, they protected the shoulders and the waist by a dried skin of

kangaroo. The women wore the same, with the addition of ruffles. The

dress of Europeans greatly distressed them: they endured it no longer

than their visit; yet they were sensible of cold, and could bear less

exposure to the weather than Englishmen. They sat close to their fires;

and, during days of rain, continued under shelter. The men wore, on the

head, grease mixed with ochre--a sort of plumbago, found at the

Hampshire Hills: it was used partly for ornament, and partly as a

substitute for cleanliness. Bits of wood, feathers, flowers, and

kangaroo teeth, were inserted in the hair, which was separated into

tufts, rolled and matted together. This decoration was denied the women:

their hair was cropped close, with sharp crystal; some on the one side

of the head only, in others like the tonsure of the priest. They were

accustomed to ornament the body by several methods, differing perhaps

with different tribes. Patches of ochre and grease formed a considerable

portion of their adornment. With a shining mineral they drew symmetrical

lines on the neck, shoulders and face, and various parts of the body; in

some cases they resembled epaulettes, in others they imitated the eye:

they also made incisions, which they kept open by grease, till the skin

was raised, and the process complete: the torment they endured with

great fortitude, and affected indifference. _Penderome_, the brother of

a western chief, underwent this operation, which was performed by a

woman with broken glass. The flesh of his shoulder opened like crimped

fish; but he interrupted the process by antics and laughter. They wore a

necklace called _merrina_; it was principally composed of pearly blue

shells, bored by the eye tooth, and strung on the sinews of kangaroo.

These shells were cleansed by the acid of wood steam, and received a

high polish.

_Arms and Implements._--Their utensils and weapons were simple: the

baskets, formed of grass, described by Furneaux, were not afterwards

improved, but they answered the end. The waddy was a short piece of

wood, reduced and notched towards the grasp, and slightly rounded at the

point. The spear, nine or ten feet long, was pointed at the larger end,

straightened by the teeth, and balanced with great nicety. The spearman,

while poising the weapon, held others in his left hand, prepared for

instant use: the spear, thus poised, seemed for a few seconds to spin,

and it would strike at sixty yards, with an unerring aim. Labillardiere

describes it well: the warrior grasped it in the middle; raised it as

high as his head; drew it towards himself with a jerk, that gave a

tremulous motion at the extremities, which accelerated its progress, and

tended to support it longer on the column of air; it was darted at 100

paces, and remained in a horizontal position for three-fourths of the

distance. The children were early trained to the exercise: Lieutenant

Breton saw a child, five years old, throw a stick through the ring

affixed to the wall of the gaol, with great precision.

A chief, confined in Hobart Town gaol, taken on the Shannon, exhibited

these feats of quickness and strength. He would spring up into the air

five feet, and reel round and round, with uncommon rapidity. He threw a

broomstick, at twelve yards distance, through a hole in the sentry box,

of but little larger diameter; and a lath, cast at thirty yards, pierced

a hat through and through. They used no throwing stick, or sling.

In the estimation of Europeans, their practice in war was savage and

cowardly: "they do not, like an Englishman," complained a colonial

writer, "give notice before they strike." The perfection of war, in

their esteem, was ambush and surprise; but an intelligent observer

sometimes saw considerable cleverness in their tactics. Mr. Franks was

on horseback, driving cattle homeward: he saw eight blacks forming a

line behind him, to prevent his retreat; each with an uplifted spear,

besides a bundle in the left hand. They then dropped on one knee, still

holding the weapon in menace; then they rose and ran towards him in

exact order: while they distracted his attention by their evolutions,

other blacks gathered from all quarters, and within thirty yards a

savage stood with his spear quivering in the air. This weapon, ten feet

long, penetrated the flap of the saddle, and the flesh of the horse four

inches, which dropped on his hind quarters. The rider was in despair;

but the spear fell, and the animal recovered his feet and fled. The

servant, less fortunate than his master, was found some days after,

slain. The attack was well planned, and exhibited all the elements of

military science!

A tribe, who attacked the premises of Mr. Jones, in 1819, at the

Macquarie, were led by a chief six feet high: he carried _one_ spear, of

a peculiar form, and no other kind of weapon: this he did not use, but

stood aloof from the rest, and issued his orders with great calmness,

which were implicitly obeyed. They formed themselves in a "_half moon

ring_," and attacked the English with great vigour. The chief was shot:

they were struck with dismay, and endeavoured to make him stand; "they

made a frightful noise, looked up to heaven, and smote their

breasts!"[31]

The wars among them latterly, provoked by driving one tribe on the

boundaries of another, were not infrequent; as everywhere, women were

the cause and object of strife. The tribes to the westward were the

finer race: those from South Cape to Cape Grim, had better huts, and

they wore mocassins on travel. Those on the east of the Launceston road

were confederate: towards the last, the Oyster Bay tribe committed their

children to the care of the Big River tribe, many of whom had been slain

by the western tribes, as well as by the English. It was this which

increased the difficulties of their conciliation: they had not only to

be reconciled to the English, but to each other. They were bold and

warlike in their carriage, and when exhibiting spear exercise, commanded

the admiration of the spectator.

_Agility and Dexterity._--Their skill was chiefly exerted in obtaining

their food: they were agile and dextrous. The opossum was hunted by the

women, who by a glance discovered if the animal were to be found in the

tree. They ascended trees of a tremendous height: they first threw

round the trunk a rope, twice its girth, which they held in the centre,

and by the left end, in one hand: having cut the first notch for the

toe, they raised themselves up by the rope, in an attitude sufficiently

perpendicular to carry the hatchet or stone on the head. They then cut a

second, and by a jerk of the bight of the rope, raised it up: thus, step

by step, they reached the branch, over which the loose end of the rope

being cast, they were enabled to draw themselves round. It is stated by

Backhouse, that they only required these notches at the bottom of the

tree; and they dispensed with them as the bark became smooth, and the

diameter diminished. They ascended almost as rapidly as with a ladder,

and came down more quickly. When the ropes were of skin, or more

perishable materials, the accidents must have been many and terrible.

This feat required considerable muscular strength, and in the weak

produced great physical exhaustion. They were swift of foot: when they

possessed dogs, they ran nearly abreast of them; stimulated them by

imitating the cry of the kangaroo, and were generally in at the death.

Their former practice was to fire the brush-wood, in which the game had

sought shelter, and which they speared when driven out by the flames.

This practice was wasteful; besides exposing them to the charge of

arson, when they were only following the customs of the chase.

Their ability to conceal themselves, assisted by their color, proved the

quickness of their eye, and the agility of their limbs. A shooting party

approached a native camp near the Clyde, and found they had just

abandoned their half-cooked opossums and their spears: excepting a small

group of wattle bushes, at the distance of ten yards, the ground was

free of all but the lofty trees: the travellers immediately scoured this

thicket, but on turning round they, in great astonishment, discovered

that opossums and spears were all gone. It was the work of a moment, but

traces of aborigines were unseen.[32]

_Corrobories and Dances._--Their general assemblies were attended by

great numbers: at these meetings they raised large fires, and continued

dancing till midnight. They first began their movement round the pyre,

with slow steps and soft tunes: as they advanced more quickly, their

voices became more sharp and loud: they closed in upon the fire, and

leaping close to the flame appeared in considerable peril. These

movements they continued; shrieking and whooping until thoroughly

exhausted. It is hardly possible for the imagination to picture a scene

more infernal.

A gentleman, on guard during the black war, watched a small group in the

gaol yard round their night fires. One of them raised his hands, and

moved them slowly in a horizontal direction; and spreading, as if

forming an imaginary fan or quarter-circle: he turned his head from side

to side, raising one eye to the sky, where an eagle hawk was soaring.

The action was accompanied by words, repeated with unusual emotion: at

length they all rose up together, and uttered loud cries. The whole

action had the appearance of an incantation.

The dances were various. The emu dance, was intended to represent the

motions of that bird: the horse dance, necessarily modern, was performed

by their trotting after each other, in a stooping posture, and holding

the foremost by the loins: the thunder-and-lightning dance was merely

stamping the ground. Their amusements were childish, and boisterous; but

they applauded themselves with the invariable phrase, "_narracoopa_"--very

good.

They felt the incumbrance of clothing, when exhibiting their feats: the

permission to strip was embraced with great gladness. They gradually

wrought themselves into the most extravagant excitement: their pleasure

was in activity.

_Language._--Their language varied: the four principal tribes had

different dialects. When they met at Flinders', communication was

difficult, yet their songs were the same. The language has never been

reduced to rules, though vocabularies have been collected by Jorgenson,

and others. The Rev. Mr. Dove furnished some additional information; but

though the specimens establish an affinity in these dialects, the

results are otherwise unimportant. The vowels greatly predominate: the

_r_ is sounded rough, and lingering. The words are frequently liquid and

melodious. At Flinders' Island, the language was a mixture of several;

broken English, New Holland, and Tasmanian words formed the currency of

the island. In English, they dropped the _d_ and _s_; thus sugar is

tugar, and doctor is togata. As with other barbarians, who have enjoyed

the benefit of our instructions, the epithets of licentiousness and

insult were most current, and most aptly applied. Strangers to abstract

ideas, their words expressed the most common objects, sensations, and

wants. Their songs, which reminded Labillardiere of the music of the

Arabs of Asia Minor, were exceedingly soft and plaintive; their voices

not wanting in melody. They repeated the same note in soft and liquid

syllables; descended to the second bar, and finished with a third above

the key note. They sometimes varied, by suddenly running into the

octave. Their strains were considered, by a Scotchman, a close

resemblance to the Highland bagpipe. The stanzas they repeated again and

again: none have been translated, for which, it is said, they are

unfit.[33]

_Intellect._--Their intellectual character is low; yet not so inferior

as often described. They appeared stupid, when addressed on subjects

which had no relation to their mode of life; but they were quick and

cunning within their own sphere. A country not producing any animal

capable of service; where nothing is sharper than stone; destitute of

grain, and of fruits of any value, could be inhabited only by a

wandering race. Their locomotion sharpened their powers of observation,

without much increasing their ideas. In such circumstances, mind may

degenerate, but it cannot advance. Some colonists were recently

startled, by the appearance of a white family from the remote interior:

they were found by a surveyor, who at first took them for savages; they

had the animal expression of the eye, which is so common to uncivilised

people.

The inferiority of the aboriginal mind is not to be denied. Intellectual

power is both hereditary and improvable: the exaltation of a generation

of men gives the infancy of the next a more forward starting point--what

was individual is diffused, until it becomes characteristic of the race.

They were fond of imitation, and humour: they had their drolls and

mountebanks: they were able to seize the peculiarities of individuals,

and exhibit them with considerable force.[34]

In several parts of the colony rude drawings have been discovered.

Cattle, kangaroo, and dogs, were traced in charcoal. These attempts were

exceedingly rude, and sometimes the artist was wholly unintelligible. At

Belvoir Vale, the natives saw the Company's two carts, drawn by six

oxen: they drew on bark the wheels, and the drivers with their whips.

They were the first that ever passed that region.

_Disposition._--They were cruel in their resentment; but not prone to

violence: that they did not shorten the sufferings of animals taken for

food, will hardly be considered by sportsmen decisive evidence against

them. They were not ungrateful; especially for medical relief, which

appeared a favor more unequivocal than presents of food.

A little boy, captured by a surveyor in 1828, when seen, sprang into the

water, where he remained for a long time: at first, he was greatly

alarmed, but soon became contented. He pointed to the lady of the house

as a lubra. Entering a room, where a young lady was seated, he was told

to kiss her: after long hesitation, he went up to her; laid his fingers

gently on her cheek, then kissed them, and ran out!

Some captives, taken by Mr. Batman, were lodged in the gaol: they became

strongly attached to the javelin man: they were treated by the gaoler

with studious compassion, and they _left the prison with tears_!

The English were seen by some friendly natives to draught the toad fish,

which is poison, and by which several have perished: the natives

perceiving its preparation for food, endeavoured to shew, by gestures,

that it was not to be eaten, and exhibited its effects by the semblance

of death. Not very long after, a native was shewn a pistol, which a

white man snapped at his own ear; and who, giving the unfortunate black

one shotted, encouraged him to perform the same manoeuvre; he was thus

murdered by his own hands. The natives were variable, from ignorance and

distrust; probably from mental puerility: thus, their war whoop and

defiance were soon succeeded by shouts of laughter.

_Religious Ideas._--Their religious ideas were exceedingly meagre and

uncertain. To Mr. Horton's enquiries, in 1821, they answered, "don't

know," with broad grins: he was probably not understood. They appear to

have had no religious rites, and few congenial ideas: they dreaded

darkness, and feared to wander from their fires: they recognised a

malignant spirit, and attributed strong emotions to the devil. The feats

imputed to his agency, do not much differ from the sensations of

night-mare: they believed him to be _white_--a notion supported by very

substantial reasons, and suggested by their national experience: this

idea must have been modern. They ascribed extraordinary convulsions to

this malignant power, and to his influence they traced madness. Lord

Monboddo might have contrived their account of the creation: they were

formed with tails, and without knee-joints, by a benevolent being:

another descended from heaven, and compassionating the sufferers, cut

off the tail; and with grease softened the knees.

As to a future state, they expected to re-appear on an island in the

Straits, and "to jump up white men." They anticipated in another life

the full enjoyment of what they coveted in this. These scraps of

theology, when not clearly European, are of doubtful origin: nothing

seems certain, except that they dreaded mischief, from demons of

darkness. Though they had no idols, they possessed some notions of

statuary: it was sufficiently rude. They selected stones, about ten

inches high, to represent absent friends; one of greater dimensions than

common, Backhouse observed that they called Mother Brown.

Persons of sanguine minds are apt to attribute to them religious ideas,

which they never possessed in their original state. The notion of a

spirit, however, exists on the continent: in this, the Tasmanian black

participated. Their ideas were extremely indefinite, and will not

refute, or much support the belief, that the recognition of a Divinity

is an universal tradition.

_The Sick._--They suffered from several diseases, which were often

fatal. Rheumatism and inflammations were cured by incisions: the

loathsome eruption, called the native leprosy, they relieved by

wallowing in ashes: the catarrh was very destructive, in certain

seasons; a whole tribe on the Huon perished, except one woman. The

native doctor said, that it was the _devil_ that killed them: the woman

described the process by feigned coughing. Their surgery was simple:

they cut gashes with crystal. They treated a snake bite by boring the

wound with a charred peg; stuffed it with fur, and then singed off the

surplus to the level of the skin. They had faith in charms: thigh bones

were especially useful, and were fastened on the head in a triangle:

these relics were found very effectual. There were some who practised

more than others, and therefore called doctors by the English: one of

these feigned inspiration, and brandished his club. The sick were often

deserted: their tribes could neither convey them, nor wait for their

recovery. Food and a lenitive were left within their reach, and when

able they followed their kinsmen; the alternative is the terrible risk

of a wandering life. This custom was modified by circumstances, and

sometimes by the relatives of the sufferer.

Like the natives of New South Wales, they called to each other, from a

great distance, by the _cooey_; a word meaning "come to me." The Sydney

blacks modulated this cry, with successive inflexions; the Tasmanian

uttered it with less art. It is a sound of great compass. The English,

in the bush, adopt it: the first syllable is prolonged; the second is

raised to a higher key, and is sharp and abrupt.[35]

_Funereal._--When they felt the approach of death, they were anxious to

expire in the open air, and requested to be carried forth, even from the

houses erected for their use. They believed that the spirit lingers in

the body until sun-down. The French naturalist, Labillardiere, first

noticed the burning of the dead. His account was ridiculed by the

Quarterly Reviewers, who suspected cannibalism; but there are proofs

innumerable, that this was a practice of affection. A group of blacks

was watched, in 1829, while engaged in a funeral. A fire was made at the

foot of a tree: a naked infant was carried in procession, with loud

cries and lamentations; when the body was decomposed in the flames, the

skull was taken up by a female,--probably the mother. The skull was long

worn wrapt in kangaroo skin: Backhouse observed a couple who carried,

alternately, this ghastly memento of their child: it is said, that they

deposited several together, in final resting places.

They were jealous of spectators, and took offence if they approached

their dead. Bodies not consumed, were placed in hollow trees, and closed

in by underwood: decomposition being completed in these natural tombs,

the survivors carried away the bones. Backhouse saw a striking funeral:

a woman died; they built a pile of logs; laid the body thereon, and

watched all night. At daybreak they applied the brand; then covering

their faces with the ashes, which became furrowed with their tears, they

sat down and lamented!

Just after the capture, an aborigine told his tribe that his

death was at hand. He requested them to prepare the wood for his

obsequies, while he leaned against a tree, directing their sad labors:

he died that night! This is touching. A savage preparing for his

funeral, with a calm consciousness of his fate--midst the ruins of his

fading race!

* * * * *

In closing this mournful record, the reader is conscious that the

history of the Tasmanian is but the experience of myriads. As an

exhibition of Providence, it fills us with astonishment;--of human

passions, with humiliation and sadness. The current of immigration will

not be diverted by abstract questions of human rights, nor will states

model their policy to preserve the barbarian; but the path of history is

clear, and even self love, which may carefully _sift evidence_, must not

turn from the lessons it offers.

The original occupation of this country necessarily involved most of the

consequences which followed: was that occupation, then, just? The right

of wandering hordes to engross vast regions--for ever to retain

exclusive property in the soil, and which would feed millions where

hundreds are scattered--can never be maintained. The laws of increase

seem to suggest the right of migration: neither nations nor individuals

are bound to tarry on one spot, and die. The assumption of sovereignty

over a savage people is justified by necessity--that law, which gives to

strength the control of weakness. It prevails everywhere: it may be

either malignant or benevolent, but it is irresistible. The barbarian

that cannot comprehend laws or treaties, must be governed by bribes, or

by force. Thus, that the royal standard was planted, need occasion no

remorse; but though the native had not exclusive natural rights, he

possessed the attributes of man, and the government was bound to

ascertain his wants, and protect his interest in the country. England,

however, forgot the aborigina: she secured him no refuge--provided no

interpreter to his feelings; his language was unknown, and his testimony

inadmissable.

The legal recognition of rights in the soil, pertaining to the native

inhabitants of colonised regions, is attended with some difficulty, and

nowhere greater than among hunting tribes: their actual possession is

only definable, by admitting the wide boundaries of the chase. The

Parliamentary Committee, in a review of the whole question, did not

recommend treaties with savages: the terms would be liable to disputes,

and a difference of interpretation would occasion distrust and

animosity. A middle course might, however, be open. The natives have an

equitable lien on the land, for which rulers who transfer its occupation

are bound to provide effectively and for ever. Instead of making the

death of the native the release of private incumbrance; instead of

making it the constant interest, and daily effort of the settler, to

drive him away, it ought to have been the object of the crown to

identify the life of the native with the welfare of the intruder. In

granting possession of lands, the terms might have given the settler a

claim for remission of price--or a pecuniary reward, payable out of the

proceeds of land--for every native child he might rear, and every family

he might induce to choose him as their protector. Thus the shepherd

princes would have felt that their interests harmonised with the

existence of a race, now regarded with dislike and jealousy. The native

police at Port Phillip, suggested originally by Captain Maconochie, is

an adoption of this principle: they are useful, and therefore pains have

been taken to attach them. It is in vain to make laws, and to issue

proclamations to shield the aborigines, unless they are identified with

some local interest; and for this, no sacrifice of the land revenue

could be considered too great.

A youth, called Van Diemen, was nine years old when found in the wood,

and adopted by Col. Davey; he was subsequently taken to England by Mr.

Kermode. He had been taught to read, and could repeat several chapters

of the Bible. He was remarkably keen and intelligent. [On his return to

this colony, he was cut off by consumption: at the _post mortem_ it was

found that his lungs were nearly gone.] Mr. Kermode endeavoured to

prevail with Lord Bathurst, to authorise a grant of land; but Mr. Wilmot

Horton, then Under Secretary, objected that there were millions of

British subjects, whose claims were of the same kind, and that the

precedent would be inconvenient. At the same time, men in chains were

receiving grants of land, and emancipists as a matter of course; but the

minister was opposed to admit a claim founded on birth, orphanage, and

civilisation, lest it should multiply applicants. As if anything could

have been more desirable to the philanthropist and politician: who can

wonder that convicts despised that which the ministers of the crown

repudiated? Excepting the often pernicious donatives, occasionally

conferred, the aborigina was treated only as a foreigner, a slave, and

an enemy. Thus the order of Lord Hobart stood alone: it was a record of

intention, not a development of government. The ministry washed their

hands, and averted their eyes; and threw upon the colony the

responsibility of inevitable crime.[36]

But the government of England, not only left undefined the obligations

it seemed to confess: it did more; it let loose on the shores of

Tasmania its outcasts, its robbers, and its homicides; it released their

bonds, and sent them forth to contest with the native for the animals of

chase--to cross his path unwatched--to destroy him unpunished. Crimes of

every kind were visited, save this. For a word, or a look, the felon was

brought to the triangle; but when he shot down the native, and acquired

distinction by his butcheries, justice became scrupulous: the laws were

silent--religion and humanity were silent; and the fallen black, like

the uprooted forest, was thought of as an encumbrance removed!

The state of the census was equally reprehensible: England not only

forgot the prescriptions of nature, and formed communities of _men_, but

the inevitable consequence to the natives was utterly neglected. It

would be impossible even to hint the series of facts, which are

authenticated to the writer, and which strangely blended ferocity and

lust. The sealer, or stockman, who periled his life to accomplish the

abduction of a native female, thought that danger but fairly avenged by

the destruction of her relatives! Thus far the government was remiss and

culpable. The crimes of individuals, without diminishing _their_ guilt,

must be traced to those general causes, which are subject to the

disposal of statesmen and legislators.

But when the colony was planted, and the people spread abroad, it was

the duty of the crown to protect its subjects of every class: it was the

duty of its officers to arrest the arm of the black man, however great

the provocation that raised it. They could not stand by to investigate

causes; to divide between the two races the proportions of crime, while

the innocent family was exposed to violence. It was better that the

blacks should die, than that they should stain the settler's hearth

with the blood of his children. In this view Colonel Arthur was right:

his estimate of the native character was not impartial, for he beheld it

when it only appeared detestable. He had no choice; he resolved to

protect his countrymen.

It is common to speak of the guilt of this community; sometimes in

variance with reason and truth. That guilt belongs only to the _guilty_;

it cannot contaminate those who were helpless spectators, or involuntary

agents. The doctrine of common responsibility, can only be applicable

where all are actors, or one is the representative of all. The colonist

may say, "I owe no reparation, for I have done the native no wrong; I

never contemplated aiding in his destruction: I have seen it with

horror." May the lesson of his sufferings become the shield of his race!

Those who impute guilt to this colony, forget that its worst members are

not stationary, and that many have borne away their guilt with their

persons. That Being, who makes requisition for blood, will find it in

the skirts of the murderer, and not on the land he disdained.

No man can witness the triumph of colonisation, when cities rise in the

desert, and the wilderness blossoms as the rose, without being gladdened

by the change; but the question which includes the fate of the

aborigines,--What will become of them?--must check exultation. The black

will invade rights he does not comprehend; seize on stragglers from

those flocks, which have driven off his game; and wound the heel which

yet ultimately treads him to the dust. Such is the process--it is

carelessly remarked, that the native is seen less often; that it is long

since he ventured to cross the last line, where death set up landmarks

in the slain. At length the secret comes out: the tribe which welcomed

the first settler with shouts and dancing, or at worst looked on with

indifference, has ceased to live.

If the accounts of discoverers have been too flattering to the native

character, they are explained rather than contradicted by the early

colonists. These describe, with exultation, their new acquaintance, when

writing to their friends: how peaceful, light-hearted, and obliging.

They are charmed by their simplicity; they sleep among them without

fear: but these notes soon change; and passing from censure to

hatred, they speak of them as improvident, importunate, and

instrusive; as rapacious and mischievous; then as treacherous and

blood-thirsty--finally, as _devils_, and beasts of prey. Their

appearance is offensive, their proximity obstructive: their presence

renders everything insecure. Thus the muskets of the soldier, and of the

bandit, are equally useful; they clear the land of a detested incubus.

It is not in the nature of civilisation to exalt the savage. Chilled by

the immensity of the distance, he cannot be an equal: his relation to

the white can only be that of an alien, or a slave. By the time

astonishment subsides, the power of civilised men is understood, and

their encroachment is felt. Fine houses garrison his country, enclosures

restrict his chase, and alternately fill him with rage and sadness. He

steals across the land he once held in sovereignty, and sighs for the

freedom and fearlessness of his ancestors: he flies the track of his

invaders, or surprises them with his vengeance;--a savage he was found,

and a savage he perishes!

REMARKS ON THE CAUSES OF THE BURNING OF THE DEAD BY THE VAN DIEMENESE.

[From Peron's Voyage, 1802.]

"On a wide swarth of verdure (at Maria Island), beneath some antique

casuarinae, rose a cone, formed coarsely of the bark of trees inserted at

bottom in the ground, and terminated at top by a large band of similar

materials. Four long poles stuck in the earth, sustained and served for

all the pieces of bark to lean against; these four poles seemed also

calculated to ornament the building; for, instead of uniting all their

upper extremity like the bark, and so forming a simple cone, they

crossed each other about the middle, and then extended without the roof

of the ornament. From this disposition resulted a sort of inverted

tetracdic pyramid in the upper part opposed to the cone below. This

contrast of form in the two parts of the building had a somewhat

graceful effect, which was increased by the following additions:--With

each of the four sides of the pyramid corresponded a wide strip of bark,

the two bent extremities of which were at the bottom bound together by

the large band, which, as I before noticed, united all the pieces of

bark at the top of the cone: it follows that each of these four strips

formed a sort of oval, least rounded at its inferior extremity, and

widest and most rounded above; and as each of these ovals corresponded

with one of the sides of the inverted pyramid, it is not difficult to

conceive the elegance and picturesque effect of the plan.

"After looking some time at this monument, the use of which I vainly

strove to fathom, I soon resolved to push my examination to a greater

length: I removed several thick pieces of bark, and readily penetrated

to the interior of the building. The whole of the upper part was vacant:

at the bottom was a large flattened cone formed of a fine light grass,

laid with much care in conuntric and very deep strata. With my doubt

respecting the purpose of this, my curiosity increased. Eight small bent

sticks crossing each other at the summit of this cone of verdure, served

to preserve its form; each of these sticks had its two extremities

fastened in the earth, and kept firm in their position by a large piece

of flattened granite. So much care led me to expect some important

discovery; nor was I mistaken. Scarcely had I raised the upper layers

of turf, ere I perceived a large heap of white ashes, apparently

collected together with nicety: thrusting my hand into the midst of

these, I felt something hard, withdrawing which, I found it to be the

jaw-bone of a man, and shreds of flesh still adhering to it. I shuddered

with horror. Still, reflecting a little on all I had observed in the

composition of the monument, I soon experienced sensations widely

different from those I felt at first: the verdure, the flowers, the

protecting trees, the deep bed of herbage which covered the ashes, all

united to convince me that I had here discovered a tomb.... Succeeding

ideas caused new reflections: I asked myself, 'What can have originated

this custom of burning the dead? Separated from the rest of the world,

and at its farthest extremity, these people cannot have adopted it from

communication with others; it must irrefutably therefore be an idea of

their own. But, in that case, wherefore prefer this mode of disposing of

the dead? Can the preference be the effect of chance? Or does there

exist some physical reason for it, dependent on the nature of things, or

the particular social organization of these men?' ...

"This last measure is to burn it. Every thing concurs to facilitate this

expedient; every thing in this is accordant with the mode of life of the

inhabitant of these shores, as well as the circumstances in which he is

placed. Fire, that powerful and terrible agent, their recourse on so

many and such valuable occasions, cannot fail of exciting among these

people some of those sentiments of veneration, consecrated with the

majority of ancient nations by such numerous institutions and religious

monuments. Without being deified, perhaps, as formerly it was, fire in

these countries is regarded as something superior to the other works of

nature; and these first ideas will probably have contributed not in a

trivial degree to the determination of burning their dead. The requisite

materials for the purpose were at hand: neither calculation nor labor

were required for putting the plan in execution; no instrument was

necessary; and it prevented taint and the consequent infection. But a

few remains of bones would be here after the operation, to cover which

the ashes of the fire would be sufficient. The whole ceremony required

only a few hours; and prejudices tended to render it reputable and

sacred. Thus then this practice of burning the dead does not appear to

be the effect of mere chance: accordant with physical and local

circumstances, these evidently were the origin of the custom."

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 27: Despatch to Lord Goderich, 6th April, 1833.]

[Footnote 28: The following is worth remembering, as a caution to

reviewers, as well as philosophers:--"At Port Dalrymple, in Van Diemen's

Land, there was every reason to believe, the natives were unacquainted

with the use of canoes; a fact, extremely embarrassing to those who

indulge themselves in speculating on the genealogy of natives: because

it reduces them to the necessity of supposing, that this isolated people

swam over from the main land, or that they were _aboriginal_."--_Rev.

Sidney Smith, Edin. Rev._, 1803.]

[Footnote 29: "In many instances (it is remarked by Count Strzelecki, p.

355) the facial angle is more acute in the white man: the superciliary

ridge, the centres of ossification of the frontal bones, and the ridge

of the occipital one, more developed; and the maxilliary more widely

expanded, than in the skulls of aborigines."]

[Footnote 30: Veteran novel readers will be delighted to find, that

these black lovers were united by an event, which constitutes the most

touching artifice of fashionable fiction.]

[Footnote 31: Report of Mr. Jones to Governor Arthur.]

[Footnote 32: "I remember a fellow of the 'Grimaldi' breed: he

undertook, on a fine summer's evening, to place himself among the tree

stumps of a field, so that not two of a large party should agree as to

his identity. He reclined like a Roman on his elbow, projected his arm

as if a small branch, and drew down his head. No one could tell which

was the living stump, and were obliged to call him to come out and shew

himself."--_Dr. Ross's "Fourteen years ago."_]

[Footnote 33: Song of Ben Lomond:--

"Ne popula raina pogana

Thu me gunnea

Naina kaipa raina pogana

Naara paara powella paara.

Ballahoo,

Hoo hoo,

War whoop (very gutteral)."

--_Tas. Journal._]

[Footnote 34: This is common to the race: there is one now at Geelong,

whose imitations enabled the spectator at once to guess the person

intended.]

[Footnote 35: A female, born on this division of the globe, once stood

at the foot of London bridge, and _cooeyed_ for her husband, of whom she

had lost sight, and stopped the passengers by the novelty of the sound;

which, however, is not unknown in certain neighbourhoods of the

metropolis. Some gentlemen, on a visit to a London theatre, to draw the

attention of their friends in an opposite box, called out _cooey_; a

voice, in the gallery, answered--"Botany Bay!"]

[Footnote 36: "You are to endeavour, by every means in your power, to

open an intercourse with the natives, and to conciliate their good

will--enjoining all persons under your government to live in amity and

kindness with them; and if any person shall exercise any acts of

violence against them, or shall wantonly give them any interruption in

the exercise of their several occupations, you are to cause such

offender to be brought to punishment, according to the degree of the

offence."--_Lord Hobart's instructions to Lieutenant-Governor Collins._]

HISTORY OF TASMANIA.

TRANSPORTATION.

TRANSPORTATION.

SECTION I.

Transportation, considered not as a question of national policy but as a

fact, demands a place in this record. It will be our object to ascertain

those incidents which illustrate its local operation--to trace events

that have attended the repeated changes in its colonial spirit. It

belongs to the British statesman to scan its effects on the population

of the empire; but fairly to exhibit its Australasian aspect, will not

be without utility to the colonies themselves.

Although a separate relation will derange the thread of Tasmanian

history, the reader may be compensated by a view more perspicuous and

useful.

Thousands of British offenders, who by their exile and sufferings have

expiated their crimes, trod almost alone the first stages of Austral

colonisation, and amidst toils and privations, initiated a progress now

beheld by nations with curiosity and admiration. Economists still weigh

in uncertain balances the loss and the gain, and the legislator longs

for facts which may decide the perpetual conflict between them who

denounce and those who approve this expedient of penal legislation. It

is not the intention of this narrative to anticipate conclusions: its

design will be accomplished when the story of the past is truly told.

Exile, the penalty denounced by the Almighty against the first homicide,

was among the earliest affixed by man to lesser crimes, or whenever the

presence of the offender endangered the public repose. The Roman law

permitted the accused to withdraw from impending judgment by a voluntary

exile. Such was the practice in the time of Cicero. When men sought to

avoid bondage or death, adjudged by the laws, they had recourse to exile

as to an altar; nor did they forfeit their civic standing, except with

their lives.[37]

At a later period, under the imperial government, the islands of the

Mediterranean became places of exile: several thousand Jews were

banished from Rome to the Island of Sardinia.[38]

Transportation was unknown to the common law of England, but abjuration

of the realm, which resembled the Roman practice, was not infrequent:

"it was permitted," said Sir Edward Coke, "when the felon chose rather

to _perdere patriam quam vitam_,"--to lose his country rather than his

life. The culprit having found sanctuary within the precincts of a

church, took oath to abjure the realm: assuming the character of a

pilgrim, he received a cross to protect him on his journey. By the Act

of James I. the privilege of sanctuary was taken away,[39] and thus the

abjuration, founded upon it, virtually abolished.

The Spanish was the first Christian nation which to banishment united

penal labor. Columbus found it difficult to allure adventurers: to work

the mines, was necessary to gratify his patrons, and he prevailed on

Ferdinand to furnish colonists by clearing the galleys. These recruits

attended the great discoverer on his third expedition (1498): they

largely contributed to the disorders which vexed the infant settlement,

and aroused the resentment of the unfortunate Indians.[40]

Banishment was first formally recognised by English law in the reign of

Elizabeth (39 Eliz. cap. 4).[41] It was enacted, that "dangerous rogues,

and such as will not be reformed of their roguish course of life, may

lawfully by the justices in their quarter sessions be banished out of

the realm, and all the dominions thereof, and to such parts beyond the

seas as shall for that purpose be assigned by the privy council." Return

was made felony without benefit of clergy. A brand was affixed upon the

shoulder, of the breadth of an English shilling, with a great Roman R

upon the iron: "for a perpetual mark upon such rogue, during his or her

life."[42]

Until commerce had extended the knowledge of distant parts, and the

constant publication of correspondence with colonies made their affairs

familiar, imagination depicted them as desolate and frightful. The

London apprentice and the plough boy, thought of exile as a severe

calamity. The love of home was rendered more intense, by the universal

wilderness imagined beyond it: thus, loss of country was deemed a

penalty fully equal to ordinary offences, and more severe than any

domestic form of punishment short of the scaffold.

"_Duri est non desiderare patriam. Cari sunt parentes; cari liberi,

propinqui, familiares; sed omnes omnium caritates patria una complexa

est: pro qua quis bonus dubitet mortem oppetere?_"

It is to James I. that the British nation and the colonists owe the

policy, whether salutary or baneful, of sending convicts to the

plantations: "the good sense of those days justly considered that their

labor would be more beneficial to an infant settlement, than their vices

could be pernicious."[43] James directed the sheriff to deliver, and the

governor and court of Virginia to receive one hundred prisoners,

included in the definition of rogues and dangerous persons, and

compelled the proprietors of that colony to become agents in their

deportation.

The Lord Chief Justice Kelyng stated, that about the time of the

restoration it became customary for a prisoner within benefit of clergy

to procure from the king "a conditional pardon," and to send him beyond

the seas to serve five years in some of the king's plantations; there

_to have land assigned him, according to the usage_ of those plantations

for servants after their time expired.[44] A needless delay of

departure, or a return within the period appointed, made the instrument

of pardon void.

In the reign of Charles II. an act passed (Car. ii. 13, 14. cap. 2. s.

1), "for preventing dangers that may arise from certain persons called

quakers," which authorised their transportation beyond the seas. Thus,

the practice was not new: after the battle of Worcester, the parliament

transported the royalists, and in the mutations of power all parties in

their turn transported each other.

It had not been unusual for persons to sell themselves for a term of

years. After the dissolution of the army of the commonwealth, many, to

escape danger and poverty, sold their liberty to others, who carried

them to the plantations.[45]

After the defeat of Monmouth, a letter was addressed by James II. to the

governor of Virginia, which after reciting that the royal clemency had

been extended to many rebellious subjects by ordering their

transportation, required the governor to propose a bill to the assembly

to prevent their redemption, by money or otherwise, until the expiration

of ten years. The assembly declined to carry out the royal vengeance,

and received the exiles with kindness.[46]

In 1717, transportation assumed a prominent place in English

jurisprudence. An act of parliament (4 Geo. i.) recited that the

customary punishments were inefficient, and that the "labor of criminals

in the colonies would benefit the nation;" and mentioned the "frequent

failure of those who undertook to transport themselves." Under this law,

they were committed to the charge of ship-masters, who gave bonds for

their transit; and who were obliged to produce certificates that they

had disposed of their cargo according to law. It is said that L40,000

per annum were raised by the contractors, carrying annually two thousand

prisoners, whom they sold for L20 each.[47] For a long time these

importations were highly acceptable; the demand for labor reconciling

the colonists to the attendant evils. The object of the law was to exile

offenders from the mother country, and bondage in America was simply

intended to indemnify its cost. It was in the power of the captains to

set them free, or a friendly agent by appearing as a purchaser might

release them.[48] When landed, they were sold by auction to the

colonists, for the term of their sentence; and even the royal pardon did

not cancel an obligation to serve--except by the repayment of the

purchase money to the planter.

This course had many inconveniencies, and led to atrocious crimes. The

treatment of the convict depended on the individual who bought his

service: the state imposed but slight responsibilities, and the colonial

control was regulated by local laws.

Many notices in annals of those times indicate that the practice of

kidnapping, especially of youth, was not uncommon. Johnson, in his

immortal memoir of the poet, Savage, numbers in the catalogue of his

mother's cruelties, an attempt to send him captive to the plantations,

and to sell him for a slave.

Goldsmith refers to establishments devoted to this species of

slavery:--"I regarded myself as one of those evil things that nature

designed should be thrown into her lumber room, there to perish in

obscurity. It happened that Mr. Crispe's office seemed invitingly open

to give me a welcome reception. In this office Mr. Crispe kindly offers

to sell his Majesty's subjects a generous promise of L30 a year; for

which promise, all they give in return is their liberty for life, and

permission to let him transport them to America as slaves."[49]

Before the era of separation, the American planters had begun to resent

the influx of felons. Free labor grew plentiful, and the colonial

reputation was compromised: nor were these the sole reasons for

opposition; the management of negro slaves became a capital branch of

domestic industry; the _prestige_ of color was endangered by the

subjection of white men to the discipline of slavery.

The practice of transportation did not terminate until the era of

independence. The Canadas remained loyal; but the ministers of the day

did not deem it prudent to reward their submission with the stigma of

transportation.

Franklin, when the colonists were about to cast off the imperial rule of

Great Britain, complained of this system: he compared it to pouring

"cargoes of rattlesnakes on the shores of England." He, however,

maintained that this description of exiles formed but a small proportion

of the American people; that of one million, eighty thousand only had

been brought over the ocean, and of these one-eighth only were convicts.

In reference to the number transported to America, the accounts of the

British and American writers considerably differ. None were sent to the

New England colonies. Jefferson, during his diplomatic residence in

France, furnished a statement for the _Encyclopedie Methodique_, in

which he asserted that the convict element of the American population

was too small to deserve enumeration. He estimated the total number at

2,000, and their descendants at 4,000, in 1785, or something more than

one-thousandth part of the entire people. This calculation has been,

perhaps justly, charged with partiality; but it is useless to meet error

by conjecture.[50] This obvious topic of sarcasm was early adopted.

Party writers poisoned the shafts of political warfare, by references to

the convict element of the trans-atlantic population: "their Adam and

Eve emigrated from Newgate,"[51]--"their national propensities to

fraud, they inherited from their convict ancestors,"--"they are the

offspring of convicts, and they have retained the disposition of their

felon progenitors." Such were the sayings of critics, lords, and

statesmen: it was thus they described a people, who among their

forefathers can enumerate heroes and saints; who, flying from the

scourge of bigotry and despotism, laid the foundation of an empire. Can

we expect more complacency?

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 37: _Oration, pro A. Coesin._]

[Footnote 38: _Tacitus_, ann. 285.]

[Footnote 39: _Discourse, by the Right Hon. Wm. Eden, on Banishment._]

[Footnote 40: _Robertson's History of America._]

[Footnote 41: See _Blackstone's Commentaries_, vol. iv. c. 31.]

[Footnote 42: _Rastall's Statutes_, p. 419.]

[Footnote 43: Chalmers.]

[Footnote 44: _Eden's Discourse._]

[Footnote 45: _Sir Joshua Child's Discourses on Trade_, 1670.]

[Footnote 46: _Letter from James II._, in the colonial-office: quoted by

Chalmers.]

[Footnote 47: Introduction to _Phillip's Voyages_.]

[Footnote 48: See _Bentham's Letter to Lord Pelham_.]

[Footnote 49: _Vicar of Wakefield._]

[Footnote 50: Dr. Lang, on whose quotation (from the _Memoirs of

Jefferson_, vol. i. p. 406) the above is given, would make the total

number to be 50,000--a vast difference!]