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FERN TREE VALLEY NEAR HOBART TOWN
THE
LAST OF THE TASMANIANS;
OR,
The Black War of Van Diemen's Land.
BY
JAMES BONWICK, F.R.G.S.
FELLOW OF THE LONDON ETHNOLOGICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETIES, AND FORMERLY
AN INSPECTOR OF SCHOOLS, VICTORIA.
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS, AND COLOURED ENGRAVINGS.
LONDON:
SAMPSON LOW, SON, & MARSTON,
CROWN BUILDINGS, FLEET STREET.
M DCCC LXX.
[All Rights reserved.]
LONDON:
R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS,
BREAD STREET HILL,
PREFACE,
My simple object in the publication of this book was to make
known some facts of colonial history not collected by another.
It is just possible that my own deep interest in the fate of the
Lost Tribes may have led me to overvalue the importance of that
knowledge. To me the story of the Tasmanians is so romantic,
so affecting, so suggestive, that I, perhaps, have erred in deeming
the public sensitive to such sympathies. Anyhow, a sense of
duty has actuated the literary venture.
for me; I did but return a little.
Others had laboured
I am
The critic's forbearance is respectfully solicited.
conscious of irregularity of style, if not of graver faults. The
apology is, that most of the book was written on the voyage
from Australia; and those who know the constant disturbing
influences of ship-board, and the absolute deprivation of quiet
privacy, will be ready to accord me their indulgence.
The difficulties of collecting materials for such a work must
be considered. It was not a mere hunt through Blue Books.
The forest depths, the sultry plain-the homes of peace, the
dens of penal woe-have each brought something to the store.
The laugh of the Bushman, the sigh of gentle womanhood, the
grief at lost affection, the curse from some remembered wrong,
have been the varied accompaniments of tales thus told.
294373
iv
PREFACE,
The returning of thanks to those who have aided my efforts is
a pleasing duty. Yet where so many individuals have been
kind it is not easy to name a few. To the Government officials
of New South Wales and Tasmania I am under much obli-
gation. The early records of both colonies were unreservedly
submitted to my inspection. To the Australian Library of
Sydney, the noble Public Library of Melbourne, and the
Parliamentary Libraries of the Colonies, I am also much
indebted.
If this simple narrative of the Tasmanians excite some
benevolent desire to bless the rude tribes left beneath our
sway, my object is accomplished.
The Second Part, soon to follow the present historical work,
will speak of the Tasmanians in their home, and everyday life.
It may be regarded as a sequel to the book in hand. The one
traces their career as a nation; the other will bring them in
their individuality before us. We shall see them at their
meals, their sports, their sick couch, and their grave. Their
songs and laughter will be heard, and their dark traditions
told.
Should the British and American public listen favourably to
the story of the Tasmanians, other chapters of early colonial
days, as singular as they are interesting, may be unfolded.
It is with humble confidence in the sympathy of philan-
thropists, and a respectful reliance on the generosity of Anglo-
Saxons in both hemispheres, that the book is launched upon
the waters of the literary world.
ACTON, LONDON, October 13, 1869.
JAMES BONWICK.
CONTENTS.
The First Battle .
Captain Cook's Visit
CHAPTER I.
VOYAGERS' TALES OF THE TASMANIANS.
The French Visit in 1792.
PAGE
3
5
9
Flinders and Bass at the Derwent
•
15
Péron's Visit in 1802.
The French and the Wood-nymphs
18
23
CHAPTER II.
Massacre of the Blacks in 1804.
Destruction of Public Records
Kidnapping Black Boys
Michael Howe's Black Mary.
Chase after Stock-keepers .
Colonel Sorell's Order of 1819
THE BLACK WAR.
CHAPTER III.
CRUELTIES TO THE BLACKS.
Cruelty of Early Settlers
Cruelty of Bushrangers
Spanish and Dutch Cruelties.
CHAPTER IV.
32
39
41
47
50
53
59
61
68
OUTRAGES OF THE BLACKS.
Hanging of Two Aborigines
The Demarcation Order of 1828
75
78
Martial Law
Pictorial Proclamation.
Proclamation of October 1830
82
85
89
Mosquito and the Tame Mob.
Execution of Mosquito and Black Jack
Cruelties of the Blacks
A Hand left in the Trap
Bravery of a Half-caste Wife.
Chastity of White Women respected
Time of Terror
•
93
103
107
·
111
121
125
129
vi
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V.
THE LINE.
Proclamation for Volunteers.
Arrangements for the Capture
Leaders and Numbers in the Line
Savage's Tale of the Savages.
·
Mr. Walpole caught a Black
Siege of the "Three Thumbs"
£30,000 for One Black
Egg-gatherers break through a Line
·
CHAPTER VI.
CAPTURE PARTIES.
Leaders of Parties
•
John Batman, the Blacks' Friend
The Sydney Black Guides
A Night at Ben Lomond
•
Gilbert Robertson, the Leader
Jorgen Jorgenson, the Dane.
•
CHAPTER VII.
GEORGE AUGUSTUS ROBINSON, THE CONCILIATOR.
Bruni Island Depôt.
Truganina, the beautiful Tasmanian
The Conciliatory Mission .
Robinson's Capture of a Tribe
Triumphal Entry into Hobart Town
Truganina saves Robinson's Life
CHAPTER VIII.
FLINDERS ISLAND.
Swan Island Depôt.
Gun Carriage Island
Flinders Island Depôt .
Visit of the Quaker Missionaries
Life of Aborigines on Flinders Island
Mr. Clark, the Catechist
School Examination of the Natives.
Dr. Jeanneret, the Commandant
Dr. Milligan removes Natives from Flinders.
CHAPTER IX.
OYSTER COVE.
Author's Visit to the Natives at Oyster Cove
Death of Mr. Clark
Maryann and Walter
PAGE
133
143
151
158
163
169
•
173
179
182
189
193
198
201
206
213
217
220
•
223
229
233
243
245
•
247
251
253
259
260
267
270
274
277
•
282
{
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER X.
THE SEALERS.
vii
Murder of Half-castes.
Fecundity of Mixed Races
Bishop Nixon's Visit to the Straits' Half-castes.
Bong and her Daughter Dolly
PAGE
Home Life of Sealers' Women
295
Robinson removes the Women to Flinders
300
The Quakers and the Sealers .
305
CHAPTER XI.
HALF-CASTES.
311
313
317
321
CHAPTER XII.
NATIVE RIGHTS.
Legal Rights.
327
Hanging of Four Tasmanians
331
CHAPTER XIII.
CIVILIZATION.
Whately's Degradation Theory
Effects of Civilization
Drink and Civilization.
•
Walter, the civilized Tasmanian
An Aboriginal Discourse
Mr. Wedge's Black Boy
•
•
Failure of Australian Missions
Christian Tasmanians
•
CHAPTER XIV.
DECLINE.
335
343
347
352
354
355
365
367
Amalgamation of Races
Decline, a "Decree of Providence
Hawaiian and Maori Decline.
Drink, the great Destroyer
•
373
""
375
379
381
•
Story of the civilized Mathinna.
383
Count Strzelecki's Theory of Decline
Lanné, the Last Man .
387
393
Lalla Rookh, the Last Tasmanian
399
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
COLOURED PLATES.
FERN TREE VALLEY, NEAR HOBART TOWN
ATTACK ON A SETTLER'S HUT.
THE CORRA LINN OF NORTHERN TASMANIA
•
To face page
Frontispiece
51
364
WOODCUTS.
MOTHER AND CHILD. (Péron's " Voyage").
TASMANIAN WOMAN. (Péron's Arra Maida)
TASMANIAN. (Péron's Grou-Agara)
•
PICTORIAL PROCLAMATION FOR THE BLACKS
23
•
25
26
84
MR. ROBINSON ON HIS CONCILIATION MISSION. (From MR. DUTERREAU'S
great picture)
210
•
WOOREDDY, TRUGANINA'S HUSBAND. (From MR. DUTERREAU's portrait) 217
MANALAGANA. (From MR. DUTERREAU'S portrait)
FAC-SIMILES OF AUTOGRAPHS
•
218
268
WAPPERTY, A TASMANIAN WOMAN. (Photographed by MR. WOOLLEY).
PATTY, THE RING-TAILED OPOSSUM. (Photographed by MR. WOOLLEY)
PATTY IN OYSTER COVE HOLIDAY COSTUME.
279
280
•
•
(Photographed by DR.
NIXON, LORD BISHOP OF TASMANIA) .
280
281
BESSY CLARK, OF OYSTER COVE. (Photographed by MR. WOOLLEY).
WALTER GEORGE ARTHUR, AND HIS WIFE MARYANN THE HALF-CASTE. 282
WILLIAM LANNÉ, THE LAST MAN. (By MR. WOOLLEY, 1866).
LALLA ROOKH, OR TRUGANINA, THE LAST WOMAN.
MR. WOOLLEY, 1866)
393
(Photographed by
•
399
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
CHAPTER I.
VOYAGERS' TALES OF THE TASMANIANS.
A
It was at the close of 1642 that a couple of small Dutch vessels
were struggling with the rough billows of the Southern Ocean.
Their prows were plunging into unknown seas. The adven-
turous commander, ABEL JANSEN TASMAN, sought new fields
of discovery, new homes for his roving, thrifty countrymen.
Glistening peaks of quartz ranges emerged from the waters.
white crest adorned the eastern horizon for many miles, suc-
ceeded by darker columnar masses of rock. A stormy bay was
traversed, a frowning peninsula was rounded, and in a little
cove the weary voyagers found rest and shelter. The startling
novelties of that southern land, its charming climate, its animate
and inanimate wonders, attracted attention and extorted applause.
A name must be given to it. In the colony from which the
captain had sailed, the Dutch settlement of Java, lived a fair
girl, the daughter of the governor, whose sweet image followed
the wanderings of the good ship Zeehaarn. Tasman called the
country after the name of herself and parent,-Van Diemen's
Land.
But my object is to introduce the sailor's first notice of the
inhabitants of this new region, the hapless Tasmanians. I
cannot do better than give an extract from his journal :-
"I anchored," said Tasman, "on the 1st of December, in a
bay which I called the Bay of Frederick Henry. I heard, or at
B
2
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
1
least fancied I heard, the sound of people upon the shore; but I
saw nobody. All I met with worth observing was two trees,
which were two fathoms or two fathoms and a half in girth, and
sixty or sixty-five feet high from the roots to the branches.
They had cut with a flint a sort of steps in the bark, in order to
climb up to the birds'-nests. These steps were at the distance
of five feet from each other; so that we must conclude that
either these people are of prodigious size, or that they have
some way of climbing trees that we are not used to. In one of
the trees the steps were so fresh, that we judged they could not
have been cut above four days. The noise we heard resembled
the noise of some sort of trumpet; it seemed to be at no great
distance, but we saw no living creature notwithstanding. I
perceived also, in the sand, the marks of wild beasts' feet, resem-
bling those of a tiger, or some such creature. I observed smoke
in several places; however, we did nothing more than set up a
post, on which every one cut his name or his mark, and upon
which I hoisted a flag."
The steps cut in the bark were not, however, for the search
after birds'-nests, but for the capture of opossums. The trumpet
sound could be none other than the coo-ee of the foresters assem-
bling the tribe, doubtless to consider the mysterious invasion of
their land by the white-faced and pantalooned strangers.
As the Dutchmen sailed away in a day or two, they had no
opportunity of intercourse with the wild men of the woods.
But the visit was a memorable one; and posterity, in spite of
the worthy old governor and his beautiful daughter, have re-
corded their estimate of the good fortune of the captain, by
calling the southern isle TASMANIA.
The first French navigator who came to the fair island was
MARION DU FRESNE. He had heard of the discovery by Tasman,
and paid a visit to the spot on which the Dutch had landed,
Frederick Henry Bay. He arrived there in two vessels, on the
4th of March, 1772. The French author, Domény de Rienzi,
informs us that "the Aborigines came with confidence down
to the boats, and remained near the French, with their children
and their wives." As this was the first time the Tasmanians
had come in contact with Europeans, it is pleasing to record this
evidence of their frank cordiality with the strangers. A number
of presents, usually most esteemed by savage nations, were dis-
THE FIRST BATTLE.
3
tributed among them. M. Rienzi then proceeds with the story
of the conflict,—the first blood drawn by the whites :—
"About an hour after the French landed, Captain Marion
landed. Advancing in front of him, one of the Aborigines offered
him a lighted firebrand, that he might set light to a heap of
wood heaped up on the flat shore. Marion took it, believing
that it was a formality intended to give confidence to the
savages; but hardly had the little pile of wood been enflamed,
when the Aborigines retired in mass toward a little height, from
which they threw afterwards a volley of stones, which wounded
the two captains. They (the French) repelled them by several
discharges of musket. They killed one aborigine and wounded
several others, and the others fled howling towards the woods."
From another historian of the voyage we learn other parti-
culars. A party of thirty Natives came down, the women carry-
ing their children behind their backs, fastened on with ropes of
rushes. The men were said to be carrying pointed sticks
(spears) and stone axes. Presents of pieces of iron, looking-
glasses, handkerchiefs, &c., were laid before them, but were
rejected with sulky disdain. Some ducks and geese were ten-
dered, but were angrily thrown back again. The fire-stick was
presented to a sailor first, and afterwards to the captain. But
evidently the act, supposed to be friendly, was taken in another
spirit. They might have regarded it as a proof that the strangers
intended an establishment upon their own hunting-grounds.
The historian adds: “This was no sooner done, than they retired
precipitately to a small hill, and threw a shower of stones, by
which Captain Marion and the commander of the Castries were
both wounded." Shots, of course, replied to the stones, and the
Frenchmen returned to their boats. Sending their women back-
ward to the covert of the forest, the wild men ran along the
shore after their foes. The sailors put back towards the land
to arrest the pursuit. At this moment an old chief assumed the
leadership, and raised a hideous war-cry, when a storm of spears
answered to his call. Fifteen Frenchmen now chased the
assailants, and by their destructive fire killed and wounded
several of them.
The unfortunate Marion met with his death in New Zealand.
Though a French author describes his countrymen as being
fattened for thirty-two days, to be eaten on the thirty-third, yet
B 2
4
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
it is known that the New Zealanders treated them well till they
polluted their sacred places, cooked food with tapued wood, and
put two chiefs in irons. May they not have conducted them-
selves as ill in Tasmania, so as to incur the displeasure of the
natives, and neglected to note the circumstance in their journal?
CAPTAIN FURNEAUX, of the Resolution, having got separated
from his commander, Captain Cook, found himself off the south
of Van Diemen's Land, in March 1773. Want of curiosity or
opportunity gave him no tale to tell of the people in person,
though he gathered some information of the country. Examin-
ing, on Bruni Island, a deserted wigwam, as he called a break-
wind, he found a stone; he thereupon jumped to the conclusion
that the Tasmanians, like the Fuegians, used a stone with tinder
of bark for obtaining fire. He supposed them ignorant of metals,
and left in the hut nails, gun-flints, medals, and an old barrel.
There could not be a large population, he thought, as he found
but three or four huts in one place. Observing no evidence of
the use of any appliances of civilization, he regarded the
Natives, as he said, "altogether, from what we could judge, a
very ignorant and wretched sort of people, though natives of
a country capable of producing every necessary of life, and a
climate the finest in the world."
Passing to the eastward, Captain Furneaux ran along the
eastern coast, passing Schoutens. Then he entered this passage
in his journal: "The country here appears to be very thickly
inhabited, as there was a continual fire along-shore as we sailed."
He was now desirous of making some acquaintance with the
Aborigines; but he said, "The weather being bad, we could
not send a boat on shore to have any intercourse with the
inhabitants."
CAPTAIN COOK entered Adventure Bay, Bruni Island, on
January 26th, 1777. Anxious to fall in with the Natives, he
went with a party of marines some miles into the bush. A
rustling as of a wild beast disturbing them, they looked, and
saw a girl, naked and alone. They soothed their terrified
prisoner by binding a handkerchief round her neck, and placing
a cap upon her head. They then allowed her to depart. Soon
after, eight men and a boy approached without fear; one only
had a weapon, which is supposed to have been a waddy. In
his "Voyages" there is this account of their physical condition :
(C
CAPTAIN COOK'S VISIT.
ст
5
They were quite naked, and wore no ornaments, unless we
consider as such some large punctures in different parts of their
bodies, some in straight, and others in curved lines. The men
were of the middle stature, but rather slender. Their skin and
hair were black; and the latter as woolly as that of any native
of Guinea; but they were not distinguished by remarkably thick
lips, nor flat noses. On the contrary, their features were far
from being disagreeable. They had pretty good eyes; and their
teeth were tolerably even, but very dirty. Most of them had
their hair and beards smeared with a red ointment, and some
had also their faces painted with the same composition. When
some bread was offered them, as soon as they understood it was
to be eaten, they either returned, or threw it away, without
tasting it.”
A couple of pigs were brought ashore to turn adrift; but the
Natives seized them by the ears and carried them off, doubtless
to eat them. A musket was fired, when the party fled in great
dismay. But the little girl returned, and brought several females
with her. Of these it was remarked that they "wore a kangaroo
skin fastened over their shoulders, the only use for which seemed
to be to support their children on their backs, for it left those
parts uncovered which modesty directs us to conceal. Their
bodies were black, and marked with scars like those of the men;
from whom, however, they differed, in having their heads shaved
--some of them being completely shorn, others only on one side,
while the rest of them had the upper part of their heads shaved,
leaving a very narrow circle of hair all round. They were far
from being handsome; however, some of our gentlemen paid
their addresses to them, but without effect. That the gallantry
of some of our people was not very agreeable to the men, is
certain; for an elderly man, as soon as he observed it, ordered
the women and children to retire, which they all did, but some
with a little reluctance."
Cook was surprised at their indifference to presents, and dis-
regard of iron, fish-hooks, &c. They lived "like beasts of the
forest, in roving parties, without arts of any kind, sleeping in
summer like dogs, under the hollow sides of trees, or in the
wattled huts made with the low branches of evergreen shrubs,
stuck in the ground at small distances from each other, and
meeting together at the top." On another occasion, falling in
6
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
with a party of twenty, Cook was better pleased; and it was
said of them, "Nor do they seem to be such miserable wretches
as the Natives whom Dampier mentions to have seen on the
western coast of New Holland."
Captain Cook's surgeon, Mr. Anderson, had several interviews
with these people. From the account of his visit we read :
'They had little of that fierce or wild appearance common to
people in their situation; but, on the contrary, seemed mild and
cheerful, without reserve or jealousy of strangers." He had no
great belief in their mental superiority to other savages; for he
says, “They have to appearance even less genius than the half-
animated inhabitants of Terra del Fuego." Again, "Their not
expressing that surprise which one might have expected from
their seeing men so much unlike themselves, and things to
which, we are well assured, they had been hitherto utter
strangers; their indifference for our presents, and their general
inattention, were sufficient proofs of their not possessing any
acuteness of understanding."
Captain Cook thought it probable that the people belonged to
the same family as those of Tanna and Manicola, whom he had
recently visited, and that from New Holland eastward to Easter
Island they might have a common root. He is constrained to
admit that "the circumstances and progress of their separation
are wrapped in the darkest veil of obscurity."
The navigator was struck with the superior virtue of the
Tasmanian women over the more polished Polynesians. His
remarks upon the conduct of Europeans toward savage women
are worthy of citation here. He describes it as "highly blame-
able, as it creates a jealousy in their men, that may be attended
with consequences fatal to the success of the common enterprise,
and to the whole body of adventurers, without advancing the
private purpose of the individual, or enabling him to gain the
object of his wishes. I believe it has been generally found
among uncivilized people, that where the women are easy of
access, the men are the first to offer them to strangers; and that
where this is not the case, neither the allurements of presents,
nor the opportunity of privacy, will be likely to have the desired
effect. This observation will, I am sure, hold good throughout
all the parts of the South Seas where I have been. Why then
should men act so absurd a part, as to risk their own safety, and
CAPTAIN BLIGH OF THE "BOUNTY."
7
that of all their companions, in pursuit of a gratification which
they have no probability of obtaining?"
CAPTAIN BLIGH, so celebrated in the early annals of Australia,
paid two visits to Van Diemen's Land. He went sixteen years
before its settlement, and four years after that event. The first
time he appeared a voyager among a barbarous people. On the
next occasion he came as ex-governor, exiled by a rebellious
colony, and soliciting in vain assistance from his quondam sub-
ordinate, the ruler of Hobart Town. In 1788, he spent twelve
days in Adventure Bay, Bruni Island, and observed the English
record upon a tree, “A.D. 1773." He exhibited a disposition to
benevolence, as Captain Furneaux had done, in planting apples,
vines, oranges, cherries, plums, and other trees, together with
potatoes, cabbages, and onions. The early settlers make no
mention of these when they colonized the little island. Sailors
are not proverbial for their skill in planting, although the season,
being the spring-month of September, was favourable to their
exertions.
The French historian, Domény de Rienzi, refers to Bligh at
Adventure Bay, in some mistake: "Not being able to land
because of the breaking of the waves, he caused presents to be
thrown to the natives, which they disdained." But coming in
contact with them at Frederick Henry Bay, near the scene of
Tasman's visit in 1642, Captain Bligh has this relation of the
tribe there:
"Soon after we heard their voices, like the cackling of geese,
and twenty persons came out of the wood, twelve of whom went
round to some rocks, where the boat could get nearer to the
shore than we then were. Those who remained behind were
women. We approached about twenty yards of them; but there
was no possibility of landing, and I could only throw to the
shore, tied up in paper, the presents which I intended for them.
I showed the different articles as I tied them up; but they
would not untie the paper till I made an appearance of leaving
them. They then opened the parcels, and, as they took the
articles out, placed them on their heads. On seeing this I
ventured toward them, when they instantly put everything out
of their hands, and would not appear to take notice of anything
that we had given them. After throwing a few more beads and
iron on shore, I made signs for them to go to the ship, and they
8
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
likewise made signs for me to land; and as this could not be
effected, I left them, in hopes of a nearer interview at the water-
ing place. When they first came in sight, they made a pro-
digious chattering in their speech, and held their arms over
their heads."
Elsewhere he adds: "They talked to us, sitting on their heels,
with their knees close to their armpits, and were perfectly
naked." His last observations are founded upon the informa-
tion of another: "The account which I had from Brown, the
botanist's assistant, was, that in his search for plants, he had
met an old man, a young woman, and two or three children.
The old man at first appeared alarmed, but became familiar on
being presented with a knife. He nevertheless sent away the
young woman, who went away very reluctantly. He saw some
miserable wigwams, in which were nothing but a few kangaroo
skins spread on the ground, and a basket made of rushes.”
Among the first-fruits of the French Revolution were a generous
impulse toward suffering humanity, a chivalrous desire for uni-
versal brotherhood, and a remarkable development of science.
To these circumstances perhaps we owe the celebrated voyages
of discovery conducted by ADMIRAL D'ENTRECASTEAUX, of the
Recherche and Espérance, in April 1792, and by ADMIRAL
BAUDIN, of the Géographe and Naturaliste, in 1802. The
historian of the first was the amiable naturalist, M. Labillar-
dière, and that of the second was the susceptible naturalist,
M. Peron. The latter, however, did not live to complete the
narrative, which, some years after, was carried on by Lieutenant
Freycinet, who subsequently commanded in a similar enterprise
under the Restoration.
As in some other expeditions of our Gallic neighbours, there
was a want of prudence and foresight, a defect of discipline, and
a loss of material resources, connected with the ships of M.
D'Entrecasteaux, which occasioned much misery on board, and
frustrated the purposes of discovery. But our concern is simply
with the observations upon the Tasmanians. The Storm Bay of
Tasman was avoided, and so the channel between an island and
the mainland led the seamen past the mouth of a noble river, up
to near the future site of Hobart Town. Admiral Bruni D'En-
trecasteaux named the island after his own first name, and the
THE FRENCH DISCOVERY IN 1792.
9
channel after the second; the river was called Huon, after
Captain Huon Kermandée, second in command. A second visit
was paid by the expedition in the following year.
The Natives, of whom they had heard something from the
voyages of Captain Cook and Captain Marion, were great
objects of curiosity to the prying Frenchmen. They had con-
siderable amusement with the looking-glass, and great fun with
an ape, the tricks of which produced roars of laughter. The
introduction of a goat excited much astonishment. A burning-
glass, after setting a piece of bark on fire, was made to give
practical evidence of its powers on the thigh of a stalwart
savage. If the loud laugh "bespeak the vacant mind," our
dark friends illustrated their ignorance. M. Labillardière thus
records his interview with one company :—
"We got ready a few cartridges as fast as we could, and set
out towards the place where we had seen the Natives. It was
now only nine o'clock. We had gone only a few steps before
we met them. The men and youths were ranged in front,
nearly in a semicircle; the women, children, and girls were a
few paces behind. As their manner did not appear to indicate
any hostile design, I hesitated not to go up to the oldest, who
accepted, with a very good grace, a piece of biscuit I offered
him, of which he had seen me eat. I then held out my hand to
him, as a sign of friendship, and had the pleasure to perceive
that he comprehended my meaning very well. He gave me
his, inclining himself a little, and raising at the same time the
left foot, which he carried backward in proportion as he bent his
body forward. These motions were accompanied by a pleasing
smile. (Worthy of a polished Parisian !)
(C
My companions also advanced up to the others, and imme-
diately the best understanding prevailed among us. They
received with great joy the neckcloths which we offered them.
The young people approached nearer to us; and one of them
had the generosity to give me a few small shells of the whelk
kind, pierced near the middle, and strung like a necklace. This
ornament, which he called Canlaride, was the only one he pos-
sessed, and he wore it round his head. A handkerchief supplied
the place of this present, gratifying the utmost wishes of my
savage, who advanced towards me that I might tie it round his
head for him, and who expressed the greatest joy as he lifted his
10
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
hand up to feel it again and again. We wore abundance of
clothes, as I have already observed, on account of the coldness
of the nights; and we bestowed the greater part on these
islanders.
"The women were very desirous of coming nearer to us; and
though the men made signs to them to keep at a distance, their
curiosity was ready every moment to break through all other
considerations. The gradual increase of confidence, however,
that took place, obtained them permission to approach. It
appeared to us very astonishing that in so high a latitude, where,
at a period of the year so little advanced as the present, we
experienced the cold at night to be pretty severe, these people
did not feel the necessity of clothing themselves. Even the
women were, for the most part, entirely naked, as well as the
men. Some of them only had the shoulders or part of the back
covered with a kangaroo's skin, worn with the hair next the
body; and amongst these we saw two, each of whom had an
infant at the breast. The sole garment of one was a strip of
kangaroo skin, about two inches broad, which was wrapped six
or seven times round the waist. Another had a collar of skin
round the neck, and some had a slender cord bound several
times round the head. I afterwards learned that most of these
cords were fabricated from the bark of a shrub of the Spurge
family, very common in this country.
((
'I had given them several things without requiring anything
in return; but I wished to get a kangaroo's skin, when, among
the savages about us, there happened to be only a young girl
who had one. When I proposed to her to give it me in exchange
for a pair of pantaloons, she ran away to hide herself in the
woods. The other Natives appeared truly hurt at her refusal,
and called to her several times. At length she yielded to their
entreaties, and came to bring me the skin. Perhaps it was from
timidity only she could not prevail on herself to part with this
kind of garment; in return for which she received a pair of
pantaloons, less useful to her, according to the customs of ladies
in this country, than the skin, which served to cover the shoul-
ders. We showed her the manner of wearing them; but, not-
withstanding, it was necessary for us to put them on for her
ourselves. To this she yielded with the best grace in the world,
resting both her hands on our shoulders, to support herself
EXCHANGE FOR A KANGAROO SKIN.
11
while she lifted first one leg, then the other, to put them in this
new garment. Desirous of avoiding every cause of offence, we
behaved with all the gravity we could on the occasion.
"This party of savages consisted of two-and-twenty, seven of
whom were men, eight women; the rest appeared to be their
children. Amongst these we observed several marriageable girls
still less clothed, most of them with nothing."
Other interviews at other localities are thus described :-
((
Two boats were sent out to transport some of our men to
both shores of the Straits. They discovered a number of savages
landing from a raft on the east shore. As timid as those we
had seen before, they had hastened with all possible speed to
the land, where they made their escape into the woods. One
of the officers of the Recherche, following a beaten path made
by the savages through the woods, met six of them walking
slowly towards the south, who were all stark naked, and armed
with javelins sixteen or eighteen feet in length. Their surprise
at so unexpected a rencounter was visible in their countenances;
but their number inspiring them with courage, they approached
at the invitation of the European, and bound round their heads.
a handkerchief and neckcloth which he offered them. They,
however, appeared terrified at the sight of his hanger, which he
showed them how to use; nor were their fears quieted till he
made them a present of it. He endeavoured in vain to per-
suade them to come to the place where our ships lay at anchor;
the savages walked away, following the same path in a direction
opposite to that which led to the shore.
"Some of our men having landed on the other side of the
Strait came to a large fire, round which eight savages, each of
whom had a kangaroo skin wrapped round his shoulders, sat
warming themselves under the shelter of four fences against the
wind. They immediately ran away as soon as they saw our
people. An old woman who had the care of their provisions,
which she did not choose to leave behind her, was soon over-
taken by some of the sailors. She accepted, with an air of
satisfaction, a handkerchief that was given her, but was so terri-
fied at the sight of a hanger, which they presented to her, that
she leaped down a precipice more than forty feet in height, and
ran away among the rocks, where they soon lost sight of her.
I do not know whether those who related this adventure in a
12
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
different manner wished to make themselves merry at the ex-
pense of the rest, when they asserted that the age of this woman
was no security for her against the attempts of some of the
sailors; however, she was still young enough to make her
escape."
It was upon other occasions that the intercourse became more
intimate. M. Peron was daubed with charcoal by some of the
sable fair, to add to his enchantment. Some of the young
damsels, though unwilling to wear the garments of civilization,
were induced by the gay Frenchmen to run races for them.
A child, crying at the sight of a white ogre, was quieted by its
smiling mother placing her hands over his eyes. The barbarous
people exhibited great politeness, even carefully removing ob-
structive branches in the way of the foreign Bush explorers. Of
course a French sailor tried to initiate a Native into the first
principles of civilization by presenting some grog. The Tas-
manian spat out the nauseous stuff with unmistakeable signs of
disgust. Some of the stories told by M. Labillardière do credit
to the kind nature of that man of science, especially in relation
to his gallantry for the softer sex, whose cause he so nobly
espouses:
“At noon we saw them prepare their repast. Hitherto we
had but a faint idea of the pains the women take to procure the
food requisite for the subsistence of their families. They each
took a basket, and were followed by their daughters, who did
the same. Getting on the rocks that projected into the sea, they
plunged from them to the bottom in search of shell-fish. When
they had been down some time, we became very uneasy on their
account; for where they had dived were sea-weeds of great
length, among which we observed the Fucus pyriferus, and we
feared they might have been entangled in these, so as to be
unable to regain the surface. At length, however, they appeared,
and convinced us that they were capable of remaining under
water twice as long as our ablest divers. An instant was
sufficient for them to take breath, and then they dived again.
This they did repeatedly, till their baskets were nearly ful'
Most of them were provided with a little bit of wood, cut in the
shape of a spatula, of which I spake before; and with these
they separated from beneath the rocks, at great depths, very
large sea-ears. Perhaps they chose the biggest, for all they
CONDITION OF THE WOMEN.
13
brought were of great size. On seeing the large lobsters, we
were afraid that they must have wounded these poor women
terribly with their large claws; but we soon found that they
had taken the precaution to kill them as soon as they caught
them. They quitted the water only to bring their husbands the
fruits of their labour, and frequently returned almost imme-
diately to their diving, till they had procured a sufficient meal
for their families. At other times they stayed a little time
to warm themselves, with their faces towards the fire on which
their fish were roasting, and other little fires burning behind
them that they might be warmed on all sides at once() It
seemed as if they were unwilling to lose a moment's time; for
while they were warming themselves they were employed in
roasting fish, some of which they laid on the coals with the
utmost caution, though they took little care of the lobsters,
which they threw anywhere into the fire, and when they were
ready they divided the claws among the men and children,
reserving the body for themselves, which they sometimes ate
before they returned into the water.”
He gives us a little insight into their domestic arrangements,
in the following sketch:-" Two of the stoutest of the party
were sitting in the midst of their children, and each had two
women by his side. They informed us by signs that these were
their wives, and gave us a fresh proof that polygamy is estab-
lished among them. The other women who had only one
husband were equally careful to let us know it. It would be
difficult to say which are the happiest, as the most laborious of
their domestic occupations devolve upon them, which perhaps
might sufficiently compensate their having only a share in their
husband's affections."
The last extracts from M. Labillardière's journal relate to the
softer sex, ever a favourite subject with our polished neigh-
bours :-
"Four of the young girls were of the party who received
with indifference the garments we gave them; and, that they
might not be encumbered with a useless burden, immediately
hung them on the bushes near the path, intending, no doubt, to
take them with them on their return. As a proof that they set
little value on such presents, we did not see on any of them one
of the garments that we had given them the day before. Three
14
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
•
of these young women were marriageable, and all of them were of
very cheerful dispositions. In one of them it was observed that
the right breast had acquired its full size, while the left was still
perfectly flat. This temporary defect had no effect on the live-
liness of her manner. No doubt we lost much by not under-
standing the language of these natives, for one of the girls said
a good deal to us: she talked a long while with extraordinary
volubility, though she must have perceived that we could not
comprehend her meaning-no matter, she must talk. The others
attempted more than once to charm us by songs, with the
modulation of which I was singularly struck, from the great
analogy of the tunes to those of the Arabs in Asia Minor.
Several times two sang the same tune at once, but always
a third above the other, forming a concord with the greatest
exactness.
"Soon after we arrived at the entrance of Port D'Entrecas-
teaux. Two of the young girls followed the different windings.
of the shore, without mistrust, at a distance from the other
Natives, with three of our sailors, when these took the oppor-
tunity to treat them with a degree of freedom which was
received in a very different manner from what they had hoped.
The young women immediately fled to the rocks most advanced
into the sea, and appeared ready to leap into it, and swim away,
if our men had followed them. They presently repaired to the
place where we were assembled with the other savages; but it
seems they did not disclose this adventure, for the most perfect
harmony continued to prevail between us.”
It is a singular circumstance, illustrative of the paradoxes of
human nature, that at the moment while these Frenchmen were
fraternizing so affectionately with barbarians at the Antipodes,
their countrymen at home were revelling in the blood of their
fellow-citizens-as the Reign of Terror then prevailed.
Mr. FLINDERS, accompanied by his friend Mr. Surgeon Bass,
followed the Frenchmen in making Tasmanian acquaintances.
These two young men, after the discovery of Western Port in
an adventurous voyage in a little open boat, obtained the use of
the colonial schooner Norfolk, sailed from Sydney in 1798,
passed through Bass's Strait, and proved Van Diemen's Land to
be an island.
Mr. Flinders' account did not appear for several years, as he
FLINDERS AND BASS AT THE DERWENT.
15
subsequently commanded an expedition which resulted in the
discovery of South Australia on his way home, and suffered
a lengthened captivity in the Mauritius. From his "Terra
Australis" we learn that the Norfolk sailed up the North river
of D'Entrecasteaux, the name of which was changed by Captain
Hayes to the Derwent, and on the banks of which the young
men observed the Natives. Doubtless the stirring events of the
next few years so occupied the thoughts of the navigator, and
employed his pen, that Captain Flinders could give but a brief
account of the Derwenters in his work.
It is quite amusing to observe the blunders into which so
shrewd an observer as he could fall. He was quite confounded
with evidences of the Aborigines having been upon an island
in the Straits, not far from the mainland, when, as he so pre-
maturely conjectured, they had no boats, and were quite ignorant
of the art of swimming. Had he read the tale of Labillardière
or Peron, before the publication of his own work, he would have
been better informed. He even ventures to repeat his convic-
tion of the Blacks' antipathy to cold water. But up to that
time he had not seen a single inhabitant. His only intercourse
with the race was near the site of the future capital-Hobart
Town. It is thus described by Mr. Flinders:—
"Our attention was suddenly called from contemplating the
country by the sound of a human voice coming from the hills.
There were three people, and as they would not comply with
our signs to come down, we landed, and went up to them,
taking up with us a swan. Two women ran off, but a man,
who had two or three spears in his hand, stayed to receive
ns, and accepted the swan with rapture. He seemed entirely
ignorant of muskets, nor did anything excite his attention or
desire except the swan, and the red kerchiefs about our necks.
He knew, however, that we came from the sloop, and where it
was lying. A little knowledge of the Port Jackson and of the
South Sea Island languages was of no use in making ourselves
understood by this man; but the quickness with which he
comprehended our signs spoke in favour of his intelligence."
The consequences of this interview were most disastrous to
the unfortunate Tasmanians: Mr. Flinders' report of the ad-
vantages presented by the Derwent induced Captain Collins
to found his colony upon the banks of that stream.
16
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
As the interview between the dark son of the Derwent and
our voyagers, Messrs. Bass and Flinders, was of so pleasing a
character, another history of the day from another source may
be acceptable to the reader. This is related by Captain Collins,
afterwards the first governor of Van Diemen's Land, and founder
of Hobart Town. While the account by Flinders was published
more than a dozen years after the occurrence, that by the
historian of New South Wales was written a year or two after
the visit, and the details, collected from the mouth of Mr. Bass,
are more circumstantially given.
After speaking of the run of the Norfolk up the beautiful
river, he proceeds in these words :-"In their way up, a human
voice saluted them from the hills; on which they landed, carry-
ing with them one of several swans which they had just shot.
Having nearly reached the summit, two females, with a short
covering hanging loose from their shoulders, suddenly appeared
at some little distance before them; but, snatching up each a
small basket, these scampered off. A man then presented him-
self, and suffered them to approach him without any signs of
fear or distrust. He received the swan joyously, appearing to
esteem it a treasure.
"His language was unintelligible to them, as was theirs to
him, although they addressed him in several of the dialects of
New South Wales, and some few of the most common words of
the South Sea Islands. With some difficulty they made him
comprehend their wish to see his place of residence.
He
pointed over the hill, and proceeded onwards; but his pace was
slow and wandering, and he often stopped under pretence that
he had lost the track, which led them to suspect that his only
aim was to amuse and tire them out. Judging, then, that in
persisting to follow him they must lose the remaining part of
the flood-tide, which was much more valuable to them than the
sight of his hut could be, they parted from him in great friend-
ship. The most probable reason of his unwillingness to be
their guide, seemed to be his fearing that if he took them
to his women their charms might induce them to run off
with them-a jealousy very common with the natives of the
continent.
He was a short, slight man, of middle age, with a counte-
nance more expressive of benignity and intelligence, than of
THE MAN AT THE DERWENT.
17
the ferocity or stupidity which generally characterised the other
Natives; and his features were less flattened, or negro-like, than
theirs. His face was blackened, and the top of his head was
plastered with red earth. His hair was either naturally short
and close, or had been rendered so by burning, and, although
short and stiffly curled, they did not think it woolly. He was
armed with two spears, very ill-made, of solid wood. No part
of their dress attracted his attention, except the red silk hand-
kerchiefs round their necks. Their fire-arms were to them
neither objects of curiosity nor fear.
"This was the first man they had spoken with in Van
Diemen's Land; and his frank and open deportment led them
not only to form a favourable opinion of the dispositions of its
inhabitants, but to conjecture that if a country was peopled in
the usual numbers, he would not have been the only one they
should have met. A circumstance which corroborated this
supposition was that in the excursions made by Mr. Bass into
the country, having seldom any society but his two dogs, he
would have been no great object of dread to a people ignorant
of the effects of firearms, and would certainly have been hailed
by any one who might have seen him."
Captain Collins, in his general account of Van Diemen's
Land, in the appendix to his work on New South Wales,
published in London, 1803, adds some observations respecting
the people. "This country," he asserts, "is inhabited by men.
Their extreme shyness, however, prevented any communica-
tion. They (Bass and Flinders) never even got sight of them
but once, and then at a great distance. The huts, of which
seven or eight were generally found together, were wretchedly
contrived; and it appears somewhat strange that in the
latitude of 41° want should not have sharpened their ideas to
the invention of some more convenient habitation, especially
since they have been left by nature without the confined dwell-
ing of a hollow tree, or the more agreeable accommodation of a
hole under a rock. A canoe was never met with, and concurring
circumstances showed that this convenience was unknown here.
Hence, from the little that has been seen of the condition of
our own species in this place, it appears to be much inferior in
some essential points of convenience to that of the despised
inhabitants of the continent.”
C
18
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
The most minute and interesting account of the Tasmanians
is obtained from the journal of M. PERON, the historian of the
French exploring expedition under Commodore Baudin, in
the ships, Géographe and Naturaliste, with the corvette
Casuarina, in the year 1802.
It was on the 13th of January, 1802, that the voyagers fell
in with the Aborigines. The scene is laid at Port Cygnet,
near the entrance of D'Entrecasteaux Channel. Two persons
were observed running along, expressing astonishment at the
strangers; one of these carried a lighted torch in his hand.
turn to the journal :---
We
"To the signs of friendship which we made, one of them pre-
cipitated himself from the top of a rock, rather than descended
it, and in the twinkling of an eye was in the midst of us. He
was a young man, of from twenty-two to twenty-four years of
age, of an apparently strong constitution, having no other defect
than a slenderness of legs and arms, which characterises his
nation. His physiognomy exhibited neither austerity nor
ferocity; his eyes were quick and sparkling, and his looks
expressed at once benevolence and surprise. M. Freycinet
having embraced him, I did the same.
But the air of indiffer-
ence with which he welcomed this evidence of our interest made
it easy to observe that it had no signification for him. (The
Frenchmen discovered that kissing was a social mystery to these
rude barbarians.) That which appeared to affect him more was
the whiteness of our skin. Wishing to assure himself, without
doubt, if that colour were the same all over the body, he opened
our waistcoats and shirts, and his astonishment was manifested
by loud cries of surprise, and above all by extremely quick
stamping of the feet.
"Yet our cutter appeared to occupy him more than our per-
sons, and, after having gazed a few moments, he rushed down to
the landing-place. There, without disturbing himself about the
sailors whom he found there, he seemed quite absorbed in his
new observation. The thickness of the ribs and panels, the
solidity of its construction, its rudder, its oars, its masts, its
sails, he observed with all that silence and that profound atten-
tion which are the least equivocal signs of a reflective interest
and admiration. In a moment one of the sailors, wishing with-
out doubt to add to his surprise, presented him with a wine
THE MOTHER AND HER CHILD.
19
bottle filled with the grog which formed a part of the rations
of the ship. The brightness of the glass called forth a cry of
astonishment from the savage, who took the bottle and examined
it for some moments; but soon his curiosity being led again to
the vessel, he threw the bottle into the sea, without appearing to
have any other intention than to relieve himself of an indifferent
object, and afterwards went to his first research. Neither the
cry of the sailor, who was troubled at the loss of his bottle of
grog, nor the entreaty of one of his comrades to throw himself
into the water to catch it, appeared to move him. He made
several attempts to push the cutter free, but the cable which
held it attached rendering all his efforts powerless, he was con-
strained to abandon it and return to join us, after having given
us the most striking example that we had had of the attention
and reflection in savage people.”
We have then a passage worthy of Rousseau himself. A
family group present themselves:-
“The old man, after having examined both of us with as much
surprise and satisfaction as the first, made signs to two women,
who had hitherto been unwilling to approach. They hesitated
The younger
The one
some moments, after which the elder came to us.
followed her, more timid and fearful than the first.
appeared to be forty years old, and large furrows upon the skin
of the abdomen announced, not to be mistaken, that she had
been the mother of several children. She was absolutely naked,
and appeared, like the old man, kind and benevolent. The
young woman, of from twenty-six to twenty-eight years, was
of a pretty robust constitution; like the preceding, she was
entirely naked, with the exception of a kangaroo skin, in which
she carried a little girl, whom she still suckled. Her breasts, a
little withered already, appeared otherwise pretty well formed,
and sufficiently furnished with milk. This young woman, like
the elderly man and woman, whom we presumed to be her
father and mother, had an interesting physiognomy. Her eyes
had expression, and something of the spirituel which surprised
us, and which since then we have never found in any other
female of that nation. She appeared, also, to cherish her child
much; and her care for her had that affectionate and gentle
character which is exhibited among all races as the particular
attribute of maternal tenderness."
C 2
20
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
Another family group excited the most romantic ravings of
our French explorers. These consisted of a father and mother,
a young man, a little boy about five years old, a girl of younger
years, and a belle sauvage of sixteen or seventeen. Upon making
acquaintance with this distinguished party, Peron, like a true
man of gallantry, drew off his glove, while bowing to the beauty,
preparatory to his offering the salutation of refined society. The
fair one of the forest was struck with horror and alarm at
the facility with which her admirer apparently peeled off his
skin, and was not easily relieved of her fears for his safety. The
old man, in primitive simplicity, invited the visitors to his
evening meal of cockles and mussels. Peron sang, for his
supper, the Marseillaise Hymn. The effect he describes: "The
young man tore his hair, scratched his head with both hands,
agitated himself in a hundred different ways, and repeatedly
iterated his approving clamour." Other and more tender airs
followed, which doubtless touched the tender chords of the
young lady. Let us hear his tale of this gentle one :-
"The young girl whom I have noticed made herself more and
more conspicuous every instant, by the softness of her looks, and
their affectionate and sparkling expression. Ourâ Ourâ, like her
parents, was perfectly naked, and appeared little to suspect that
one should find in that absolute nudity anything immodest
or indecent. Of a weaker constitution than her little brother
and sister, she was more lively and impassioned than they.
M. Freycinet, who seated himself beside her, appeared to be
more particularly the object of her agreeable attentions, and the
least experienced eye might have been able, in the look of this
innocent child of nature, to distinguish that delicate shadow
which gives to simple playfulness a more serious and reflective
character. Coquetry appeared to be called forth to the support
of natural attractions. Ourâ Ourâ made us know for the
first time the nature of the rouge of these regions, and the
details of its application. After having put some charcoal in my
hands, she crushed it, and reduced it to very fine powder; then
keeping this dust in the left hand, she took some with the right,
and rubbing at first the forehead, then the two cheeks, in
an instant was frightfully black: that which above all appeared
singular to us was the complacency with which the young girl
looked at us after the operation, and the air of confidence which
TIIE CHARMING OURÂ OUKÂ.
21
this new ornament had spread upon her features. Thus, then,
the sentiment of coquetry, the taste for ornament, are wants, so
to speak, innate in the heart of woman."
Their interest in the children was creditable to the good feel-
ings of the Frenchmen. The little ones pleased them, and led to
the philosophical remark, that "uniting our particular observa-
tions to those of the most celebrated travellers, we deduced
therefrom the important consequence, that the character of the
woman and the child is very much independent of that of the
man, of the influence of climate, the perfectioning of social
order, and the empire of physical wants."
M. Peron then proceeds to describe a little bit of vanity on the
other side. "Ourâ Ourâ carried a reed bag, of an elegant and
singular construction, which I much desired to obtain. As this
young girl evidenced for me some more amicable distinctions, I
ventured to ask for her little bag. Immediately, and without
hesitation, she put it into my hand, accompanying the present
with an obliging smile and some affectionate phrases, which I
regretted not being able to understand." The gallant gave her a
handkerchief and a tomahawk in return; but, upon M. Breton
bestowing a long red feather, "she leaped for joy. She called
her father and her brothers. She cried, she laughed; in a word,
she seemed intoxicated with pleasure and happiness.”
But the dearest friends must part. The gentlemen prepared
for the loneliness of shipboard, grieving to resign the delights of
Arcadian simplicity, and the pure pleasures of aboriginal inno-
cence. Yet our natives were too polite to permit their guests to
depart unattended. The civilities of ordinary civilization were
not wanting.
"M. Freycinet gave his arm to Ourâ Ourâ; the old man was
my mate. Our way lay amidst briars and underwood, and our
poor savages, being wholly naked, suffered greatly. Ourâ Ourâ,
in particular, was sadly scratched. But heedless of this, she
boldly made her way through the thicket, chattering with Frey-
cinet, and vexed at her inability to make herself understood;
at the same time accompanying her discourse with sportive wiles
and smiles, so gracious and expressive, that the most finished
coquetry could not have rendered them more so."
How affecting must have been the parting! The Frenchmen
entered their boats in profound despondency. The feeling was
22
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
reciprocated; for "the Natives manifested their sorrow in the
most affecting manner." The kind naturalist adds, "Our good
Diemenese did not leave us for an instant; and when we pushed
off, their grief showed itself in the most touching manner.
They made signs to return to see them." They even lighted a
large fire upon a neighbouring hill, that, when the winds had
driven the vessel miles away, the column of smoke might indi-
cate a spot so sacred to peace and friendship. No wonder that
poor Peron, thoroughly smitten, closes that day's journal with
these words: "The whole of what I have related is minutely
exact; and assuredly it were difficult to resist the soft emotion
which similar incidents inspire."
Now, alas! truth demands that we reverse the shield.
A boat's crew landed on Bruni Island. On this occasion they
encountered no Ourâ Ourâ. A fine athletic fellow had been
showing off his powers, when a French midshipman engaged him
in a wrestling match, and with superior science threw him.
The sulky rascal got up, and threw a spear at the victor.
Another time Messrs. Petit, Leschenault, and Hamelin went
ashore at Bruni. Petit, an artist, began taking likenesses of the
Natives present. This liberty was resented by one man, who
rushed forward to seize the portraits, which were saved from the
Goth with difficulty. Blows were struck on both sides, and a
shower of stones closed the entente cordiale. The practical
Leschenault has left us this expression of his opinion: "I am
surprised to hear persons of sense still affirm that man in a
natural state is not of a bad disposition, but worthy of con-
fidence." Had Peron received a stone at his head, instead of a
basket from pretty Ourâ, his views might have approximated to
those of his brother naturalist.
Let us hear another tale from M. Peron. While wandering
among the Bush flowers of Tasmania, and admiring the sylvan
charms of that Isle of Beauty, he encountered a company of
Diana's forest maidens, to whom, in the distance, the French
officers waved their handkerchiefs.
'" At these demonstrations of friendship the troop hesitated an
instant, then stopped, and resolved to wait for us. It was then
that we recognised that we had the company of women; there
was not a male individual with them. We were disposed to
join them nearer, when one of the oldest among them, disen-
Un

MOTHER AND CHILD.
(Péron's Voyage.)
THE FRENCH AND THE WOOD-NYMPHS.
23
gaging herself from her companions, made signs for us to stop
and sit down, crying out loudly to us, mèdi, mèdi (sit down, sit
down). She seemed also to ask us to lay down our arms, the
view of which alarmed her. These preliminary conditions
having been complied with, the women squatted upon their
heels, and from that moment abandoned themselves without
reserve to the vivacity of their character, speaking all together,
questioning us all at once, making, in a word, a thousand
gestures, a thousand contortions as singular as varied.
M. Bellefin (doctor) began to sing, accompanying himself with
very lively and animated gestures. The women kept silence,
observing with much attention the gestures of M. Bellefin, as
if by them to interpret his singing. Hardly had one couplet
been completed, when some of them applauded with loud cries,
others laughed to the echo, whilst the young girls, more timid
without doubt, kept silence, evidencing nevertheless, by their
movements and by the expression of their physiognomy, their
surprise and their satisfaction.
"All the women, with the exception of kangaroo skins which
some of them carried upon their shoulders, were perfectly
naked; but, without appearing to think anything of their
nudity, they so varied their attitudes and their postures, that it
would be difficult to describe the bizarre and the picturesque
effects presented to us by that meeting. Their skin, black and
disgusting with the fat of seals; their hair, short, crisp, black
and dirty, reddened in some with the dust of ochre; their
figures, all bedaubed with charcoal; their forms, generally thin
and faded; their breasts, long and pendant-in a word, all the
details of their physical constitution were repulsive. We must
always exempt from this general tableau two or three young
girls of from fifteen to sixteen years, in whom we distin-
guished forms agreeable enough, contours sufficiently graceful,
and in whom the breast was firm and well placed, although the
nipple was a little too large and too long. These young girls
had also something in the expression of their features the most
ingenuous, the most affectionate, and the most gentle, as if the
better qualities of the soul could exist even in the midst of the
savage hordes of the human species, the more particular gift of
youth, of grace, and of beauty.
"Among the more aged females, some had a gross and ignoble
24
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
figure; others, much fewer in number, had a fierce and sombre
look; but, in general, one remarked in all I know not what of
inquietude and depression, which misfortune and slavery imprint
on the features of all beings who bear the yoke. Almost all
were covered with scars, sad fruits of ill-treatment from their
ferocious husbands. One only, in the midst of all her com-
panions, had preserved a dignified aspect, with much enjoyment
and joviality; it was she who had imposed the conditions of
which I have spoken before. After M. Bellefin had ended his
song, she began to mimic with her gestures and her tone of voice
in a very original and pleasant manner, which much diverted
her companions. Then she began to sing herself in so rapid a
way, that it would be difficult to apply such music to the
ordinary principles of our own. Their song, nevertheless, is here
in accordance with their language, for such is the volubility of
speech in these people, that it is impossible, as we shall else-
where show, to distinguish any precise sound in their pronunci-
ation it is a sort of trilling sentiment, for which we cannot find
any terms of comparison or analogy in our European languages.
"Excited, so to speak, by her own singing, which we had not
failed to applaud with warmth, and wishing, without doubt, to
deserve our suffrages on other accounts, our jovial Diemenese
commenced to execute various dance movements, some of which
would have been regarded as excessively indecent, if that state
of human society were not foreign to all that delicacy of senti-
ment and action which is for us but a fortunate product of the
perfection of social order.
"Whilst all this passed, I employed myself accurately to
collect and note the details that were presented, and which I
now describe. It was remarked, doubtless, by the same woman
who was dancing; for hardly had she finished her dance, than
she approached me with an obliging air, took from a reed bag,
similar to that I have described elsewhere, some charcoal which
she found there, crushed it in her hand, and began to lay on me
a plaster of the rouge of those regions. I willingly lent myself to
this obliging caprice. M. Heirisson had the same complacency,
and received a similar mask. We appeared to be then a great
object of admiration to these women; they seemed to regard us
with a sweet satisfaction, and to felicitate us upon the new
adornments which we had just acquired.")

TASMANIAN.
(Péron's Grou-Agara.)
TASMANIAN WOMAN.
(Péron's Arra Maida.)

CHASTE BUT MERRY.
25
This led our traveller to another philosophical remark,
founded upon his new experience: "Thus, then, that European
whiteness of which our species is so proud is no other than
a real defect, a sort of deformity which ought to be resigned in
these remote climes to the black colour of charcoal, to the
sombre red of ochre, or fuller's earth." It might be reasonably
supposed that such polite acquiescence to the wishes of these
sable charmers would have moved them to permit of some
playful return on the part of the fun-loving Frenchmen, espe-
cially when rendered so attractive by the hand of the lovely
Arra Maida. But, alas! in their timidity or coldness they were
true nymphs of the chaste Diana.
"The deference which we paid to these women, and perhaps
also the new charms which we owed to their attentions, seemed
to add to their kindness, to their confidence in us, but nothing
could induce them, however, to allow themselves to be ap-
proached nearer. The least movement which we made, or
appeared to make, to pass the prescribed line, caused them to
spring up from their heels, and take to flight. Any longer to
enjoy their presence, we were constrained to conform ourselves
entirely to their wishes. After having lavished upon them
presents and caresses, we considered it proper to retake our
route toward the anchorage, and our Diemenese appearing to
have the intention of walking the same way as ourselves, the
two companies left. But we were again obliged to come to terms
with these inexorable women, who condemned us to follow the
shore, while they walked upon the sand-hills parallel to it.”
The gentlemen were doubtless not used to such prudery in the
salons of Paris. But our next extract exhibits a more prosaic
sequel to this romantic adventure:
"As they were returning from fishing when we perceived
them, they were laden with large crabs, lobsters, and different
shell-fish grilled upon ashes, which they carried in baskets of
reed. These baskets were tied round in front by a circle of
cord, and hung behind the back; some of these were very heavy,
and we very sincerely pitied these poor women, carrying such
burdens.
"Our journey all the while was not less gay than our inter-
view, and from the top of the sand-hills they sent us many
pleasantries, many playful compliments, to which we endea-
26
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
voured to reply as expressively as it was possible. Without
doubt we should have continued for a much longer time these
innocent amusements, when all at once one of the women uttered
a great cry, and all the others repeated it with fright. They had
discovered our landing-place and our comrades. We sought to
calm their excitement, assuring them that so far from experiencing
any injury from our friends, they were going to receive new gifts.
All was in vain, and already the troop were burying themselves
in the forest, when the same woman who, almost alone, had
made our interview so agreeable, seemed to change her mind.
At her voice there was a moment of hesitation; but not being
able, as it appeared to us, to induce them to follow her, she
threw herself alone from the top of the sand-hill, and walking
upon the shore some distance before us with much confidence,
and even with a sort of pride, she seemed to deride the timidity
of her companions. The others, in their turn, appeared ashamed
of their weakness; little by little their courage increased, until
at length they decided to return to the beach. Accompanied by
this numerous and singular escort, we arrived at the place of
embarkation, near which, by an accident no one could foresee,
all the husbands of these poor women had been gathered together
for some time." What followed?
"In spite of the least equivocal evidence of the benevolence
and generosity of our countrymen, they exhibited a restless and
sombre physiognomy, and their look was ferocious and threat-
ening, and in their attitude we distinguished a constraint,
malevolence, and perfidy, which they sought to dissemble in
vain. At this inauspicious meeting, all the women who followed
us appeared much concerned. Their furious husbands cast upon
them glances of anger and rage, which were not likely to comfort
them. After having laid the products of their fishing at the
feet of these men, who partook of them immediately, without
offering them any, they retired behind their husbands, and seated
themselves upon the other side of a large sand-hill, and there,
during the rest of our interview, these unfortunate creatures
dared neither raise their eyes, nor speak, nor smile."
After this unfortunate termination of a happy meeting, our
voyagers took their departure. But the effect of the visit upon
the susceptible nature of the naturalist is recognised in the
closing words of his journal:-
FAREWELL OF THE FRENCH.
27
"Thus ended our interview with the inhabitants of Diemen's
Land. All the descriptions which I have given are of the most
rigorous exactitude, and without doubt it would have been
difficult to deny oneself the sweet emotions which similar cir-
cumstances ought to inspire. This gentle confidence of the
people in us, these affectionate evidences of benevolence which
they never ceased to manifest toward us, the sincerity of their
demonstrations, the frankness of their manners, the touching
ingenuousness of their caresses, all concurred to excite within
us sentiments of the tenderest interest. The intimate union of
the different individuals of a family, the sort of patriarchal life
of which we had been spectators, had strongly moved us. I
saw with an inexpressible pleasure the realization of those
brilliant descriptions of the happiness and simplicity of the
state of nature of which I had so many times in reading felt
the seductive charm."
Such were the sentiments entertained of a people almost
universally regarded by English colonists, a few years later, as
tigers and demons, whose destruction would be a deed of merit,
as well as an act of necessity. Smile as we may at the simplicity
of Peron, had our faith in the poor creatures been more like
that of the kind-hearted Frenchman, the reader might have
been spared the story of the crimes and horrors of the "Black
War," and the mournful record of "The Last of the Tas-
manians."
CHAPTER II.
THE BLACK WAR.
THE Tasmanians have been presented to the reader. Voyagers
have spoken of them in their wild condition, while roaming free
over their own undisputed territory. The strangers departed,
and left them at liberty. The Natives pursued their old habits,
as they had done for thousands of years. The monotony of their
lives was only disturbed by the hunt, the laughing corrobory,
or the tribal conflict. But a change was at hand. Their peace
was but the calm before the storm. Their pleasant days were
to be clouded by sorrow and terror.
The Whites came again.
They came not as curious visitors, but to make a home in the
land. They came not to share the soil with the dark men, but
to appropriate it.
The wild men had two courses before them. They could
prostrate themselves beneath the feet of the usurpers, and quietly
submit to slavery; or they could refuse to sell their birthright
of freedom, and take the consequences. They preferred to
continue as they had been. As this involved collision with a
people who assumed possession of their hunting grounds, they
had to endure the consequences of their retiring or defiant
policy. Thus arose the celebrated “Black War of Van Diemen's
Land."
The formalities of a herald, or the very last ultimatum, would
let slip the dogs of war, according to approved civilized ways.
As no such courtesies were shown, or expected, in the relations
between the naked Tasmanians and the British settlers, the
precise line of actual hostility cannot be determined. All that
can be done is to trace the history of the race, as resulting
from contact with the Europeans in their own beautiful isle.
A reference to the preceding chapter will indicate the con-
sequences of this juxtaposition of two opposing natures. Almost
IGNORANCE PREVENTS FRIENDSHIP.
29
as soon as acquaintance was made conflict commenced. The
cause of collision was not equally apparent to the parties in
question. Captain Marion evidently regarded himself as an
injured party, and his assault on the Natives as a justifiable and
gentlemanly act. His countrymen in 1802 acted with more
sense, forbearance, and kindness. When the draughtsman was
defending his property from the rude clutch of a savage, he
narrowly escaped a broken head; and when his comrades
rescued him they were roughly stoned, and even Captain
Hamelin received a severe contusion. But to the honour of
his nation, the historian was able to write at the close of the
day, “not a single charge of musketry was drawn against them.”
But the French writer's words have such sound philosophy and
right feeling to commend them, that they bear reciting:
((
Those last hostilities were committed on the part of the
Aborigines, without our having given occasion for them in any
manner; on the contrary we had laden them with presents and
good deeds, and nothing in our conduct could have offended
them. I confess I am surprised, after so many examples of
treachery and cruelty reported in all voyages of discovery, to
hear it repeated by sensible persons that men in a state of
nature are not wicked, that one may trust in them, and that
they would not be the aggressors, if they were not excited by
vengeance, &c. Unfortunately, many travellers have been the
victims of these vain sophisms. For myself, after all that we
saw, I think that one cannot sufficiently know how to mistrust
men whose character has not yet been softened by civilization,
and that one ought to land with prudence upon shores inhabited
by such persons."
It is not easy for the cultivated man to appreciate the im-
pulses of the boor, nor for the latter to sympathise with the
more refined ideas of the educated. How much more difficult
for the civilized and barbarian to meet on equal terms, and under-
stand each other's motives and principles! Certain it is that the
Blacks resented the occupancy of their country when they found
themselves put to some inconvenience from the supposed
trespass, and made most unmistakeably to feel their sense of
inferiority. But it is probable that their notions of patriotism
would not otherwise have developed themselves, nor would they
have perceived in the camp of the strangers any necessary
.
30
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
antagonism to their rights and interests. They might have
thought the white man's bread worth the trouble of stealing, but
we should doubt the chivalrous notion of honour to assert a
national independence.
The misfortune of the Natives of both New South Wales
and Van Diemen's Land was, that the men who came to settle
among them were chiefly of a class expatriated for their non-
observance of rules of propriety; and who, having been indif-
ferent about the virtues when with their countrymen at home,
were not likely to be more courteous and conscientious in
dealing with savages abroad.
But while the history of the two colonies is so far similar,
it is right to observe that the first actual conflict between
the two races occurred under different circumstances in each.
Before narrating that of the island, the continental rupture
may be noted.
It was not two months after the fleet of convicts took up
quarters on the shore of the delightful Port Jackson, that is,
only in March 1788, that some men came into the infant settle-
ment with a tale of aboriginal outrage. The Natives, said they,
had set upon them without any cause, and had roughly beaten
some, and badly speared others. But these are the remarks of
Captain Collins, our first colonial historian :—
"There was, however, too much reason to conclude that the
convicts had been the aggressors, as the governor on his return
from Broken Bay, on landing at Camp Cove (Sydney), found the
Natives there, who had before frequently come up to him with
confidence, unusually shy, and seemingly afraid of him and his
party; and one who, after much invitation, did venture to
approach, pointed to some marks upon his shoulders, making
signs that they were caused by blows given with a stick. This
with their running away were strong indications that they had
been ill-treated by the stragglers."
In all probability the experience of the infant days of New
South Wales had prompted the then Secretary for the Colonies,
Lord Hobart, to give specific instructions to Captain Collins in
1803, when proceeding to form a new penal settlement in the
south. This statesmanlike and humane despatch runs thus :-
"You are to endeavour, by every means in your power, to
open an intercourse with the Natives, and to conciliate their
GOOD INTENTIONS OF GOVERNMENT.
31
good-will, enjoining all parties 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."
This despatch, at least, exonerates the home authorities from
the charge of indifference to the welfare of the Aborigines, while
utterly oblivious of their rights to the land, as the humane
nobleman was then instructing Captain Collins to appropriate
it without consideration. "The order of Lord Hobart stands
alone," observes the Rev. John; West; "it was the record of
intention, not a development of government." Again he writes:
"The success of humane suggestions depended on the doubtful
concurrence of ignorant cotters and wandering shepherds.”
But before the first Governor of Van Diemen's Land esta-
blished his quarters, the unhappy collision between the Whites
and the Blacks had taken place by the river Derwent.
The Calcutta and Ocean had been sent to organize a colony on
the shores of Port Phillip. Arriving there in October 1803, the
commanding officer saw fit in three months, with the approval
of the Governor-in-Chief at Sydney, to remove his establish-
ment to the south of Van Diemen's Land. But before such an
event was contemplated, the glowing accounts brought by
Messrs. Bass and Flinders to Port Jackson, about the fine
climate and country near the river Derwent, had induced the
Governor of New South Wales to send a small military party,
with some prisoner-workmen, to arrange there for the formation
of a new penal settlement. These proceeded a little way up
this noble stream, then landed on the sterile and ill-watered left
bank, and encamped at Restdown, now corrupted to Risdon,
some five miles from Hobart Town, and on the opposite side of
the river.
Van Diemen's Land had also been taken possession of on the
northern side, at Port Dalrymple, before the Derwent post was
occupied. I copied the following from the Sydney Muster Roll,
dated March 29th, 1803: "It being expedient to establish His
Majesty's right to Van Diemen's Land, his Excellency has been
pleased to direct Lieutenant John Bowen of H.M. ship Glatton
to form a settlement on that island," &c.
32
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
It was at Risdon, early in 1804, that the unfortunate event
took place that ushers in the sad story of the "Black War."
A little tide creek flows into the Derwent, not far from the
Risdon farm. The sandstone ranges rapidly ascend from the
water's edge, while vast masses of paleozoic limestone in the
neighbourhood rest as heavy buttresses by the river. This was
the site of the massacre.
The composition of history makes us acquainted with the
difficulties of learning the truth of a story. It is not merely
the confusion of myth and fact. We are gradually arriving at
the belief that all, or nearly all, the early history of nations has
no reference at all to actual events or persons, but to statements
of a foreign nature, mythological or astronomical. A Niebuhr
first robs us of our faith in Romulus, a Max Müller strips the
Vedas of their romance and theology, and even our own Saxon
heroes, Hengist and Horsa, have dissolved into thin air. But
when we leave, as we fancy, the region of myth, and come to
very modern times-our own living era-other difficulties arise.
Such are the conflicting accounts, such the various ways of
regarding the same object or circumstance, such the influences of
personal character and interests involved in the narrative, that
we are often puzzled with what might have been supposed the
plainest facts of modern history. Archbishop Whately's myth
of Napoleon, Mr. Kinglake's "Crimea," and the floating ideas
upon the first settlement of Victoria, will serve to illustrate the
remark.
The story of the first conflict of races in Tasmania is similarly
involved in misty obscurity. To exhibit this difficulty of writing
history, we need only to refer to the diary of the first colonial
chaplain, the Rev. Robert Knopwood, who was only a few miles
from the scene of war, who inquired into it of the very parties
concerned in it, and who was accustomed to enter each day's
occurrences in his journal. And yet all he could get to enter
was the following: "Had heard different opinions-that they
wanted to encamp on the site of Burke's hut, half a mile from
the camp, and ill-used his wife--that the hut was not burnt or
plundered that the Natives did not attack the camp-that our
people went from the camp to attack the Natives, who remained
at Burke's house."
All we positively know is that one day there appeared on the
STORIES OF THE MASSACRE.
33
heights a large body of the Aborigines, and not very far from
the spot where Bass and Flinders held friendly parley with one
of the tribe; so that there was no reason to suspect hostile inten-
tions. Women and children were there. The officer in command
ordered the soldiers with him to fire upon the advancing hunters,
and numbers were slain.
One person states that the event took place while the Lieu-
tenant-Governor Bowen was on a tour, and that the Natives came
down the hill shouting and singing, in full pursuit of some
kangaroos. Another eye-witness mentions the fact of the man
Burke, living just outside of the camp, running in great alarm
with his wife to the soldiers, at the sight of the five hundred
Blacks, whose women and children were with them. It is well
known that when a savage people contemplate mischief they
invariably send their women to the woods. Thus, then, we have
a guarantee of their peaceable intentions. The same evidence
records the death of, at least, fifty of various ages and of both
sexes. There is, also, the assertion that the people came on in a
semicircle down the hill, with loud cries, driving the kangaroos
into a bottom, where they could be easier caught and destroyed.
The Aborigines' Committee, a body of gentlemen appointed
by the benevolent Governor Arthur to watch over the interests
of that unhappy people at the time of the Black War, when
engaged in an investigation as to the causes producing the
hostility of the dark race, took certain evidence which bore
upon this historical question. One Edward White, who had
been servant to W. Clark, and who had erected the rude hut
or house inhabited by the commanding officer, Lieutenant Bowen,
stated before the Committee that, on the 3d of May, 1804, he
was engaged hoeing some ground near the creek at Risdon, when
looking up at the shouting, he saw about three hundred Natives
coming down the Tiers in a circle, men, women, and children,
with a flock of kangaroos between them. He then declared:
"They looked at me with all their eyes. I went down to the
creek, and reported them to some soldiers, and then went back
to my work. The Natives did not threaten me. I was not afraid
of them. Clark's house was near where I was at work, and
Burke's house near Clark's house. The Natives did not attack
the soldiers. They could not have molested them. The firing
commenced about eleven o'clock. There were many of the
D
34
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
Natives slaughtered and wounded.
I don't know how many.
Some of their bones were sent in two casks to Port Jackson by
Dr. Mountgarrett. They went in the Ocean. A boy was taken
from them.
This was three or four months after we landed.
They never came so close again afterwards. They had no spears
with them-only waddies. They were hunting, and came down
into a bottom."
Another witness, Robert Evans, belonging to the Risdon party,
was examined by the Committee. He was not present at the
time, though on the ground immediately afterwards, and learned
the news. He was told then that when they came on in a large
body they did not make any attack, but they brought a great
number of kangaroos with them for a corrobory. He never
heard that they interrupted any one, but that they were fired
upon. He did not know who ordered them to be fired upon, or
how many were said to have been killed, though he had heard
that there were men, women, and children, and that some were
killed, and that some children were taken away.
In 1823, the well-known colonial barrister and statesman,
W. C. Wentworth, Esq., published some notice of the affair in
his work on New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. In it
he writes concerning the Tasmanians :
:-
"Their deep-rooted animosity, however, did not arise so much
from the ferocious nature of these savages, as from the incon-
siderate and unpardonable conduct of our countrymen, shortly
after the foundation of the settlement on the river Derwent.
At first the Natives evinced the most friendly disposition toward
the new-comers; and would, probably, have been actuated by
the same amicable feeling to this day, had not the military
officer entrusted with the command directed a discharge of
grape and canister-shot to be made among a large body, who
were approaching, as he imagined, with hostile designs; but, as
it has since been believed with much greater probability, merely
from motives of curiosity and friendship. The havoc occasioned
among them by this murderous discharge was dreadful, and since
then all communication with them has ceased; and the spirit of
animosity and revenge which this unmerited and atrocious act
of barbarity engendered, has been fostered and aggravated to the
highest pitch by the incessant encounters that have subsequently
taken place between them and the whites."
THE BLIND TRAVELLER'S ACCOUNT.
35
One of my informants, a settler of 1804, said that the officer,
Lieutenant Moore, saw double that morning from an over-dose
of rations' rum. Several have assured me of the good feeling
between the two races before that event. The reputation which
the soldiers of the New South Wales corps, afterwards the
102d Regiment, earned for drinking propensities, and their
officers for spirit-dealing, in the primitive times, led some to
think that the whole was the effect of a half-drunken spree, and
that the firing arose from a brutal desire to see the Niggers run.
That excellent storyteller, Captain Holman, the Blind Traveller
round the world, who made such capital use of the eyes of other
people, has left us a statement he learned in 1831, when on a
visit to Mr. Gregson, the veteran Tasmanian Reformer. The Blind
Traveller heard the story on the identical spot of the massacre
(for Mr. Gregson's house was at Risdon), and thus narrates it:-
It is said to have originated in the following manner.
A
small stone house had been erected for a gardener, and he was
commencing the cultivation of the ground immediately around
it. In the midst of his work one day, he was surprised at the
appearance of some Natives advancing towards him, and ran off
much frightened to the camp to give the alarm. Lieutenant
Moore, who commanded a party of the 102d, drew up his men
to resist the expected attack; and, on the approach of the
Natives, the soldiers were ordered to fire upon them. The
execution this volley did among them, and their ignorance of
the nature of fire-arms, terrified them to such a degree that they
fled, without attempting the slightest defence. From this
moment a deep-rooted hatred for the strangers sprang up among
them, and all endeavours to subdue it had hitherto proved
ineffectual."
When I was in Sydney last year, exploring dusty receptacles
of officialdom, and examining the early literature of New South
Wales, for facts connected with colonial history, I met with some
remarkable paragraphs in the Sydney Gazette, the parent of the
Australian Press, which commenced its being in 1803. The
first, occurring in the paper of March 18, 1804, is particularly
interesting, as giving us the first notice of the state and feeling
of the Tasmanians at the landing of the Derwent party from
Sydney, and before the terrible day of slaughter. The Lady
Nelson had conveyed Lieutenant Bowen and his company to
D 2
36
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
Risdon, and brought the earliest intelligence of their progress
upon its return to Sydney. The little craft did much colonial
service; having been the first to enter the Heads of Port Phillip,
the first to colonize Southern Tasmania, and subsequently the
convoy of some of Captain Collins' Port Phillip party to the
shores of the Derwent. This is the report it brought :-
66
The Natives are very numerous, and undaunted even at the
explosion of a musket; but were very friendly to small-parties
they meet accidentally, though they cannot be prevailed on to
visit the encampment. During the Lady Nelson's stay a large
kangaroo was taken in the woods by Henry Hacking, attended
by a Sydney native; but being interrupted by a tribe of the
sooty inhabitants of the neighbourhood, the kangaroo, being
fifty or sixty pounds' weight, was, for a moment, considered as
lost. The Blacks made use of every policy to wheedle Hacking
out of his booty; but, as they did not offer or threaten violence,
he, with counteracting policy, preserved it. Although they
treated him with much affability and POLITENESS, yet they re-
garded his companion with jealousy and indignation; and the
poor fellow, sensible of his critical and precarious situation,
appeared very thankful when safely delivered from their un-
welcome presence."
Such a story as this leaves the military without excuse for
their barbarous onslaught upon the Natives at Risdon. They
must have known by all experience that, though too shy to
approach the camp,-or rather too fearful to place themselves
and wives within reach of an armed soldiery,-they were gentle
in their manners, under circumstances where numbers and forest
freedom give confidence, if not audacity. The Sydney printer
may well put the word "politeness" in small capitals. No
wonder the Tasmanians were jealous of the stranger from New
Holland, and indignant that a Black should appear in their
presence with two front teeth knocked out, with an improper
escutcheon of cicatrices, and with flowing hair, instead of the
approved crisp and corkscrew ringlets.
There are two interesting communications from Van Diemen's
Land settlers, correspondents of the Sydney Gazette, directed
from Port Dalrymple, on the northern side of the island, nearly
opposite the present site of George Town, the Port of Launceston,
which had been colonized from Sydney about the same time as
DISCRETION AND COURAGE OF SETTLERS.
37
the Derwent Camp. One records an interview with armed
soldiery, the other with civil colonists. The first is associated
with haste and blood, the second with discretion and kindness.
It must be apparent that the tale of slaughter in May, at Risdon,
was, from the want of intercourse between tribes, unknown at
Port Dalrymple several months after.
The letter, written in October, was inserted in the Sydney
Gazette on December 16, 1804. "An interview," says the
writer, “took place with the Natives, which began very amicably ;
but, unfortunately, their natural impetuosity has caused a tem-
porary suspension of civilities,-having attempted to throw a
sergeant from a rock into the sea, and attacked his guard of two
men, which compelled them to fire in their own defence."
Is it not strange that they should have attacked soldiers with
formidable weapons? Is there not something to be told to
explain the offence? Have we the whole story? Had the
Natives no cause of complaint? May not the liquor-loving
soldiers have been rude to the women of the tribe ?
The second letter was of a little later date only, but appeared
in the Gazette on the 23d of December :—
"On the 14th (November), one of our small parties in the
brush was surprised at the appearance of the first body of Natives
seen; and they, with a hideous shout, expressed an astonish-
ment scarcely to be conceived at the sight of visitants so opposite
to themselves in habit and complexion. About two hundred
approaching our small party with impetuous fury, they prudently
retired, and were pursued into camp, near which the Natives
were prevailed upon to enter into a parley. Signs were made
of a friendly disposition toward them, and, appearing to gather
confidence, they accepted trifling presents, expressing extreme
surprise at every object that occasionally attracted their atten-
tion: but their apparent reciprocal inclination to a friendly
understanding was now and then interrupted by an indignant
clamour, which, beginning with a single individual, ran rapidly
through the lines, accompanied with gesticulations menacing
and ferocious, at the same time biting their arms as a token
either of vengeance or defiance.. They afterwards peaceably
withdrew, having from us experienced no other than a courteous
and conciliatory treatment; but were positive in forbidding us
to follow them."
38
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
All honour to the settlers of Port Dalrymple! Unlike the
soldiers of Risdon, they, a small party in the brush, were not
alarmed at the presence of two hundred real "wild men of the
woods," but, while retiring, enticed the savages to a conference,
and trembled not to hear their war-shout, or see their spear
rasping. They gave presents and kind words, instead of oaths
and musketry. This was a real victory, and gave the little
northern settlement repose, when other places witnessed fire
and blood. Twenty years after this, the women walked to the
Basin, above the Falls of Launceston, and carried on in peace
their laundry operations, while the naked spearmen of the forest
looked down curiously upon them from the basaltic wood-
crowned heights.
There is another quotation from the Sydney Press of August
26th, 1804, giving news from the Derwent; for at that time there
was no name for the colony, although, as perceived from the
Sydney Gazette of October 13th and 21st of 1803, the first settle-
ment had been named after Lord Hobart, then Secretary for the
Colonies. Even after the name of Hobart Town had been trans-
ferred by Colonel Collins from Risdon to Sullivan's Cove, the
people most commonly spoke of it as the Derwent, and a
Derwenter to this day is the appellation for a Hobart Towner
specifically, and Tasmanian generically. This letter from the
South gives a slight sketch of our Natives, after a glowing eulogy
of the superior climate and soil in the new colony to that of the
old Botany Bay region :—
"To its human inhabitants, however, does Nature appear to
have vouchsafed her powers with a sparing hand; in point of
ingenuity they excel not those of our own acquaintance (at
Sydney), with whom in savage ferocity they nearly or exactly
correspond. The only discernible disagreement in their bar-
barous customs is that these go naked, and that those throw the
skin of an animal over their shoulders during the winter season.'
""
A venerable lady, who came to Hobart Town in 1804, with
her parents, the first free settlers of the first fleet, gave me much
interesting information of her early days. Some of her stories
may appear in another work. She had heard people express
their fears of the wild Blacks, and her mother gave her a caution
about venturing far into the Bush, because she might be killed
and eaten by the cannibals. At that time the family lived on
DESTRUCTION OF PUBLIC RECORDS.
39
their farm about three miles from town. A bold and enterprising
child, she had long wished to have a nearer gaze at the magni-
ficent Mount Wellington, whose snowy cap had often won her
admiration. Prevailing on her little brother to accompany her,
she set off one day while her parents were absent, and trudged
through the Bush till she was lost amidst the dense foliage of the
mountain gullies. There she fell in with some Aborigines. The
spirited lassie exhibited no alarm, and found herself kindly
treated by the sable throng. She furthermore told me that when
a girl she had often met them in the Camp, as Hobart Town was
then called, and that they were always quiet and well conducted.
I regret to say that, though I have been much favoured in my
researches among the old records of Tasmania, especially by the
late Mr. Bicheno, Colonial Secretary under Governor Franklin,
and by the present Premier there, Sir Richard Dry, I was so unfor-
tunate as to discover no papers relative to the first six years of the
settlement. The story goes, that upon the sudden decease of the
first governor, Captain Collins, found dead in his chair, two of the
leading officers of the Government placed a marine outside the
door, so that they might be undisturbed, and then proceeded to
burn every document in the office!!! Although I subsequently
knew one of these gentlemen, it was not likely I should learn
from himself the correctness of the report, any more than the
motive for such vandalism. A similar mysterious disappearance
of papers I observed at Sydney; the lapse taking place about
the time of the celebrated rebellion against Governor Bligh.
But I take this opportunity of acknowledging my gratitude to
Mr. Hull, Clerk of the Tasmanian Council, and son of my old
and esteemed neighbour, Mr. Commissary Hull, through whose
kindness I got access to the only remaining early document,
and for the disentombment of which record he is to be credited.
This was the Muster Book of 1810, &c., kept at the barracks, in
which the commanding officer entered the countersign of the
day, and in which, also, occasional notices of the day's proceed-
ings were written. The previous Muster Books, doubtless con-
veyed for safety to the Governor's office, have all disappeared;
they probably added to the conflagration on that one dark night
of destruction.
In this interesting memorandum-book is an entry, on January
29th, 1810, of a Government Order bearing upon our subject.
40
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
It exhibits the commencement of the "Black War," and marks
the sentiments of the authorities as to its origin, and their reso-
lution to protect the poor creatures who were the objects of
civilized cruelty. The Order is the following:-
"There being great reason to fear that William Russell and
George Gelley will be added to the number of unfortunate men
who have been put to death by the Natives, in revenge for the
murders and abominable cruelties which have been practised
upon them by the white people, the Lieutenant-Governor,
aware of the evil consequences that must result to the settle-
ment, if such cruelties are continued, and abhorring the conduct
of those miscreants who perpetrate them, hereby declares that
any person whomsoever who shall offer violence to a native, or
who shall in cool blood murder, or cause any of them to be
murdered, shall, on proof being made of the same, be dealt with
and proceeded against as if such violence had been offered, or
murder committed on, a civilized person."
This was worthily carrying out the instructions of his chief,
Lord Hobart, so far as declarations went; but history gives us
no instance of the execution of the decree. The man who
penned the Order shortly after departed this life, a disorderly
interregnum followed, and, when a new Lieutenant-Governor
from England appeared, we find the island in so chaotic a state,
that there was some excuse for the neglect. When we see
the Governor of a British Colony so reduced in resources, or
so bereft of energy, as to hold correspondence with an outlaw, a
ferocious man of blood, and afterwards consent to the terms of
a Bushranger longing for a visit to the capital, when tired of his
chase for victims, we cannot expect the enforcement of the com-
mand of January 29th, 1810. But we can fully appreciate the
truthfulness of the Sydney Gazette of April 10th, 1813, when
describing the society of Van Diemen's Land, at that period, and
the real progress of the "Black War."
"The Natives of Van Diemen's Land," quoth the Gazette,
"continue to be very inimical, which is mostly attributed to
their frequent ill-treatment from the Bushrangers, who, to avoid
punishment for their offences, have betaken themselves to the
woods, there miserably to exist on the adventitious succours
which those wilds afford. Acts of cruelty are reported of these
desperadoes against the Natives; and the latter seldom suffer an
KIDNAPPING BLACK BOYS.
41
opportunity to escape of wreaking their vengeance upon all
persons of the same colour with the lawless wanderers, without
discrimination."
Here we are introduced to a new chapter of colonial his-
tory, into which the author proposes to go more fully in a sub-
sequent work, treating especially upon the early times and social
aspects of the two older colonies of New South Wales and Van
Diemen's Land. Under the heading of "Cruelties to the Blacks,"
there will, however, be found some reference to the acts of these
Dick Turpin heroes. It was on the 26th of June, 1813, that the
Government issued a Proclamation against those disturbers of
the peace of both Whites and Blacks. It came upon the occasion
of an attack upon a herd of cattle at the Coal River. The
Governor proceeded to point out the cause: "The resentment of
these poor uncultivated beings has been justly provoked by a
most barbarous and inhuman mode of proceeding acted toward
them, viz. the robbing of their children." The Governor then
expresses his horror at such shameful behaviour, and exclaims
in quite unofficial language, "Let any man put his hand to his
heart and ask which is the savage-the white man who robs
the parent of his children, or the black man who boldly steps
forward to resent the injury, and recover his stolen offspring;
the conclusion, alas! is too obvious." The end of the proclama-
tion pledges the Government to punish all so offending to the
utmost rigour of the law.
To pass on in the order of time, quotations can now
be given from the newly-born Hobart Town Gazette, which-
though established by a private individual, the son of the
founder of the Australian Press, at once the editor, printer, press-
man, and proprietor of the Sydney Gazette-was an official
organ of Government.
An interesting account is given in the paper of August 20,
1814, of a visit of some Natives to Hobart Town, and the
valuable service of a courageous and benevolent convict, the
forerunner of George Augustus Robinson, the Conciliator. The
circumstance exemplifies the fact that our Natives were dif-
ferent from the continental ones, in their indisposition to
approach the Whites. Here we have a record of an important
tribe living on the North Arm-a peninsula at the junction of
the Derwent and the Storm Bay, and only a few miles from
42
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
the capital-having had no acquaintance with our civilization
after our ten years' occupancy of the island. As these people
were either the same as, or the neighbours to, the kangaroo
hunters so wantonly fired at in 1804, there was some reason
for their retirement, as well as some apology for an intended
outrage. The newspaper paragraph is given with its literal
peculiarities:-
"We mentioned some time ago of several Natives being brought
to town from the woods at South Arm, after receiving certain
articles of clothing from His Honor the Lieut.-Governor and
other humane gentlemen of this Settlement, they were con-
ducted through the streets by A. Campbell (a prisoner.) Their
curiosity, which had never been gratified before with such a
sight, prompted them to examine everything with wonder and
amazement, without bestowing their attention longer than a
moment on any single object.
"The Lieut.-Governor having expressed a desire to see the
remainder of the Natives left at the South Arm, Campbell
accompanied with 2 other persons again returned to that place,
the party spent 3 days in fruitless search after them, when they
discovered two Natives who informed them that the rest were on
Betsy's Island.
"Next morning Campbell and party went in a boat to that
island, accompanied by a native woman of one of the neigh-
bouring islands, and who has lived with Campbell for some
years; this woman has been of considerable service to the party,
by representing the humane treatment she received from the
White People. On landing they saw a number of Natives sitting
round the fire, and on their perceiving the children cloathed
they were greatly astonished, and felt their dresses; when the
Natives informed them of their reception in town, they all
expressed a wish by Campbell's woman to see Hobart, and
it was with difficulty the party prevented the Boat from
sinking, so eager were they to get in. Campbell brought 13
to town, who received every kindness and humanity from the
Lieut.-Governor, who likewise cloathed them. They were
afterwards landed on the Island of Le Bruni (Bruni) at their
own request.
“We trust that the exertions of Campbell and his party will
be a prelude to more intercourse with the native tribes, and by
KINDNESS SAVES A LIFE.
43
the means of such humane treatment endeavour to reclaim them
from a savage life.”
The kindness of the Hobart Town people to a few visitors from
the Wilds told favourably afterwards; for, from another extract,
we learn that Campbell was indirectly the means of saving the
life of one of his countrymen.
"A few days ago," says the Hobart Town Gazette, "upwards
of 100 Natives surrounded a house at South Arm, and knocked
at the door; on the person within opening it, and perceiving the
Natives, he was in great terror, and after shutting the door en-
deavoured to escape by a back window, but seeing it in vain, he
again opened the door, when several Natives came in, to whom
he offered victuals, but they refused to eat. After they had
surveyed the premises, an elderly man led the person by the
arm, who lived in the house, nearly half a mile into the woods,
and placed him in the middle of them, and at the moment the
Natives were about to throw their spears at the unfortunate
victim, a native man, whom A. Campbell had brought to Hobart
Town some time ago, addressed them, when they all walked
away, leaving the person to return to his own residence. Thus
by the humanity already shown to these Natives the life of a
fellow-creature has been preserved."
A gentleman whose station was in the centre of the island,
spoke of the Natives occasionally coming down to his hut, as
early as 1814, and bartering a kangaroo's tail for a bit of English
mutton. Others have told me that they were able to travel
about the Bush in perfect security between that period and 1822.
Mr. John Gardiner, after whom the Gardiner's Creek, near
Melbourne, is named, when detailing to me some singular stories
of the Australian Blacks, remarked, among other peculiarities,
their friendly disposition toward the Europeans, and the contrast
he noticed in their habits to those of the Tasmanians, who would
hardly ever venture near his station in the island. Several
elderly ladies have narrated circumstances showing more geni-
ality and friendly intercourse; as, the playing of their children
with the Aborigines, and their boys going to hunt with the dark
skins. These ladies had the conviction that such a happy state
of things would have continued but for the conduct of the Bush
prisoner servants toward the native females. An old man, who
had been assigned servant to Mr. Wedge, gave me the story of
44
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
falling in with a company of two hundred, in 1819, quietly camp-
ing on Mr. Archer's run, and of seeing that same year a score of
Blacks assisting at Mr. Bonner's farm in harvest time, receiving
potatoes and damper for payment. Even the Hobart Town
Gazette, so late as 1824, contemplating the quiet times, writes:
Perhaps, taken collectively, the sable Natives of this colony
are the most peaceful creatures in the world."
But from even early days occasional outbreaks took place.
The difference, however, between these and the outrages of
later times, lay in the fact that, while most of the former were
confined to petty thieving, the latter were more frequently from
motives of hatred and revenge, and parts of a combined move-
ment of aggression.
The arrest of amicable relations was owing, as has been
stated, to interference with the gins, and the stealing of children.
We have been so accustomed to associate kidnapping with
roving gipsies, wild Indians, and savage Tartars, as to doubt the
charge when attached to our own countrymen. Yet the very
proclamations of Government attest to the veracity of the in-
dictment. The first chaplain took some interest in the people ;
he often had a festive gathering at his house, and described
them as being always well behaved. He has had visits of
twenty at a time at his cottage. But, after 1814, the numbers
dropped off, until his visitors deserted him and his larder
altogether. Investigating the cause of the change, he was told
by the Natives that they would not go to town again because
bad men stole their picaninnies.
When Governor Macquarie returned to Sydney after his
memorable tour through the island of his dependency, he
issued a Public Notice, June 18th, 1814, thanking the settlers
of Van Diemen's Land for their loyal attention, and praising
them for their enterprise and progress; but the condition of the
Aborigines of the little colony touched his humane heart, and
stirred his generous impulses to action. Nobly did he, as
Governor-General of the various settlements in those southern
parts, labour for the good of the dark race. It was the constant
exhibition of brutality toward them that aroused his anger, and
called forth the following strong language in this Proclamation,
when alluding to some case:
"Although it was not sufficiently clear and satisfactory to
THE OFFICER AND THE NATIVE GIRL.
45
warrant the institution of criminal prosecution, it was enough
so to convince any unprejudiced man that the first personal
attacks were made on the part of settlers and their servants.
Several years having elapsed since anything like a principle of
hostility has been acted upon, or even in the slightest degree
exhibited in the conduct of the Natives, it must be evident that
no deep-rooted prejudice exists in their minds against British
subjects or white men."
An amusing story is told of an affront given the tribes one
time when Governor Sorell had invited a number to Hobart
Town. They were gathered in the Government Paddock, a
large reserve outside of the town, and were exercising them-
selves before the Whites. One young girl, however, in the very
mischief of a spoiled beauty, took up one of the men's spears,
and threw it at the reigning beau of the day-one Captain
Hamilton. Although the weapon never struck, nor had it been
intended to strike, the son of Mars, being indignant at the liberty
taken with his loftiness, complained to the Governor, and
insisted upon the rout of the Natives. Colonel Sorell, to
appease the excited soldier, requested his visitors to withdraw
from the camp. These were so indignant at the treatment they
received for so trifling an accident, that they would never accept
of another gubernatorial invitation.
In 1816 the interior was unwontedly disturbed. The first
notice of the fact is indicated in the peculiar style of the
Gazette of the period :—
"The Black Natives of this Colony have for the last few
weeks manifested a strange Hostility towards the Up-country
Settlers, and in killing and driving away their Cattle than has
been witnessed since the Settling of the Colony; And since their
visit at New Norfolk, they have been at the herd of Mr. Thomas
McNeelance near Jerico and killed two beautiful Cows." The
New Norfolk affair arose from a quarrel between three stock-
keepers and a score of Natives, when weapons were freely en-
ployed. Forty spears were thrown; but evidently at a discreet
distance, for no Bushman was hurt. The shot told better, as
three Blacks were killed, and one poor fellow was wounded
and taken.
On July 27th, 1816, we have the following notice :-" A party
of Natives has lately driven 17 head of horned cattle from
46
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
the herd of Mr. J. Beaumont, at the Tea Tree Brush, and have
not been since heard of." On the dreary Salt Pan Plains-so
called from salt being found at the bottom of dried-up lagoons
there a bullock-dray party were that year stopped by fifty
dark marauders. A shot from a pistol frightened off the wild
men to their scrub. This led the editor sagely to observe: "This
makes good an old adage, 'That no man ought to go in the
woods without his gun.'" A little later, October 19th, that
gentleman volunteers his counsel: "We would caution persons
travelling between the Settlement (Hobart Town) and Port
Dalrymple (Launceston) not to proceed without fire-arms, as
from the late hostile manner evinced by the Natives much
danger may be apprehended."
The next year is no great improvement upon the last, for the
paper has two misdemeanours to record. That in March was an
attack upon a cart by three civilized Blacks. These tutored
individuals profited by their residence among convicts, in going
upon their expedition with suitable arms, like white Bush-
rangers. They stuck up the travellers, and robbed them, at the
Green Water Holes, afterwards known as the pretty township of
Greenponds, about thirty miles north of the capital. The
other attack is characteristically narrated by the Press of
May 25th, 1817:—
On Saturday last, whilst Robert Rosne, overseer to Captain
Jeffreys, was searching for sheep strayed from his flock, he pro-
miscuously came upon fifteen native women and children
assembled around a fire on the Sweet-water Hills. Considering
them to be an inoffensive tribe, and his mind dwelling on his
pursuit, he carelessly approached them to light his pipe, pleased
with his reception. But upon leaving this peaceable group he
met with a number of savage men, whose ferocity had been
nearly his death. One of these untutored beings hove a stone at
him, which struck him violently on the mouth, and staggered
him. But little time was given him to recover from this blow,
when an ill-fated volley of stones dislocated his shoulder, and by
repeated hostility severely bruised him. Fortunately, however,
he was suffered to leave them alive." I found this paragraph
copied into the Sydney Gazette of June 7th.
The year 1817 was signalized by the romance of Michael
Howe and the native girl Mary Cockerell. The desperate
MICHAEL HOWE'S BLACK MARY.
47
Bushranger, the terror of the colony for years, the partner of a
treaty with the Governor, had formed a connexion with this
young creature, and dwelt with her for some months in a retreat
not far from Oatlands, though afterwards removing for safety
to a charming woodland home among the mountains of the
Shannon country. There, chased closely by some who sought
the great reward for his capture, and annoyed by the inability of
his black companion to keep pace with him through the scrub,
he drew a pistol and fired at her, severely wounding her. The
ruffian escaped, but the girl was caught. Indignant at his
cruelty, she promised to take the constables to his hut. This led
eventually to his discovery and death. Poor Mary died in the
Hobart Town Hospital. The paper mentions Michael Howe's
increased cruelties to the poor Natives who fell in his way, on
his retreat westward to the far interior.
In New South Wales I found a copy of a letter sent by
Governor Macquarie to his Lieutenant-Governor at Hobart
Town, in which there is this interesting reference to Mary :
In co-operation with your humane feelings in regard to
Mary, the native girl whom you sent hither some time since as
a witness respecting the Bushrangers, I had a private decent
lodging provided for her here, where she has ever since remained
out of the way of bad connexions or improper intercourse, and
she is now about to get some decent apparel. His Excellency
the Governor has deemed it expedient to detain her here for some
little time further, lest she should renew her intercourse with.
Howe, and be the means of protracting the term of his submis-
sion, or more desirable apprehension."
Governor Sorell issued a proclamation on May 19th, 1817,
against the perpetrators of base outrages upon the persons of
some inoffensive Aborigines. After mentioning the sportive
firing upon the poor creatures, the official paper proceeds: "The
Lieutenant-Governor thus publicly declares his determination
that if, after the promulgation of this publication, any person or
persons shall be charged with killing, firing at, or committing
any act of outrage or aggression on the native people, the
offender or offenders shall be sent to Port Jackson to take their
trial before the Criminal Court."
At this time it was still the rule for the Lieutenant-governors,
whether in Hobart Town or elsewhere in the south, to have no
48
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
jurisdiction over the lives of their subjects. Consequently, when
any case of plunder or felony occurred, the prisoner was for-
warded to Port Jackson or Sydney, where the judge held his
criminal court. No jury of citizens then existed. There was no
trial of a man by his peers. Four military officers of the regi-
ment formed the council to try the prisoners. The announce-
ment, therefore, of being sent to Port Jackson, was to give force
to the proclamation, as notifying the Governor's estimate of the
crime. But the Gazette is quite reticent about the passage of any
one, although it was notorious that similar offences continued.
A brighter page meets our eye in 1818. The Temple of Janus
might have had its gates closed. A serene air is breathed by the
colony. A burst of philanthropic feeling prevailed. The moral
sentiments of the editor of the solitary newspaper were
strangely brought into action. A real sermon is delivered on
April 25th, 1818, and an affecting appeal is made on behalf of
the oppressed and gentle ones of the forest. Let us read it :
Notwithstanding the hostility which has so long prevailed
in the breast of the Natives of this island toward Europeans,
we now perceive with heartfelt satisfaction that hatred in some
measure gradually subsiding. Several of them are to be seen
about this town and its environs, who obtain subsistence from
the charitable and well-disposed. The more we contemplate the
peculiar situation of this people, the more are we impressed with
the great arrearage of justice which is due to them. Are not
the Aborigines of this colony the children of our Government?
Are we not all happy but they? And are they not miserable?
Can they raise themselves from this sad condition? Or do they
not claim our assistance? And shall that assistance be denied?
Those who fancy that “
"God did not make of one blood all the
nations upon the earth," must be convinced that the Natives of
whatever matter formed can be civilized, nay, can be chris-
tianised. The moral Governor of the world will hold us
accountable. The Aborigines demand our protection. They are
the most helpless members, and being such have a peculiar claim
upon us all, to extend every aid in our power, as well in relation
to their necessities as to those enlightening means which shall at
last introduce them from the chilling rigours of the forest into
the same delightful temperature which we enjoy."
Captain Philip King, R.N., to whom Australia owes so much
CAPTAIN KING'S NARRATIVE.
49
for the discovery or survey of the northern coast, has left us
a short record of his experience of our islanders in 1819.
Although after the settlement of Hobart Town, the visit was to
a people who were strangers to men of our colour, and who
lived on the stormy west coast.
"Our party," said he, "were amicably received by a tribe of
Natives, consisting of six men and four old women; they came
forward unarmed, but, as we afterwards found, their spears were
concealed close at hand. Some presents were distributed
amongst them, of which the most valuable, in their estimation,
were empty wine bottles, which they called moke. This word
was, however, used by them for water only, so that it was
doubtful whether the word meant the article itself, or the vessel
that contained it. Our familiarity increased so rapidly, that by
the time we had dug two wells to receive the water which was
flowing over the beach they had become very inquisitive, and
made no hesitation in searching our pockets and asking for
everything they saw. One of the men, upon being detected in
the act of pilfering a piece of white paper from Mr. Cunning-
ham's specimen box, immediately dropped it and drew back,
much alarmed for fear of punishment, and also ashamed of
having been discovered; but after a few angry looks from us the
paper was given to him, and peace was soon restored. Our dog,
being an object of much alarm, was fastened to the stern of our
boat; a circumstance which prevented their curiosity from ex-
tending itself in that direction, and thus our arms were kept in
convenient readiness without their knowledge. As soon as our
boats were loaded and we had embarked, the Natives retired
to the Bush, behind which we observed the heads of several
children and young women. As many as sixteen were counted;
so that this tribe, or family, might be composed of from twenty-
five to thirty persons, of which we only saw six who were
grown men. They were stouter and better proportioned than
the Natives of New South Wales, and unlike them the hair was
woolly; the only covering in use among them was a kangaroo
skin, which they wore as a cloak over their shoulders.”
The calmness and serenity of that year were changed into
storm and disquietude in 1819.
It is the ever told tale of provocation and revenge. Early in
the month of March the Oyster Bay tribe speared John Kemp
E
50
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
and another man. But the journal of the day gives the pro-
voking cause in these words: "It is well known that some time
before Kemp was killed a native man was shot in the woods by
some of the stockmen to the eastward, and that the women have
been also deprived of their children in that quarter."
Where the Whites had no settlement the Blacks were found
without the hostility of other places. Mr. Kelly, the pilot, on
discovering the spacious Macquarie Harbour, on the west coast,
was pleased with the frank and manly attitude of the Natives.
A letter addressed by a Hobart Town gentleman, in 1819, was
published in the Asiatic Journal of Calcutta the following year,
and expresses the same opinion. "Several interviews," says the
writer, "have lately taken place between the people of the
settlement and the Natives of the west coast; who, as appears
very probable, are debarred from all intercourse and interchange
of sentiment with their countrymen on the eastern side, by that
lofty range of mountains which intersects the island from the
northern to the southern extremity. From the fearless and
unsuspicious deportment of the former in these interviews, it
would seem that the hostile disposition of the latter towards the
people of the settlement was rather provoked by bad treatment
than the spontaneous effect of their native ferocity."
There is a detailed account of a skirmish in March 1819,
given soon after the event by Robert Jones. Upon the occasion
of an inquest, held seven years after, Mr. Jones (then residing at
a romantic spot, known as the "Four Square Gallows") repeats
the story of 1819 in some evidence he was called upon to
declare. From the two versions a narrative can be prepared.
The man Jones occupied the position of stock-keeper on
the station of Messrs. Morris and Stocker, near Relief River,
subsequently known as the Macquarie. His fellow-servant,
M'Candless, had gone to look after the sheep on the plains, and
a neighbour's man, James Forrest, had called in at the hut. On
a sudden, M‘Candless burst in, nearly out of breath, declaring
that he had run for his life from the Blacks, who were spearing
the sheep. A chase was resolved upon, and two infirm muskets
were taken for the battle. The light of day was departing when
the men came in sight of about two hundred Aborigines. They
sought to frighten them from the hill, and presented their pieces
at them. The men of the forest, with a wholesome dread of
·
Um

ATTACK ON A SETTLER'S HUT.
GUNS MISSING FIRE.
51
fire-arms, did not come down from their citadel to attack the
Europeans, but were content with making a hideous noise, while
some bolder spirits came forward, quivering their spears, and
threatening destruction. But the stock-keepers suddenly ascer-
tained, to their horror, that but one charge was in their pos-
session, because the powder-flask had been dropped in the hurry
of pursuit. They had but one way open-a retreat; and this
they accomplished in the deepening gloom of evening, with the
best show of courage they could maintain.
At daybreak, Jones set off for the sheepfold, leaving his
mates in bed. He had gone but a few hundred yards, when,
hearing some talk, he looked backward, and saw a crowd of
Blacks descending the hill towards the hut, with the evident
intention of firing the bark roof, and murdering the men. Jones
ran hastily back, aroused the men, and prepared for defence.
Standing outside the door, and facing their dark foes, the
Europeans again presented their guns, and ordered the party off.
But some endeavoured to get round another way with their
lighted torches, while others stood on the hill-side and answered
the challenge with shouts of derisive laughter. Spears, waddies,
and stones were thrown at the trio, but with harmless effect,
from the distance of the combatants. One, evidently the leader,
was of gigantic size, and was armed with a huge spear unlike
the rest. He stood erect, with his weapon in repose, calmly
giving orders to the tribe.
Again and again did the Englishmen pull the trigger without
procuring fire. The Natives perceived their helpless condition,
and motioned them to leave the hut, evidently seeking the good
rations of the Bushmen. Hours passed in this bloodless warfare.
The Whites saw that further stay was hopeless, as the patience
of the warriors would soon be tired out, and a rush would
destroy them and their hut. So they rapidly fled towards a
gully. The others followed, and threw their spears. A wild
cow and several kangaroo dogs were pierced, but, for a time, one
wound only was received by the pursued. At last the two
hundred, red-ochred all over their naked bodies, hemmed in
their victims, and brought them to bay. The vexatious guns
would not go off at the pull of the trigger, to the boisterous
amusement of their opponents.
Jones now received three spears at once. One passed through
E 2
52
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
his right cheek, another through the muscle of his right arm,
and a third fastened in his right side. A mate came to pull out
the weapons, and had a spear sent into his back. The third
man was yet untouched. For seven hours had the terrible
struggle continued. The stockmen were exhausted, and stood
like sheep prepared for the slaughter. The Natives saw that
their finishing hour had come. The chief gave the word for
them to charge in with the waddy, and brain the three. 'At
this moment," says Jones, "a most fortunate accident occurred,
which I have ever considered an act of Providence." This was
the sudden discharge of one of the awkward pieces. The shot
struck the portly chief, who fell dead on the spot. His country-
men could not understand the operation, and lifted him upon
his feet to see if he could stand; while all the others shouted
and beat their breasts with extreme emotion. Finding their
efforts to recover him vain, they were seized with sudden fright,
and fled.
The poor fellows took advantage of the moment of consterna-
tion, and dragged their limbs as quickly as they could, so as to
get on to the plains, where they might be seen by a countryman.
For a time, forty of their enemies made a demonstration of
pursuit, but afterwards retired to the forest. Limping along,
the stock-keepers met with a man who conducted them to a
home, where every attention was paid to them. Their own hut
was consumed in the flames from native firebrands, but not
before the flour, sugar, and clothes had been taken.
It may be almost excusable for Jones to cherish ever after
no good feeling towards the race; but he must have felt conscious
of some mental reserve, when he was asked at the inquest of
1826 if he had known of faults on the other side, and said, "I
have never known of any wanton act of hostility committed by
the Whites against the Blacks."
A very interesting and remarkable Government order appeared
from the pen of Colonel Sorell, dated from Hobart Town, March
13th, 1819, which may most appropriately end this first chapter
of the "Black War." It is so humane and judicious, and so
particularly enters into the whole question relative to the conduct
of the two races, as to be considered one of the best State papers
ever drawn up in the colony. It is given in full.
COLONEL SORELL'S ORDER, 1819.
53
"From information received by his Honor the Lieutenant-Governor,
there seems reason to apprehend that outrages have been recently per-
petrated against some of the Native People in the remote country
adjoining the River Plenty, though the result of the enquiries instituted
upon these reports has not established the Facts alleged, further than
that two Native children have remained in the Hands of a Person re-
sident above the Falls:-Upon this subject, which the Lieutenant-
Governor considers of the highest Importance, as well to Humanity as
to the Peace and Security of the Settlement, His Honor cannot omit
addressing the Settlers.
"The Lieutenant-Governor is aware that many of the Settlers and
Stock-keepers consider the Natives as a Hostile People, seeking, with-
out Provocation, Opportunities to destroy them and their Stock: and
towards whom any attempts at Forbearance or Conciliation would be
useless. It is, however, most certain that if the Natives were intent
upon Destruction of this kind, and if they were incessantly to watch
for opportunities of effecting it, the Mischief done by them to the
Owners of Sheep or Cattle, which are now dispersed for grazing over so
great a part of the Interior Country, would be increased one hundred-
fold. But so far from any systematic Plan for Destroying the Stock
or People being pursued by the Native Tribes, their Meetings with
the Herdsmen appear generally to be accidental; and it is the Opinion
of the best informed Persons who have been longest in the Settlement,
that the former are seldom the Assailants, and that when they are they
act under the Impression of recent Injuries done to some of them by
White People. It is undeniable that in many former Instances, Cruelties
have been perpetrated repugnant to Humanity and disgraceful to the
British Character, while few attempts can be traced on the Part of the
Colonists to Conciliate the Native People, or to make them sensible
that Peace and Forbearance are the Objects desired. The Impressions
received from earlier Injuries are kept up by the occasional Outrages of
Miscreants whose Scene of Crime is so remote as to render detection
difficult, and who sometimes wantonly set fire to and kill the Men,
and at others pursue the Women for the purpose of compelling them
to abandon their children. This last Outrage is perhaps the most
certain of all to excite in the Sufferers a strong Thirst for revenge
against all White Men, and to incite the Natives to take Vengeance
indiscriminately, according to the General Practice of an uncivilized
People, wherever in their Migrations they fall in with the Herds and
Stockmen.
'It is not only those who perpetrated such Enormities against a
People comparatively Defenceless, that suffer; all the Owners of Stock
and the Stock-keepers are involved in the Consequences brought on by
the wanton and criminal Acts of a few.
54
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
"From the conduct of the Native People, when free from any feel-
ing of Injury, toward those who have sought intercourse with them,
there is strong reason to hope that they might be conciliated. On
the North-east coast, where Boats occasionally touch, and at Mac-
quarie Harbour, where the Natives have been lately seen, they have
been found Unsuspicious and Peaceable, manifesting no disposi-
tion to Injure; and they are known to be equally Inoffensive in
other Places where the Stock-keepers treat them with Mildness and
Forbearance.
“A careful Avoidance, on the part of the Settlers and Stockmen, of
conduct tending to excite Suspicion of intended Injury, and a strict
Forbearance from all Acts or Appearances of Hostility, except when
rendered indispensable for positive Self-defence, or the Preservation of
the Stock, may yet remove from the Minds of the Native People the
Impressions left by past Cruelties: so that the Meetings between them
and the Colonists, which the Extension of the Grazing Grounds and
Progressive Occupation of the Country must render yearly more fre-
quent, may be injurious to neither; and that these Mischiefs, which a
Perseverance in Cruelty and Aggression must lead to, and which must
involve the Stock in perpetual Danger, and the Stockmen in Respon-
sibility for the Lives that may be lost, may be prevented.
"To effect this Object, is no less the Interest than the Duty of the
Settlers and Stockmen; to bring to condign Punishment any one who
shall be open to proof of having destroyed or maltreated any of the
Native People (not strictly in Self-defence), will be the Duty and is
the Determination of the Lieutenant-Governor, supported by the
Magistracy, and by the Assistance of all the just and well-disposed
Settlers.
"With a view to prevent the Continuance of the Cruelty before-
mentioned, of depriving the Natives of their Children; it is hereby
Ordered that the Resident Magistrates at the District of Pittwater and
Coal River, and the District Constables in all the other Districts, do
forthwith take an account of all the Native Youths and Children which
are Resident with any of the Settlers or Stock-keepers, stating from
whom, and in what manner, they were obtained.
"The same Magistrates and the District Constables are in future to
take an Account of any Native Person or Child which shall come or be
brought into their District, or Country adjoining, together with the
circumstances attending it. These Reports are to be transmitted to the
Secretary's Office, Hobart Town.
"No Person whatever will be allowed to retain Possession of a
Native Youth or Child, unless it shall be clearly proved that the Con-
sent of the Parents had been given; or that the Child had been
found in a state to demand Shelter and Protection, in which Case the
CHILD STEALING.
55
Person into whose Hands it may fall, is immediately to report the
circumstance to the nearest Magistrate or Constable.
"All Native Youths and Children who shall be known to be with
any of the Settlers or Stock-keepers, unless so accounted for, will be
removed to Hobart Town, where they will be supported and instructed
at the Charge and under the Direction of Government.
"By command of His Honor
66
The Lieutenant-Governor,
"H. E. ROBINSON, Secretary.
CHAPTER III.
CRUELTIES TO THE BLACKS.
WHO could adequately picture the story of the wrongs of the
Tasmanians? We are indignant at the destruction of the
Guanches of the Canaries by the Spaniards; we are horrified
at the exterminating policy of the Napoleon of the Zulus of
Africa; we are awe-struck at the total disappearance of whole
nations of antiquity; and should we have no feeling of regret at
causes which led to the annihilation of the tribes of Tasmania?
They melted not away as the snow of the Alps beneath the soft
breath of the Fön from the South, but were stricken down in
their might, as the dark firs of the forests by the ruthless ava-
lanche. It was not a contest between rival nations of civiliza-
tion. No senator uttered a "Carthage must be destroyed" to
incite the weakened energies of a struggling people. No Ther-
mopyla, which witnessed the expiring effort of its sons of free-
dom, remains in Tasmania's mountain fastnesses. No Kenneth
of the South turned, as a hunted beast at bay, and crushed a
race that nigh had conquered him. No bard has chronicled the
deeds of heroism, no Ossian told of chiefs and daughters fair.
It is altogether a petty, an unromantic warfare on the part of the
stronger English, with no recognition of either chivalry or senti-
ment in the weaker barbarians. A long series of cruelties and
misfortunes gradually wrought the destruction of the primitive
inhabitants.
They would not, could not, be reduced to slavery. They would
not, could not, assimilate with the habits of the intruders upon
their soil. As their own brilliant Waratah, when torn from the
rocky crest of its mountain home, refuses to expand its crimson
petals in the artificial bed, and pines to death for the loss of its
free and bracing native airs, so could they never assume the
EFFECT OF EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT.
57
rigid robe of civilization, nor forsake their wild, wooded Tiers
for the tenements of town.
We came upon them as evil genii, and blasted them with the
breath of our presence. We broke up their home circles. We
arrested their laughing corrobory. We turned their song into
weeping, and their mirth to sadness. Without being disciples of
Rousseau, without the simple faith of the French voyager, who
discovered a nymph of grace and beauty in the dark Ourâ Ourâ
of the woods, and beheld primeval innocence in the gentle, patri-
archal government of tribes, it may yet be believed that social
virtues were developed beneath the gum-tree shade- that
maternal joy sparkled in the eyes of the opossum-skin clad one,
as she joined in the gambols of her picaninny boy-that honest
friendship united hands and hearts of brother hunters-while
soft glances, sweet smiles, and throbbing bosoms, told that love
could dwell within clematis bowers, as well as in the woodbine
shade.
The white man entered this peaceful scene. The hunter
stayed his carolling among the hills, and stole stealthily upon
his own green sod. The mother hushed the tongue of the prat-
tling one, and checked within herself the bounding emotions,
lest Echo tell the dreaded stranger. And silenced was the talk
of love; for deeds of wrong to matron duty and to maiden troth
had chilled the heart, and flashed the eye with hate and rage.
((
The story of their sufferings would be like that written by the
benevolent padre, Las Casas, in his "Short Account of the De-
struction of the Indies," which is thus described by the learned
Prescott:
It is a tale of woe. Every line of the work may be
said to be written in blood." And yet it may be truly declared
that Government had cherished proper sentiments toward the
poor Indians; even the historian observes: "The history of
Spanish colonial legislation is the history of the impotent
struggles of the Government in behalf of the Natives, against
the avarice and cruelty of its subjects." In the case of our
islanders, there was not the apology of avarice, as they had
nothing to give; it was rather a demoniacal propensity to
torture the defenceless, and an insatiable lust, that heeded not
the most pitiable appeals, nor halted in the execution of the
most diabolical acts of cruelty, to obtain its brutal gratification.
The writer has on several occasions heard men declare that
58
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
they thought no more of shooting a Black than bringing down a
bird. Indeed, in those distant times, it was common enough to
hear men talk of the number of black crows they had destroyed.
Well may Mr. Melville exclaim in his Van Diemen's Land
Almanac: "If it were possible in a work like this to record
but a tittle of the murders committed upon these poor harmless
creatures, it would make the reader's blood run cold at the bare
recital." As an evidence of the wantonness of the attacks, we
have the assertion of Jorgenson, the Dane, who, when out in
1830, saw traces in numerous places," where "many had been
wantonly shot by spiteful and vindictive stock-keepers." In
another part of his remarkable autobiography this passage
occurs: "Ignorant and vindictive stock-keepers often wantonly
fired at and killed many of them when there was no danger in
the way."
The editor of a Wellington paper writes: "We have ourselves
heard 'old hands' declare to the common practice of shooting
them to supply food for dogs." He had heard of the employment
of poisoned rum. Such conduct was manifested from the very
settlement of the colony. One great source of mischief was the
liberty given to the prisoners about 1806, &c. to disperse them-
selves in search of food, during a season of famine. Even the
Government received kangaroo meat at the stores, and paid for
the same at the rate of eighteen pence per pound. We can
readily imagine the effect of letting loose in the Bush a number
of reckless bad men, who had been previously subjected to the
rigour of prison discipline, and who now with inflamed passions
were undeterred in the commission of crime by the presence or
knowledge of the authorities.
At first kindly treated by the dark men of the forest, they
repaid their hospitality by frightful deeds of violence and wrong.
Shrieks of terrified and outraged innocence rose with the groans
of slaughtered guardians, in the hitherto peaceful vales of Tas-
mania. One wonders not at the quotation of the Rev. John
West, from the Derwent Star newspaper of 1810: "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." One extract from the Star of the same
year, 1810, painfully illustrates the subject: "The unfortunate
man, Russell, is a striking instance of Divine agency, which has
CRUELTY OF EARLY SETTLERS.
59
overtaken him at last, and punished him by the hands of those
very people who have suffered so much from him; he being
known to have exercised his barbarous disposition in murdering
or torturing any who unfortunately came within his reach."
The indignation of honest old Governor Davey was strongly
excited, when in 1813 he penned these words: "That he could
not have believed that British subjects would have so ignomi-
niously stained the honour of their country and themselves, as
to have acted in the manner they did toward the Aborigines."
In the year 1814 a number of them, who had been accustomed
to pay visits to the Camp at Hobart Town, were regaled with
ration flour. In the merriment and excitement of the feast,
some white monsters decoyed away and stole several of the
children. At the discovery of their loss, the parents sought by
passionate entreaties to procure the restitution of their offspring,
but were met with but brutal jests from the kidnappers. Re-
turning in sorrow and rage to their hilly homes, no black was
seen in the streets of the Christian savages for several years after.
The public sentiment appears to have been either one of indif-
ference toward the Natives, or that of direct antipathy. Many
sympathised too much in the feeling of the man who said, “I'd
as leave shoot 'em as so many sparrows." Even Captain Stokes
was forced to write: "Such is the perversion of feeling among
the colonists, that they cannot conceive that any one can sym-
pathise with the Black race as their fellow-men." In an early
proclamation, Governor Sorell thus records his condemnation of
such treatment: "Cruelties have been perpetrated upon the
Aborigines repugnant to humanity, and disgraceful to the British
character; whilst few attempts can be traced on the part of the
colonist, to conciliate the Natives, or to make them sensible that
peace and forbearance were the objects desired."
Governor Arthur was equally shocked at the barbarity of his
people, and unable to prevent the evil. Immediately after his
arrival in the colony, a tribe applied to him for protection, and
it was readily granted. All that personal attention and kindness
could do was done to retain them near Hobart Town, and to
secure them from insult and injury. They settled at Kangaroo
Point, a tongue of land separated from the town by the broad
estuary of the Derwent. There they stayed quietly and happily
for a couple of years, when a savage murder was committed by
•
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
60
some of their white neighbours, and the camp broke up imme-
diately for the haunts of wildness.
The infamous treatment of the poor females was the exciting
cause of the bitter and revengeful spirit manifested by the
Blacks toward our race. It was not alone that these unfortu-
nates were the victims of their lust, but the objects of their
barbarity. If perchance a woman was decoyed to the shepherd's
hut, no gentleness of usage was employed to win her regard, and
secure her stay; threatening language, the lash, and the chain
were the harsher expedients of his savage love. A story is told
by Dr. Ross, describing his journey up to the Shannon in 1823.
We met," said he, "one of Mr. Lord's men sitting on the stump
of a tree, nearly starved to death. He told us that three days
before, a black woman whom he had caught, and had chained to
a log with a bullock-chain, and whom he had dressed with a fine
linen shirt (the only one he had), in hopes, as he said, to tame
her, had contrived somehow to slip the chain from her leg, and
ran away, shirt and all." The doctor adds, “I fear his object in
chaining the poor creature was not exactly pure and disin-
terested." The reader will not be surprised to hear that not
long after this gentle lover was hanged for exercising his bene-
volence upon some of his own countrymen. We hear of another
who, having caught an unhappy girl, sought to relieve her fears,
or subdue her sulks, as it was termed, by first giving her a morn-
ing's flogging with a bullock-whip, and then fastening her to a
tree near his hut until he returned in the evening. The same
fellow was afterwards found speared to death at a water hole.
A settler of the Esk informed me that a neighbour of his,
wanting a gin, asked him to accompany him on his Sabine ex-
pedition. He had heard that a woman had been seen with a
small party on an island in the river, and was then on his way
thither to seize her. He pointed exultingly to a bullock-chain
which he carried, as the means of capture. I was struck with
the criticism of an "Old Hand," a rough carter, but one who
carried a kind heart beneath a bear's skin. We were talking of
the former times, and of the cruelty practised upon the Blacks,
especially in the stealing of their women. With no particular
admiration for the dark people, some of whom had tried their
spears upon his body, he had a sense of manliness within him,
and thus expressed his opinion: "If a man was to run away
CRUELTY OF BUSHRANGERS.
61
with my wife, don't you think if I could fall in with him that
I wouldn't crack his head for him? I would so."
Old Tom Ward, who was transported in 1818, and who gave
me some striking records of the past, said that when up the
country in 1820, the stock-keepers of Mr. Stocker's, of Salt Pan
Plains, were guilty of abominable conduct toward two Native
women. These afterwards told their Coolies or husbands, and
the tribe surrounded the hut, and killed two men out of the
three. Instances are upon record of murders committed solely
with the view of seizing upon the females of a Mob.
A lady
once told me of a man-servant of hers getting speared after offer-
ing some insult to a gin. He narrowly escaped with his life,
being long confined to the hut. Repeated cases were known of
brutal stock-keepers and shepherds emasculating the males.
Horror-stricken by tales of men such as these, the benevolent
Mr. Backhouse exclaimed, "They were of such a character, as to
remove any wonder at the determination of these injured people
to try to drive from their land a race of men, among whom were
persons guilty of such deeds."
The Bushrangers of Van Diemen's Land were sore foes to the
Aborigines, from a natural cruelty of disposition, and from a
fancied fear of their divulging the site of their brigand retreat.
Lemon and others, when in a merry mood, bound them to trees,
and used them as targets for practice. It was an ex-Bushranger
who confessed to me that he would "as leave shoot them as so
many sparrows." Another worthy, who had left his country for
his country's good, above fifty years ago, declared to me that he
heard from a friend of Michael Howe, that that celebrated
ruffian would lay down his musket to induce the Blacks to come
toward him, but that on their approach he would fire at them
from his retreat, pulling the trigger with his toes. The Bush-
ranger Dunn carried off Native women to his lair, and cruelly
abused them. So exasperated were the men against the Whites,
on account of the cruelty of that wretched outlaw, that they
murdered several of the neighbouring and inoffensive settlers.
Mr. Melville, the present living father of the press of Tasmania,
has the following story in his sketch of the country. 'The
Bushranger Carrots killed a black fellow, and seized his gin;
then cutting off the man's head, the brute fastened it round the
wife's neck, and drove the weeping victim to his den." The
<<
62
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
Bushranger Dunn was very cruel to the Natives. A letter, in
1815, blames the Bushrangers as the great cause of the
Aborigines not mixing with the settlers.
A respectable colonist, lately deceased in Melbourne, naming
many instances of cruelty to the Natives, assured me that he
knew of two men who had boasted of killing thirty at one time.
Mr. Backhouse relates that one party, out after the Blacks,
killed thirty in capturing eleven. Quamby's Bluff, an eastern
spur of the great central highlands of the island, curling up with
its crest as if torn by violence from the Tier, was so called from
a poor hunted creature there falling upon his knees, and shriek-
ing out, "Quamby, Quamby-mercy, mercy." A gentleman,
many years a magistrate in these colonies, mentioned to me the
death of a shepherd of his near the Macquarie River. Soon
after a company of soldiers went in pursuit of the supposed
murderers. Falling in with a tribe around their night fires, in a
gully at the back of the river, they shot indiscriminately at the
group. Many were slain, but no Government inquiry was made
into the well-known circumstance. An eye-witness of a similar
night attack has this description: "One man was shot; he
sprang up, turned round like a whipping top, and fell dead.
The party then went up to the fires, found a great number of
waddies and spears, and an infant sprawling on the ground,
which one of the party pitched into the fire."
It was from no mere feeling of political partisanship that
Mr. Melville penned this remarkable passage: "In this riot of
wildness, favourable in its very existence to the display of our
worst attributes, or to the concealment of our better ones; how
have they been treated? Worse than dogs, or even beasts of
prey; hunted from place to place; shot; their families torn
from them. The mother snatched from her children, to become.
the victim of the lust and cruelty of their civilized Christian
neighbours!"
No more illustrative proof of the manners of that dark era
can be presented, than we find recorded in the history of
Jorgenson, when out in 1826: "Two days after I saw Scott,"
says he, "a large tribe came down to Dr. Thomson's hut, which
was occupied by three assigned servants. These men struck a
bargain with some of the Blacks for some of their women, and
in return to give them some blankets and sugar. However, no
NATIVE WOMEN NOT FAULTLESS.
63
sooner were the females on their way to join their tribe, than
the servants sallied out, and deprived them of their ill-gotten
store. The Aborigines, nearly one hundred in number, now
exceedingly exasperated, surrounded the hut, and had certainly
effected their revenge, either by burning down the hut, or other-
wise killing the aggressors, had not the Bushranger Dunn came
to their timely assistance. Being so disappointed, the Blacks, in
the heat of resentment, fell in with poor aged Scott, and
murdered him in a most barbarous manner." This Scott had
heretofore been on the most friendly terms with the Natives, and
his dreadful end will furnish the key to many apparently inex-
plicable murders of innocent people, even women and children,
by the Aborigines, when the two races were afterwards in
frequent collision.
Cruelties to Native women, though never defended, have been
in some way stripped of their hideousness, through not receiving
apology, by a writer in the Hobart Town Press, in April 1831.
Mr. Gilbert Robertson has been credited with the article.
“It would be unfair and unjust on our part, were we to with-
hold our knowledge of the atrocities which have certainly been
perpetrated by several Whites toward the Aborigines. However,
we know that the pollutions so committed, to the disgrace of the
name of Englishmen, have not solely been confined to the black
women, but have reached to such unfortunate white females as
may have fallen into their hands; and we earnestly hope and
trust, that the strong hand of the Government will be exercised,
in order to bring speedy and signal vengeance down on those
who may in truth be called monsters, and not men. But on due
reflection, it will be observed, that the aboriginal men can have
far less to complain of than would appear at first sight. Did
the black women of this island possess, in the slightest degree,
any portion of that delicacy of sentiment which ought to be the
distinguishing ornament of the sex-did they know how to set a
true value on chastity—and had the aboriginal men not shared
in the wages of iniquity earned by their women, then indeed
would they be entitled to our highest compassion, and our indig-
nation would be roused at the bare relation of the atrocities
which we know to have been committed against them; but the
women have yielded willingly to the lawless desires of white
men, the males have encouraged the nefarious traffic, and if, in
64
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
J
such a commerce, quarrels have happened, and murders been
perpetrated, we may trace these as much to the depraved taste
of the aboriginal as to the moral turpitude of the Whites." His
harsh estimate of their character is thus summed up: "Such
a race merits little compassion, unless it should be said that
the greatest degree of sin is entitled to the highest degree of
compassion."
In treating of this subject, I feel with Dr. Coke, writer of the
work on the West Indies, that "the author who records their
miseries will be almost deemed an incredible writer; and while
his narrative will be perused with astonishment, it will perhaps
be associated with the marvellous, and consigned to the shelves
of romance." The catalogue, though one of horrors, is too im-
portant to be altogether passed by. A few stories can be strung
together without attention to order of time.
In July 1827, a man was killed by the Blacks up in the
country, near the Western Tiers. He had been long familiar
with the tribe, having lived among the Natives of New Holland
for some years, but had incurred their displeasure at last. The
neighbouring settlers gathered together for a chase after the
criminals, and took revenge indeed for the death of one; for the
Colonial Times declares: "They report that there must be about
sixty of them killed and wounded."
A party of the Richmond police were passing through the Bush
in 1827, when a tribe, seeing them, got up on a hill and threw
stones upon them. The others fired in return, and then charged
them with the bayonet. We have Mr. G. A. Robinson's authority
for stating that "a party of military and constables got a
number of Natives between two perpendicular rocks, on a sort
of shelf, and killed seventy of them, dragging the women and
children from the crevices of the rocks, and dashing out
their brains."
A wretched man, named Ibbens, was accustomed to go persis-
tently after the Eastern tribe with a double-barrelled gun, creeping
among them at dusk, until he had killed the half of them. One
man boasted that he had thrown an old woman upon the fire, and
burnt her to death. The Colonial Times speaks on one occasion
of a party of soldiers and others approaching within thirty yards
of their night-fires, and killing "an immense quantity of the
Blacks." Well might Dr. Marshall tell Lord Glenelg, "The
RETRIBUTION.
65
murders which, at almost every page, have blotted with blood the
history of the British Colonies, cry out against us unto the Most
High God, with a voice that has not always been unanswered,
for national calamity to succeed national wickedness."
Many years ago I fell in with one of the lowest order of
convicts, who assured me that he liked to kill a black fellow
better than smoke his pipe; adding, "and I am a rare one at
that, too." He related the following adventure. Out one even-
ing with some armed stock-keeping mates, he climbed Maloney's
Sugar Loaf, and saw a tribe lighting their fires for the night.
He returned with the news. Then, abstaining from noise and
supper-fire themselves, they waited till just before dawn, ad-
vanced toward their unsuspicious victims in a crescent line, so
as to cut off retreat, and fired close. He quietly remarked:
"There wasn't many of them got off." I dissembled a little, and
in an off-hand way inquired how many he had cleared off. He
shook the stump of his amputated arm, smiled archly at me, and
said, “No-no—that's not a fair question.”
Dr. Nixon, Bishop of Tasmania, is forced to say of such
scenes: "
"There are many such on record, which make us blush
for humanity when we read them, and forbid us to wonder
that the maddened savages' indiscriminate fury should not only
have refused to recognise the distinction between friend and foe,
but have taught him to regard each white man as an intruding
enemy, who must be got rid of at any cost."
My worthy friend Mr. Shoobridge, a much respected Tasma-
nian colonist, is my authority for the story of a sad tragedy
Two men went out shooting birds. Some Natives, seeing them
approach, hastily fled. A woman, far advanced in pregnancy,
unable to run with the rest, climbed up a tree, and broke down
the branches around her for concealment. But she had been
observed by the sportsmen. One of these proposed to shoot
her, but the other objected. The first, however, dropped be-
hind, and fired at the unfortunate creature. A fearful scream
was heard, and then a new-born infant fell out of the tree.
That very day the wife and child of this monster were crossing
the Derwent, when a sudden squall upset the boat, and both
were drowned.
That gentleman also told me that, when young, a fellow gave
him an account of some capital fun, as it was called. He and
F
66
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
some others took advantage of a robbery at Hamilton, and
charged it upon an inoffensive tribe in the neighbourhood.
Without warning, an expedition was fitted out in the night, and
a terrible slaughter took place. The miserable remnant were
infuriated at the treachery and cruelty, and revenged them-
selves by years of outrage and murder. Mr. Shoobridge's
father was dining with a country settler, when a man came
in, and called out, "Well, Master! I've shot three more crows
to-day,”—meaning, Blacks.
The Rev. Mr. West did not exaggerate when he wrote: "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." The Courier of June 11, 1836,
admits that "thousands were hunted down like wild beasts, and
actually destroyed." M. Domény de Rienzi, the historian of the
Marion's visit to Van Diemen's Land, had the same opinion.
"One cannot deny," he says, in 1837, "that these unfortunates
have been often treated like wild beasts. Is it then astonishing
that they should seek the means of avenging themselves on the
strangers who have taken from them the island where they were
born, the fruits which nourished them, and even the places
where the bones of their fathers repose?"
The Launceston Advertiser, mourning over the oft-repeated
tale of horrors, exclaims, "We have seen the Natives despoiled
of their lands by a strange race of men, and we have seen them
ill-treated by the invaders, their provisions destroyed, and their
lives cruelly and wantonly taken by men whose nation proudly
boasts of her inhabitants being the most civilized and most
noble-souled creatures on the face of the globe." The learned
Dr. Broca asserts that the English "have committed upon the
Tasmanian race, and that in the nineteenth century, execrable
atrocities a hundred times less excusable than the hitherto
unrivalled crimes of which the Spaniards were guilty in the
sixteenth century in the Antilles."
The public mind gets callous by the continuance of scenes
of blood, as the history of the French Revolution testifies.
For the character of our colonies, we could wish that such a
paragraph as the following, in the year 1826, had never seen the
light: "Let them have enough of Redcoats and bullet fare.
A TRICK UPON A NATIVE.
67
For every man they murder, hunt them down, and drop ten of
them. This is our specific-try it." The feeling is truly
exhibited in the statement of the paper of Dec. 1, 1826, that
"the settlers and stock-keepers are determined to annihilate every
Black who may act hostilely." The cruelty took an indirect
turn with some of these out-station people. Thus, Captain
Holman talks about a fellow taking a pair of pistols, one only of
which was loaded, and seeking to amuse a native by firing the
harmless one at his own ear. Then, presenting the other weapon
to the man, and inviting him to try the same funny performance
on himself, he had the grim delight of seeing the black fellow's
brains blown out.
Let us turn, for relief, to a pleasing story of 1822. A tribe
had lighted their evening fires in the Bush not far from a field
of corn ready to cut, and the flames were carried by a high wind
toward the farm. The farmer writes: "We were doing our best
to extinguish it by beating the flames out with green boughs, but
our efforts would have been in vain had not the whole tribe of
Blacks all at once come forward to assist me. Even some hours
afterwards, when the flames again broke out in two or three
places, they were on the alert in a moment to put them out. I
mention this incident, as it was an act of friendship on their
part, and shows that when they have not been insulted, or had
cause of revenge, and are able to discriminate their friends from
their foes, they are not wanting to reciprocate offices of friend-
ship and humanity."
The Aborigines' Committee evidently saw another side to the
worthy farmer's sketch, when they felt compelled to say, "Few
attempts can be traced on the part of the colonists to conciliate
the Natives, or to make them sensible that peace and forbearance
are the objects desired. The impressions remaining from earlier
injuries are kept up by the occasional outrages of miscreants,
whose scene of crime is so remote as to render detection diffi-
cult, and who sometimes wantonly fire at and kill the men, and
at others pursue the women, for the purpose of compelling them
to abandon their children."
The Rev. Dr. Lang, in his indignant letter to Earl Durham,
narrates a terrible scene. "A spot," said he, "was pointed out
to me a few years ago in the interior of the island, where seven-
teen of these had been shot in cold blood. They had been
F 2
68
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
bathing, in the heat of a summer's day, in the deep pool of a
river, in a sequestered and romantic glen, when they were sud-
denly surprised by a party of armed colonists who had secured
the passes, and I believe not one of them was left to tell the
tale. Nay, a convict Bushranger in Van Diemen's Land, who
was hanged a few years ago for crimes committed against the
European inhabitants of the colony, confessed, when under sen-
tence of death, that he had actually been in the habit of shooting
the black Natives to feed his dogs."
Cruelties to the poor females have already been mentioned.
. Mrs. Guy, of New Norfolk, gave me a proof of attempted
ruffianism in her day. Once when standing by her door she saw
a native woman, pursued by three Englishmen, run to the high
bank, leap into the Derwent, and swim across the broad stream.
The benevolent lady hastened down to the poor creature, and
found her much agitated with fear, and trembling violently.
Taking her home, she gave her some warm tea, and bound
a blanket around her. The husband came afterwards to thank
the lady, and voluntarily cut up a lot of firewood in her yard as
a return of gratitude. Capt. Stokes informs the readers of his
valuable work of Australian Discovery, that a convict servant
confessed this cruelty to a captured gin: "He kept the poor
creature chained up like a wild beast, and, whenever he wanted
her to do anything, applied a burning stick, a firebrand snatched
from the hearth, to her skin."
It is a small satisfaction to be told that other nations have
been as bad as ourselves: that a million of Caribs in Hispaniola
were reduced by the Spaniards to sixty thousand in fifteen
years; that, according to Las Casas, fifteen millions of Indians
perished at their hands; or that, as Cotton Mather reports of
the English American Colonies: "Among the early settlers,
it was considered a religious act to kill Indians." Some
Spaniards made a vow to God to burn or hang every morning,
for a certain time, thirteen Indians; one was to be in com-
pliment to the Saviour, and the others to the twelve Apostles.
A Spanish priest, as Vega relates, seeing some Peruvians destroy
themselves rather than work in the mines, thus addressed the
others: "You wish to hang yourselves, my friends, rather than
labour; seeing this, I shall hang myself first; but I must warn
you of one thing, which is this, that there are mines in the
SPANISH AND DUTCH CRUELTIES.
69
other world as well as in this; and I give you my word that I
will make you work throughout eternity." Upon this the
Indians threw themselves at his feet, and begged him not to
kill himself.
Colonists have a reputation for cruelty to the miserable
aboriginal inhabitants. Raynal gave us a character, in thinking
that a man changed his very nature in going to New Holland.
There is a degree of simplicity of selfish injustice, in the follow-
ing quotations from the diary of one of the early Dutch governors
of the Cape Colony :-
"December 3, 1652.-To-day, the Hottentots came with
thousands of cattle and sheep close to our fort. We feel vexed
to see so many fine herd of cattle, and not be able to buy to any
considerable extent. With 150 men, 10,000 head of black
cattle could be obtained without the danger of losing one man,
and many savages might be taken without resistance, in order
to be sent as slaves to India, as they still always come to us
unarmed."
Commandoes of Dutch Boers against the native races were
common enough. Even as recently as 1832, Lord Somerset had
great difficulty in arresting the march of a party that had
started for the destruction of a settlement of 5,000 Christian
Hottentots, on the Kat river. In 1774, a Government order
was issued for the extirpation of the whole of the Bosjesmen.
In 1795, Earl Macartney's Proclamation ordered the magis-
trates to take the field against the Bosjesmen, "whenever such
an expedition shall appear requisite and proper." Mr. Magnier,
the Landdrost of Graff Reynet, says: "I was made acquainted
with the most horrible atrocities committed on these occasions,
such as ordering the Hottentots to dash out against the rocks
the brains of infants (too young to be carried off by the farmers
for the purpose of using them as bondmen) in order to spare
powder and shot." Colonel Collins, in 1809, knew a gentleman
(an estimable character in other respects) who declared that,
within six years, parties under his orders had killed or taken
3,200 of these unfortunate creatures.
But while the English Government in Van Diemen's Land
* issued paternal proclamations, and uttered sentiments of profound
compassion for the Aborigines, little effectual energy was exerted
to repress and punish crimes against them. The Hobart Town
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
70
Times of April 1836 is harsh, but not unjust, in judgment in
the following sentences:-
"They have been murdered in cold blood. They have been
shot in the woods, and hunted down as beasts of prey. Their
women have been contaminated, and then had their throats cut,
or been shot, by the British residents, who would fain call them-
selves civilized people. The Government, too, by the common
hangman, sacrificed the lives of such of the Aborigines as in
retaliation destroyed their wholesale murderers, and the Govern-
ment, to its shame be it recorded, in no one instance, on no
single occasion, ever punished, or threatened to punish, the ac-
knowledged murderers of the aboriginal inhabitants."
CHAPTER IV.
OUTRAGES OF THE BLACKS.
THE cruelties perpetrated by the Whites upon this unhappy
race have been described. It is now the duty of the chronicler
to reverse the shield, and show the darker features of the
Tasmanian character.
The Aborigines' Protection Committee, consisting of the
Archdeacon, the Rev. Mr. Bedford, the Rev. Mr. Norman, the
Colonial Treasurer, the Colonial Surgeon, and three other gentle-
men, in treating of the war, said that "the injuries and insults
which the Aborigines had received from dissolute characters
had led them to a certain extent, in addition to their savage
spirit, to wreak indiscriminate vengeance." Mr. Clark, catechist
to the Natives on Flinders' Island, has this remark in a letter to
me: "They did commit much mischief prior to their removal
from Van Diemen's Land, but it was from a feeling of retaliation,
and also their imagining the Whites to be a distinct race of
beings, against whom they were bound to make war, after the
first outbreak was produced."
Both the "Cruelties of the Whites," and the "Outrages of the
Blacks," may be regarded by some as modes of warfare; but,
while regretting and condemning the conduct of both nations,
one must estimate the criminality by the provocations received,
and the degree of intelligence and moral light with which the
parties were favoured.
Previous to entering upon the details of this singular warfare,
the action of the Government requires our consideration. The
course pursued by the colonial authorities may be learnt from
their several Orders and Proclamations. Resuming the thread
of the narrative from the second chapter, the part played by the
successor of Colonel Sorell will be introduced.
72
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
It was in June 23, 1824, that Colonel Arthur, the new
Governor, felt it necessary to issue the following Proclamation,
on behalf of the outraged ones :-
"Whereas it has been represented to His Honor the Lieut.-Governor
that several Settlers and others are in the habit of maliciously and
wantonly firing at, injuring, and destroying the defenceless Natives
and Aborigines of this island; and whereas it has been commanded
by His Majesty's Government, and strictly enjoined by His Excel-
lency the Governor-in-Chief, that the Natives of this Colony and
its dependencies shall be considered as under British Government
and protection :—
"These Instructions render it no less the duty than it is the Dis-
position of His Honor the Lieut.-Governor to support and encourage
all Measures which may tend to conciliate and civilize the Natives
of this Island; and to forbid and prevent, and when perpetrated to
punish, any Ill-treatment towards them.
"The Natives of this Island being under the protection of the same
Laws which protect the Settlers, any Violation of those Laws, on the
Persons or Property of Natives, shall be visited with the same
Punishment as though committed on the Person and Property of
any other.
"His Honor the Lieut.-Governor declares thus Publicly his Deter-
mination that if after the Promulgation of this Proclamation any
Person or Persons shall be charged with firing at, killing, or com-
mitting any Act of Outrage, or Aggression, on the Native People,
they shall be prosecuted for the same before the Supreme Court.
“All Magistrates and Peace Officers, and others His Majesty's
Subjects in this Colony, are hereby strictly required to observe and
enforce the Provisions of this Proclamation, and to make them known
more especially to Stock-keepers in their several districts, enjoining
them, not only to avoid all Aggression, but to exercise the utmost
forbearance towards the Aborigines, treating them on all occasions
with the utmost kindness and compassion.
"By Command, &c.,
"J. MONTAGUE, Secretary."
As an historical document this is valuable; as it re-affirms the
declaration of previous Governors that the State was interested
in the welfare of its dark people, and it reasserts their equality
with Whites in the eyes of the law, and the equal penalties to
be paid by both races for injuries to either. It reads full of
GOVERNMENT ORDER, NOVEMBER 29, 1826.
73
justice and benevolence, like the proclamations of Governors
Collins, Davey, and Sorell, and was just as useless as those for
any practical purpose. The Aborigines understood little of these
legal rights, and believed nothing. The Europeans denied the
assumption, and disregarded the orders. Both knew that native
testimony was valueless in court, and were equally convinced
that no English testimony would be likely to appear on behalf
of the Aborigines.
This is the estimate formed of the character of the forest
man by the Hobart Town Gazette of April 1825-
"He shows that he is a brilliant gem, though casketed in
ivory, and, therefore, able to repay the polish which British
philanthropy may labour in bestowing, but he will not be
wantonly aggrieved without panting for vengeance. He will
not tamely bear extirpation by vindictiveness: or suffer his
feelings to be first roused by hopes, the produce of reliance on
European promises, and then endure without resenting their
equally inexpedient and cruel violation. There are in his
powers which inimically used may well be shrunk from, and
by the aggravated exercise of which he will scatter blood, con-
flagration, death, and ruin throughout every district in the colony."
When, some years after, blood was freely shed, homesteads
were perishing in flames, inquests were almost daily held, and
country property had fallen to zero, people remembered the
prophecy, and admitted the truth of the seer.
The following formidable Government Notice appeared in the
Gazette of Nov. 29th, 1826, in consequence of the continuation
of the conflict :--
“The series of outrages which have of late been perpetrated by the
Aborigines of the Colony, and the wanton barbarity in which they
have indulged by the commission of murder, in return for the kind-
ness, in numerous instances, shown to them by the Settlers and their
Servants, have occasioned the greatest pain to the Lieut.-Governor,
and called for His most anxious Consideration of the Means to be
applied for preventing the Repetition of these treacherous and
sanguinary Acts.
"His Excellency has uniformly been anxious to inculcate a spirit
of Forbearance toward the Aborigines, in the hope that confidence
and cordiality might subsist, and be conducive to their Improvement
and the security of the Colonists; but it is with extreme regret He
perceives a result so contrary to His hope and expectation.
74
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
"An impression, however, still remains that these savages are
stimulated to acts of Atrocity by one or more Leaders, who from their
previous Intercourse with Europeans may have acquired sufficient
Intelligence to draw them into Crime and Danger. The capture of
these Individuals, therefore, becomes an Object of the first Importance,
and to this Point the Lieut.-Governor would particularly direct the
Attention of those who may be called to Aid the Civil Power in
the Execution of the justifiable measures to which they may have
recourse and His Excellency deems it necessary to promulgate, for
general Information, but especially for the guidance of the Magistrates,
Constables, and Military :-
:
"1. If it shall be apparent that there is a Determination on the
Part of one or more of the Native Tribes to attack, rob, or murder
the white Inhabitants generally, any Persons may arm, and joining
themselves to the military, drive them by force to a safe distance,
treating them as open enemies.
"2. If they are found actually attempting to commit a felony,
they may be resisted by any Persons in like manner.
"3. When they appear assembled in unusual Numbers, or with
unusual Arms, or although neither be unusual, if they evidently
indicate such Intention of employing Force as is calculated to excite
Fear, for the purpose of doing any Harm, short of Felony, to the
Persons or Property of any one, they may be treated as Rioters, and
resisted, if they persist in their attempt.
"4. If they be found merely assembled for such Purpose, the
Neighbours and Soldiers armed, may, with a Peace-Officer or Magis-
trate, endeavour to apprehend them, and, if resisted, use Force.
"5. If any of the Natives have actually committed Felonies, the
Magistrates should make such diligent Enquiries as to lead to certainty
of the Persons of the Principals, or any of them (whether this
consists in knowledge of their Names or any particular Marks or
Characteristics, by which their Persons can be distinguished), and issue
Warrants for the Apprehension of such Principals. The Officer
executing a Warrant may take to his Assistance such Persons as he
may think necessary; and, if the Offenders cannot otherwise be taken,
the Officer and his Assistants will be justified in resorting to Force,
both against the Principals and any Others who may, by any Acts of
Violence, or even of Intimidation, endeavour to prevent the arrest of
the Principals.
"6. When a Felony has been committed, any Person who witnesses
it may immediately raise his Neighbours and pursue the Felons, and
the Pursuers may justify the Use of all such Means as a Constable
might use. If they overtake the Parties, they should bid, or other-
wise signify to them, to surrender : if they resist, or attempt to resist,
HANGING OF TWO ABORIGINES.
75
the Persons Pursuing may use such Force as is necessary: and if the
Pursued fly, and cannot otherwise be taken, the Pursuers then may
use similar means.
"By Command of the Lieut.-Governor,
"W. H. HAMILTON."
Thus was officially inaugurated, what had previously been
but petty skirmishes, The Great Black War.
"The Lieutenant-Governor," adds the Government Notice of
Nov. 29th, 1827, "has with great concern received reports, that
the aggressions of the Aborigines against the stock-keepers and
other white inhabitants, have been renewed with increased
violence, and that several murders have been perpetrated.
"The protection of the settlers, therefore, calls for the prompt
exertions of the civil power, to put an end to these acts of
barbarity; and His Excellency requests the attention of the
magistrates throughout the colony to the Government Notice of
the 29th of November, 1826, and enjoins them to act themselves
with vigour upon the principle laid down in this Order; and
desires them to invite and encourage the hearty co-operation of
all persons in their respective districts, who are bound instantly
to obey their summonses for the common defence and protection
of the community."
The Lieutenant-Governor was now out of leading-strings.
From this hour he had become "His Excellency." The over-
shadowing supremacy of the Sydney Governnient was withdrawn.
Prisoners were no longer sent to Port Jackson to be tried.
Colonel Arthur is more free to act, and he promises in this
instance what he is anxious to perform, and with a conscious-
ness that he will find no lack of physical as well as moral
support.
It was in 1826 that two men, Jack and Dick, were hung for
the murder of Mr. Hart's stock-keeper, at Great Swanport, on
the east coast. Poor Dick, when asked what he had to say for
himself, exclaimed in an excited manner, "I didn't kill him. I
didn't want to hurt him. Jack spear him." Jack hung his
head, sulkily, and would answer nothing. Mr. Widowson has
this notice of one of the men :-" I remember a very old man
who was thus affected (bush-scab) being tried and hung for
76
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
spearing one of Mr. Hart's men; the culprit was so ill and
infirm as to be obliged to be carried to the place of execution.”
That was an awful Sessions for the colony. At one sitting, no
less than thirty-seven persons were sentenced to death. The
two Blacks were in no want of company. Seven were hung on
September 13th, seven more on the 15th, and nine others on the
18th. Executions were so common in that Bushranging era,
that the Lieutenant-Governor, in his Government Notice of
September 13, 1826, hardly notices the Europeans, but singles
out the case of the Aborigines:
"In the Number of the unhappy Men upon whom the extreme
Sentence of the Law has this monring been carried into Execution,
were the two Natives who murdered the Stock-keeper of Mr. Hart, at
Great Swanport; and the Lieut.-Governor would hope that this
Example may tend, not only to prevent the commission of similar
Atrocities by the Aborigines, but to induce toward them the Obser-
vance of a conciliatory line of Conduct, rather than harsh or violent
Treatment; the latter being but too likely to produce Measures of
Retaliation, which have their Issue in Crime and Death.
"His Excellency is particularly desirous that Magistrates, and
Settlers generally, shall impress on the minds of their Servants, the
necessity for preserving a good Understanding with this ignorant race,
which is alike dictated by Humanity and Self-interest; for, although
it may at present be found difficult, and perhaps impracticable, to im-
prove their moral Condition, perseverance and kindness may do much
toward lessening aggression on their Part, and rendering them com-
paratively harmless.
"Whilst, therefore, a manifestly wanton and direct Violation of the
common Laws of Mankind, such as was perpetrated by the Two Indi-
viduals who suffered this Day, will assuredly be visited with the same
Punishment, the Lieut.-Governor is Determined to Protect the Abori-
gines of the Colony from injury or annoyance, and on an Offender in
this respect the severest Penalties which the Law may prescribe will
be inflicted without the slightest interposition of mercy.
"By Command of His Excellency,
"W. H. HAMILTON."
How an intelligent Aborigine might have smiled at this
discriminating policy! Both aggressors are subject to the same
penalty; both are threatened, but the punishment falls only on
one side. The execution of these two men, so far from terrifying
THE WHITE HATES THE BLACK.
77
the tribes, served only to increase their hostility; and some, that
before this had had faith in the good feelings of Government,
renounced all confidence, and blindly rushed into the war. The
Aborigines then well knew the feeling of the Whites towards
"There is
them; for, said Mr. Knox, in his "Races of Man"-
no denying the fact, that the Saxon, call him by what name you
will, has a perfect horror for his darker brethren." And this
justifies the statesman-like utterance of Lord Stanley, in 1842:
"With a view to the protection of the Natives, the most essential
· step is to correct the temper and tone adopted toward them by
the settlers."
This sort of feeling is not confined to Australia and Tasmania,
but is now exhibited toward the Maories of New Zealand; who,
however, by the repeated checks they have given to British arms,
have compelled the observance of respect denied to other races.
A quotation from the Wellington Independent of September 10th,
1868, will illustrate the remark :-" What are we to do with
these bloodthirsty rebels? These men must be shown no mercy.
They should be treated as wild beasts, hunted down, and slain.
Modern history teaches us that irreclaimable savages, who ren-
dered colonization impossible, and the lives of peaceful settlers
insecure, have been, in the interests of society, exterminated.
It does not matter what means are employed, so long as the
work is done effectually. Head-money, blood-money, killing by
contract any of these means may be adopted." So once felt
the Saxons toward the Britons, the English toward the wild
Irish, the Lowlanders of Scotland toward the Highlanders, the
Russians toward the Circassians.
What could
The war went on more determinedly than ever.
possibly be done? The Governor was bewildered, the benevolent
were in despair. It was suggested that a system of isolation be
tried. But here Colonel Arthur himself expresses the difficulty:
"My intention was to have given up one district to the Natives,
but such a spirit of dissension exists among the tribes themselves,
that it cannot possibly be accomplished." And then the humanity
of the officer exclaims: "It is painful and distressing to banish
the Natives from their private haunts" The late brave but
kind-hearted Captain Sturt has well stated the case thus :-
"The cattle tread down the herbs which at one season of the
year constituted his food; the gun, with its sharp report, drives
78
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
the wild fowl from the creeks, and the unhappy Aborigine is
driven to despair. He has no country on which to fall back.
The next tribe will not permit him to occupy their territory.”
But yet, with a knowledge of its impracticability, the scheme
must be attempted by the Governor. The Demarkation Order is
to be proclaimed. The Natives are to be prevented coming into
the settled districts-the central and eastern portions-by
keeping them back among the swamps, scrubs, and tiers of the
West. In that cheerless clime of everlasting rain or frost; that
region of vast mountains, dreary morasses, and almost lifeless.
solitudes; a locality undesired by the colonists, and nearly
deserted by fowl and quadruped ;-there were the tribes to dwell,
banished from their sunnier homes, their richer hunting lands,
their recognised borders, the graves of their fathers.
The Proclamation of Demarkation, dated April 15th, 1828,
is too important to be passed over lightly. Men cannot forbear
a smile at the Despatches and Government Orders of this period
of colonial history, and the care and trouble of officialdom with
a very few hundreds of Aborigines, having miserable weapons,
while controlling a colony of many thousands of Europeans,
and possessed of a large executive power in British soldiers
and well-armed constables. But the facts remain, that both the
supreme authority and the country settlers were at their wits'
end. But, to the Proclamation :
Whereas, and since the primary settlement of the colony, various
acts of aggression, violence, and cruelty have been, from different
causes, committed on the Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Island, by
subjects of His Majesty.
[Then follow notices of the Proclamations of Governor Collins in
1810, and of Colonel Arthur in 1824, 1826, and 1827.]
"And whereas, these several measures have proved ineffectual to
their objects; and the Persons employed in the Interior of the Island
as Shepherds and Stock-keepers, or on the coast as Sailors, do still, as
is represented, occasionally attack and injure the Aboriginal Natives
without any authority :—and the Aborigines have, during a consider-
able period of time, evinced, and are daily evincing, a growing spirit
of hatred, outrage, and enmity against the subjects of His Majesty
resident in this colony, and are putting into practice modes of hostility,
indicating gradual though slow advances in art, system, and method,
and utterly inconsistent with the peaceable pursuits of Civilized
THE DEMARKATION ORDER.
79
Society, the most necessary arts of human subsistence, or the secure
enjoyments of human life.
"And whereas, on the one hand, the security and safety of all who
have entrusted themselves to this Country on the faith of British pro-
tection, are imperatively required by the plainest principles of justice ;
-and, on the other hand, humanity and natural equity equally enforce
the duty of protecting and civilizing the Aboriginal Inhabitants.
"And whereas, the Aborigines wander over extensive tracts of this
country, without cultivating or permanently occupying any portion of
it, making continual predatory incursions on its Settled Districts, a
state of living hostile to the safety of the Settlers, or to the amelioration
of their own habits, character, and condition.
“And whereas, for the purpose of protecting all classes and orders
of Persons in this Island and its Dependencies ;-of bringing to an
end, and preventing the criminal and iniquitous practices herein before
described, by whomsoever committed ;-of preserving, instructing, and
civilizing the Aborigines; and of leading them to habits of labour,
industry, and settled life: it is expedient, by a Legislative enactment
of a permanent nature, to regulate and restrict the intercourse between
the Whites and the Coloured Inhabitants of this Colony; and to
allot and assign certain specified tracts of land, for their exclusive
benefit and continual occupation.
“And whereas, with a view to the attainment of these ends, a nego-
tiation with certain chiefs of Aboriginal tribes has been planned; but
some prompt and temporary measure is instantly called for, not merely
to arrest the march, but entirely to cut off the causes and occasions of
plunder and crime, and to save the further waste of property and
blood; and it is, therefore, become indispensably necessary to bring
about a temporary separation of the Coloured from the British popu-
lation of this Territory, and that, therefore, the Coloured Inhabitants
shall be induced by peaceable means to depart, or should otherwise be
expelled by force, from all the therein Districts.
"Now, therefore, I, the Lieut.-Governor aforesaid, in pursuance and
in exercise of the powers and authorities in me vested in this behalf,
do hereby notify, that for the purpose of effecting the separation required,
a line of Military Posts will be forthwith stationed and established
along the confines of the Settled Districts, within which the Abori-
gines shall and may not, until further orders made, penetrate, in any
manner or for any purpose, save as hereinafter specially permitted ;—
and I do hereby strictly command and order all Aborigines imme-
diately to retire and depart from, and for fo reason or on no pretence,
save as hereinafter provided, to re-enter such Settled Districts, or any
portions of land cultivated and occupied by any Person whomsoever,
under the authority of His Majesty's Government, on pain of forcible
80
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
expulsion therefrom, and such consequences as may be necessarily
attendant on it.
"And I do hereby direct and require all Magistrates, and other
Persons by them authorized and deputed, to conform themselves to
the directions and instructions of this my Proclamation, in effecting
the retirement or expulsion of the Aborigines from the Settled Dis-
tricts of this Territory ;—and I do further authorize and command all
other Persons whomsoever, His Majesty's Civil Subjects in this Colony,
to obey the directions of the Civil, and to aid and assist the Military
Power (to whom special orders adapted to situations and circumstances
will be given), in furtherance of the provisions hereof, and to resort to
whatever means a severe and inevitable necessity may dictate and
require for carrying the same into execution; subject, however, to the
following rules, instructions, restrictions, and conditions:-
"1. Lands, the property of the Crown, and unlocated, or adjoining
remote and scattered Stock Huts, are not to be deemed Settled Dis-
tricts, or portions of land cultivated or occupied, within the meaning
of this Proclamation.
“2. All practicable methods are to be employed for communicating,
and making known, the provisions of this Proclamation to the Abori
gines, and they are to be persuaded to retire beyond the prescribed
limits, if that be possible.
"3. A failure of the expedient last mentioned, capture of their
persons without force is to be attempted, and, if effected, the prisoners
are to be treated with the utmost humanity and compassion.
"4. Whenever force cannot be avoided, it is to be resorted to, and
employed, with the greatest caution and forbearance.
"5. Nothing herein contained shall authorize, or be taken to
authorize, any Settler or Settlers, Stock-keeper or Stock-keepers,
Sealer or Sealers, to make use of force (except for necessary self-
defence) against any Aboriginal, without the presence or direction of
a Magistrate, Military Officer, or other person of respectability, named
and deputed to this service by a Magistrate, of which Class a numerous
body will be appointed in each District; and any unauthorized act
of aggression or violence committed on the Person or property of an
Aboriginal shall be punished as hereinbefore declared; and all Abori-
gines are hereby invited and exhorted to inform and complain to
some constituted authority of any such misconduct or ill-treatment,
in order to its coercion and punishment.
"6. Nothing herein contained shall prevent the Aborigines from
travelling annually (according to their custom) until their habits shall
have been more regular and settled, through the cultivated or occupied
parts of the Island to the Sea-coast, in quest of shell-fish for suste-
nance, on condition of their respective Leaders being provided with
MARTIAL LAW PROCLAIMED).
81
a General Passport under my Hand and Seal,-arrangements for which
form a part of the intended negotiation.
“Given under my Hand and Seal, at Government House, Hobart
Town, this fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and twenty-eight..
..
"GEORGE ARTHUR.
"By His Excellency's command,
"GOD SAVE THE KING."
"J. BURNETT.
One cannot forbear smiling at this very intelligible address to
the hunted savages. The composition is strictly legal, for its
author is the Attorney-General. As British subjects they are
presumed to be well acquainted with the forms of British law.
It is true that the Proclamation is written for those who never
read, and is indited in a language with which they are not
acquainted. It may remind one of an English country notice
on a board, at the end of which the wayfarer was admonished
that, if unable to read, he was to inquire of the blacksmith over
the way. The pain of forcible expulsion will be endured with-
out the consciousness of the offence of trespass, and the “ con-
sequences necessarily attendant" will be fatally experienced,
although innocent of the official poster on the gum-tree. It was
not very probable that they would become acquainted with the
occasion for a passport to go to the coast,—that they would ven-
ture among their enemies to apply for this permit, and that the
gentle shepherds of the interior would respect the parchment
and seal.
Sir George Murray, in acknowledging the despatch containing
his proclamation, tells Colonel Arthur, "I cannot omit to im-
press upon you my most earnest desire that no unnecessary
harshness may be exercised in order to confine the coloured
inhabitants within the boundaries which you have fixed."
As the first proclamation was attended with no beneficial
result, as the Whites still persisted in murder, and as the
Blacks still wandered over their own soil at large, another pro-
clamation was issued on November 1, 1828. It was prefaced
with the false announcement that "every practicable measure
has been resorted to for the purpose of removing the Aborigines
from the settled districts of the colony; and for the putting a
Ꮐ
82
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
(C
stop to the repetition of such atrocities." It then adds: It
seems at present impossible to conciliate the several tribes of
that people." Then come the awful words :-
"I, the said Lieutenant-Governor, do by these presents de-
clare and proclaim, that from and after the date of this my
proclamation, and until the cessation of hostilities shall be by
me hereafter proclaimed and directed, Martial Law is and shall
continue to be in force against the several black or aboriginal
Natives, within the several districts of this island; excepting
always the places and portions of this Island next mentioned
(that is to say)-
"1st. All the country extending southward of Mount Wel-
lington to the ocean, including Bruni Island.
"2d. Tasman's Peninsula.
"3d. The whole of the north-eastern part of this Island
which is bounded on the north and east by the ocean, and on
the south-west by a line drawn from Piper's River to Saint
Patrick's Head.
“4th. And the whole of the western and south-western part
of this island, which is bounded on the east by the river Huon,
and by a line drawn from that river over Teneriffe Peak to the
extreme Western Bluff; on the north by an east and west line
from the said extreme Western Bluff to the ocean, and on the
west and south by the ocean."
""
A people so well acquainted with our language and our
geographical nomenclature, would surely have no difficulty in
recognising their duty and ability to abide within these accu-
rately described limits. Though, with all their compass aid and
trigonometrical learning, the English colonists would have been
puzzled to have drawn these said lines, and still more puzzled
to have hunted after kangaroos for twelve months without
passing the boundaries, yet it was sagely conjectured that such
difficulties would not exist in the minds of savages who were
such admirable Bushmen. A reference to the map will show
the reader the desirable nature of the country thus allotted to
the Natives. It will be seen that sixty years' occupation of
Tasmania has never induced the adventurous stockholder to
advance into those sterile realms. The editor of the Colonial
Times of that period has thus well hit off the absurdity. An
Aborigine named Black Tom, who was brought up by Mr. E.
(c
PICTORIAL PROCLAMATION.
83
Hodgson, went out with the first party who were sent in pur-
suit of his countrymen, after the proclamation of Martial Law.
The Lieutenant-Governor being desirous to make use of Tom as
a negotiator with the savages, questioned him very particularly
on the cause of the hostility of the Aborigines against the
Whites. The following dialogue took place, as reported by a
bystander :-
Tom.-" A'nt your stock-keeper bein' a kill plenty black
fellow ?
Governor." But your countrymen kill people that never did
them any harm-they even kill women and children.
Tom.-"Well, a'nt that all same's white un? A'nt he kill
plenty black un, a woman, and little picaninny too?
Governor." But you know, Tom, I want to be friendly and
kind to them, yet they would spear me if they met me.
Tom (laughing).-"How he tell you make a friend along
him? A'nt he all same a white un? 'Pose black un kill white
fellow, a'nt you send all your soddier, all your constable after
him? You say, that black a devil kill a nurra white man;
go-catch it-kill it-a'nt he then kill all black fellow he see,
all picaninny too? A'nt dat all same black fellow—a'nt you
been a take him own kangaroo ground? How den he like?”
Tom laughed most immoderately on hearing the proclamation
read, particularly at the idea of the tribes applying for pass-
ports to travel through the settled districts.
Tom says "You been a make a proflamation-ha! ha! ha!
I never see dat foolish (meaning, I never saw anything so
foolish). When he see dat? He can't read; who tell him?
Governor.—“ Can't you tell him, Tom?
Tom.-"No! me like see you tell him yourself; he very
soon spear me?"
It was about this time that the Government undertook the
expedition against the Aborigines on the principles of the Fine
Arts. As the Blacks could not read the Demarkation Order, or
any other of the important official documents of the day, and
as no one liked to be Envoy Extraordinary with unwelcome
despatches, and even Tom had feared a spearing, it was thought
good policy to hang up in the Bush divers illustrations of retri-
butive justice for the edification of parrots, 'possums, and Black
fellows. Boards were adorned with lively representations of
G 2
84
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
Blacks hanging for the murder of Whites, and of Whites sus-
pending for the slaughter of Blacks. There were the soldiers
with their red coats, stiff necks, and naked bayonets. There
were the slain victims, with striking streaks of vermilion
to delineate currents of blood. There was the great chief, the
Governor, with a feather in his hat. There was a white woman
nursing a black child, and a black woman a white child, to
exhibit the blessings of peace. But the accompanying plate will
tell its tale sufficiently for the reader's comprehension. It is
photographed from an illustrated pine board found under the
floor of Government House a few years ago.
A friend informed me that he saw one of the boards, about
1828, in Hobart Town, all in its fresh and glowing condition
ready to be nailed to a gum-tree. It will be painful to the
lover of true art to learn, that the island Aborigines were such
utter barbarians as to be insensible to these appeals of fancy
grouping and gay colouring.
On another occasion an artistic effort was made to communi-
cate with the Natives; and this was through the Surveyor-
General, Mr. Frankland. The Hobart Town Review of November
26, 1830, has this paragraph: "Before the departure of Numar-
row, Mr. Frankland presented him with a little sketch, executed
with much spirit, of the consequences of the Aborigines adopt-
ing a peaceable demeanour, and of continuing their present
murderous and predatory habits. In one part of the sketch, the
soldiers are represented firing upon a tribe of Blacks, who
were falling from the effects of the attack; on the other side,
another tribe, decently clad, receiving food for themselves and
families."
MARTIAL LAW, with all its stern enactments, was proclaimed
on November 1, 1828. This was followed by the Order, in
which a reward of five pounds was offered for the capture of an
adult native, and two pounds for a child. "Capture Parties"
were organized, and the war went on with undiminished
energy.
The year 1830 was particularly distinguished as the period of
the parties after the Blacks, and of the great event, known as the
Line, when the colonists attempted to thrust the whole of the
Natives, by a sweeping process, into a neck of land on the east
coast, and so by one effort capture the turbulent tribes. For the
PICTORIAL PROCLAMATION FOR THE BLACKS.
Men i å
WiFi Wi

THE BLESSINGS OF CIVILIZATION AND PEACE ARE ILLUSTRATED IN ONE PART,
AND THE RIGHTEOUS ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IS EXHIBITED IN THE
OTHER.
Um
MILD MEASURES AGAIN.
87
account of this wonderful movement, the reader is referred to a
subsequent chapter.
Whether from the early activity of so many separate parties
being engaged in native hunting, for five pounds a head, or from
several causes co-operating, a part of this year was comparatively
free from outrages. In fact, notwithstanding the Demarkation
Order, and the Martial Law itself, so jubilant did the Governor
appear to be at one time, as almost to hope that better times
had fairly commenced. Under the influence of this comforting
assurance, his ready pen set to work and produced the following
Government Notice, 160, on August 19th, 1830 :—
"It is with much satisfaction that the Lieut.-Governor is
at length enabled to announce that a less hostile disposition
towards the European inhabitants has been manifested by some
of the Aboriginal Natives of this island, with whom Capt. Welsh
and Mr. G. A. Robinson have succeeded in opening a friendly
intercourse.
“As it is the most anxious desire of the Government that the
good understanding which has thus happily commenced, should
be fostered and encouraged by every possible means, His Excel-
lency earnestly requests, that all settlers and others will strictly
enjoin their servants cautiously to abstain from acts of aggres-
sion against these benighted beings, and that they will them-
selves personally endeavour to conciliate them, wherever it may
be practicable; and whenever the Aborigines appear without
evincing a hostile feeling, that no attempt should be made either
to capture or to restrain them; but, on the contrary, after being
fed and kindly treated, that they should be suffered to depart
whenever they may desire it."
Such a document might well excite the astonishment of
the colony. After the most formidable arrangements for the
capture of the Blacks, the leaders, whose hopes of five-pound
notes and grants of land lay in prospect of successfully carry-
ing out their mission, were in the simplest manner appealed to,
and requested to feed the fellows, and then let them go. Some
thought the Governor very weak of purpose; others, exces-
sively benevolent; while a few doubted not that it was a
stroke of policy to throw the injured tribes off their guard, for
the purpose of beguiling them into the great net he was then
preparing.
88
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
Perhaps many people were not surprised that, within five
weeks of the pacific and agreeable notice, one so opposite in
principle and feeling should be issued, giving the first announce-
ment of the intention of Government to raise the whole of the
white inhabitants against the sanguinary tribes!
It was as a sort of counter-proclamation, that an address from
the Clyde District was, in March 1830, presented to the Lieut.-
Governor, acknowledging the recent Order, and its reference to
humane feelings.
The colonists therein announce it as their
opinion that “any attempt to seek the friendship of the Blacks,
in their present too evidently hostile bearing, will be construed
by them, in their ignorance, to the want of power on the
part of the Whites to compel submission, and consequently
will encourage them to become every day more audacious, and
embolden them not to attack the solitary and helpless individual
only, but, in formidable bodies, to march into the populous set-
tlements with their firebrands in one hand and their unerring
and deadly weapons of warfare in the other.
"We do not yield to any set of men our innate feelings
of humanity, and to none would it impart more heartfelt joy
to see the Aborigines brought into terms of friendly intercourse
than to us.
But, situated as we are in the interior, and having
had the opportunity, either personally or through the medium of
others, of knowing the treacherous disposition of these Natives,
and of experiencing by their daily atrocities their deep-rooted
enmity towards us colonists, viewing us as intruders, we alto-
gether despair of their being induced to receive our offers of
friendship."
The address concludes with a request for more Government
assistance, and an appeal for the removal of the tax on dogs,
because of their utility at the present crisis.
In this document we have a just view of the sentiments of
the colonial settlers. They felt the burden, and cried out.
Whatever the cause of the war, they were the immediate
sufferers. While plans were suggested, and Government Orders
issued, their homesteads were in hourly danger, and their very
lives in jeopardy. It was natural for them to deride a little
bitterly the philosophical calmness of the dweller in town, and
sneer at the philanthropic gazette of authority. Whatever
hope of conciliation might be cherished by Government, they
PROCLAMATION OF OCTOBER 1ST. 1830.
89
"altogether despaired" of future friendly relations with the wild
men who viewed them as intruders.
The Proclamation of October 1, 1830, advances us another
stage in the Black War. Driven from the Settled Districts by
the provisions of the Martial Law, the Aborigines were now to
be allowed no place of retreat, no city of refuge. There is
no peace to be made with them, as they are supposed relentless
as wolves, and they must, like those blood-mouthed marauders
of the woods, be driven from their dens. A new and more
stringent Martial Law is to be proclaimed.
"Whereas, by my Proclamation, bearing date the first day of
November, 1828, reciting, among other things, that the Black or
Aboriginal Natives of this island had for a considerable time carried on
a series of indiscriminate attacks upon the persons and property of His
Majesty's subjects, and that repeated inroads were daily made by
such Natives into the Settled Districts, and that acts of hostility or
barbarity were thus committed by them, as well as at the more distant
stock runs, and in some instances upon unoffending and defenceless
women and children, and that it had become unavoidably necessary,
for the suppression of similar enormities, to proclaim Martial Law, in
the manner hereinafter directed, I, the said Lieut.-Governor, did
declare and proclaim that from the date of that my Proclamation, and
until the cessation of hostilities, Martial Law was, and should continue
to be, in force against the said Black or Aboriginal Natives within
the several districts of this island, excepting always the places and
portions of this island in the said Proclamation after mentioned;
and whereas, the said Black or Aboriginal Natives, or certain of their
tribes, have of late manifested, by continued repetitions of the most
wanton and sanguinary acts of violence and outrage, an unequivocal
determination indiscriminately to destroy the white inhabitants, when-
ever opportunities are presented to them for doing so; and whereas,
by reason of the aforesaid exceptions so entertained in the said Procla-
mation, no Natives have been hitherto pursued or molested in any of
the places or portions of the island so excepted, from whence they
have accordingly of late been accustomed to make repeated incursions
upon the Settled Districts with impunity, or, having committed
outrages in the Settled Districts, have escaped to those excepted
places, where they remain in security; and whereas, therefore, it hath
now become necessary, and because it is scarcely possible to distin-
guish the particular tribe or tribes by whom such outrages have been
in any particular instance committed, to adopt immediately, for the
purpose of effecting their capture, if possible, an active and extended
90
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
system of military operations against all the Natives generally through-
out the island, and every portion thereof, whether actually settled or
not. Now, therefore, by virtue of the powers and authorities in me in
this behalf vested, I, the said Lieut.-Governor, do, by these presents,
dèclare and proclaim, that from and after the date of this my Procla-
mation, and until the cessation of hostilities in this behalf shall be
by me hereafter proclaimed and directed, Martial Law is and shall
continue to be in force against all the Black or Aboriginal Natives,
within every part of this island (whether exempted from the opera-
tions of the said Proclamation or not), excepting always such tribe, or
individuals of tribes, as there may be reason to suppose are pacifically
inclined, and have not been implicated in any such outrages; and for
the purposes aforesaid, all soldiers and others, His Majesty's subjects,
civil and military, are hereby required and commanded to obey and
assist their lawful superiors in the execution of such measures as shall
from time to time be in this behalf directed to be taken.
But I do,
nevertheless, hereby strictly order, enjoin, and command, that the
actual use of arms be in no case resorted to, by firing against any of
the Natives, or otherwise, if they can by other means be captured, that
bloodshed be invariably checked as much as possible, and that any
tribes or individuals captured, or voluntarily surrendering themselves
up, be treated with the utmost care and humanity. And all officers,
civil and military, and other persons whatsoever, are hereby required
to take notice of this my Proclamation, and to render obedience and
assistance therein accordingly.
"Given under my hand and seal at arms, at the Government House,
Hobart Town, this first day of October, in the year of the Lord One
Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty.
"GEORGE ARTHUR."
About this time the following Government Notice appeared in
the Gazette:
((
It has become necessary, in consequence of the repeated
incursions of the Aborigines, to extend the military Outposts
to remote Stations, where no Quarters have been erected for the
accommodation of the troops: the Lieut.-Governor, therefore,
requests the Settlers, residing in the vicinity of those Stations,
will supply the military parties with the authorized Rations, for
which they will be paid by the Commissariat; but His Excellency
feels satisfied that, on reflection, the Settlers will be sensible, as
the Parties are sent solely for their protection against Runaway
Convicts and the Aborigines, that they should gratuitously afford
such accommodation as is within their power; consequently no
THE LAST GOVERNMENT ORDER.
91
charge for the temporary occupation of their huts by the military
will henceforth be sanctioned, or admitted into the public
accounts.
"The circumstance of some few individuals having charged
the Government for such temporary accommodation, whilst it
has generally been gratuitously afforded, renders it necessary for
the Lieutenant-Governor to make known the course which will
be pursued."
Although it would seem very churlish to deny shelter to the
military so engaged, and very avaricious to seek payment for
such rude accommodation, yet the company of soldiers was not
always thought pleasant by the head of a family isolated in
the Bush.
It remains here simply to mark the official termination of
the war, the removal of Martial Law. This, happily, the last
document proceeding from the Government, relative to the
Aborigines, is dated October 24th, 1833.
"Whereas, by my Proclamation, made and bearing date the first day
of November, in the year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred
and Twenty-eight, I did declare and proclaim, that from and after the
date of that Proclamation, and until the cessation of hostilities shall be
by me thereafter proclaimed and directed, Martial Law was and should
continue to be in force against the several Black or Aboriginal Natives
within the several Districts of this colony, excepting always the places
and portions of this Island next in the same Proclamation after
mentioned:
"And whereas, by a certain other Proclamation by me made, and
bearing date the first of October, in the year of our Lord One
Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty, I did declare and proclaim, that
from and after the date thereof, and until the cessation of hostilities
should be by me thereafter proclaimed and directed, Martial Law was
and should continue to be in force against all the Black or Aboriginal
Natives within every part of this Island (whether excepted from the
operation of any said former proclamation or not), excepting always
such tribes or individuals of tribes as are therein mentioned or
described. Now, I do hereby proclaim and direct, from and after the
date of this my Proclamation, all hostilities against the Black or
Aboriginal Natives of this Island shall cease in every part thereof, and,
further, that from and after the same date Martial Law so proclaimed
by me, as aforesaid, shall not be in force against the said Blacks
or Aboriginal Natives, within this Island or any part thereof.
92
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
"And all officers, civil and military, and other persons whatsoever,
are hereby required to take notice of this my Proclamation, and
to govern themselves accordingly.
"Given, &c.,
"By command, &c.,
"J. BURNETT.'
Having disposed of the official history of one part of the
Black War, let us turn to the general facts of this melancholy
period, and particularize some incidents of the "Outrages of the
Blacks."
MOSQUITO.
This desperate leader in many an outrage by the Aborigines
appears so prominently in the Black War, as to demand a
separate and particular notice. He was not a Tasmanian, but a
New Holland, or Australian native. Although endowed with
superior physical powers, as well as a vigorous intellect and
indomitable will, he was indebted to his acquirements in civi-
lization for his extra ability in working mischief. Belonging to
the Broken Bay tribe, located to the north of Sydney, he soon
associated with a low class of convict population in his neigh-
bourhood, and became an English scholar in our national vices
of drinking and swearing, as well as in the employment of
our tongue.
The crime that brought him under the penal care of Govern-
ment, was one with which he was associated with another
wretched man, known by the settlers as Bulldog. These two
Blacks waylaid a woman, ill-used, and then murdered her. To
gratify their horrible propensities, they ripped open the body of
the poor creature, and destroyed the infant she carried. Strange
to say, for want of some European evidence, the authorities
simply sent them to the penal settlement of Norfolk Island.
After the death of his bulldog accomplice, Mosquito was for-
warded to the convict island of Van Diemen's Land in 1813.
There he was, according to the mode of the day, assigned as
servant to Mr. Kimberley of Antill Ponds. It was not far from
that place that I heard some account of the man. For some
years he conducted himself tolerably well, or so carefully guarded
his acts as to keep out of the hands of the constable. An old
man, named Elliot, who came to the colony in 1815, told me that
•
MOSQUITO AND THE TAME MOB.
93
he knew Mosquito when at service with a Mr. Lord, and that he
there contracted an improper connexion with Black Hannah,
whom he subsequently murdered in a fit of passion.
Mr. Melville mentions that he was employed to track Bush-
rangers. For such a task he was peculiarly suited. Of a very
tall, slim figure, of a wiry, active frame, with remarkable acute-
ness of sense, even for a native, and animated by a profound
love of excitement and mischief, he made an admirable blood-
hound. Distinguished success attended his tracking. But, as
the constables with whom he was associated were men of the
prisoner class, some of them ex-Bushrangers, and all with a
powerful sympathy for the unfortunate robber, excepting in
cases where his capture would bring dollars to their pockets, the
zeal of Mosquito soon excited their ill-will, and plots were laid
to get him into trouble.
Being sent down to Hobart Town in 1818, he formally con-
nected himself with some half-civilized, alias drunken, Abori-
gines, who hung about the town, over whom, by his superior
intellectual energy, he established his authority. The Rev. Mr.
Horton, on his visit to the colony, fell in with this so-called
Tame Mob, and wrote the following account for a London
magazine of 1822-
It consisted of persons (twenty or thirty of both sexes) who
had absconded from their proper tribes in the interior, and is
governed by a native of Port Jackson, named Muskitoo. This
man was transported from Sydney to Van Diemen's Land, some
years ago, for the murder of a woman, and was for some time
after his arrival employed as a stock-keeper. How he was
raised to this present station, as a leader of this tribe, I know
not, unless it was in consideration of his superior skill and
muscular strength. This party, like the rest of their race, never
work, nor have any settled place of abode, but wander about
from one part to another, subsisting on what is given them by
the benevolent, and on kangaroos, opossums, oysters, &c. which
they procure for themselves."
This man had drawn them around him as their acknowledged
chief, in a sense superior to any known among the equality-
loving Tasmanians, and governed them after the approved
European model. Many of them had transgressed tribal laws
in their own districts, and were obliged to live abroad for a
94
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
season. The superior attractions of town life may have seduced
some from the forests. Others came from a distance to place
themselves under the command of the wily New Hollander. It
was easy for him to play the part of a ruler, in gathering the
choicest of women for his wives. It was his conduct to these
that illustrated the cruelty of his natural disposition. He had
several whom he used for private purposes of aggrandizement
with the tribe, or for the procuring of extra luxuries from the
Europeans. But one wife, the really fine-looking "Gooseberry,"
from the Oyster Bay tribe, was reserved for his exclusive service.
This woman eventually excited the jealous anger of her savage
lord, who murdered her in the Government Domain, outside of
Hobart Town.
man.
An ex-Bushranger is my authority for some stories about the
He was well known, as a fellow forester, to this dreaded
chief at the period when they in common, though on separate
commissions, preyed upon the country settlers. Coming once
upon his track at an inconvenient time, when he was wanted
by the Governor, the familiar Bushranger was ordered off, as
Mosquito was impressed with the notion that he might seek his
own pardon by the betrayal of his black acquaintance. He
cried out to him, "What do you do here? Go away." The hint
was sufficient, and he hastened off. But he said that he knew
for a fact that once the terrible monster cut off the breast of one
of his gins, because she would persist, against his orders, in
suckling her child.
He hung about the neighbourhood of Hobart Town for some
time, soliciting bread for his people. That food he would ex-
change for tobacco and rum, to gratify his own civilized tastes.
Receivers and exchangers were readily found at the huts of
the convict servants. His manner of life is spoken of by a
witness, one Thomas M'Minn, in some evidence on a murder
case, given before Mr. Anstey, Police Magistrate at Oatlands.
((
I arrived in the colony," said he, "in 1820, and was placed
in the service of Captain Blythe, near Oatlands, with whom I
remained until his death in 1823. The Blacks were very quiet.
when I arrived here. Mosquito and his Mob came to Mr. Blythe's
hut very often. Mosquito had three wives or gins. He would
not allow any man to have intercourse with them. The other
gins were allowed to prostitute themselves to white men for
TOM BIRCH, MOSQUITO'S MATE.
95
bread and other things. Mosquito ordered a gin to retire with
a White man, and she obeyed his orders. This happened, as I
am told, very often.”
According to old Ward, of the first fleet, Mosquito "kept the
tethers," and sent the Blacks to rob and slaughter. He would
lurk about, gain information, lay his plans in a skilful manner,
and then, from his retreat, despatch his band to carry on the
warfare. It was among the Oyster Bay Mob, of the east coast,
that this worthy practised his demoniacal arts, and that for a
long period, with singular address and success. His people kept
the land in a state of terror. Old Talbot gave me particulars of
the horrible death of a woman and her daughter, at the Ouse
River, and declared that the." Darkies were as quiet as dogs before
Mosquito came." In the language of Mr. Meredith, a settler of that
district: "They spared neither age nor sex; the aged woman
and the helpless child alike fell victims to their ferocity." He
adds, also: “Owing to their extreme cunning, activity, and cat-
like nature, retaliation was all but impossible." It does not
appear, however, that Mosquito was a favourite with all the
tribe; for we read of a number of them setting on him one day,
and beating him nearly to death with their waddies. Doubtless,
this arose from a little political feeling, some of the old chiefs
not approving of the assumption of the premiership by a
stranger, though a good White-hater. It may have been some
Brutus and Cassius conspirators, loving their Cæsar much, but
their freedom more, who sought to get rid of their self-consti-
tuted Dictator.
His outrages became conspicuous in 1819, when his first
murder of a white man took place. The same Mob had gone
down to the east coast for swans' eggs. There Mosquito, want-
ing some ship's stores, placed in charge of John Kemp, a
whaler, killed the custodian of the articles. From one course of
crime he proceeded to another, always endeavouring by subtlety
to throw the blame on others, should discovery of an offence
be made.
Tom Birch joined Mosquito in 1822. This young Native had
been brought up by Mr. Birch of Hobart Town from boyhood.
From his aged and very estimable mistress, I gathered informa-
tion about him. She repeatedly spoke of "Poor Tom," express-
ing a deep interest in him. He was so good and useful a lad,
96
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
so obliging and gentle, so honest and careful, and so thoroughly
devoted to his master. He spoke English perfectly, and could
read and write. In his attendance at church, and general de-
portment, he gave promise of true civilization. But in an evil
hour Mosquito made his acquaintance. He poisoned his mind
against Europeans, representing them as the enemies of his race.
He pictured the hopelessness and aimlessness of his future.
What could he ever be but the slave of the Whites? Could he
get a wife among them? Would they admit him on an equality
with themselves? Did they not look upon him as a black dog?
and would they not treat him very soon accordingly? Then
temptations were placed before him. He was incited to drink.
He was admitted into the licentious orgies of the roaming tribe.
The master and mistress saw the change coming over him, and
strove to counteract the evil, but in vain. His regard for them
was too strong and real to permit him to wrong them, or suffer
their property to be injured by his vicious friends. But he
could not stay. He bolted to the Bush, and was then recog-
nised as a bold robber of the forest, and an active accomplice
of Mosquito's.
Although the rascally chief long kept his own neck out of
the halter by his duplicity and unscrupulous sacrifice of his
confederates, poor Tom Birch was soon captured. His old
employer was able to preserve his life from the law's demands,
but he was sentenced to the dreaded convict settlement at
Macquarie Harbour. He escaped thence through his fertility
of expedients, and associated himself with the Abyssinian Mob,
then engaged in the Black War. It was while Tom was out the
second time, that he was connected with several robberies and
murders near the Shannon. Mr. G. Taylor, writing to the
Hobart Town paper of November 11th, 1826, refers to the hut
of Mrs. Simpson being robbed of supplies, and to Tom having
speared a man-servant in the hand. In his indignation he says,
"They are a lawless, brutal mob, under the guidance of this
Black Tom, who had at a former period voluntarily become a
member of this community, who lived many years as a free
servant to one of our settlers, and who now, with the basest
treachery, turns the very weapons which he then acquired, to
the destruction of that society which he had deceived into confi-
dence. He is, therefore, not a deserter, but a rebel, a civil and
BLACK JACK.
97
internal enemy, and those who have joined him are alike guilty
with himself.”
His Hobart Town friends heard of his whereabouts, and
determined, if possible, to save him. They represented to the
Governor the desirability of obtaining the help of so intelligent
a native in his plan of Conciliation, and overtures were made to
the outlaw. He accepted the proposed terms, and was attached
to one or other of the roving parties, proving himself a valuable
friend to both contending races. A life of Bush exposure proved
. fatal to him at last, and he died at Emu Bay, in 1832, from
dysentery.
Black Jack, Mosquito's other prominent mate, and who sub-
sequently came to trial with him, was very different to Tom.
Able to read and write, this civilized Aborigine was a fit com-
panion for Mosquito. When taking to the Bush, he exclaimed,
"I'll kill all the white ." He has been heard to say, when
torturing some unhappy creature, "Jack will touch him there
again, he don't like it." Old Talbot gave him a very bad cha-
racter, pronouncing him as cruel as the leader of the Mob. The
Hobart Town Gazette of April 2d, 1824, has a paragraph about
him, when speaking of the man being speared on the Old Beach,
near the Derwent: "It does not appear that Mosquito or Black
Jack were seen with this party; although there is reason to
believe they must have been near the spot, from the circum-
stance of the Natives having been, with one or two exceptions
only excepted, entirely harmless, until these two Blacks have
lately appeared among them." About that time, however, Mos-
quito enticed a man out of his hut at Pittwater, and speared him
through the back, in order to steal his rations.
The reader is referred to the chapter on "Outrages" for
further particulars of the crimes of this bad man. The copy of
the Gazette notice of his trial will furnish information concerning
the charge which secured his presence at court. His later ex-
ploits were confined to the south-eastern and eastern districts.
On one occasion the whole gang might have been captured, but
from the impulsive conduct of the constables, who had primed
themselves too much with grog, and, in their Dutch courage,
made so much noise in their charge, as to give their dark foes
sufficient warning to escape to the scrub.
The course of this hero of blood was stayed in consequence
H
98
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
of a murder committed near the east coast. Mr. Meredith, who
was living near the scene of the conflict at the time, is our
historian of the event. It appears that Mosquito came with some
of the Oyster Bay tribe to Grindstone Bay, upon a run belonging
to Mr. Silas Gatehouse, on pretence of hunting. Radford, a
stock-keeper, held a sort of parley with the ruffian, and, as he
saw him seizing some fine kangaroo dogs, called out, “Don't
take our dogs away." The reply to this was a spear wound in
his side from Black Jack. A rush to the hut took place. Radford
ran wounded, with naked feet, for three miles, chased by the
Blacks; but he escaped. Two men in the hut were speared to
death, Mormer or Mammoa, a Tahitian native, and one William
Holyoake. This took place on November 15th, 1823.
Falling in with an "Old Hand" at Warrmambool, toward
the end of 1858, I got another version of the story from one
who claims to have been with Radford on that eventful occasion.
The old man was one of the notables of Port Phillip history,
being one of Mr. John Batman's men on his visit to that colony
in 1835. For several years before, he had lived with the Batman
family in Tasmania, at their Ben Lomond Home, and had accom-
panied John Batman in his chase of Bushrangers and Black
fellows. As he stood before me, then seventy years old, I was
much struck with his appearance. Of middle height, but of
massive proportions, he would be more than a match for many
a younger man in a close conflict. His chest was of the Attila
mould, and his neck betokened great physical strength. His
white locks curled briskly from under his broad-brimmed hat, and
his hair hung down in a handsome and magnificent beard, the
envy of a Pasha. His mien was bold and cheerful. His eye
was quick and ingenuous. His ruddy cheeks stood out with
good humour and the most robust health. Old Daddy, as he was
called, bore a good name; and, making every allowance for im-
provements upon a tale so often told, and referring to a date now
six-and-forty years ago, I have reason to believe that his yarn
contained more than the elements of truth, and that it was not
a mere story founded upon facts. There may have been reasons
why some things he spoke about were not told before.
Substantially his story is the same as others about Radford,
Holyoake, &c. Radford and he happened to leave the hut one
morning without their guns, contrary to their custom, as the
CAPTURE OF MOSQUITO.
99
weather was wet. When fleeing from the Blacks, he received
two spear wounds, one in his thigh. Informing his master of
the outrage, that gentleman is said to have sworn not to rest
two nights in his bed until he had taken a bloody revenge.
Collecting a party of thirty-constables, soldiers, and neighbours
-he set off to execute his threat. One Douglas Evans, a
Sydney native, was met upon the road, and from him informa-
tion was received that a large body of the Aborigines had camped
for the night in a gully by Sally Peak, six miles from Bushy
Plains, on the border of Prosser's Plains.
They proceeded stealthily as they neared the spot; and,
agreeing upon a signal, moved quietly in couples, until they had
surrounded the sleepers. The whistle of the leader was
sounded, and volley after volley of ball cartridge was poured in
upon the dark groups around the little camp-fires. The number
slain was considerable. Few passed the fatal line. Many
children were among the wounded ones. A sergeant seized
hold of a little boy, who attempted to rush by him in the dark-
ness; and, exclaiming, "You, if you ain't mischievous now,
you will be," swung him round by his feet against a tree, and
dashed his brains out. Women were lying about still grasping
their children amidst their dying torments.
The extraordinary sagacity of Mosquito enabled him to elude
several snares for his capture; but he was at length secured
through the courage of a half-civilized native, named Tegg.
This young lad, though brought up with Europeans, was
known to have communications with the murderer. Applica-
tions were made to enlist his help in securing the arch chieftain.
He agreed to attempt the capture if provided with the company
of constables at hand, and was promised a boat should he
succeed. His ambition had been to possess a boat of his own,
and trade between Bruni and Hobart Town. Day by day he
sought the retreat of Mosquito, who had now separated from his
gang, because of the hot pursuit, and was concealed with two of
his gins near Oyster Bay. Godfrey and Marshall, two constables,
were with Tegg when the human tiger's lair was discovered.
Sending the Europeans to secure the women, this lad of seventeen
ran toward Mosquito, and shot him in the thigh. Singularly
enough, the wretched man had no spears near him at the time,
and had to run for his life, pursued by the Black, who fired
H 2
100
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
another barrel at him. Brought to bay by loss of blood, he
leaned against a tree, and in impotent rage threw sticks at the
advancing youth.
He was brought down to Hobart Town, and for a while his
life was in jeopardy from his wounds. The ex-whaler Goodridge,
who wrote an amusing book of his adventures, says of Mosquito:
"This Negro was in gaol at Hobart Town at the period I was
confined on the charge of being a runaway sailor from the
King George."
The following particulars of the trial of Mosquito and Black ·
Jack are related in the Hobart Town Gazette for December
1824:-
<<
Mosquito and Black Jack (the first a native of New South
Wales, the latter born on the island) were placed at the bar,
arraigned as principals in the second degree, for aiding and
abetting in the wilful murder of William Holyoake, at Grindstone
Bay, on the 15th of November, 1823.
"Plea-Not Guilty.
"The Attorney-General described the facts, and called John
Radford, who deposed as follows :—
I
"I am, and for six years have been, a stock-keeper on the
run of Mr. Silas Gatehouse, at Grindstone Bay. I had a fellow-
servant, named Mammoa, who was a native of Otaheite.
knew the deceased. He was servant to Mr. George Meredith,
at Swan Port, and came to our hut in November twelve months.
He said he was returning home from the Colonial Hospital,
where he had been an invalid, and begged permission to remain
a day or two, as he was not very able to go further. He came
on a Wednesday, between the 10th and 15th, and remained until
the following Saturday. The morning after he came a party of
the Natives arrived, with the prisoners at the bar. Their number
was about 65. Some of them had spears, and sticks about two
feet long; but some of the spears, which were wooden ones,
might be six, and others twelve feet long. I asked whither he
was going, and he said, "To Oyster Bay." He then begged for
some provisions, and I told him to follow me into the hut, where
he should have some bread and meat. After he had eaten some,
I inquired how many Natives were with him. He answered he
could not tell. I then asked if they would kill any of the
sheep; he said, "No." Soon afterwards he retired for that night.
•
TRIAL OF MOSQUITO.
101
On the following morning he again came to the hut, and brought
two or three women. Some of the Blacks were on the opposite
side of the creek. He asked for, and had, some breakfast with
me. He lingered with the party about the Plains until two or
three o'clock, and then went away to hunt. In the evening he
returned, and I gave him some supper. In the hut there hung
a small fowling-piece, and a musket, the one by the bed, and the
other over it. Mosquito handled the musket. On Saturday
early the Blacks were in the sheep-yard, sitting round a fire at
their camp; this was about half-past five o'clock. At six they
came to the hut, with the prisoners at the bar, over the creek,
on the other side of which they had been at their diversions,
some of them still remaining there near the stockyard, which
approaches to within ten yards of the hut. The Natives who
were playing might be one hundred and fifty yards from the
hut. I walked out to look at them, after Mammoa, and left the
deceased in the hut, but he came out after me. At this time,
Mosquito was on the other side of the creek with a number of
Blacks, who were armed, but he had no spear. The weapons he
had were a waddy and a stick shaped like the axe of a toma-
hawk. I then desired the deceased to bring the guns, should he
leave the hut before my return; but he did not. Mosquito then
called Mammoa to the other side of the creek, and he went over.
He first, however, asked if the Blacks would spear him, and
Mosquito said "No." They talked to Mammoa for a few
minutes, then took up their spears, and walked towards the hut.
I got to it first; the guns had been taken. When I returned,
Holyoake was walking behind me, and I asked him if he had
put away the guns. He said “
He said "No." I made the same inquiry
of Mammoa, and received the same reply. At this moment he
and Mosquito were at the other side of the creek coming towards
the hut. When they came opposite they got over. The other
Natives were by the hut door, so that now the whole body of the
Natives were assembled. I stood with the deceased two or three
yards off. I had three kangaroo dogs, and a sheep dog. The
deceased had one dog. They were tied to a stump. I saw
Mosquito untie them, and take them into the sheep-yard.
heard Mammoa beg of him not to take them; but he made no
answer. The Natives stood with their spears raised, and their
points directed to deceased and me. I told him the best thing
I
102
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
we could do was to run away, and that otherwise we should be
killed. We accordingly did run, when one of the Blacks threw
a spear, which pierced my side. I at first ran two hundred or
three hundred yards, but the deceased could not keep up with
me. He called out for me to return, and pull a spear out of his
back. I did so. The wound was three or four inches deep.
Some of the Natives armed with spears were pursuing us; there
might be from thirty to forty. I again ran away, and the
deceased after me. I received another spear in the back of my
thigh. At this moment the Blacks were within thirty yards of
me. The deceased exclaimed, " Jack! don't leave." I made no
answer, but continued running till I heard him cry, "O my God!
the Blacks have got me." He was then about two hundred
yards behind me. I looked back. The Natives were close to
him. I saw five or six spears sticking in him (some in his side,
and others in different parts of his body). He was throwing
some rotten sticks at the Blacks, who appeared to be standing
quiet. After looking at them for a few minutes, I recommenced
my flight, and some of them still pursued me; eventually, how-
ever, I was lucky enough to escape. When ten days from the
time had elapsed, I ventured back to the hut; and four days
after my return I found the body of the deceased, quite dead,
covered with sticks, and more than half consumed with vermin.
There were some spears broken in it. I am quite positive as to
the persons of Mosquito and Black Jack. I can swear that no
provocation was given to the Natives, or any violence shown by
me, or to my knowledge by the deceased.'
"Cross-examined by the Court. When the dogs were untied
by Mosquito, I was deterred from interfering by the whole body,
who raised their spears, with their points directed to me. I
knew Black Jack very well by his figure, and because his lips
were much thinner than those of the Natives in general. He
had gone into the hut several times, and I saw him in it on the
Saturday morning, three-quarters of an hour before the body of
the Blacks came to it. On being spoken to, he answered me in
English perfectly well. I never heard the prisoner called "Black
Jack;" I called him Black Jack from his colour."'
"Cross-examined by Dr. Hood (one of the Jury).
There were
some women with the Natives, but neither the deceased nor my-
self had offered any offence, or ventured to take any liberties.'
(
EXECUTION OF MOSQUITO.
103
"Verdict: Mosquito, guilty; Black Jack, not guilty.' The
same principals were then arraigned as principals in the second
degree, for aiding and abetting in the wilful murder of Mammoa,
the before-named Otaheitean. His Honour the Chief Justice
summed up, and the jury, after retiring a few minutes, pro-
nounced an acquittal."
I
Although Black Jack escaped from the first charge, he was
subsequently convicted of the murder of Patrick Macarthy, hut-
keeper, Sorell Plains. He and his chief, Mosquito, were to die
together. He implored the judge to send him to the penal hell
of Macquarie Harbour, instead of hanging him; discreetly
saying to a friend, "Then I'll soon run away." His Honour
seemed to take that view of the question, and declined to grant
the favour. One of my tell-tale acquaintances remarked,
had the pleasure of seeing them both tucked up comfortably.”
They were in other company, for five Bushrangers were to be
suspended with them. The scene of their execution was at what
was called Mr. Muster Master Mason's place. This was at the
Cascades," the site of the present Female Factory at the upper
end of Macquarie Street, Hobart Town, where the basaltic
columns of Mount Wellington appear to overhang the spectator.
It was on the 25th of February, 1825. The Chaplain, the Rev.
W. Bedford, made a forcible address to the multitude of curious
ones there. He thus appealed to them :-"These poor unhappy
fellow-worms, whose lives have become forfeited to the laws of
violated justice and humanity, implore you to shun the path
that leads to death." All the officers in attendance upon the
solemn occasion were attired in deep mourning. Several of the
condemned men joined in singing a funeral hymn. To all the
clergyman's exhortations, Mosquito preserved a sullen silence,
but Black Jack was much alarmed. The Old Hands are fond of
telling the story that, upon the clergyman exhorting Jack to pray,
he exclaimed, “You pray yourself; I too b— -y frightened
to pray." Upon this, to use the language of the newspaper of
the day, "the hapless offenders, after a short interval, were
launched into eternity."
But, without doubt, the execution of Mosquito, who exerted
so fascinating an influence upon the simple tribes, was attended
with important results. Many Natives came into town to implore
the pardon of the man; and, upon the failure of their efforts,
104
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
returned to the Bush with bitterer feelings against the dominant
race. As Mr. Gilbert Robertson wrote in 1831:-" Although
Mosquito has been removed, yet the lessons he afforded the
Aborigines of this island have not been forgotten; experience
has taught them craft, cunning, activity, and watchfulness, and
at this moment they have found means to spread terror amongst
the Colonists residing in the interior." The "Black War" is,
indeed, dated by some persons from the death of Mosquito.
The captor, Tegg, or Teague, as it has been written, did not
get the price of blood; and he, therefore, in sullen anger, betook
himself to the Bush, saying, "They promised me a boat, but
they no give it; me go with Wild Mob, and kill all white men
come near me." Many murders were attributed to him. He
was concerned in the murder of two stockmen belonging to
Messrs. Cox and Barclay. It is also recorded of him, that a
native woman, brought up from infancy by Whites, was, when
far advanced in pregnancy, speared to death by the revengeful
fellow. Strange to say, he subsequently returned to Hobart
Town, and received his boat, which was, said the newspaper,
"to conciliate the youth's unfortunately aggravated feelings" (!)
The "Black War" may be said to have drifted onward, like
a neglected wound, which often terminates in an incurable and
painful disorder. Not expected to be so serious, many were as
surprised as they were shocked at its formidable and rapid
growth. The English traveller, in 1823, could write of the
native inhabitants :-" They are so very few in number, and so
timorous, that they need hardly be mentioned. Two Englishmen
with muskets might traverse the whole country in perfect safety,
as they are unacquainted with fire-arms." And yet many resi-
dents at that very time trembled with apprehension, and the
numbers were not so few, by several hundreds at least, as they
were when putting the whole island in terror, and calling forth
the colonists en masse into the field against them. Another
writer, Mr. Wentworth, of Sydney, gives quite a different picture
of the same year, in 1823, and refers to the "rencontres that have
subsequently taken place between them and the settlers. These,
whenever occasion offers, destroy as many of the Natives as
possible, and they, in their turn, never let slip an opportunity of
retaliating on their bloodthirsty neighbours." But he sees little
NATIVES AND THE MIRROR.
105
cause of alarm, as the wild tribes seldom or never are known
"to act on the offensive, except when they have met some of
their persecutors singly." For this reason only could two persons
armed with muskets traverse the land in safety.
The impression of their being disagreeable neighbours, and
yet so powerless or cowardly as to be easily confronted, was
pretty general from the earliest days. Old Kemp told me, that
in 1821 he saw about three hundred of them "poking" after
bandicoots. He immediately guessed that his hour was come,
and thinking, he said, that he might as well die with a good
heart as a bad one, he started his dogs into the mob, and, on
their flight, took himself hastily off. A similar glorious feat is
recorded by Mr. D. A. C. G. Lemprière, who was stationed at
the first settlement of Macquarie Harbour, the entrance to which,
the opening to the prisoners' place of torment, went by the name
of Hell's Gates. A number of Natives visited the rude hut of
a convict stationed there to burn shells for lime, but they
were, as the prisoner informed the authorities, repulsed at the
very sight of him; which must have been formidable, as Mr.
Lemprière states that he was a man four feet eleven inches in
his shoes, armed with a rake."
At no time was there much correspondence between the two
races; and this was apparent in the narrative of the honest
castaway sailor Goodridge. "During the time," said he, "I was
at Compton Ferry (near Hobart Town), in 1824, fifteen or twenty
of the Natives made their way into Mr. Earle's large room, and
were much delighted at seeing themselves in the looking-glass,
and commenced dancing and making all kinds of mimicry.
They then essayed to get behind the glass, and appeared greatly
confused at finding nothing but the wall. They were all quite
naked; and, indeed, if clothes were given them when they
appeared at Hobart Town, they seldom wore them after they
left, throwing them off as a great encumbrance."
It was about that time that Mr. Roberts, of Bruni, went down
the coast of the channel in search of coal; and, as he has since.
told me, the Natives were quite friendly, helping even to carry
his swag, and procuring him some food. It was not long, how-
ever, before the violence and repetition of attacks alarmed the
whole colony.
In one of my Victorian journeys I fell in with an "Old Hand,"
106
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
who had thoroughly redeemed his character, having been then
for above twenty years a consistent member of the Wesleyan
Church. The experience of this man was similar to others—
that the Natives were not the aggressors. He had lived under
the Western Tier for three or four years without molestation,
though constantly moving about the Bush after stock. Fre-
quently has he come upon their recent tracks, and must have
been the object of their observation, without catching sight of
any. When aroused to fury at last, the tribe acted as others
had done previously, committing atrocious and indiscriminate
slaughter. Missing his shepherd-mate one day, he entered upon
a search, and came upon his body pierced with several spears.
His fears were excited on behalf of a poor sick shepherd, who
lay in a hut belonging to a Mr. Bryant. Collecting a party of
neighbours, he made a hasty run to the spot. When about 300
yards from the hut, they met Mr. Bryant running rapidly with
torn dress. From him they learned that the Blacks arrived there
soon after he came to visit his sick servant; that, after forcibly
breaking off the ends of spears, thrust at him through the
window, he had made a desperate rush through the mob, and had
thus escaped. The rescuers went on to the hut. Not a Black
was to be seen. They entered, and found their friend in his last
agonies, with a quantity of wood burning under his bed, the
men having fired that as well as the bark of the roof.
The rapid movements of the Blacks were extraordinary. Fifty
miles a day must have been often traversed by them in the
height of the war. It was during that war that settlers noticed
a marked decrease of children. This arose from the policy of
the tribes, who, finding themselves hard-pressed by the company
of the young in their marches, and who feared the betrayal of
their haunts by the cry of a little one, had most unrelentlessly
resolved upon the destruction of their families. Mothers even
were known to murder their own babes, rather than have them
fall into the hands of their implacable enemies.
Mrs. Meredith records two or three sad Tasmanian tales. In
the year 1826, some parties in the Bush noticed a man staggering
along with groping arms. As they neared the object, they were
shocked to perceive the poor creature with battered head and
speared body, and the sores swarming with maggots. One of
his eyes was knocked out, and the other was totally blind from
CRUEL CONDUCT OF THE BLACKS.
107
a blow. In a few words the unhappy man moaned forth his
story. He had received a spear in his breast, while endeavouring
to get away from a mob. This after some difficulty he extracted,
and ran on again. Another pierced his back, and broke short
off in the wound. Sickening with pain, his step faltered, and
the savages reached him. Several spears were thrust into him,
and waddies played heavily about his head. He was left for
dead. Reviving, he made an effort to reach some settlement,
and so fell in with the party. Upon further conversation, the
rescuers were horrified at discovering that the attack had taken
place three days before; the time accounted for the dreadful
condition of his wounds. He was conveyed to the hospital, but
death soon released him from suffering.
One Josiah Gough lived with his wife and two girls in a
remote part of the interior. Becoming alarmed for the safety of
his family, he went off to the town to procure assistance to re-
move them to a place of safety. While away, the Natives stole
down the chimney into the hut, speared, and then brained, the
poor woman, and cruelly waddied the children. Taking what
they desired, the murderers withdrew. The father soon after
arrived, and heard the sad tale from the dying lips of his sur-
viving girl. We cannot be surprised at some fearful retaliation
by the neighbours. In 1827, a farmhouse was attacked, under
similar circumstances, when the master had gone for a military
party. The wife, daughter, two sons, a servant, and a traveller,
were in the hut when the barbarians surrounded it with their
mad cries for blood. The armed inmates defended themselves
with much courage and coolness; the conduct of one of the
boys was quite heroic. The contest continued for some time,
when the enraged Blacks set fire to the thatch of the roof, to
drive out the family, that they might be more readily and
certainly destroyed. At this critical period, a dozen soldiers
appeared through the forest, and soon put the tribe to flight.
So rancorous was the hatred of the Natives against the
Whites, that every expedient was adopted to carry out their
malevolent purpose, and torments were used with almost an
Indian refinement of cruelty. In the early days, as the men, the
servants especially, only wore a sort of moccasin of kangaroo
skin, sharp stones and pointed burnt sticks were set up into
paths known to be passed, so as to pierce the feet. The most
108
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
abominable atrocities were perpetrated upon some victims'
bodies. But this was adopted for the purpose of exhibiting their
deadly animosity against the Europeans for their treatment of
the native women, and was a terrible retaliation for similar
cruelties practised upon the male Blacks. Some of our country-
men were emasculated, and the dying were often given up to the
torturing hand of the gins, who, with sharp stones upon secret
parts, added poignancy to the last agony. Several Bush hands
have told me such stories, unfit for publication, but all
evidencing the Blacks' deep-rooted spirit of revenge.
A leading settler of Swanport had his house beset by the
wild East Mob. The party within were well armed, and
maintained the siege with great spirit. One man managed to
evade the observation of the leaguers, and set off at full speed
to give the alarm at the nearest military post, Pittwater, fifty-
four miles off. He was in such a fright, that by the time he
reached the town of Sorell his hair had turned completely grey.
Assistance was rapidly forwarded, and the siege was raised, though
murders in the neighbourhood continued for a long time after.
Much discussion ensued as to the reason of this attack by
Natives with whom the settler had always been on the most
friendly terms, and for whom a number of them had often been
employed. As usual, it was set down to the natural devilment
of the Blacks, and no means were spared to extirpate them
in that part. Some twenty years after this, my informant,
who had been previously acquainted with the facts, stopped for
the night at a roadside inn. Among the callers was one who,
under the excitement of liquor, was detailing some portions of
his early history, and especially his exploits with the Black
Crows, as he called them. The gentleman took no particular
interest in the narrative until he heard particulars of the
outrage to which we have just alluded, and the explanation of
what had at the time appeared to be so enigmatical as to the
attack. According to the testimony of this story-teller, he had
been out shooting with his father. Spying a black fellow behind
a tree, the young fellow cried out to his father that he had got
a capital mark for a shot. The settler reproved the wanton
cruelty of his son, and told him to go home. The other
resolved, however, not to be cheated out of his sport; so, watch-
ing until his parent had retired, he took aim at the inoffensive
MORE MURDERS OF CHILDREN.
109
native and dropped him dead at once. Of course, he never
told at the house what he had done. It was only two or three
days after that that the attack upon the premises took place, and
thus the wicked conduct of the lad had nearly caused the
destruction of all his family.
Many narrow escapes are recorded. A stock-rider found
himself suddenly beset by a mob in the Abyssinian Marshes.
Rising in his stirrups, and setting spurs to his horse, he charged
in upon the masses with his formidable weapon, the stock-whip.
Loud cries followed his rapidly administered strokes, and the
field became his own.
Nothing can be more sickening than the many tales of cruelty
to women and children. Thus we read in the Gazette: "The
Aborigines plundered the hut on the Lake river of everything in
it, and murdered Mary Daniels and her two infants in cold.
blood." The Rev. J. West tells us of a Mrs. M'Alister, who
received a spear wound from the Natives, and hid herself in a
corn-field. But, missing her children, she came out crying after
them. The savages saw her, came down, and murdered her.
Ferguson narrates the story of some constables having protected
a farm, and left from a conviction that no Natives were abroad
in that locality. No sooner had they gone, than the house was
invested and the mistress and her children killed. A similar
circumstance occurred in another place, also deserted by some
constables who had been keeping guard there. The farmer and
his servants were engaged in a field not fifty yards from home
when loud cries called them, but too late, to the house of death;
for upon their entrance they saw the corpses of the mother and
all her children. A friend gave me the following sad story of a
settler near Jericho. A number of Natives had for three days
been watching for an opportunity of exercising their bloody
propensities. At length, the man, unguardedly, left his house
without his musket. He was immediately surrounded and
murdered. The people then went up to the homestead, and
dashed out the brains of the wife and her seven children.
Occasionally they found even females too much for them.
Between Lovely Banks and Spring Hill, some forty miles north
of Hobart Town, a beautifully wooded region, there dwelt in
the olden times a worthy settler upon a moderate-sized farm.
Taking advantage of his temporary absence from home with his
110
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
two men, the ever-watchful Natives descended from the Tiers.
The mother was alone with her two children, a boy and a girl.
Being washing-day, a large pot or billy of water was suspended
from the chimney-hook over the fire. Immediately upon the cry
of " the Blacks," they all rushed into the house, but not before the
little boy received a severe wound in his leg. Nothing daunted,
the family prepared for resistance, knowing if they could hold out
for an hour or two the father would return. The poor mother,
then within three weeks of her confinement, seized a gun
from over the mantelpiece, and fired at the assailants. Then,
keeping watch at an opening in the wall, she waited until her
suffering boy had charged the weapon, when she again sent its
contents among the cowardly band. This was repeated time
after time, the brave boy assiduously helping his noble mother,
regardless of his own wound.
Thus unexpectedly repulsed, the enemy prepared another and
more dreaded mode of attack. Fiery Wing-wangs, of lighted
bark, were hurled against the bark roof of the hut, while, taking
advantage of the withdrawal of attention of the inmates, they
made a new rush to the door. But here commenced the
heroism of the little girl, who, bidding her mother keep to her
post, calmly and resolutely took her station by the fireplace, and
with her pannikin at the billy steadily threw water upward upon
the ignited bark. The mother, in the meanwhile, dealt another
and another blow upon the savages. The contest had thus con-
tinued for hours, when, to the great joy of the wearied and suffer-
ing besieged, the report of guns outside reached their ears. The
enemy disappeared, and the fainting wife was soon in the arms
of her delivering partner. Governor Arthur was so pleased with
the heroism of the woman, that he presented her with a grant
of three hundred acres of land, and undertook to provide for the
future of the brave boy and girl.
A man who had some forty-five years ago been brick-making
for Mr. Robinson, the apostle of the Blacks, and whom I found
a dozen years ago still making bricks, though now by the Yarra-
Yarra, gave me some incidents of his career in the island over
the way.
He spoke of a party out kangarooing who came upon
a mob rather suddenly. A fine, tall, naked chieftain was shot,
and the others fled shrieking over the Fourteen-Tree Plains.
A boy and girl, dropped in the flight, were picked up by the
A HAND LEFT IN THE TRAP.
111
pursuers, and afterwards found themselves at the Orphan School,
New Town.
An old carter once told me that he was assigned to a person
One
at Flat-top Tier, some twenty miles from Hobart Town.
morning the cook of the hut had gone down to the creek for
water, to prepare the supper of the expected shepherds, when
the Natives came down from the Tier and speared him. The
men returning homeward found their meal unprepared, and the
hut vacant. When the body of the murdered man was dis-
covered, they seized their guns and set off in pursuit of the tribe.
After a long and vain chase they returned to their quarters, and,
to their consternation, found the hut burnt to the ground.
An ex-Bushranger gave me the intelligence that he had been
once followed by the Blacks for two or three miles. When out
of breath, he halted behind a tree, and presented his gun to
keep the others in check. A party of the Ouse Mob burnt down
the hut of a shepherd and murdered the owner. They were
about to destroy his daughter, when the girl fell upon her knees,
and in piteous accents sought their mercy. Their savage hearts
were softened, and the orphan was suffered to escape. Captain
Gray, of Avoca, as well as many other masters, was often seen
standing over his threshing with a loaded musket. Men regularly
took out their guns with them when they went to plough, stick-
ing the weapon against some stump in the field.
In the primitive days it was the custom for the rations of
flour to be kept in an uncovered cask in the hut. Robberies
would thus be effected. A shirted black fellow would approach,
and smilingly enter upon a jabber with the inmate; all the while
seemingly just fingering the flour, while in reality he was quietly
conveying it by a rapid and clever movement up his sleeve.
The story is told of a certain chief who was rather remorselessly
making free with the contents of a barrel, when he suddenly
gave a yell, and withdrew his arm minus his hand. The shrewd
farmer had planted a strong steel trap in the flour, which had
thus seized upon the thief. Years after this man was one of
those conveyed to Flinders Island. He never liked an allusion
to the playful accident of former years. He was described to
me by a Government officer as always keeping the injured arm
secreted under his blanket or rug, and as looking uncommonly
sulky when asked why he did not eat with that other hand.
112
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
Two sawyers were at work in the Bush, having taken their
arms with them. The musket of one was beside him; the other
had carelessly left it upon a neighbouring log. The watchful
Natives observed this carelessness, and managed, under cover of
the scrub, to reach the place, and draw away the weapon. Its
removal was noticed, and the two men immediately fled. For-
tunately, they were able to retreat in safety under the protection
of the remaining piece. In the height of the terror no single
shepherd, though armed, was allowed to proceed to work. Two
flocks were run together under the two shepherds; or, as it was
often necessary in disturbed places, two shepherds were in
charge of one flock; thus adding to the expense as well as
anxiety of the unhappy sheep-master. Repeatedly has the
owner gone forth to discover his servant murdered, and his sheep
not only scattered but maimed or stolen. Those were not the
royal days of squatterdom.
Such incidents remind one strongly of the struggles of the
American colonists when they encountered the enmity of the
Red Indian. Then the pine forest was cleared by the axe, with
the gun slung over the shoulder. The Blockhouse was the
village fort, to which in times of pressing emergency the inha-
bitants retreated from their malignant foe. Every river, hill,
and township has its traditionary tale of horrors. For awhile,
so imminent was the danger, that hope of permanent settlement
of the country was well-nigh abandoned. There too, as in
Tasmania, the outrages of the Aborigines could be traced in most
cases to the frauds and cruelties practised upon the tribes by
unprincipled Whites. There, too, as in the southern isle, in-
discriminate attack and slaughter followed the perpetration of
crime by the individual. The civilized colonists acted upon the
same principle, and dealt wide blows as a return for the faults
of the few. The Rev. Samuel Waterhouse found the same prac-
tice among the rude and cannibal Fiji islanders. The secret
crime of one man is revenged upon the whole tribe. It was so
among the New Zealanders. The same law existed among the
ancient Israelites, and the English, Scottish, and Irish people.
Even now, in too many instances, is society called upon to
suffer for the misdemeanour of the individual.
The Martial Law produced no result, except that of satisfying
the scruples of some who needed the authority of legality to
DOGS WANTED.
113
urge them to action. The "Black War" was then pursued with
increased energy.
But while the woods echoed with discharges of musketry
against the Natives, many a cry arose from terror-stricken hut-
keepers. On the 13th of March, 1829, a Mr. Miller was return-
ing to his homestead on the east bank of the North Esk, when
he saw Natives on the farm. He ran to his neighbours for help,
and then beheld a scene of horror. One man lay dead twenty
yards from the house, while another was found with dislocated
neck and with eleven spears in his body. Entering, with un-
speakable anxiety, the farmer saw his wife a dreadful object
upon the bed, her brains having been dashed out by a waddy
blow. Sugar, flour, powder, and clothes had been taken away.
Mr. Lloyd has an anecdote of his uncle, one of the settlers,
who had missed a quantity of potatoes from a field. A pursuit
was ordered. They took cudgels, whips, or swords, recovered
one bag of the roots, and captured a black thief. Putting a rope
around his neck, and tugging him well under a tree, as though
intending to hang, the gentleman let him go in considerable
fright, with a wholesome caution.
The Dog Act, requiring a licence for animals, as they had
often proved mischievous to flocks, was at the same time held to
be a sore hardship with men in the Bush. One writing to the
paper, under the signature of "Hedgestake," asks the editor for
counsel under his troubles. To protect his home he got two
dogs, for one of which he had paid one pound, and which had
twice saved his place from attack and flames. But two constables
call, and demand his licence for the faithful brutes. In his
isolated position, and very fear of leaving home in such times of
danger, he had neglected to procure the desired document. At
once, the men of the law shot the dogs, and threatened him with
a fine. Then said the poor fellow, "I am a simple man, Mr.
Editor, but when I am working five or six hundred yards from
my cottage (I dare not be more remote), with my musket beside
me, listening with intense anxiety and dread to every sound, no
longer relying on the baying of my faithful Barkwell, should the
Blacks in consequence succeed in secretly entering my cottage,
and murder my wife and children, will these constables be in
any measure accessory?" Such a catastrophe did occur in one
place. A man, without a dog, had been working on his ground
I
114
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
within sight of his hut, when some Blacks came down the hill
behind, got in at a window, and murdered the wife and child
before the settler knew they were there.
A treacherous act is recorded. An armed man travelling with
his wife was met by some Natives. One of the latter sang out,
White man lay down gun, Black man lay down spear." The
simple fellow agreed. But while one came up smiling to shake
hands, another got behind and felled the Englishman with his
waddy. Spears finished him, and the wife was left for dead.
Mr. Hobbs' two stockmen were attacked by a large mob on York
Plains, on the northern side of the island. For five hours, by
shots and a bold front, they kept the foes at bay. But when the
long grass was fired by the miscreants, and the wind drove
smoke and flame over them, the Bushmen ran for their lives, and
did not obtain assistance till half an hour had passed. These,
and other convict servants, felt it to be a hard case that they
should be thus exposed to continual terror, while protecting the
property of the masters to whom they were assigned as little
better than slaves, and subject to be severely flogged for any
supposed neglect of duty. As one very properly observed, that
on being sentenced to transportation, it was not a part of the
punishment that they were to be exposed to the chance of being
speared by savages.
Within six years, 121 outrages by the Blacks were recorded in
Oatlands (central) district alone. Mr. Anstey, P.M. of Oatlands,
held twenty-one inquests upon murdered persons between 1827
and 1830. I was informed that there were in the Public Office
one thousand pages of MSS. upon these inquests and outrages.
"" ((
In the meantime parties were nominated for the capture of
the Blacks; for the account of which the reader is referred to
the next chapter, a continuance of the Black War. Then we
read in the annals of 1829 such stories as these: "Nine men
taken and three killed, near St. Paul's River; Ten men shot
and two taken near the Eastern Marshes." A letter from Swan-
port, in September 1829, says: "Boomer, the black native,
having struck the sergeant of the detachment to which he was
acting as guide in pursuit of the Aborigines, endeavoured to
escape, and received the reward of his treachery and presump-
tion by being shot dead." But from another letter some
explanation is given. The man Boomer, or Bruni Island Jack,
THE NATIVE AMAZON.
115
complained of the treatment his wife received from the soldiers
of the party; that is, "was actuated by a strong feeling of
jealousy." It is then said that Jack started off from the party,
accompanied by his wife. She was retaken. He scorned their
invitation, and leaped into the Clyde. Corporal Hares fired,
and missed, for the man dived below. But each time the head
reappeared on the surface, a shot was
last fatally successful.
ready. The aim was at
It is very grievous to hear of children suffering. In a valley
among the tiers of the central interior, and not far from Jericho,
lived a farmer named Hooper, with his wife and seven children.
The Blacks, for reasons not explained, waited three days to
catch the man away from his house without his gun. When
helpless, he was surrounded, and killed. The others then pro-
ceeded to the log-hut, and destroyed all its inmates. Another
farmer, residing in one of the most secluded parts of the island,
called "The Den," had gone into his fields to labour, leaving
behind his wife who had recently been delivered of twins.
Looking back, he fancied he saw the door of his place opened
and shut too quickly. He feared the worst, and ran home. He
arrived to find his beloved ones bathed in their blood, by the
spear and waddy wounds they had received.
A woman named Walloa, gin to a chief in the north-west,
became a terrible foe to the Whites. She had been stolen by a
sealer, and learned in the island to use fire-arms. Ultimately
she escaped, and returned to her tribe. Her nature was changed
by her cruel bondage, and her spirit of contradiction and
vehemence made such quarrels among her people, that they
permitted another sealer to have her. Again escaping, she
raised a band of discontented, or heroic spirits, and led them to
every species of outrageous cruelty against the solitary dwellers
of huts. She boasted of her bloody work among the "Black
Snakes," as she termed her European foes.
As some relief to the darker shades of history, let the follow-
ing incident be told. A number of Blacks came to a lonely hut,
and found no one there but a woman. When they were about
to spear her, they were arrested by an aged chief, who noticed
the appearance of approaching maternity, and forbade the
slaughter of the woman for the sake of her unborn child.
There is a narrative given by Mr. McMinn at an inquest in
1
I 2
116
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
1830, relative to an earlier period, which reveals some colonial
practices, and shows the grave obstacles presented in the way of
the civilization of the Natives, and the preservation of peace. He
deposes: "About forty years ago, a mob of twenty men, women,
and children, remained a month, or nearly so, in the Marsh,
about a quarter of a mile from Mr. Anstey's house. They had
bread given them frequently. McGregor, a sawyer, had frequent
intercourse with the gins. He was accused by my fellow-
servant of stealing their sugar to bribe the black men to allow
their gins to return with him. Frank Allen, one of Mr. Anstey's
convict servants, was also suspected, and accused of doing the
same. I believe no complaints were ever made to Mr. Anstey
of their doings. This was the dirtiest, and most diseased body
of Natives I ever saw. They followed a party of Mr. Anstey's
men, and two or three of the Road-men, to the Bush about five
miles off, and robbed the huts of all the blankets and the things
therein belonging to Government and to Mr. Anstey. There
had been no quarrel between these Blacks and the white men."
A characteristic tale of the times has recently been sent to
me by Dr. G. F. Story, of Swanport, an excellent member of
the Society of Friends in Tasmania, whose friendship I formed
twenty-eight years ago in Hobart Town. He had been giving
me an account of some ancient wrongs of the settlers, and
appended this narrative to his letter, obtaining his information
from the daughter of the gentleman who suffered from the
marauding violence of Mosquito's gang, just fifty years ago.
"Having seen to-day," he proceeds," one of Thomas Buxton's
daughters, she has given me a rather different account of the
attack by the Natives at Mayfield. The Natives encamped in
the morning on the other side of the river, and opposite to
Thomas Buxton's hut, built of sods. Some of them came across
to the hut and said that all the party were tame Blacks, not
wild ones, meaning they were all peaceable. At this time the
Natives had learnt to speak English. They asked the Buxtons
to come over to their camp, and have 'a yarn.' After dinner
two of the daughters took the cows to a marsh a quarter of a
mile distant, and from thence saw the Natives showing signs of
warfare. Balawinna, the head of the tribe, a tall, strong man,
nearly six feet high, was marked with the red ochre. They ran
to tell their mother, who immediately called her husband and
ATTACK ON A HOMESTEAD.
117
three other men, who had gone to cut some thatch for a stack of
wheat they had just got together (a small, and their only stack,
for they had been but a short time there). In the meantime
the Natives had crawled up to the hut, and almost stripped it,
taking also two guns, the only ones they possessed. The last
Native was leaving the hut with a loaf of bread when Thomas
Buxton entered, and caught him round the neck, and made him.
drop the loaf. The other men were speared before they could
get to the hut. The Natives having taken the plunder to their
camp, and knowing there were no more guns, came up boldly
again, and one of them was about lighting a stick at a fire that
was outside the hut for cooking. But it happened that a pistol
was put away by one of the daughters, and this having been
loaded T. B. fired at the Black who was going to the fire. Then
the Natives took their wounded man away, and tried to throw
firesticks at the thatch. But T. B., having cut port-holes in the
hut, stationed the children and men at the holes to watch: and
when any approached, the pistol was poked out at the hole.
When night came the Blacks retired up the creek, and made a
fire for the night. T. B. despatched a man to Waterloo Point for
help, and George Meredith, jun. and some men came before
morning. In the morning the Natives came again; and one
with a firestick fixed to his spear came to the hut, and threw it
on the stack of wheat. When those in the hut saw what the
Blacks had done, they rushed out with their guns.
seeing the men with guns, immediately made off.
was saved. At night the fire of the Natives was seen up the
creek, and the party going to it, killed several of the Blacks,
and recovered some of the plunder."
The Natives,
The wheat
Dr. Story's own exprience is related thus: "We commenced
settling at Kelvedon in 1829; Francis Cotton, his family, and
myself living at Waterloo Point, the military station, until a
hut should be built and some land cleared. Three men were
employed in clearing a piece of land for the garden and home-
stead, living in a hut on the creek side. Whilst at breakfast
one morning they observed the bullocks come running to the
hut, as if something had frightened them; but, not thinking of
the Natives, took no further notice of it. [Domestic animals
were terrified at the Blacks.] The men went as usual to their
work, taking with them their guns, and placing them at the butt
118
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS,
of a tree that had fallen, and commenced lopping off the branches
to burn up the trunk. Whilst thus engaged, one of them [Jones]
looked up, and to his dismay saw the Blacks approaching, and
one even handling the guns. He called out to his companions,
threw his axe at a Black that was approaching him, and fled.
Now the piece of land they were working on was thick with
trees. There was a lagoon betwixt it and the sea-beach, and a
creek on either side. On the north side the men's hut stood.
Jones, in running away, received some spears into his body,
which he managed to extract, and crossed the lagoon; as did
also Rogers, who was also speared. The other man, Flack,
jumped over the north creek, and escaped unhurt, though very
much frightened. The Blacks, not liking to cross the lagoon,
had to go round it. Jones got away from them by this means,
but Rogers was followed by one more persevering than the rest
on to the sea-beach, Rogers keeping close to the surf, while the
Black ran alongside, every now and then throwing his waddy
at him. But Rogers, being a London lad, dexterously dodged
his head, and the waddy went into the water. Thus they went
on until, at the end of the beach, the Black became exhausted
and gave up the pursuit. Jones by this time had got some dis-
tance on his road to Waterloo Point, when he met his master
coming as usual to see after the workmen; and addressed him
with, 'Oh, Master! make haste and get back! The Blacks are
after us. They have killed Rogers.' Francis Cotton immediately
turned, and reported it to the Commandant, and the military and
constables were sent to the spot. But although I was with the
sergeant, the first to arrive, there was not a trace of them could
be seen. They had stripped the hut of everything, and taken
away two kangaroo dogs. One of these dogs returned after two
or three days, badly wounded with spears. The other we sup-
posed they had kept, as he was of a milder disposition. However
it may have been, we never saw him again. The two men were
ill some time with their wounds.
"The inhabitants were kept in constant alarm by the repeated
attacks of the Blacks, which called forth the sympathies of the
Lieutenant-Governor, Colonel Arthur, yet no means could be
devised to rid the country of such a fearful scourge. They had
a great antipathy to the Redcoats; and no soldier, when sent on
escort, or other duty, was allowed to go alone, never less than
FRIGHTENED TO DEATII.
119
two were sent together. For the protection of the inhabitants
several stations were formed, where two or more soldiers were
placed. A soldier at one of these stations, called Boomer Creek,
was sitting amongst some young wattles, peeling the twigs for a
bird cage, when the Natives stole upon and beat him to death
with their waddies. Two sawyers were at work on their pit
near Mayfield House, when the Blacks came upon them. They,
however, escaped to the house; but one was so terrified that he
fell into a fever, and died. So great a terror did they strike into
the Europeans, that, notwithstanding their physical superiority,
they were unable, through fear, to defend themselves."
One of the most charming retreats known to me in Tasmania
is on the banks of the Clyde. Mr. Glover, the distinguished
artist, has left us some sketches of this romantic part of the in-
terior. Twelve years before my visit to the beautiful home of
Mr. Sherwin, the Natives had attacked the homestead of that
gentleman. The outbuildings, and even the house itself, were
fired by the tribe. While the farm-servants were busy in moving
the flour from the burning store, the shrewd Blacks set fire to a
neighbouring fence, by way of distracting the attention of the
servants, and giving themselves easier access to the great object
of attack, the flour-bag. As usual, they did not remain to
fight. They fired the premises, less as a measure of offence,
than as a means of securing plunder. This partially secured,
the band hastily retreated to the forest, and the unhappy settler
mourned the loss of his property.
So bold an outrage excited the fears of the colonists, and in-
creased that sense of insecurity which troubled every Bush
household. The pen of the ready writer, the Governor, was
instantly put in motion, and the following Order appeared in
the Gazette, February 25th, 1830. After a detail of the circum-
stances on the Clyde, His Excellency assured his people that
such outrages
"Demand simultaneous and energetic proceeding on the part of
the settlers, who, it is to be regretted, have hitherto been too indifferent
to the adoption of those obvious measures of protection, which are
more or less within the means of almost every individual.
"The parties employed in aid of the police will be augmented, and
in order to stimulate them to increased activity the Lieutenant-Governor
has directed that a reward of five pounds shall be given for every
120
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
adult aboriginal native, and two pounds for every child, who shall be
captured and delivered at any of the Police Stations.
'It surely is not too much to expect, that in every district the most
respectable inhabitants will forthwith confer together upon the measures
most desirable for their common security, and that they will act up to
them with vigour and perseverance.
"His Excellency will, within a limited period, make a tour through
the districts, to ascertain personally the individual effort which is made
to give full effect to the measures which he now expects to be univer-
sally adopted.
"The repeated orders which have been put forth by this Government
must convey the idea out of the colony that there exists a horde of
savages in Van Diemen's Land, whose prowess is equal to their re-
vengeful feelings, whereas every settler must be conscious that his foe
consists of an inconsiderable number of a very feeble race, not possess-
ing physical strength, and quite undistinguishable by personal courage,
but who are undoubtedly more and more formidable from the success
which has hitherto attended their unexpected and sudden attacks upon
unarmed persons, almost defenceless.
"The Lieutenant-Governor feels assured that it is not necessary to
repeat the strong injunction which the Government has invariably
pressed upon the community generally, as well as upon the parties
employed, more particularly, that every degree of humanity should be
exercised toward the aboriginal natives, which is consistent with the
overruling necessity of expelling them from the settled districts.
"By His Excellency's command,
"J. BURNETT."
The murder of Captain Thomas and his overseer, Mr. Parker,
excited much interest in 1831. Captain Thomas was agent for
the Van Diemen's Land Company's Establishment, and was well
known to the Port Sorell tribe of his neighbourhood. The
bodies of both gentlemen were found about a fortnight after they
had been speared to death. The jury, at the inquest, returned
this verdict: "We find that Bartholomew Boyle, Thomas and
James Parker have been treacherously murdered by the three
black Natives now in custody, aided and assisted by the residue
of the tribe to which they belonged, known by the name of the
Big River tribe, during the most friendly intercourse, whilst en-
deavouring to carry into effect the conciliatory measures recom-
mended by the Government." The only evidence procured was
that of a native woman, who professed to have been present at
the murder.
BRAVERY OF A HALF-CASTE WIFE.
121
There was much mystery in the case. Mr. McGeary, the best
linguist among the roving parties after the Aborigines, protested
that the crime was never committed by the three men, but by
some of the supposed friendly Sorell tribe on the occasion of a
quarrel. A letter from Launceston appeared in the paper of
September 14th, giving the story of a native woman. She stated
that both were armed, and were accompanied by some decoy
females, for the capture of some Blacks. The rest is told in her
own words: "White man and black man fight-white man kill
black man-black man kill white man." Strange to say, the
three supposed murderers were merely sent to Flinders Island,
where they roamed freely with the other Aborigines.
One of the most stirring incidents in the history of the war is
given in an official communication to the Colonial Secretary,
dated August 25th, 1831, by Captain Moriarty, so well known
and respected afterwards in the port of Hobart Town. It nar-
rates the circumstances attending an attack upon an isolated
homestead, and exhibits the heroism of a half-caste, Dalrymple
Briggs. She was so named from being born at Port Dalrymple,
and was the first of her race on the northern side. She had
married a settler in the interior, and, in her contention with the
Natives, forgot the blood of her own race, in her feelings as a
wife and a mother. For six long hours did she sustain a siege,
and nobly did she defend her position. It is customary for the
historian to describe the strength of the beleaguered place, when
detailing a succession of assaults. Our heroine fought behind
no granite wall, nor was she shielded by a bomb-proof roof.
Her castle was a simple slab hut; though the bark roof, fortu-
nately for her, had been covered with a thick coating of mud
and lime to keep out the weather. The story will be better told
in the Captain's words:
'There was no person in the hut, when the Natives first ap-
peared, but a woman named Dalrymple Briggs, with her two
female children, who, hearing some little noise outside, sent the
elder child to see what was the matter, and hearing her shriek
went out with a musket. On reaching the door, she found the
poor child had been speared. The spear entered close up in the
inner part of the thigh, and had been driven so far through as
to create a momentary difficulty in securing the child from its
catching against either door-post. Having effected this object,
122
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
she barricaded the door and windows, and availed herself of
every opportunity to fire at the assailants, but-as they kept
very close either to the chimney, or the stumps around the hut,
and she had nothing but duck shot-with little effect, though she
imagines she hit one of them. Their plan was evidently to pull
down the chimney, and thus effect an entrance; but they were
intimidated by her resolution. Finding this fail, they went off,
and returned in about an hour. This interval had been employed
by them in procuring materials and forming faggots, which, on
their return, they kept lighting and throwing on the roof (to
windward), with a view to burn her out. She, however, shook
them off as fast as they threw them on, and maintained her
position with admirable composure, till the return of Thomas
Johnson, the stock-keeper, pointed out to them the necessity of
a retreat."
So noble a defence called forth the warmest expressions of
applause. The Governor was not the last to acknowledge her
heroic conduct.
There is a story told, in connexion with the early American
settlements, of a man whose house had been attacked by Indians
during his absence, and who returned to find the ghastly remains
of his wife and children amidst the smouldering embers of his
hut. It was said that the man there and then solemnly devoted
the rest of his life to revenge. Alone, he followed the trail of the
savages. In silence he pursued the murderers of his family.
Feverish with excitement, worn by fatigue, ill through exposure,
he still went on, year after year, dealing a sure but stealthy
blow upon any of the copper-coloured tribes. All attempts to
divert his purpose were unavailing. He visited the settlements
but to gain a fresh supply of ammunition. He said nothing of
his exploits, though the Border rang with his deeds; and the
Indians whispered low, as they spoke of the White-hairs sheltered
by the Manitou from their scalping-knives. Something similar
might be told of some in Van Diemen's Land, who had lost
kindred by attack, and who, vowing vengeance against the whole
race of Natives, were unsatiated by slaughter, and unrelenting
in revenge.
One of the fortunate few who escaped from Macquarie Harbour,
and eventually reached an asylum in the Backwoods of America,
tells us in his autobiography of a desperate struggle with the
LAUGHTER SAVES A LIFE.
123
Natives in 1826. He was engaged as one of the convict crew of
a small coaster, carrying round a party of ladies and gentlemen
to the east coast. Landing for the night on East Bay Neck, a
notable place for depredations at that period, he heard the
stealthy approach of the bloodthirsty tribe, when his companions
were asleep. Arousing the crew, and putting them upon their
guard, he permitted the band of some forty marauders to near
the fire, when, at a signal from him, a general discharge of
muskets took place, which strewed the ground with dead and
dying. Dreading a renewal of the attack, the gentlemen proceeded
to spread themselves among the trees of the forest, and kept up
an irregular fire to distract the attention of their enemies.
Despatched upon a mission to the tent, wherein the ladies were
staying for the night, the narrator of the story narrowly escaped
a spear thrown at his crouching form. Fearful of exciting un-
necessary alarm by firing at his adversary, he secreted himself
till he came nearer. The attack is thus described: "I waited till
he was within arm's length of me. In an instant our eyes met—
his spear was uplifted. Another moment brought me to my feet,
the tomahawk grasped firmly in my right hand. His look, as
far as I could ascertain, was wild and ferocious, but I stood calm
and collected. His eyes gave no evidence of fear, for they ap-
peared like balls of fire. His raised spear descended first, but,
happily for me, its point struck the steel buckle of my belt,
opposite my breast. In the next instant, the tomahawk whirled
round his head, and fell with a force which a head thicker than
that of a savage could not resist, and, without a sigh, he fell
dead to the ground."
It was lucky for one poor fellow that the Natives enjoy a
sense of the ridiculous. A shepherd of Jerusalem-which lies
in a carboniferous region, with the greenstone covering the coal,
and not far from Jericho and the River Jordan-being oppressed
with the indolence of his occupation, and the heat of the day,
placed his gun against a tree and fell asleep. Some Blacks came
softly round, took away the weapon, and, with a loud simulta-
neous shout, startled the Bushman from his dreams. He jumped
up in a great fright, saw the Natives around, missed his gun, and
stared in such indescribable confusion, that the risible faculties
of the robbers were much excited; and so, after a hearty laugh
at their intended victim, they permitted him to leave in safety.
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THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
In one of the most charming spots of Bagdad-the seat of an
ancient overflow of basalt on the paleozoic floor, and, therefore,
a fertile district now-was a farm belonging to Mr. Espie. One
day the tribe attacked the overseer, a man of energy and tact.
Quickly closing the door, and shouting loudly, he brought down
one marauder with a shot. Then through holes in the slab sides
of the hut he continued to fire, calling out in simulated voices, as
if several were with him, and more than once letting part of his
body be seen with a changed coat or cap, to impress the enemy
with a sense of his strength of support. The ruse succeeded, and⚫
the discomfited warriors departed. Waiting a while, he opened
his door, and saw the coast clear. He picked up the dead body
which was left, and stuck it up in the hollow of a tree, with a
spear in the chin to keep it upright. Years after, when Mr.
Robinson was bringing some of his voluntary captives to the
town, the skeleton in its hideous position was observed, and the
leader, to the great satisfaction of his wild followers, took it
down, and decently buried it. The disappointed foes, on leaving
the overseer, had set fire to a store-hut on the farm, and destroyed
a ton of flour, a thousand skins, and a quantity of butter.
Old George, whom I saw at Casterton, on the beautiful banks
of the Glenelg of Victoria, is my informant for a story. In 1821
the Blacks in his neighbourhood, beyond the Norfolk Plains of
the expatriated Norfolk Islanders, were very quiet and harmless.
But a new overseer arriving at the station, a pretty gin was
demanded. The chief, her husband, expostulated with the
Englishman, but was brutally knocked down with the butt-end
of a musket, and the tribe were forcibly driven off. "From that
time," said George, "they became regular tigers, and speared
right and left.”
Three soldiers went out from their station at Fingal to spend
the day kangarooing. They had only their dogs with them.
Engaged in their sport, they all at once beheld an armed tribe
stealthily surrounding them. Off they started, terror lending
wings to flight, hotly pursued by the yelling spearsmen, who
gave them a twelve miles' chase to their barracks.
Plunder was the primary object of attack. But many a hut
was stripped by convict servants and others, and the offence
charged upon the Aborigines. Mr. John Batman relates several
instances of unfounded accusations. A letter from Ben Lomond,
CHASTITY OF WHITE WOMEN RESPECTED.
125
also, says: "The report in the Colonial Times respecting the Natives
plundering Mr. Bostock's shepherd is entirely false; and I am
sorry to say similar falsehoods are daily spread, which oftentimes
leads the parties astray who are in pursuit of the Blacks. Not a
Black has been seen in these parts for two months past.”
An old settler of the interior once told me that he had been
confined to his bed with a splinter in his foot. Hearing Natives
coo-ey, he sent a lad to reconnoitre, with injunctions to return,
and not to call out. The lad was terrified, and hid himself. John-
• stone got up, and looked out upon the advancing party. For-
getting his lameness, he rushed out and ran four miles off to
Salt Pan Plains to where a shepherd kept a flock. The splinter
came up through his foot with the violence of his running, but
without his consciousness. Another informed me that he
escaped through wearing an old shirt. His hut had been fired,
and, as he tried to escape, he was seized by his shirt sleeve.
The piece gave away, and he managed to get clear off.
A fine hill rises suddenly from the plain at the junction of
the Blackman and Macquarie rivers, and goes by the name of
Don's Battery. A man, called Don, being chased by some
Natives, reached this rampart, and from its top defended himself
for hours with such courage and success, that the wearied
attacking mob left him the victor.
The most remarkable circumstance connected with the Black
War is this, that, though the native women had been so cruelly
treated by the Whites, the male Aborigines, though ready to
inflict death by the spear, singularly enough abstained from
outrages upon the persons of our females. A good authority has
distinctly stated, "In all the incursions made by the Blacks into
the settlements, it has never been known that a single white woman
has been violated by any of them." The only approach to this
crime has been made by the half-civilized Natives, who in-
variably became the greatest ruffians in the war. It would
seem that not until they became acquainted with the usages
of Christians in warfare, could they be guilty of the atrocities
that have stained the arms of Europe even in Christian lands
themselves. The horrors of the Peninsular and Thirty Years'
wars were heightened by this dreadful addition to the sufferings
of women.
Spear-wounds, inflicted by a sharpened point of wood, were
126
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
far from being so severe as others, and in most cases, when not
mortal, rapidly healed. The stick could be often withdrawn
without the fatal consequences of the removal of the javelin
from the breast of Epaminondas. Marvellous stories are given
of the recovery of men left for dead, when transfixed by several
spears. A Mrs. Cunningham was in her garden when a spear
was thrown at her, which pierced her back. Catching up her
child, she fled towards the house, but received another spear.
A native came up and struck her down with a blow of his
waddy, just as another spear was thrust into her body. She.
drew herself over her child, and in her senseless state had other
spears thrust into her before the people left her for dead. Re-
covering consciousness, she was able to drag herself and her
child to the house of a neighbour, and lived till the next
morning.
Near the banks of the classic Isis, and within view of the snow-
clad Ben Lomond, stood Elenthorpe Hall, the Ladies' Boarding
School of the period, and conducted by Mr. and Mrs. G. C.
Clark. Being situated in a lonely place, about half-way from
Hobart Town to Launceston, some alarm was experienced by
parents at a distance, lest their daughters should be forcibly
carried off by the Bush warriors. As a means of protection, a
military station was formed in its neighbourhood, so that Venus
could be shielded by Mars.
When I stood at the head of the Jordan, near Jericho, which
was then particularly infested with thieves,-for a probation
party of several hundreds then occupied a position in that
bleak retreat,—I heard a series of bloody tales from Mr. Salmon
of that district. It was there, near Lemon's Lagoon, so called
from a celebrated Bushranger, that Mrs. Gough, her child, and
Ann Geary were killed. The Quoin and the lofty Table Moun-
tain there were favourite haunts of the Natives, from which
they made their descents upon stray colonists. A poor Jew lad
had been betrayed into some liaison with a gin there, and
was subsequently killed by the men. When his corpse was
recovered, it was found horribly mutilated by the jealous people
of the tribe; a portion of the body being found thrust into
the mouth of the corpse. It was at no great distance that
Mr. Jones, concerning whom a previous narrative has been
given, became the subject of another attack, which is thus
COURAGE OF A LITTLE GIRL.
127
described by himself at the inquest before Mr. Anstey, P.M. of
Oatlands :-
"In November, 1826, I was attacked by a numerous tribe
of Aborigines at my residence at Pleasant Place, in the parish
of Rutland, in the county of Monmouth. On Thursday evening
I left my wife and family at home, proceeding myself in search
of some sheep, and returned about ten o'clock of the forenoon.
I had scarcely entered my dwelling when my little boy came in
crying that the Blacks were about; I seized my musket and
. went out, and saw two. I pursued them; when I got half-way
to the tier, I saw about twenty Natives in ambush amongst some
wattle trees. My wife was at the time standing at my door,
with a loaded pistol in her hand, and called to me to come
down, which I did. The Natives followed, swearing at me in
good English. They now extended themselves, and as the trees
were at that time standing close to the house, they singly
skulked behind them. I was on the alert, for I observed
one man on one side, and another one on the other side, with
lighted bark in their hands; the women and children were up in
the tier. I was much perplexed, for I was obliged constantly to
run forwards and backwards. The centre of them worked down
when they saw an opportunity.
"It had been a high flood the day before, and the water had
scarcely left the marshes, so we were hemmed in on all sides,
the river behind and the Blacks before us. Mrs. Jones had
several times prevented the men from coming to the house by
presenting her pistol at them, which so exasperated them that
he who was taller than the rest, and seemed to be their chief,
exclaimed in a great passion, in English, As for you, ma-am
as for you, ma-am, I will put you in the by river, ma-am;'
and then he cut a number of capers. We had then with us a
courageous and faithful little girl, who proposed to go upon a
scrubby hill, about a mile distant, to tell the sawyers who were
at work there, the dangers to which we were exposed; but we
could not allow it, fearing she would be speared; it appeared
afterwards that she had crawled along the fences, and succeeded
in getting up to the sawyers. Guessing that she had proceeded
thither, in about half an hour after we coo-eed, and were speedily
answered by the men. The native women on the tier gave out
signal, and the Blacks all fled. We pursued them, and I got
128
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
very close to one, when he stooped under the boughs of a fallen
tree, and I could see no more of him. We came up to a spot
where we found a fire, with some kangaroo half roasted. We
then observed the Blacks ascending the second tier, and we
quitted further pursuit, as it would not have been safe to leave
the house and family unprotected. This engagement with the
Natives lasted about four hours."
It must, however, be borne in mind, that a Guerilla warfare,
which was dignified in Spain against the French, heroic against
the Persians in Greece, and patriotic in the Tyrolese against ·
Napoleon, was regarded in Van Diemen's Land as the blind fury
of a nest of savages. Not so thought an old convict servant-man
of mine, who, speaking of the bold deeds of the Ouse tribe, said,
"They fought well. I admire their pluck. They knew they
were the weaker, but they felt they were the injured, and they
sought revenge against many odds. They were brave fellows.
I'd have done the same." One tribe, that was once known to
possess three hundred fighting men, was reduced in ten years to
twenty-two.
There was little quarter on either side. The old writer
Underhill, meeting the objections of timid or gentle persons
against the Indian warfare, answers thus: "It may be demanded,
Why should you be so furious? Should not Christians have
more mercy and compassion? But I would refer you to David's
war. When a people is grown to such a height of blood, and
sins against God and man, and all confederates in the action,
then he hath no respect to persons, but harrows them and saws
them, and puts them to the sword, and the most terrible death
that may be."
But we must really acquit the rough, convict Bushmen of
Van Diemen's Land of being influenced by any of the pious
sentiments governing the opinions, and hardening the hearts, of
these citers of Old Testament history.
A Dutch historian of New Amsterdam, afterwards the New
York of the United States, explains a colonial native difficulty:
“In 1642, some Dutch traders, having sagaciously contrived to
get an Indian drunk, robbed him of his valuable dress of beaver
skins. In vengeance for this injury, the warriors killed two white
men." A barbarous war was the result. But some hundreds
fled to a tribe near the settlement of New Amsterdam. The
TIME OF TERROR.
129
governor, Kieft, would not rest. "A band of soldiers and
colonists was despatched on the horrid errand: the unsuspecting
savages were surprised in their sleep, and more than one hundred
of them were massacred in cold blood. The Indians living on
the Hudson rose to revenge this cruel treachery, and were joined
by the tribes of Long Island. A confederacy of eleven clans,
numbering more than fifteen hundred warriors, was formed, and
a furious war blazed wherever a Dutch settlement was to be
found."
A little substitution of names would make this the record of
the "Black War" of Van Diemen's Land.
The year 1831 presented appalling scenes before the colonists.
Outrages were still in the ascendant. The exasperated Aborigines
saw no hope before them, and seemed resolved to die as warriors
that, in defending their land, were resolved to do the enemy as
much mischief as possible. They seemed ubiquitous, from the
rapidity of their march. The sky was illuminated by fires in
various quarters. Spears were thrown here and there with
such terrible energy, as apparently to multiply the forces of the
Natives, and keep the country settlers in constant and harass-
ing watchfulness. About one hundred and fifty men alone were
sufficient to excite such alarm in the breasts of the members
of a flourishing British colony.
The time of terror was well described to me by a colonist, who
bore a trying part in the events of that period: "Thus they
continued menacing the settlers," wrote he, "and murdering
those that were found alone and unprotected; so that it was
unsafe for a person to travel alone and without a gun, and the
mind had to be made up beforehand as to which was the nearest
house to run to, in case he was beset by the Blacks. He must
not fire his gun, but keep them at bay by pointing it at them,
for they had learnt that what they thought would go 'Pop, pop,
pop,' would only pop once; and this being over, they would
rush upon the unfortunate, and soon despatch him with their
spears and waddies."
A similar state of fear among the North American settlers is
related by Washington Irving, in these words: "It was a
sleepless night in Winchester. Horror increased with the dawn:
before the men could be paraded, a second messenger arrived,
ten times more terrified than the former. The Indians were
K
130
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
within four miles of the town, killing and destroying all before
them. He had heard the constant firing of the savages, and the
shrieks of their victims. The terror of Winchester now passed
all bounds. Washington put himself at the head of about forty
men, militia and recruits, and pushed for the scene of carnage.
The result is almost too ludicrous for record. The whole cause
of the alarm proved to be three drunken troopers, carousing,
hallooing, uttering the most unheard of imprecations, and ever
and anon firing off their pistols. The reported attack on the
house of Isaac Julian proved equally an absurd exaggeration.
The ferocious party of Indians turned out to be a Mulatto and a
Negro in quest of cattle. They had been seen by a child of
Julian, who alarmed his father, who alarmed the neighbour-
hood."
But while several of the alarms of the settlers of Van Diemen's
Land were quite as senseless and ridiculous, there were real
occasions for anxiety. The travelling postman in the month of
November was met by five Natives, who sent a spear through his
jacket. Bother Tom's hut was attacked in Bother Tom's Marsh,
and a man speared while feeding pigs. On the 8th of June, a
number robbed a hut on the Macquarie, wounded a woman, and
beat to death a young woman of sixteen years, who was carrying a
child at her breast. Fifty confronted four stout stock-keepers near
Lake Echo, but had to fly off with decreased force. A shepherd,
when milking a cow, had his head broken by waddies. One
person recommended settlers to raise a parapet on their walls,
behind which they could fire. Another suggested an improve-
ment on this scheme,-that each house should have a trap-door
in the roof, so that the females might thence escape to the top.
There was reasonable cause for uneasiness in the minds of
out-station settlers. One, writing from the Shannon, March 8,
1831, says: "The whole of the inhabitants of this district have
been thrown into the greatest alarm, in consequence of the
repeated incursions of the aboriginal tribes. Neither barn nor
dwelling-house is safe from their attacks. No person dare go
any distance from his home without arms and his faithful com-
panion the dog, the latter to give notice of the approach of the
savages."
CHAPTER V.
THE LINE.
THE Line, the most formidable part of the Black War, was
formed towards the close of 1830. It was not like the cele-
brated Thin Red Line of the Crimea, seen and seeing all the
way, but a cordon of more unequal character, to drive the
Aborigines into a corner of Tasmania.
History is not without parallels of a Line operation. A levy
en masse for a similar purpose took place in Governor Mac-
quarie's time. The Natives of New South Wales had been very
troublesome; and, in 1816, General Macquarie summoned the
colonists, with all available military and constabulary, and drove
the Blacks before him beyond the Blue Mountains, with great
slaughter. This may have suggested to the authorities of Van
Diemen's Land the scheme eventually adopted there.
As has been stated, a remarkably hopeful Government paper
appeared in August 1830, which urged the colonists not to
hurt the well-disposed Natives, but rather give them a dinner,
with smiles, and let them depart with a blessing. A recon-
sideration of the subject, after loud complaints of his people,
induced Colonel Arthur to qualify his statement, and quiet the
surges of public opinion. This produced Government Order
166, Aug. 27th, 1830-
The Lieut.-Governor has learned that the intention of the
Government in issuing the notices Nos. 160 and 161, which ap-
peared in the Gazette of last week, has been misinterpreted by
some of the inhabitants of the districts in which the Natives
have shown the most decided hostility.
"C
A friendly disposition having been slightly manifested by a
tribe which had been hostile, His Excellency anxiously availed
himself of the occasion to repeat the injunctions which have
been uniformly expressed in the Orders and Instructions of the
K 2
132
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
Government, that the measures which are indispensable for the
defence and protection of the settlers should be tempered with
humanity, and that no measure of conciliation should be spared;
but it was not intended to relax the most strenuous exertions to
repel and to drive from the settled country those Natives who
seize every occasion to perpetrate murders, and to plunder and
destroy the property of the inhabitants."
The closing paragraph runs thus:-
"Any wanton attack against the inoffensive tribes in the west
and south-west districts of the colony, or against the tribe inha-.
biting the adjacent islands, or against any Aborigines who
manifest a disposition to conciliate and to surrender themselves,
will undoubtedly be rigorously prosecuted; but it is not ex-
pected, much less required, that the settlers are calmly to wait
in their dwellings to sustain the repeated and continued attacks
of the tribes who are manifesting such a rancorous and bar-
barous disposition as has characterised their late proceedings;-
they are by every possible means to be captured or driven beyond
the settled district."
No one can fail to be convinced of the genuine benevolence of
the Governor's character. With all his strength of will, or the
assumed despotism of disposition, there was the power of kind-
ness. Toward the feeble and distressed he ever exhibited gen-
tleness, and even affection. Sensible of the hostility of the
Natives, he sought sincerely and persistently to avert their de-
struction. He could not have been indifferent to that "resistless
fate" which seemed overhanging the future of the tribes, nor
regardless of European opinion and the judgment of posterity
upon his own part in the final catastrophe. When, however, the
trumpet-tongued appeals of the colony called for more decided
action, he came forth to do all that a Governor could do for the
relief of his subjects.
After much discussion, it was determined to depend no longer
upon the feeble operations of the Roving Parties, the Five
Pounds' Catchers, as they were called,-but to make a more de-
cided impression upon the enemy in extensive and simultaneous
action, by which they might achieve wholesale captures; for, of
course, no allusion could be made to the possible destruction of
many. The plan proposed was, to station the military in certain
centres of the settled districts, and to call upon the people to
VOLUNTEERS WANTED.
133
volunteer their help in connecting themselves with any com-
mander of these military parties they preferred. A charge was
to be simultaneously made from these various foci of strength on
the 7th of October, "one great and engrossing pursuit." No
special rewards were offered, but sufficient inducements were
hinted at by a Government known to possess the means to
bestow prizes. This was not intended as a Line proceeding,
though the forerunner of that military movement.
The Government Order calling for volunteers was issued from
the Colonial Secretary's Office, September 9th, 1830.
GOVERNMENT ORDER.
"COLONIAL SECRETARY'S OFFICE,
Sept. 9th, 1830.
"The Lieutenant-Governor has considered with anxious interest the
numerous representations of the settlers, expressive of their alarm, at
the increasing boldness of the Natives, and of the danger in which
their lives and property will be placed, unless additional protection be
speedily afforded by the Government.
"2. But it is in vain to expect that the country can be freed from
the incursions of the savage tribes which now infest it, unless the
settlers themselves come forward, and zealously unite their best
energies with those of the Government in making such a general and
simultaneous effort as the occasion demands. The Lieutenant-Governor,
therefore, calls upon every settler, whether residing on his farm or in a
town, who is not prevented by some over-ruling necessity, cheerfully
to render his assistance, and to place himself under the direction of
the police magistrate of the district in which his farm is situated, or
any other magistrate whom he may prefer; and His Excellency is
convinced, that on an occasion so important, a sufficiently numerous
volunteer force will thus be raised, that, in combination with the
whole disposable strength of the military and police, and by one
cordial and determined effort, will afford a good prospect of either
capturing the whole of the hostile tribes, or of permanently expelling
them from the settled districts.
"3. In making this call upon the inhabitants of the colony at large,
the Lieutenant-Governor trusts, that whosoever embarks in the service
will do so zealously and firmly, and that he will devote his whole
mind and energies exclusively to insure its success. For as services
of this kind have on some former occasions been greatly perverted,
His Excellency is desirous of cautioning all those who feel the neces-
sity of coming forward on the present occasion, that it is not a matter
134
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
of amusement or recreation, but a cause of the most important and
serious kind, in which the lives and property of the whole community
are more or less at stake.
"4. The utmost disposable military force will be stationed in a few
days at those points in the interior which are most exposed to attack,
or in which the Natives are most likely to be encountered. The whole
force on the north side of the island is confided to the immediate
charge of Captain Donaldson, who has already given the inhabitants
of that part of the colony good reason to trust in the zeal and activity
of the 57th Regiment. The force in the centre of the island, extend-
ing from Ross, north-east of St. Patrick's Head, and north-west to
Auburn and the Lake River, is under the immediate direction of
Captain Wellman, 57th Regiment. The force in the Bothwell district,
extending north-west to the Lakes, and south to Hamilton township,
is under the immediate orders of Captain Wentworth, 63rd Regiment.
The force in the Lower Clyde, extending from Hamilton township,
south-east to New Norfolk, is under the charge of Captain Vicary,
63rd Regiment. The force stationed at the Cross Marsh, and the confines
of the Oatlands, Richmond, and Bothwell districts, is under the im-
mediate orders of Captain Mahon, 63rd Regiment. The force in the
district of Richmond, extending north to Jerusalem, north-east to
Prosser's Plains, and east to the coast, is under the orders of Lieutenant
Barrow, 63rd Regiment. The force in the district of Oyster Bay, ex-
tending south to Little Swan Port, north to the head of Swan River,
and west to the Eastern Marshes, is under the orders of Lieutenant
Aubin, 63rd Regiment; and, in order to give unity and vigour to the
measures of the Government, the direction of the whole of the com-
bined force thus employed, is confided to the charge of Major Douglas,
63rd Regiment, who is stationed at Oatlands, as the most central point
of communication.
"5. The stations and residences of the several police magistrates are
already well known, and with this general information no individual
can be at a loss to decide to what party he will attach himself, so as
to give the most effectual aid to the common cause.
6. Any volunteer parties from Hobart Town will render the most
essential service by joining the force in the district of New Norfolk,
or the Clyde, or Richmond-those from Launceston, by strengthening
the police to the westward of Norfolk Plains, or on the west bank of
the Tamar, or in the country extending from Ben Lomond to George
Town;
while still more desirable service will be given by any parties
who will ascend to the parts round the Lakes and Western Bluff, so
as to intercept the Natives if driven into that part of the country;
and any enterprising young men, who may have been accustomed to
make incursions in the interior, and to endure the fatigues of the Bush,
WAR ON ALL SIDES AT ONCE.
135
will most beneficially promote the common cause by joining the small
military parties at the out-stations, and in making patrol expeditions
with them, and the services of all such will be readily accepted by the
military officers in command of the several stations.
"7. To give time for the necessary arrangements, and to meet to the
utmost the convenience of the community, His Excellency directs,
that the general movement shall commence on Thursday, the 7th of
October next; and in the meantime, every settler is enjoined to state
to the police magistrate of his district, the number of men he can
furnish properly equipped for the service, who will cheerfully conform
to whatever instructions they may receive.
"8. The present roving parties will be augmented to the greatest
possible extent; for which purpose, all the prisoners holding ticket-
of-leave who are capable of bearing arms, are required to report them-
selves to the police magistrate of the district in which they reside, in
order that they may be enrolled, either in the regular roving parties,
or otherwise employed in the public service, under the instructions of
their respective employers.
"9. The Surveyor-General will immediately issue orders to all the
officers of his department, directing them to confer with the police
magistrates and military officers of the districts in which they are
employed, to impart generally every species of local and useful infor-
mation, and to co-operate with their utmost zeal to give the best effect
in their power to the measures of the Government.
'10. Though the native tribes of this island are well known to be,
with few exceptions, extremely timid, flying with precipitation at the
appearance of two or three armed persons, yet the numerous attacks
they have made on defenceless habitations, and the cruel murders they
have committed with impunity on the white population, have had the
effect of rendering them daily more bold and crafty, until at last
they have become so formidable, that the strongest possible united
effort of the community is imperiously called upon to come forward
and subdue them. All minor objects must for a time give way to
this one great and engrossing pursuit; and as the combined forces
of the volunteers, the military, and the police will be sufficiently
numerous, almost immediately to ensure the perfect safety of a large
portion of the interior, though every master of a family will be careful
that the females and other defenceless inmates are nevertheless suffi-
ciently protected in case of alarm, yet, at this season, between seed-
time and harvest, every one will be able to contribute a certain number
from his establishment, in order to increase the strength of the effective
parties.
"11. Should success crown the contemplated measures, the Lieu-
tenant-Governor earnestly enjoins, that the utmost tenderness and
136
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
humanity may be manifested towards whatever Natives may be cap-
tured, and, when in custody, that they may be dealt with as beings
who have been deprived of the blessings of civilization, and have
been actuated in their hostile attacks by a distressing misconception
of the amicable disposition entertained towards them by the white
population.
"12. On an occasion of this general nature, no individual is to expect
any specific reward; but His Excellency hopes it is now well under-
stood in the colony, that a service rendered to the public is never
overlooked or forgotten by the Colonial Government.
"By His Excellency's command,
"J. BURNETT."
The Colonists were pleased with the decision of the Govern-
ment. The Hobart Town Courier, of September 11, already
saw, “by anticipation, crowds of these poor, benighted creatures
marched into town." The editor sagely recommends the volun-
teers and military to seize upon the women and children,
and then the men would surrender themselves. Perhaps he
half fancied that the native males would place the tender ones
in front, as the Persians did with the cats against the Egyptians.
It was, however, admitted that at least thirty, that had been pre-
viously caught and well initiated in all our excellent English
customs, were then with their Bush countrymen, and taking the
lead by reason of their superior enlightenment.
But before the invitations of Colonel Arthur could be issued, a
change in the arrangements occurred. The press and others had
contended that it would be comparatively useless to have the
war made at so many points, affording opportunities for the
Natives, and by their superior Bush craft, to pass between the
forces hither and thither, and so keep the colony in constant
terror. Still, the inhabitants were anxious to co-operate with
their rulers in any project offering relief.
A public meeting took place on September 22d, in the Court
of Requests Room, ostensibly to make arrangements for the
formation of a town-guard. The chairman of that court,
J. Horne, Esq., brother of the celebrated English writer of that
name, was requested to preside. The old gentleman has more
than once told me his tale of the past. Anthony Fenn Kemp,
Esq., one of the earliest officers in the colony, gave the audience
OBJECTIONS TO THE LINE MOVEMENT.
137
some particulars of the first attack, at Risdon, in 1804. Mr.
Gellibrand, attorney, admonished the colonists not to shoot any
Aborigines when they should be flying before them. Mr. Hackett
doubted the ability of the dark race to know the wishes of
Government, as not five white persons could speak their
language.
The first resolution passed declared it the duty of every man
cheerfully to contribute to the common cause every assistance in
his power. The second suggested the means; that of personal
• service in the field, or performing the duties of the military
during the absence of the latter from town. The third pledged
the meeting to five weeks' service in the capital, dated from the
2d of October. The fourth urged the propriety of the inha-
bitants selecting their own particular scene of duty, and the
election of their officers. The last resolution was concerning the
nomination of fifteen persons to form a committee, six of whom
were to wait upon the Governor. Two dozen gentlemen, how-
ever, volunteered to take the battery guard, if independent
of this general committee.
There was not unanimity of opinion. Mr. Gregson, a bar-
rister of no mean talent and oratorical power, had been opposed
to Government on political grounds, and took legal exception to
their mode of procedure, contending that such a warlike demon-
stration was uncalled for, and that the Natives, as real masters of
the soil, ought not to be forced from the territory bequeathed to
them by their fathers, and now usurped by the British crown.
He would not, therefore, go himself, nor would he permit one of
his servants "to follow to the field some warlike Lord.” His
opponents professed to be surprised that a gentleman owning
such dignified, moral, and correct sentiments, should continue to
hold a fine estate, as he did, upon a title granted by public
robbers of a nation, and urged him to leave a land desecrated by
such violation of the rights of man and honour of civilization.
The Governor felt himself strengthened by the moral support
of his subjects, and modified and expanded his original views.
Instead of a number of separate and unsupported, though simul-
taneous, operations over the whole of the settled districts,
comprehending three-fourths of the island, it was resolved to
make one grand, united effort to capture the Oyster Bay and
Big River tribes, by drawing a line from Waterloo Point on
138
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
the east to Lake Echo on the west, and driving the Blacks into
Tasman's Peninsula.
An inspection of the map of Tasmania will enable the reader
to understand the position, and comprehend the scheme deve-
loped in the order of September 25th, 1830. A more careful
study of the map will enable him to trace the operations of the
several divisions during the period prescribed. He cannot fail
to be struck with the military sagacity of the authorities, and
their care to avoid the risk of failure.
The Survey Department was severely taxed on this occasion,
as everything depended upon a knowledge of the country. But
therein lay the weakness of the scheme. It was long before the
days of trigonometrical survey in the colony, so well conducted
afterwards by Governor Denison. Notwithstanding such zealous
officers as Messrs. Evans and Frankland were then at the head
of that department, little progress had been made. Men took
up land before survey, and the adjustment of acreage between
neighbours was an established source of contention. Even
prominent points of physical features were incorrectly laid
down; and we have but to compare the map of the period with
the one issued by Messrs. Walch of Hobart Town, to compre-
hend the survey difficulties of Colonel Arthur. As it was
impossible to do better at the time, the leaders of parties were
each provided with a copy of the little map published by Dr.
Ross, editor of the Courier, by which they were expected to
guide their march. To appreciate the obstacles meeting the
adventurous trackers, the nature of the country should be
understood.
To illustrate the difficulties of Bush exploration in Tasmania,
the relation of an experience of the writer may be pardoned.
It was in 1842 that much excitement prevailed in Hobart Town,
about a Fall two hundred feet in depth, which was almost in
sight of the settlement. Accompanied by my friend Mr. George
Washington Walker, the ex-Quaker Missionary, so called, and
others, under the guidance of Mr. Dickenson, the florist, I went to
visit this wonderful sight. The only way then known, and that
which we had to follow, was first to ascend Mount Wellington,
climbing over dislocated masses of greenstone rocks, crossing
fallen trees of huge magnitude, and piercing a thicket that was
an enemy to broad-cloth. Passing over the mountain, we came
LOST IN THE BUSH.
139
to a narrow river, issuing from the Saddle, and finding its exit
in North-west Bay. There was little water, fortunately, as our
only path was in its bed, leaping from rock to rock, and occa-
sionally dropping into its icy stream. Again and again we tried
the margin, but were repulsed at every trial. So dense was the
scrub, that the guide assured us that with a tomahawk, in a
similar place, he could make but a quarter of a mile's progress
in eight hours.
It was while resting at the summit of the Falls, sur-
rounded by the wild triumphs of Nature, that I heard the story
of a lost one. A young acquaintance of mine had gone to sea.
In one voyage he came to Hobart Town. Attracted by the
beauty of Mount Wellington, and believing it easy of access, he
and a mate started away from the vessel, carrying a few biscuits.
with them. Five days had passed without their return, though
soldiers were sent from town with bugles, and constables with
fire-arms, to attract the ears of the lost sailors. At length a man
ploughing near Brown's River, quite on the other side of the
range, observed a human form slowly creeping through the forest.
It was the unfortunate young man, in almost senseless exhaustion.
Two days passed before he was capable of telling his story.
They had gained the top, but missed their way downward. The
biscuits were soon consumed, and the hunger of the Bush assailed
them. After losing their clothing, and experiencing severe
wounds, from the sharp rocks and thorny forest, they came to
the head of a great waterfall-the spot where our party were
camping. There one of them, whose mind had been wandering
for some time, suddenly shrieked out "Mother!" darted on one
side, and was never seen again. His skeleton has not been dis-
covered. How the survivor got down he knew not; but the
effect upon the poor fellow was sad enough for years after.
This was partly the sort of country to be threaded by three
thousand people, with inadequate appliances, in an enterprise
requiring the utmost circumspection, and against a people saga-
cious as Indians in forest lore, and whose dark bodies would be
indistinctly observed in the obscurity of a Bush so impervious
to sunlight.
The Government Order, here printed in extenso, described the
routes as well as they could be indicated then. The study of
these will interest too few to need further remark. The object
140
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
was to drive the Natives from other parts into the county of
Buckingham, then forming the southern, settled side of the
island, and through that to the neck of Forrestier's Peninsula.
This isthmus of land, called East Bay Neck, is rather flat, and
only a few hundred yards in width. It could, according to the
scientific opinion of Sir William Denison, be easily cut through,
and so save a dangerous passage to Hobart Town round Tasman's
Peninsula, and through the Storm Bay. It unites to the main
the peninsula of Forrestier, so called by Commodore Baudin
after the French Minister of Marine. That again is connected
with Tasman's Peninsula by Eagle Hawk Neck, a smaller
isthmus than the other. At the time that Tasman's Peninsula
was occupied by convict penal stations, to prevent runaways
getting into Forrestier's Peninsula, and so on to the main, fierce
dogs were chained across Eagle Hawk Neck, in addition to the
guard of soldiers. East Bay Neck was placed in Admiral
D'Entrecasteaux's charts as a channel, connecting Tasman's
Frederick Henry Bay and the Storm Bay, and making Tasman's
Peninsula, Tasman's Island. Though flat, its immediate neigh-
bourhood is high land, and scrubby, miserable country. The
rocks are chiefly silurian and carboniferous strata, broken by
granite hills, pierced by greenstone veins, or altered by basaltic
contact to a geometrical parallelism, like the tesselated pavement
of Eagle Hawk Neck. A bay divides the Forrestier's Peninsula
from the granite land of the east coast, terminating in Schouten's
Island, two-thirds of which consists of granite and one-third of
greenstone. Its neighbouring peninsula, Tasman's, exhibits the
volcanic element in great force, causing disruptions among its
anthracitic coal beds.
In the arrangements of the Line, Mr. Dodge was to be de-
spatched to the peninsula for observation on its coast. But, said
Colonel Arthur, "Mr. Dodge is on no account whatever to make
any movement which could by chance drive back to the main a
single Native, who would otherwise have gone on to the Penin-
sula. He is not to run such a risk even for the sake of capturing
a few on the Neck; for should one Native escape back, he would
be the means of preventing others from attempting to pass the
Neck." It so happened that Mr. Dodge was spared the temp-
tation. However, the few settlers on the Peninsula were com-
pelled to withdraw.
CRITICISMS OF THE SCHEME.
141
The Government Order expressed a desire for the magistrates
to get the force organized in parties of ten, with a leader and
guide. The military commanders were to be accompanied
by some of the roving parties that had been out after the
Blacks, and who were, therefore, judged valuable auxiliaries to
the movement. The Ticket-of-Leave men, as occupying the first
social step toward freedom, were to be treated with more dis-
tinction than the ordinary convicts, who would be in the field as
assigned servants of patriotic settlers; magistrates were to give
each prisoner a written pass with his division described, and
exercise discretion about entrusting some with fire-arms. Fires
were to be kept burning on certain hills, as marks to steer by.
Mr. Surveyor-General Frankland has the credit of forming
the general outline of the scheme, though ably assisted by
Major Shaw.
most.
The change of policy astonished many, while approved of by
The idea of the Line was a source of merriment with
those who were the political enemies of Government. One of
the heroes of the times, whom I knew in Melbourne afterwards,
explained the scheme thus: "Look here-it was just like this.
Suppose I said I would catch all the fish coming down the Yarra,
and put a little net in the middle, leaving all the rest of the
stream open, I guess I wouldn't catch many." Mr. Gregson
ridiculed the whole affair, as like climbing up Mount Wel-
lington, 4,000 feet high, for an easy way to get whales by har-
pooning from its summit. The Launceston Advertiser was
delighted to have an opportunity of attacking the authorities
by a hit at the editor of the semi-official paper, the Hobart Town
Courier, that had just then, by arrangement, announced the plan
that should be adopted, and which was gazetted a day or two
only after.
"While we give," says the Advertiser of September 27th, "to
the kind-hearted, and worthy, but invisible editor of the Courier
every credit for his advice of a Cordon to catch the Blacks, and
then to place them on Tasman's Peninsula, we must just say
that it is one of those visionary schemes to be wished for, but
not practicable. It no doubt reads very prettily thus: Let a
cordon be drawn across the island early in the morning, and
before night drive all the Blacks in that division up in one
corner; and mind, men, do not shoot or hurt one, but catch them.
142
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
all alive, oh! and be very careful you don't hurt them, and if
they should attempt to run away from you, tell them to stop or
you will certainly shoot, and the bare words will arrest them,
only you must first learn them the language in which it is
spoken.' It is little better than idiocy to talk of surrounding
and catching a group of active naked-mind, naked—men and
women, divested of all burdens of all sorts," &c.
The English reader must not be harsh in his judgment upon.
the condition of the colonial press, after reading the paragraph
just quoted, as that, in all probability, was the work of the pro-
prietor of the paper, a political tradesman of Launceston.
The Sydney Australian of October has the following article
upon that month's intended movements in the southern isle :
"We call the present warfare against a handful of poor, naked,
despicable savages, a HUMBUG in every sense of the word.
Every man in the island is in motion, from the Governor down-
wards to the meanest convict. The mercer dons his helmet, and
deserts his counter, to measure the dimensions of the butcher's
beef, or the longitude of his own tapes with his broadsword.
The farmer's scythe and reaping-hook are transmuted to the coat
of mail and bayonet! The blacksmith, from forging shoes for
the settler's nag, now forges the chains to enslave, and whets the
instruments of death!! These are against savages whose terri-
tory in point of fact this very armed host has usurped!! Savages
who have been straitened in their means of subsistence by that
very usurpation !!! Savages who knew not the language, nor
the meditations of their foes, save from the indiscriminate
slaughter of their own people."
The Sydney Gazette of October 30th asks the pertinent ques-
tion: "Are those who sneer at the measures adopted by the
authorities of the Sister Colony, prepared to say that atrocities
like these, and numerous others which the public journals record
daily, should not be put a stop to?" The editor declares that
our islanders were different from the Blacks of New South Wales,
being “fierce and vindictive, shunning the society of the settlers,
and seemingly conscious that their territory has been usurped."
But no longer to keep the particulars from the reader, the
official document is herewith furnished. Its date, as has been
mentioned, is September 25th, and the proceedings of the Line
were to commence twelve days after:
ARRANGEMENTS FOR CAPTURE.
143
"COLONIAL SECRETARY'S OFFICE,
September 25th, 1830.
"1. The community being called upon to act en masse on the 7th
October next, for the purpose of capturing those hostile tribes of the
Natives which are daily committing renewed atrocities upon the
settlers; the following outline of the arrangements which the Lieu-
tenant-Governor has determined upon, is published, in order that
every person may know the principle on which he is required to act,
and the part which he is to take individually in this important
transaction.
'2. Active operations will at first be chiefly directed against the
tribes which occupy the country south of a line drawn from Waterloo
Point east to Lake Echo west, including the Hobart, Richmond, New
Norfolk, Clyde, and Oatlands Police districts, at least, within this
county the military will be mainly employed, the capture of the
Oyster Bay and Big River tribes, as the most sanguinary, being of the
greatest consequence.
"3. In furtherance of this measure, it is necessary that the Natives
should be driven from the extremities within the settled districts
of the county of Buckingham, and that they should subsequently be
prevented from escaping out of them; and the following movements
are therefore directed :—First, to surround the hostile native tribes ;
secondly, to capture them in the county of Buckingham, progressively
driving them upon Tasman's Peninsula; and thirdly, to prevent their
escape into the remote unsettled districts to the westward and east-
ward.
"4. Major Douglas will, on the 7th October, cause the following
chain of posts to be occupied, viz. from the coast near St. Patrick's
Head, to the source of the St. Paul's River, and by that river and the
South Esk, to Epping Forest and Campbell Town. This line being
taken up, the parties composing it will advance in a southerly direc-
tion towards the Eastern Marshes, and will thoroughly examine the
country between their first stations and the head of the Macquarie,
and on the afternoon of the 12th of October they will halt with their
left at a mountain on the Oyster Bay Tier, on which a large fire is to
be kept burning, and their right extending towards Malony's Sugar
Loaf. To effect this movement, Major Douglas will reinforce the post.
at Avoca, and this force, under the orders of Captain Wellman, will be
strengthened by such parties as can be despatched by the Police
Magistrate of Campbell Town, and by the roving parties under Mr.
Batman, and will receive the most effectual co-operation from Major
Gray, who will, no doubt, be warmly seconded by Messrs. Legge,
Talbot, Grant, Smith, Gray, Hepburn, Kearney, Bates, and all other
settlers in that neighbourhood.
144
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
"5. Major Douglas will also, on the 7th October, form a chain of
posts from Campbell Town, along the south-west bank of the Mac-
quarie to its junction with the Lake River. These parties will then
advance in a southerly direction, carefully examining the Table Moun-
tain range on both its sides, and the banks of the Lake River, and
they will halt on the afternoon of the 12th, with their left at Malony's
Sugar Loaf, and their right at Lackey's Mill, which position will
already be occupied by troops from Oatlands. In this movement
Major Douglas will receive the co-operation of the Police Magistrate of
Campbell Town, who will bring forward upon that portion of the line
extending from the high road, near Kimberley's, on the Salt Pan Plains,.
to Malony's Sugar Loaf, the force contributed by Messrs. Willis, W.
Harrison, Pearson, Jellicoe, Davidson, McLeod, Leake, Clarke, Murray,
Horne, Seardon, Kermode, Parramore, Harton, Scott, Dickenson, R.
Davidson, Cassidy, Eagle, Gardiner, Robertson, Hill, Forster, with
any other settlers from that part of his district, while that portion of
his line extending from Lackey's Mill to Kimberley's will be strength-
ened by Messrs. G. C. Clarke, G. C. Simpson, Sutherland, Ruffey,
Gatenby, G. Simpson, C. Thompson, H. Murray, Buist, Oliver, Mal-
colm, Taylor, Mackersey, Bayles, Stewart, Alston, Bibra, Corney,
Fletcher, Young, O'Connor, Yorke, and any other settlers resident in
that part of the district, who will on their march have examined the
east side of the Table Mountain.
"6. In order to obviate confusion in the movements of this body,
the Police Magistrate will, without delay, ascertain the strength of the
force which will be brought into the field, and having divided it into
parties of ten, he will nominate a leader to each, and will attach to
them experienced guides for directing their marches, and he will report
these arrangements to Major Douglas, when completed. The remainder.
of the forces under Major Douglas will, on the afternoon of the
12th, take up their position on the same line, extending from the
Oyster Bay Range to the Clyde, south of Lake Crescent, over Table
Mountain; its right, under the command of Captain Mahon, 63rd
Regiment, resting on the Table Mountain, passing to the rear of
Michael Howe's Marsh; its left, under Captain Wellman, 57th Regt.,
at a mountain in the Oyster Bay Tier, where a large fire will be
seen; its right centre, under Captain Macpherson, 17th Regiment,
extending from Malony's Sugar Loaf to Captain Mahon's left; and its
left centre, under Captain Bailie, 63rd Regt., extending from Malony's
Sugar Loaf to Captain Wellman's right.
"7. Major Douglas's extreme right will be supported by the roving
parties, and by the Police of the Oatlands districts, which, together
with the volunteer parties formed from the district of Oatlands, will
be mustered by the Police Magistrate, in divisions of ten men, and he
DIVISION OF THE FORCES.
145
will nominate a leader to each division, and will attach experienced
guides for conducting the march, and he will report his arrangement,
when completed, to Major Douglas, in order that this force may be
placed in the right of the line, to which position it will file from
Oatlands, by the pass over Table Mountain.
"8. Between the 7th and 12th October, Lieutenant Aubin will
thoroughly examine the tier extending from the head of the Swan
River, north, down to Spring Bay, the southern extremity of his
district, in which duty he will be aided in addition to the military
parties stationed at Spring Bay and Little Swan Port, by Captains Mac-
laine and Leard, Messrs. Meredith, Hawkins, Gatehouse, Buxton, Harte,
Amos, Allen, King, Lyne, and all settlers in that district, and by Captain
Glover and Lieutenant Steele, with whatever force can be collected at
the Carlton, and at Sorell by the Police Magistrate of that district.
"In occupying this position, the utmost care must be taken that no
portion of this or any other force shows itself above the tiers south
of Spring Bay, before the general line reaches that point, and that
the constables at East Bay Neck, and the settlers on the Penin-
sula, must withdraw before the 7th October, in order that nothing
may tend to deter the native tribes from passing the Isthmus. On
the 12th Lieut. Aubin will occupy the passes in the tier which the
Natives are known most to frequent, and will communicate with the
extreme left of Major Douglas's line, taking up the best points of
observation, and causing at the same time a most minute reconnaisance
to be kept upon the Schouten's in case the Natives should pass into that
Peninsula, as they are in the habit of doing, either for shell-fish or
eggs, in which case he will promptly carry into effect the instructions
with which he has already been furnished.
"9. Captain Wentworth will, on the 4th October, push a strong
detachment under the orders of Lieutent Croly, from Bothwell, to-
wards the Great Lake, for the purpose of thoroughly examining St.
Patrick's Plains, and the banks of the Shannon, extending its left on
retiring to the Clyde, towards the Lagoon of Islands, and its right
towards Lake Echo. This detachment will be assisted by the roving
parties under Sherwin and Doran, and by the settlers residing on the
Shannon.
"10. Captain Wentworth will also detach the troops at Hamilton
township under Captain Vicary, across the Clyde, to occupy the
western bank of the Ouse. For this service every possible assistance
will be afforded by the parties formed from the establishments of
Messrs Triffith, Sharland, Marzetti, Young, Dixon, Austin, Burn, Jamie-
son, Shone, Risely, and any other settlers in that district, together with
any men of the Field Police, who may be well acquainted with that
part of the country.
L
146
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
""
11. A small party of troops under the command of Lieutenant
Murray, will also be sent up the north bank of the Derwent, to scour
the country on the west bank of the Ouse. This detachment will
be strengthened by any parties of the police or volunteers that
can be supplied by the Police Magistrates of New Norfolk, and from
Hobart Town.
"12. These three detachments under the orders of Captn. Vicary,
Lieut. Croly, and Lieut. Murray, after thoroughly scouring the country,
especially the Blue Hill, and after endeavouring to drive towards the
Clyde whatever tribes of Natives may be in those quarters, will seve-
rally take up their positions on the 12th October, as follows: viz.
Lieut. Croly's force will rest its left on the Clyde, where Major
Douglas's extreme right will be posted, and its right at Sherwin's.
Captn. Vicary's left will rest at Sherwin's, and his right at Hamilton;
Lieut. Murray's left at Hamilton, and his right on the high road at
Allanvale, and his whole line occupying that road.
"13. The parties of volunteers and ticket-of-leave men from Hobart
Town and its neighbourhood, will march by New Norfolk, for the
purpose of assisting Captn. Wentworth's force, in occupying the Clyde ;
and they will be rendering a great service by joining that force in
time to invest the Blue Hill, which will be about the 10th of October.
'14. The Police Magistrate of New Norfolk will reserve from
among the volunteers and ticket-of-leave men, a sufficient force to
occupy the pass which runs from the high road, near Downe's by
Parson's Valley, to Mr. Murdoch's on the Jordan, and on the 9th of
Octr. he will move these bodies by the Dromedary mountain, which he
will cause to be carefully examined towards that pass, which, on the
afternoon of the 10th, he will occupy, taking care so to post his parties,
as to prevent the Natives passing the chain on being pressed from the
northward.
"15. Captain Donaldson will, with as little delay as possible, make
arrangements for advancing from Norfolk Plains towards the country
on the west bank of the Lake River, up to Regent's Plains and Lake
Arthur, driving in a southerly direction any of the tribes in that
quarter. He will also push some parties over the Tier to the Great
Lake, so as to make an appearance at the head of the Shannon and of
the Ouse; and on the 12th of October his position will extend from
Sorell Lake to Lake Echo, by St. Patrick's Plains. In this important
position he will remain, with the view of arresting the flight of
any tribes towards the west, which might possibly pass through
the first line. And as the success of the general operations will so
much depend upon the vigilant guard to be observed over this tract of
country, the Lieutenant-Governor places the utmost confidence in
Captain Donaldson's exertions, in effectually debarring the escape of
DIRECTIONS CONTINUED.
147
the tribes in this direction; for which purpose he will withdraw,
if he thinks proper, the detachment at Westbury, and will concen-
trate his forces on the position described. In this service Captain
Donaldson will be supported by all the force that can be brought
forward by the Police Magistrates of Launceston and Norfolk Plains,
in addition to that which can be contributed by the settlers in those
districts.
"16. It may be presumed that, by the movements already described,
the Natives will have been enclosed within the Settled Districts of the
county of Buckingham.
"17. On the morning of the 14th Octr. Major Douglas will advance
the whole of the northern division, in a south-easterly direction, ex-
tending from the Clyde to the Oyster Bay range; Captain Mahon
being on his right, Captains Macpherson and Baillie in his centre, and
Captain Welham on his left, while Lieutenant Aubin will occupy the
crests of the Tiers. The left wing of Major Douglas's division will
move along the tier nearly due south, to Little Swan Port River, the
left centre upon Mr. Hobbs's stock-run, the right centre upon the
Blue Hill Bluff, and the right wing to the Great Jordan Lagoon.
(6
Having thoroughly examined all the tiers and the ravines on its
line of march, the division will reach these stations on the 16th, and
will halt on Sunday, 17th Octr.
"18. A large fire will be kept burning on the Blue Hill Bluff,
from the morning of the 4th until the morning of the 8th as a
point of direction for the centre, and by which the whole line will be
regulated.
"19. On Monday, the 18th, Major Douglas's division will again
advance in a south-easterly direction, its left moving upon Prosser's
River, keeping close to the tier, its centre upon Prosser's Plains to
Olding's hut, its right upon Mosquito Plain and the north side of the
Brown Mountain, which stations they will reach respectively on the
evening of the 20th, and where they will halt for further orders, taking
the utmost care to extend the line from Prosser's Bay, so as to connect
the Parties with the Brown Mountain, enclosing the Brushy Plains,
with the hills called the Three Thumbs, in so cautious a manner, that
the Natives may not be able to pass them.
"20. From the morning of the 18th to the 22nd, a large fire will be
kept burning on the summit of the Brown Mountain, to serve as a
point of direction for Major Douglas's right and Captain Wentworth's
left.
"21. On the morning of the 14th of October, the western division
under the orders of Captain Wentworth, formed on the banks of the
Clyde, will enter the Abyssinian Tier, and after thoroughly examining
every part of that range, will move due east to the banks of the
L 2
148
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
Jordan, with its left at Bisdee's, Brodribb's, and Jones's farms. Its
centre at the Green Ponds, and its right at Murdoch's farm at the
Broad Marsh, which stations they will severally gain on Saturday
evening, the 16th of October, and where they will halt on the 17th
(Sunday).
“22. Whenever Captn. Wentworth's forces move from the Clyde
to the eastward, those settlers who do not join him will invest the road
of the Upper and Lower Clyde, and will keep guard on it during the
remainder of the operations, extending their left through Miles's open-
ing, to Mr. Jones's farm.
"23. On Monday, the 18th, the western division will advance its
left, which will connect with the right of the northern division by
Spring Hill, the Lovely Banks, and the Hollow Tree Bottom, to Mr.
Rees's farm, on the west side of the Brown Mountain, its centre over
Constitution Hill, and the Bagdad Tier, and by the Coal River Sugar
Loaf to Mr. Smith's farm at the junction of the Kangaroo and Coal
Rivers, its right over the Mongalare Tier, through Bagdad and the
Tea Tree Brush to Hyne's and Troy's farms on the Coal River, which
stations they will respectively reach on the afternoon of the 20th, and
when they will halt till further orders.
"24. Whenever the right wing of Captain Wentworth's division
shall have reached Mr. Murdoch's on the Jordan, Mr. Dumaresq will
abandon the pass at Parson's Valley, and will extend itself on Captn.
Wentworth's extreme right, advancing with that force until it occupies
the Coal River, from Captn. Wentworth's right to the mouth of the
river. A post of observation will be stationed on the mountain called
'Gunner's Quoin' near the Tea Tree Brush.
"25. The Assistant Commissary General will provide rations at the
undermentioned stations, viz. :—
Waterloo Point
Malony's Sugar Loaf
Lackey's Mill
Under the Bluff of Table Mountain
Bothwell
Hamilton
New Norfolk
Murdoch's (Jordan)
Brighton
Cross Marsh
Hobb's (Little Swan Port River)
Mr. Farlesse's
Nicholas's on the Ouse
Green Ponds
Bisdee's farm
Richmond
Mr. Rees's, Kangaroo River
Olding's, Prosser's Plains
Captain M'Laine's, Spring Bay
Lieutenant Hawkins's, Little Swan
Port
Oatlands
Tier, west of Waterloo Port
Jones's hut, St. Patrick's Plains
Captain Wood's hut, Regent's
Plains
Mr. Geo. Kemp's hut, Lake Sorell
Michael Howe's Marsh
"The arrangement at the different depots, for the conveyance of
rations and stores to the parties employed, will be undertaken by
OBJECT TO CAPTURE, NOT INJURE.
149
Mr. Scott, Mr. Wedge, and Mr. Sharland; and as the leader of
each party will be a respectable individual, he will keep a ration-
book, in which he will insert his own name, and the names of all
his party, which on his presenting at any of the depots, stating the
quantity required, the respective store-keepers will issue the same,
taking care that no greater quantity than seven days' supply, consisting
of the following articles per diem, viz., three ounces of sugar, half an
ounce of tea, two pounds of flour, and one pound and a half of meat,
for each person, shall be issued at one time to any party.
"25. The inhabitants of the country generally are requested not to
• make any movements against the Natives within the circuit occupied
by the troops, until the general line reaches them; and the residents
of the Jordan and Bagdad line of road will render the most effectual
assistance by joining Captain Wentworth's force while yet on the
Clyde.
"26. The Assigned Servants of settlers will be expected to come to
muster, provided each with a good pair of spare shoes, and a blanket,
and seven days' provisions, consisting of flour or biscuit, salt meat, tea,
and sugar; so, also, prisoners holding tickets-of-leave; but these latter,
where they cannot afford it, will be furnished with a supply of pro-
visions from the Government magazines.
“27. It will not be necessary that more than two men of every five
should carry fire-arms, as the remaining three can very advantageously
assist their comrades in carrying provisions, &c.; and the Lieutenant-
Governor takes this opportunity of again enjoining the whole com-
munity to bear in mind that the object in view is not to injure or
destroy the unhappy savages against whom these movements will be
directed, but to capture and raise them in the scale of civilization, by
placing them under the immediate control of a competent establish-
ment, from whence they will not have it in their power to escape and
molest the white inhabitants of the Colony, and where they themselves
will no longer be subject to the miseries of perpetual warfare, or to
the privations which the extension of the settlements would pro
gressively entail upon them were they to remain in their present
unhappy state.
"28. The Police Magistrates, and the masters of Assigned Servants,
will be careful to entrust with arms only such prisoners as they can
place confidence in, and to ensure regularity, each prisoner employed
will be furnished by the police magistrate with a pass, describing the
division to which he is attached, and the name of its leader, and con-
taining the personal description of the prisoner himself.
"By His Excellency's command,
"J. BURNETT.”
150
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
The field command was placed in the hands of Major S.
Douglas, with divisions under the authority of the following
captains :-Donaldson, Moriarty, Wentworth, Mahon, Vicary,
Baillie, Wellman, Macpherson, Glover, Maclaine, and Clark;
aided by Lieutenants Aubin, Barrow, Steel, Croly, Murray,
Pedder, Ovens, Champ, and Groves. Lieut.-Colonel Logan was
left in charge of the head-quarters in Hobart Town. Mr. D. A.
C. G. Browne and Mr. Lemprière were in charge of the commis-
sariat department. Dr. Bedford, the able son of the chaplain,
was appointed medical officer to the expedition.
In the beginning of 1830, Major Douglas was stationed at the
capital with three captains, three lieutenants, two ensigns, eleven
sergeants, seven corporals, nine drummers, and one hundred and
fifty-five privates of the 63d Regiment. There were also there a
major, and a comparative number of officers, with one hundred and
seventy-six privates of the 40th Regiment. At Launceston there
were a captain, a sergeant, three corporals, and forty-three privates
of the 57th Regiment. Of the latter regiment eleven were at Perth,
seventeen at George Town, and thirty at Westbury. In addition
to those of the 63rd in Hobart Town, there were sixty-three at
Macquarie Harbour, thirty-four at Ross, twenty at St. Paul's
Plains, thirty-four at Oatlands, thirty at New Norfolk, thirty at
Hamilton, forty at Bothwell, twenty-five at Pittwater, and forty-
seven at Oyster Bay. In all, there were two field-officers, eight
captains, seventeen subalterns, four staff-officers, forty-two ser-
geants, thirty-two corporals, eleven drummers, and seven hundred
and eleven privates. They were distributed over the island, so
as to control the penal establishments, and protect the settlers
from the incursions of Bushrangers and of the Aborigines. That
year an addition of part of the 17th Regiment arrived.
Among the leaders of parties co-operating with the military
and magistracy were Messrs. Walpole, G. Robertson, Wedge,
Emmett, Brodribb, Sherwin, J. Batman, H. Batman, Tortosa,
Pearce, Massey, Myers, Hobbs, Semott, Layman, G. Scott,
Monisby, Allison, Franks, Flaxmore, G. Evans, Hunison, Cox,
Allison, Armytage, Russell, Thomas, Jones, Patterson, Kimberley,
Espie, Lackay, Stansfield, Cawthorne, Cassidy, Mills, Proctor,
Stacey, Steele, Symott, Shone, McDonald, Gatehouse, Dodge,
Currie, Kirby, Lloyd, Billett, Cottrell, Ritchie, Moriarty, Herring,
Lawrence, Gray, Gibson, Brumby, Pyke, Griffiths, Darke,
LEADERS AND NUMBERS.
151
Campbell, Henderson, Saltmarsh, Christian, Bonney, Giblin,
Collins, Smith, White, Ralston, Adams, A. McDonald, H. Mc
Donald, Hayse, Laing, Spratt, Geiss, Ramsey, Cæsar, Clark,
Barker, Heywood, Brown, Tully, Ring, C. Walker, Shulty,
Donaghue, Hawthorn, Cunningham, Doran, Brodie, Allardyce,
Ballantyne, Colbert, Milton, Howells, Green, Nicholas, Fisher,
Mason. Captain Vicary and Captain Moriarty were supposed
to be in charge of the roving parties. Mr. Franks was chief
guide in the Oatlands district.
There were 119 leaders of parties, with a guide to each, making
other 119. In addition to the array of soldiers, and hundreds of
constabulary, there were 738 convict assigned servants attached
to the Line. A considerable number of free labouring men
ranged themselves in the parties. Ticket-of-leave men assembled.
Altogether, there were about three thousand men engaged in the
Line operations. A noble gathering of Tasmanian born youths
took an active part in the field, as skirmishers in front, and
proved their excellent Bush qualities.
The commissariat arrangements were efficiently managed by
the Deputy Assistant Commissary General Browne, more suc-
cessfully than by his namesake in the Crimea. Drays and pack-
horses were engaged for the conveyance of provisions, and
peremptory orders were issued that none were to leave the Line
for rations. Several days' allowance was carried by each man.
There were, however, instances of persons being a day or two
with empty knapsacks, but less than the difficult character of
the country might have been expected to occasion. Boots were
in great demand, though due notice was given for each man to
bring a couple of pairs with him. The rocks played sad havoc
with the leather. Thus we have Captain Mahon writing to
Major Douglas on the route: "I have worn out two new pairs
of strong boots since I left Oatlands, and in a few more days
I shall, I fear, be as naked as the men." Trousers and jackets
were also in heavy demand. I copied a hastily-written note of
the Governor's to the Colonial Secretary in town, begging for
speedy transmission of 140 pairs of trousers, 90 pairs of boots,
and 50 jackets, with this remark: "The men employed in the
roving parties I find almost destitute of clothing, from their
having been employed almost incessantly in scouring the scrub."
There was an allowance of a quarter of a pound of tobacco
152
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
a week; and, after some complaint, half an ounce of soap a day
was issued.
Due provision was made for warlike materials. In addition
to the weapons taken on the route, there was a depot established
at Oatlands, as a central station, containing a thousand stand of
arms, thirty thousand rounds of cartridge, and three hundred
handcuffs; the last named being in excess of the whole number
of Aborigines, for whose capture such formidable preparations
were made. Mr. Lloyd had a contemptible opinion of the
muskets, declaring that five out of twelve would not go off.
It was a very anxious time for Colonel Arthur. He had but
just succeeded, after years of trouble, in putting an end to the
exploits of the Dick Turpin gentry, that used to ride across the
country in bands, like the moss-troopers of old. And now, in
calling out so large a number of the able-bodied men of the
colony, he could not but feel concerned about the security of
life and property in a penal settlement. There were many
suffering the penalty of double conviction, and requiring close
retention; there were others only just subdued by the strength
of Government, who would be too ready to recommence their
predatory employment in the confusion of affairs. Another
cause of anxiety lay in the arming of assigned servants, and
permitting them to roam the Bush without adequate oversight
and guard. Some had assured the authorities that such men
would embrace this favourable opportunity to rise in rebellion,
and establish, as had more than once been threatened, an island
home for the prisoner class, emancipating themselves, ejecting
the free, and establishing an independent government of their
own. A more probable difficulty lay in the engagement of
convicts, dead in the sight of the law, as guardians of the public
peace; for nearly all the constabulary belonged to that condition
of society. One who was a bondman thus refers to the condition
of such parties: "The Government had placed them in a situation
different from that which the law had directed; they had acted
as free men, and with free men; and when once permitted to do
so, could the law or any known power compel them to return to
their former servitude?" But the Tasmania Review is delighted
to acknowledge that "Fifteen hundred men of that class are now
with arms in their hands, anxiously desirous of showing that
TOWN GUARD AND POCKET LOYALTY.
153
they are trustworthy upon all occasions." The Review was the
advocate of the Emancipatists.
The town, at least, must be secured. The gaol must not be
freed of its inmates, nor the treasury looted of its contents. A
TOWN GUARD was inaugurated; Major E. Abbott was nominated
Commandant. Eight divisions, of seven men each, paraded the
town two hours at a time, and there were sufficient to give them
six days of the seven without duty. There was a guard over the
Commissariat stores at a public-house-a convenience for what
• a paper derisively called "a grog-selling regiment." The order-
preservers in charge of the gaol were removed, with great civility,
but much to the relief of the sheriff, because of the opportune
arrival of some soldiers from England. The people professed
indignation at this slight upon their valuable services.
(6
It was a jolly time for the Hobart Town citizens. Government
was the liberal source of supply, and an open-house was estab-
lished. Ration rum was pronounced of good quality, and was
in full demand. A worthy tailor assured me that it was the
merriest time he ever spent. The officers established themselves
at Mr. Hodgson's celebrated Macquarie Hotel. The speech of
one, after a mess dinner, has been bequeathed to posterity, and
exhibits the chivalrous patriotism of the period. Gentlemen,"
said Captain Kemp, “you see before you a sample of what this
colony can produce, which we are now one and all making
an unanimous effort to ensure 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 the Lieutenant-Governor, and success
to the volunteers! Hip-hip-hip-hurrah!'
""
Some were disposed to throw odium on these brave defenders
of the town, and styled them the "Dirty Buffs," &c. A reporter
of the press, anxious to do honour to the heroes, had the follow-
ing paragraph: "The guards have different cognomina. The two
first divisions of the main guard are called, by way of pre-
eminence, the 'King's Own' and the Elegant Extracts.' The
former is composed chiefly of the mercantile body; the latter
certainly is as fine a set of young men as ever took arms. It is
well known that the gallantry of the Hussar Brigade, composed
154
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
of the most dandified of the London exquisites,' was proverbial
throughout the whole Peninsular army."
An old soldier, hearing the officers talking largely of their
office, could not forbear saying, "Gentlemen, you may call your-
selves marshals, generals, or colonels, but the duties assigned to
you are usually performed by a corporal's guard."
When all were getting ready, the Governor thought it proper
that the blessing of Heaven should be implored upon the expe-
dition. Prayers were ordered to be offered up for this object on
the Sunday before the setting out. While those employing
freedom of language in public ministrations were left to their
own mode of carrying out this obligation, the Episcopalians of
the colony were agitated upon the propriety of the form to be
adopted. As their spiritual head—their Bishop-resided several
thousands of miles off, at Calcutta, and the Archdeacon in another
country, this additional call upon their devotions was committed
to the care of the Chaplain, the Rev. W. Bedford. That good man,
without doubt, prepared a very suitable form of supplication,
but which, nevertheless, subjected him to public criticism.
While entreating the Divine favour on behalf of an enterprise
which would, if successful, be attended with the blood-shedding
of the Natives, an urgent request was offered for their speedy
conversion to Christianity. This was held to be slightly incon-
sistent with the principles of the New Testament, though ad-
mitted to be agreeable to the practice of all Christian govern-
ments. It might not be unlike the conduct of the warlike
Bishop of Norwich, who, after making Wat Tyler's rebels kneel
and confess their sins, very episcopally gave them absolution, and
afterwards very baronially ordered their throats to be cut.
te
But pretended exception was taken as to the prayer itself. It
was called by one paper a great constitutional error." Then
there was blame attached to the chief clerk of the Colonial
Secretary's department for not transmitting it to the Government
printer, or to that functionary for not publishing it. It was de-
clared "of importance to know who were the clergy by whom
the English Bench of Bishops were represented." The ritualistic
fervour of the writer led him further to say, "However unim-
portant may be the mere wording of such a prayer, yet it is of
importance that the public should know by whom it was com-
posed. There is nothing connected with the Church, not even
PRAYER BEFORE STARTING.
155
the Articles of its Faith, so jealously looked after as the
Liturgy." Another political moralist, at the end of this unfor-
tunate expedition, referred to the blasphemy of this Address to
the Deity, and the hypocritical hope of engaging the services of
Heaven in the cause of injustice and cruelty, and added, "the
very arrogance, presumption, and impiety of this special prayer
ensured its defeat."
An encouraging circumstance occurred just before the expedi-
tion left Hobart Town, and afforded an opportunity for another
special Gazette. A prisoner, one Benfield, had succeeded in
catching three Aborigines at Whiteford Hills. After securing
the goodwill of the hungry fellows by a liberal present of
bread, he prevailed on them to accompany him on a moonlight
hunt for opossums, and then very adroitly led them to a military
post, where they were safely housed. A conditional pardon was
at once conferred upon the fortunate deceiver, and it was re-
garded as a favourable augury for the success of the Line.
CC
When the gallant forces got away from town at last, the
radical Colonial Times could not forbear a remark upon the
aspect of some of the warriors. "Of all the banditti," it ob-
served, we ever recollect as coming before our eyes on the
stage, none have equalled the mob which left Hobart Town on
Tuesday last, in pursuance of the proposed operations in the in-
terior; their very appearance brought to mind the former bush-
ranging times, and happy it is for us that our present situation
will prevent the likelihood of danger arising from placing arms
and ammunition in the hands of such a set of men."
The several parties were at length got under weigh. It is in-
expedient to follow in their individual routes, and detail the
conspicuous events of their progress. That which gained the
most applause was the Launceston corps, under the command of
Captain Donaldson. Nearly three hundred and fifty men were
led forward in good fighting condition, for they were the only
division fully supplied with guns and ammunition. They passed
westward to Westbury, and then made their course southward
toward Lake Echo, threading their way amidst the rocky intri-
cacies of the basaltic interior, and sighting the Bluffs of
Quamby, Dry, and Miller, keeping the Macquarie River to their
left, and the snow-clad western ranges to the right.
From the Hon. J. H. Wedge, who was one of the leading
156
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
performers in the movement, I learn that the captain's detach-
ments kept admirably in order, and met at Kemp's hut, by Lake
Sorell, the source of the Clyde, and one of a series of noble
sheets of water on the elevated basaltic plateau of the centre of
the island. He commenced throwing out his line of encamp-
ments toward Lake Echo, still further southward, where they
were to remain till further orders; but before that could be
accomplished, commands were received to hasten downward
towards Hobart Town, as a new line was to be formed from the
township of Sorell to the east coast. Obedience being the duty
of a soldier, and not discussion of the views of his superior,
Captain Donaldson performed his great and toilsome march, and
appeared at Sorell before his chief; who, to show his appreciation
of his services, issued the following Order :-
CAMP, SORELL RIVULET,
Νου. 2, 1830.
"The Colonel Commanding cannot allow the Division under the
orders of Captain Donaldson to join the Camp at Sorell, without ex-
pressing the sense he entertains of the zeal which has distinguished
the proceedings of the whole Division in the rapid march which has
been made from the Lakes to the position before Sorell. His Excel-
lency is fully aware of the great privations and inconvenience which
the Leaders, as well as those serving under them, have been suffering
by so protracted a separation from their families and homes, and the
cheerful and ready alacrity which has animated them in striving to
accomplish the present important undertaking is beyond all praise.
"The Colonel Commanding begs Captain Donaldson will make
these, his sincere sentiments, known throughout his division.
(Signed)
"GEORGE ARTHUR."
And well did they earn the glory of such a notice. From a
veteran shepherd, who had been guide to a part of the captain's
'forces, I gathered some information of the trials of the road.
He conducted a party of eighteen from near Deloraine to the top
of a bluff some 4,000 feet high. Torn by the scrub, hungry and
wet, their camp was most miserable. Without tents, they had to
pass an inclement night on that bleak hill, around the fire, or
stowed away in the hollow of trees. He told me that several
wanted to go home, their sense of discomfort overcoming their
love of adventure and their devotion to duty. The roaring of a
grand cascade, 300 feet in height, would have given them more
•
DISPATCHES OF THE GENERAL.
157
pleasure had they the advantage of fine weather, dry boots,
better rations, and less aching limbs; as it was, few of the
wearied men would turn aside to see the spectacle. Old
Hughes picked up a twelve pound bag of flour there, which had
probably been dropped by some marauding fugitive.
The other divisions had probably fewer miles to travel than
the north-west one, but some had a more fearful country to
pass. One had to go from Quamby's Bluff of the Western
mountains, eastward to Campbell Town, then along the lovely
valley of the Avoca, still more eastward by St. Paul's river, and
southward and eastward to the sea at Swanport. Another
pressed from Broad Marsh to Russell's Falls of the Derwent,
thence upward to Hamilton, Bothwell, and the Crescent Lake of
the basaltic plateau. Captain Wentworth reached Brighton by
the 16th inst., and walked along the banks of the Jordan to
Jericho. There he was met by Major Douglas, and both made
their way to Little Swanport on the coast. On the 20th of
October there was a connexion from Richmond to Prosser's
Bay; and, four days after, from Sorell through Brushy Plains
and White Marsh to the Bay. But further remarks on the re-
spective lines of march would not be so agreeable to the reader
as more interesting details of incidents by the way.
Every care was taken by Colonel Arthur to keep his forces in
order. Minute regulations were issued nearly every day.
Copies of General Orders were sent to the different commanders,
who had to put their signature to the official document as an
evidence that they had perused the same. Indeed, so active was
the pen of the Governor, that some merriment was occasioned
from the frequency of the missives and their occasional contra-
dictions.
Mr. Melville, editor and proprietor of the Colonial Times,
declared that "during the advance of the Line, the dispatches
received and sent equalled in number those forwarded by the
allied armies during the last European wars; in fact, everything
was carried on as if it were a great war in miniature."
The Colonel's presence was seen or felt everywhere; none
travelled more than he, none wrote more than he. He has been
known to ride, in such a country too, for fifty miles in one day,
to see his orders executed. An old hand described the sun-
shine of a visit, when the party were very dispirited from the
158
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
vexatious difficulties of the route, and the Governor smiling and
saying, "Cheer up my lads." Such was his attention to duty
that, though a devoted and an anxious husband, he refrained from
running up to town at a season of conjugal solicitude; and when
the news of a birth came to him, he repelled the natural impulse
to return, and stayed at his post. During one of his excursions
along the Line, he got lost three days in Paradise! This cele-
brated region of impracticable travelling, lying between Sorell
and the coast, received its appellation from a Bushman disgusted
with its wretched country.
Rumours about the Blacks were circulated with celerity, as
they were invented with facility. The extreme solicitude of the
Governor for news, and the desire of commanders to humour
his passion, originated some remarkable and not very reliable
stories. There was one that became the subject of the subjoined
Government notice:-
"COLONIAL SECRETARY'S OFFICE,
October 18, 1830.
"The attention of the Colony, at present, being so much alive to
every circumstance connected with the aboriginal Natives, the Lieu-
tenant-Governor has directed the following narrative to be made
public, which His Excellency feels satisfied will be received with
much interest.
"By His Excellency's command,
"J. BURNETT."
"MR. BISDEE'S FARM, WHITE HILLS,
October 16, 1830.
"On the afternoon of Friday, the 15th inst., about half-past 4
o'clock, as Thomas Savage, an overseer in the service of Mr. Bisdee,
of the White Hills, was at work splitting timber with another man,
he heard a noise which attracted his attention, and he proceeded in
the direction from whence it came, supposing the Lieutenant-Governor,
whose arrival was expected, was approaching, and who, in fact, did
arrive just about that time-from that moment Savage's companion
saw no more of him. On Saturday morning, Savage had not returned.
Mr. Edward Bisdee thought it probable that he had gone to Mr.
Jones's to enquire after a cow, which had strayed away, and therefore
he was not particularly anxious; but as, up to the middle of the day,
Savage was still missing, some search was made on foot, and about
2 o'clock a vague report was brought in that Savage had been taken
AN ASTONISHING TALE.
159
by the Natives, who had let him go again. At this time the Lieu-
tenant-Governor was on the point of mounting his horse to visit
the several parties which were formed on the Jordan, and on his
arrival at Jones's hut he learned from a shepherd that Savage had
been there, and that he had been with the Natives, and had proceeded
with a small party up the Tier leading to Miles's Lagoon. The Lieu-
tenant-Governor, accompanied by Mr. Frankland, Mr. Charles Arthur,
and Mr. Edward Bisdee, instantly proceeded up the Tier, which was
rapidly ascended, and on their arrival at the Lagoon, named Miles's
Lagoon, there they met Savage, half naked, who accounted for his
absence nearly in the following words: 'I was working with my
fellow-servant, between 4 and 5 o'clock, yesterday afternoon, when
I heard a soft coo-ee, and thinking it was the Governor coming, I
went to meet him, but very slowly, being bad with the rheumatism ;
I walked a very little way, when as it were instantaneously—I was
surrounded by a mob of Natives, who raised their spears at me, and I
should have been dead in a moment, had not a white man, who was
standing by with a double-barrelled gun, called out, and they imme-
diately desisted. The white man then spoke to me, and said, “Don't
be afraid, Savage, you was very kind to me in jail, about three years
ago, and I won't suffer you to be hurt." The man I immediately
recognised to be a convict named Brown, who was in prison about two
or three years ago, and when I was in Mr. Bisdee's service I used to
be civil to him, and take him now and then something to eat. Brown
is a fine stout man, well-dressed, and shaved, rather light hair, rather
pale complexion; he had on a good pair of shoes, cord trowsers, dark
waistcoat striped up and down, short jacket, and was carrying a double-
barrelled gun. Presently, while he was talking to me, six more of
the Blacks came out of the bush, and joined us, and Brown then
said, I must go a little way along with them. I was so bad with
rheumatism before, that I could not walk; but the fright cured me,
and I could walk as well as ever, and I began to consider how I could
slip away; however, we walked along, talking. Brown told me, he
had been with the Natives about three years, and said he was sur-
prised at so many parties being out. I said, I had remarked the
same thing, and believed the Governor was determined to take all the
Bushrangers. I then said, “Brown, you know the Governor has
promised to be kind to all these poor people, if they will be quiet—
you had better bring them in." He said, "No, he had been twice
deceived, and would not be deceived again; but he might let the
Governor know the Blacks should commit no murders whilst he was
with them;" (remember, their spears were raised to kill poor Savage,
had they not been restrained in this particular instance by the ever-
powerful interposition of Providence !) and turning round he appealed
160
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
to the mob: "You never knew me kill, or commit a robbery?" to
which they all replied, shaking their heads, "No! No! No!" Savage
had on a cap and a good pair of shoes which Brown was not restrained
by gratitude from making him take off and give to one of the men,
whose face indeed was black, but his features were evidently those of a
white man. He had on a shirt and trowsers, with a single-barrelled
gun in his hand-the name of Moore was on the lock. This man
never spoke during the whole time Savage was with the mob. Brown
had evidently the complete control over the mob, which did not
exceed fifteen or twenty. One of the women was Brown's Gin, and
he seemed very fond of her. She was quite big with child, and
looked to be confined every hour. All the mob was very fond of
Brown, and did everything he told them. Brown said, “He was
afraid to go to Launceston, he was so well known there; but he had
frequently been in Hobart Town, and there he bought the clothes for
the women," pointing to some petticoats which the Gins had on.
When the six men came out of the bush, one of them was carrying
the carcass of a sheep over his shoulders, and half round his neck,
just as they carry a kangaroo. The animal had just been killed, and
soon after Savage fell in with them, not more than a mile from Mr.
Bisdee's house, they stopped to make a fire, and hearing the report of
a gun, Brown said, "We must not stay here, let us be off and
accordingly they crossed the Jordan, and continued marching until about
11 o'clock at night they reached Miles's Lagoon, where Brown said,
Now, Savage, you may go," and we shook hands very comfortably
all round.'
66
""
•
"On being asked whether he afterwards stopped to watch them, he
said, 'No, he was half frightened to death, and was happy to get
away.' By the time this information was given, it was nearly dark;
but the Governor descended the Tier with all despatch, and in the course
of an hour and a half four parties were sent off, with orders to pro-
ceed, during the night, ten miles beyond the Lagoon, as far as the
Quoin, and then to spread themselves out and scour the bush
thoroughly; and supposing the Natives to be tired with their long
march the day previous, and especially so the woman with child, it may
be hoped that they will be surrounded, or at least driven to the south-
ward and eastward, if that has not already been effected by the parties.
which came over the Tier at daylight this morning. This singular
occurrence has brought to light that, although the Natives have been
guided by men worse than savages, they have had more than savage
instinct for their guide in the various murders and robberies which
they have committed. The tribe had no dogs with them."
As may be well understood, this "Savage yarn," as a wit
called it, excited the imagination of many. Other and similar
•
FALSE ALARMS IN CAMP.
161
stories came rolling into camp. The print of heavily-nailed
boots had been seen, which was distinctly shown to be those of
a white man out with the tribes. Some were sure that they had
heard an English voice by night in the Bush. One came with
an exclamation of horror, as he had traced the mark of the butt
end of a gun on a discovered track of the Blacks. The Bush-
rangers had perhaps allied themselves with their old foes of
the forest. Runaway assigned servants were doubtless, from
hatred to officialdom, sympathising with the hunted ones, and
had
gone to warn them of their danger, and assist them in their
escape. Several were quite ready to swear that they had heard a
whistle at night-watch, and had seen something just like a white
man fit hastily through the dense foliage. A shivering terror
ran along the Line; for who knew how many might have left
the cause of White dominion for Bush freedom and Black Gins!
The shrewd ones suspected that a fertile fancy, and the hope
of gain as well as notoriety, might have produced the narrative.
It was certainly singular that the lost clothes were found in an
old tree, where people believed Savage had planted them; that
no Natives were ever known to be in that quarter; that the
man Brown was proved to have been in quite another district at
the time; and that Savage declined to take an oath as to the
veracity of his statement.
The
But where were the Natives? With thousands of men beat-
ing the Bush and scouring the Tiers, to what possible retreat
could they fly? A tribe of forty, seen westward of Norfolk
Plains, were chased by one of the Line parties till they crossed
the Shannon, and were lost in the labyrinths of the scrub.
baffled Whites left a notice of the affair on a piece of bark, and
nailed this to a tree. Among the spoils collected from the
fugitives were a chemise and a little child's frock. Jorgen
Jorgenson saw them under circumstances which he narrates in
a letter:—“ As I went this morning over the Brown Mountain,
rising a steep hill from a very deep gully, my horse began to
rear and snort. Everything was thrown off, saddle, and all. My
trousers were literally torn to pieces; and, just as I had got the
horse quieted, there stood over me three Blacks."
Some men
might have been nervous; but our heroic Dane informs us that
he had but to draw his cutlass, when the warriors of the wilds
scampered away.
M
162
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
There were, of course, the usual rumours, with and without
foundation, of the appearance of the Aborigines. Some sentries
had heard one dark night the rush of many in the scrub, but
could not discern their forms. Several rushes were heard, and
the firesticks of the people were seen in the gloom. A man laid
down his musket, while he stooped for some firewood, and re-
ceived a spear in his leg. He seized a firestick, and threw it
at the enemy. Another spear penetrated his shoulder, when,
without thinking anything of his musket, he shouted lustily for
help. The approach of other sentries scattered the half-dozen.
Blacks.
Mr. William Robertson, a well-known and wealthy settler,
quite shocked the Governor in describing the Line as worse than
an Act of Parliament; for, while a coach-and-six could be
driven through the latter, a waggon-and-eight might quietly pass
the former. A force of Europeans could easily have got through
the ill-regulated Line, much more the cunning foresters. Two
or three instances were well known, after the completion of the
movement, of Natives having burst by the sentries themselves.
As the men could not possibly keep their lines, as many were
too frightened to maintain the regulated distance from a neigh-
bour, and as others loved companionship too well to smoke
alone, the distance was not observed, even when practicable, and
large gaps were left.
(C
Jorgenson has an illustration of this irregularity in his account
of the progress of his Oatlands corps. We were," said he,
"when properly formed, to steer S.E. for two days, and then S.
for three days, and Mr. Pedder added verbally that he supposed,
when steering S., each would have to do the best he could.
Nearly at noon, when the sentries had begun to make their
dinners, Captain Mahon suddenly came marching on with his
section nearly in a compact body, and the Oatlands Civil forces
had to throw away their tea, &c., pack up, and hurry on in great
confusion, most of them being unacquainted with the particular
manœuvre intended." When our own highly-disciplined regi-
ments could cross each other's path in the ascent of the heights
of Alma, it ought not to astonish one that such disorganised
masses should run foul of one another.
The Government Orders were precise about preserving a certain
distance. On October 17th, the Colonel again urged attention
4
MR. WALPOLE CATCHES A BLACK.
163
to this regulation. He then requested them to camp in parties.
of three at night, with a fire between the separate gatherings,
and that the sentries should walk from the fire to and fro, but
so as not to meet each other. In some of the best-regulated
parties, after proceeding through the Bush for half an hour, they
would halt, for all to come up, and cry 1, 2, 3, 4, &c., to ascertain
if any were adrift. So little faith had Mr. Brodribb in the
security of the Line that he offered, as he assured me, to convey
a letter for Colonel Arthur through any part of the Line without
meeting an individual; and, not a little to the Governor's
vexation, he accomplished the feat.
The Natives gave some proofs of their audacity. One came
boldly in front of a party, threw his spear of defiance, and was
off before a shot could reach him. Mr. Lloyd, in his "Thirty
Years'" experience, has some good stories of the Line, or "Black
String." One of his men fired at a cow for a Native. But an
unexpected spear found its way into the pea-jacket of “Michael
O'Brien, number tin." A tribe confronted the men of Mr. Peter
Scott's, near the Western Tier, and then suddenly disappeared.
One leader told me that, upon his first night's camp, which was
in Michael Howe's Marsh, near Oatlands, the Black fellows
crept noiselessly up, and stole all their pannikins. Mr. Batman
came upon about thirty. Mr. William Emmett, the brother of
Mr. Emmett of Sandhurst, came nearly in time for an aboriginal
supper, but succeeded in seizing a quantity of spears left in the
hurry of flight. A settler chased one fellow by moonlight, but
missed him all at once near some fallen, dead timber. Despair-
ing of seeing him again, he carelessly turned to go away, when
one of the supposed charred branches was slowly lowered before
his astonished eyes, and a black carcass rapidly rolled off into
the thicket.
The best story of the Line is in connexion with Mr. Walpole,
who has the merit of making the only capture, but at the cost
of ruining the whole affair. The Hobart Town Courier has this
account:-" Mr. Walpole had charge of a roving party, of ten
men, and had been sent inside of the Line to scour the country
along the sea-coast, to the southward of Prosser's Bay. On the
evening of Monday the 25th instant he discovered the Natives
hunting, and watched them making their fires and forming their
encampment for the night, in a deep scrubby ravine, to the south
M 2
164
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
of the Sand Pit River, opposite the south end of Maria Island.
The dogs of the Natives made a great noise, howling the whole
night, while Mr. Walpole and his party were concealed, at a
short distance, not wishing to attempt taking any of the tribe
until morning. No noise being heard near daylight, it was sup-
posed the Natives had taken the alarm and gone in the night,
and, in consequence, Mr. Walpole advanced to the first hut,
where he very unexpectedly saw five Blacks all fast asleep, under
some blankets, with their dogs. He seized hold of one of the
largest of the five, which awakening the party, they endeavoured
to make their escape. The man, whose feet he had hold of,
made a violent effort to escape, and darted through the back of
the hut, carrying Mr. Walpole with him, into the gully or creek
behind. Here he again tried to make his escape by twisting his
legs and biting, and would have succeeded, had Mr. Walpole not
drawn a small dagger from his belt, and inflicted a slight wound,
which so frightened him, that he was secured. The other taken
was a boy of about fifteen years of age, and appears to be the
son of a chief, from the ornaments upon his body, cut with flint:
or some sharp instrument into the skin. Two others were shot
by the party in making their escape into the scrub, on the edge
of which their huts were placed. This hut had been fixed as a
vidette or outpost to a very numerous tribe encamped in the
scrub, who took the alarm on the firing, and made a precipitate
retreat, leaving a great number of spears and waddies behind,
and baskets of their women. It is supposed that the tribe
amounted in all to near 70 individuals. The boy, when taken,
wished them to let him gr, as he said, 'There are plenty more
Black fellows in the scrub,' pointing to it. None of them have
yet succeeded in iorcing their way across the Line, although
many attempts, have been made upon the Cordon, in different
places, in all which they have been repulsed and driven back.
In one of these attempts, the sentry was speared in two places,
and they again tried to force their way yesterday, at the same
srst, which is a favourite crossing place of the Blacks over the
Prosser's River.
""
The name of the man so caught was Nichay Manick; he was
recognised as the one who had previously speared horses belong-
ing to the Van Diemen's Land Company, at Emu Bay.
MUCH LOST BY THAT CAPTURE.
165
Mr. Walpole himself furnished an account of his performance,
in a communication dated October 29th, 1830:-
“I heard the Natives hunting, and, on going closer, saw their
dogs. I watched them for four hours, and, on convincing myself
that they were settled for the night, I returned for the rest of
my party, and in the evening placed them within three hundred
yards of the Natives, where we waited until dawn of day (26th),
and crept to one of the Natives, without being perceived by
the inmates, until I caught one by the leg. There were five
men in the hut, and the other four rushed out through the back,
while some of the party were stooping to catch them. One,
however, was caught while jumping into the creek, and two
others shot. There were five other huts across the creek, in the
centre of a very thick scrub.”
Mr. Surveyor Wedge, in one of his letters, agrees with others
that the precipitation of Mr. Walpole lost the Line an important
capture. Instead of a man and a boy, the whole tribe might
have been secured by giving proper notice to his superior
officer. The subsequent fate of that tribe of forty individuals is
thus mentioned by my valuable correspondent:
“I am inclined to think that it warned them of their danger,
and put them on the alert to escape from it; and this they
accomplished, a day or two afterwards, at or near Cherry-tree
Hill, unknown to any at the time, except to the party upon
whose encampment they sneaked unobserved, rushed past in a
body, and speared, it was said, one of our men slightly in the
leg. Why their escape was kept secret I am at a loss to imagine,
unless, as was suggested to me by my informant, the party in
question thought that discredit would attach to them if the fact
was officially made known. The Lieutenant-Governor, being in
ignorance that the Natives had escaped, the force was kept in its
position a fortnight or more longer. At length an advance was
ordered to East Bay Neck."
>>
The author of "Thirty-three Years in Tasmania and Victoria
has a story about the hero of this adventure:-" Singular to say,
the only man who received a wound during the whole campaign
was my clever friend Walpole, and that, too, at my hands.
While seated in the Commissary's tent, he invited me to a
spearing-match with one of the weapons he had recently taken
from the Blacks, both for our own amusement and the edification
166
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
of the numerous bystanders. Finding that I was a little too
dexterous with the dangerous instrument, and objecting to my
cutting off the sharp point, he retired behind the trunk of a
tree, occasionally throwing out his long leg, crying, 'There!
there! Hit that, my boy!' Unfortunately, his invitation was
replied to in the next instant by the transfixing of his knee, the
spear passing between the cap and the joint. The weapon was
speedily extracted by a worthy medico, one of the spectators,
who, to the surprise of us all, announced that not one drop of
blood had been shed, nor did my esteemed friend suffer anything
beyond a temporary inconvenience from the wound."
There being evidence of the Natives being within the Line,
every place on the route supposed to afford extra means of con-
cealment was well searched. The Blacks had never been known
to move at night, from superstitious fears; but, being pressed by
danger, they did not then hesitate travelling in darkness. A
night of storm and an intensely black sky was selected for
a rush at the Prosser's River, a few miles from the coast, and
therefore not far from the East Bay Neck. Several were seen to
pass by Lieutenant Ovens' division, though a vigilant look-out
was maintained. The country was described by one of the
parties as being most difficult of access from rock and scrub, and
as heretofore unknown. Five roving parties of ten each were
detached to search the locality believed to contain the Blacks,
under leaders well understanding Bush duty. A rush was made
upon that portion of the Line occupied by the Richmond force
on the 27th of October, by six men, who were driven back
again. One Englishman dashed onward after the fugitives, and
would have brought one down, had he not, in the very act of
cocking his piece, tripped against a dead tree, and got a severe
fall. Of the six, two were observed with blankets round their
shoulders, while another carried a bundle of spears. An opos-
sum hunting-party might have been taken, had not an officious
constable given an untimely coo-ey for support.
Great hopes were entertained of final success. The Courier
gave forth a jubilant sqund, and had "no doubt but several
hostile tribes were now enclosed." The bugles were ordered to
stop their noisy intimations, which might alarm the game from
the preserves. The Governor directed the settlers towards the
East Bay Neck to keep "free from everything that might create
JOYS AND SORROWS OF CAMP LIFE.
167
alarm, or interrupt the passage of the fugitive Natives." They
were, furthermore, "to keep themselves within their homesteads,
and to avoid collecting their cattle, lighting fires, hallooing,
shouting, or otherwise making a noise in the Bush, in order that
nothing may present itself to deter the Aborigines from entering
the Peninsula." Unhappy settlers!
Still further to elevate the hopes of the sanguine ruler, a letter
was brought to him, giving encouraging news from the prison
depôt of Swan Island. Mr. Robinson thence announced his
success with some people outside the Line, and not then intended
to be trapped by the colonial forces, though a north-east expedi-
tion was resolved upon, if the southern one proved successful.
The letter began: "I beg to acquaint your Excellency that a
successful intercourse has been effected among those sanguinary
tribes of Natives who have for so great a period infested the
settled districts, and known as the Oyster Bay, Little Swanport.
Ben Lomond, Cape Portland, and Piper's River Aborigines.
Mr. Robinson further ventures to assert that "the whole abori-
ginal population could be brought together by the same means
that has hitherto been adopted."
But the several members of the Line were not so inspirited.
At first the novelty of the occasion, the fun of an encampment,
the freedom of life, supported them in their march. But when
the rain set in, and continued almost without intermission for
some weeks, the chivalry of the expedition was not so apparent.
A friend described to me the scene on the Blue Hills, near
Bothwell, the first night of camp. The sky was so clear, the air
was so bracing, the fellowship was so good, that laughter and
song carried the hours away till midnight; but when, just before
dawn, the mountain fog crept over the bivouac with its pene-
trating chill, and a steady, heavy, cold rain succeeded, all
Nature's gloom was reflected in the faces of the campaigners.
It did not surprise many to hear of such desertions from duty as
a letter from the Macquarie River mentions, where the writer,
who may have been one of the patriotic fair, indignantly ex-
claims: "I blush to the bone when I tell you that certain
volunteers from this neighbourhood have crawled home from
the Line within the last fortnight." Their ardour for the service
had soon cooled, or they had lacked the spirit of the lame black-
smith of Sorell, who, being unable to carry his wooden legs
168
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
along so rough a line, nobly offered to do any work gratuitously
for every volunteer from his Richmond district.
To complete success in repelling any possible advance of the
imprisoned tribes, Colonel Arthur, on the 25th of October, recom-
mended the formation of abattis, along the rear of the Line, to
entangle the fugitives. The forces were told to take advantage
of long trunks of trees lying in a direction parallel to the line of
position. By such they were to raise a palisade of sharpened
sticks, cut from the Bush, which should be two or three inches
thick, and driven into the ground behind the logs, so as to
prevent the passage of a man over the same. The abattis of
trees felled for the purpose were to lie in the way. To make
sure of no mistake, a pictorial illustration of the two was sent to
each commander.
On the 30th of the month another Government Order congratu-
lated the officers on their zeal in constructing these obstructives,
and cutting down scrub in front.
The "Three Thumbs" often appear before the eye of the reader
of the Line proceedings. It was a district of singular advantage
to a beleaguered enemy. The three hills were about two hundred
yards apart, and were covered to the summit with huge Eucalypti
trees, and a dense underwood, that made it almost wholly im-
pervious to any but Natives. The surrounding scrub was seven
miles long from east to west, and from two to four broad. It
was situated half a dozen miles to the south-west of Prosser's
Bay, and, therefore, not far from the Peninsula. This Malakoff
of the foe must be stormed. As, according to the Courier's Special
Correspondent, "into this ambush the great body of the Blacks
have embowered themselves," the place must be turned. To quote
still from the Dr. Russell of the period: "The difficulties in ac-
complishing this are of course immense, but we trust not insur-
mountable, and the thing must be done."
Accordingly, the siege was laid in due form. Three hundred
of the very pick of the corps entered the Lines of the fortress,
while others stretched themselves like a wall of circumval-
lation around the entrenched camp. The enemy were known
to be there. The invåding and advancing force came now
and then upon native fires, still smouldering.
chippings from newly formed spears and waddies.
persons of the savages were never to be seen, The Europeans,
They saw
But the
<<
BLOODLESS SIEGE OF THE THREE THUMBS.”
169
when unable to force the leafy, thorny breastworks, stood, like
the modern artillerymen upon the Crimean heights, and threw a
heavy fire upon the fortress which they could not gain. A con-
tinual discharge of musketry would, it was conjectured, drive out
the concealed foe; and, once in the more open glade, his capture
would be certain. The anxious Governor directed the assault
here and there, with encouraging enforcements of Roman virtue,
and hopeful expectations of a triumphant return with hand-
cuffed captives.
Alas! when the exhausted troops entered this Sebastopol of
the forest, they find it deserted of man, and silent but for the
crackling of the flames. The enemy had yielded the fortification,
and had retired to even stronger Redans.
This severe disappointment was not the only trial. As the
few big, pattering drops give warning of the coming storm, so
rumours of movements in the rear of the Line indicated the out-
burst of new and more appalling outrages. Word came that
defenceless homes were attacked by the enraged and hunted
Natives. A hut near Jerusalem was robbed, and a poor woman
speared to death. Fires began to redden the sky, and shrieks of
terror told the tale of woe. A letter from Perth said that one
hundred and fifty had burst through the Cordon, and were
plundering to the rear of Major Gray's, at Avoca. Thirty were
seen and chased by the intrepid John Batman, who was success-
ful in securing a good part of them, and without bloodshed.
The Launceston papers were annoyed at the defenceless state
of the north, and asked why all the effort of the colony should
be directed, to the alarm and desertion of settlements, for the
capture of two tribes-those of Oyster Bay and Big River-as
if others were not as sanguinary elsewhere.
The settled part was then divided into the two counties of
Buckingham on the south, and Cornwall on the north. Laun-
ceston, the old Dalrymple, once had hopes of supremacy over
Hobart Town, and for a time had its Lieutenant-Governor, inde-
pendent of the other Lieutenant-Governor on the banks of the
Derwent. Disappointed ambition may have strengthened feelings
of antagonism toward their more fortunate southern rivals, for the
Cornwall colonists had little sympathy with the men of Buck-
ingham. Hence we can appreciate the utterance of a northern
magistrate, when two men were speared, a couple of miles out-
170
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
side of Launceston, and two others on the Tamar; "I have no
person I can send after these Blacks. I have not one man that
I can spare, nearly all the constables being out of the county,
catching at the Blacks in Buckingham."
Such stories increased the anxiety of the Governor to hurry
on the movements of the East Bay Neck. Every officer was
sure that, though some might have escaped the meshes of the
net, the majority were still in front of the Line, and near the
Forrestier's Peninsula. Forty parties of seven each, with four
days' provisions, were sent forward. One of the Leaders told me
that he saw in the Peninsula itself evidences that the Aborigines
had been there, though not able to say how long before his re-
connoitring. He saw sticks set up in the forest, stuck in the
soil, pointing directions for those following.
At length the Colonel commanding believed that the time
had come for the final charge-the "Up Guards and at them"
stage of the war. On the last day of October he issued the
following address to the Commanders:
GOVERNMENT ORDER.
CAMP, SORELL RIVULET,
October 31, 1830.
TO THE COMMANDERS OF CORPS.
The Colonel commanding requests, that the commanders of
corps will inform every leader under their orders that the advance of
Captain Donaldson's division will, it is hoped, enable the final and
decisive movement to commence to-morrow. That His Excellency,
fully aware of the great privations and inconvenience which the
leaders, as well as those serving with them, have been suffering, by so
protracted a separation from their families and homes, has observed
with real satisfaction the cheerful and praiseworthy alacrity which has
animated them in striving to accomplish the present important under-
taking.
The delay consequent on waiting for reinforcements has been un-
avoidable, for, to have advanced the whole force from its present posi-
tion, would have assuredly risked the loss of the great advantage
which the labours of the community have obtained in so successfully
enclosing the two most dangerous tribes. A few days must now
terminate the great work in the most satisfactory manner, and His
Excellency earnestly hopes that the leaders will, for the remaining
short period, continue to shew the excellent spirit which has all along
been so conspicuous in their parties, for they will perceive that the
ORDERS FOR THE LAST CHARGE.
171
advance of the scouring parties will render redoubled vigilance neces-
sary on the part of those who guard the Line, as the Natives, when
disturbed in the interior, will undoubtedly increase their efforts to
break through the position.
GEORGE ARTHUR.
This was followed by another Government Notice, relative to
the final operations, and dated the same day.
CAMP, SORELL RIVULET,
Oct. 31st, 1830.
The expected arrival of Captain Donaldson's force this day, now
enabling the Colonel commanding to make the final movement for the
capture of the tribes within the lines, the following arrangements will
take place :-
Major Douglas will form twenty-two parties of seven men each
including leaders, and early on Monday morning they will take post
fifty paces in front of the line, according to the following order, from
the left, viz., and in front of Lieutenant Aubin's corps, will be placed
at equal distances four parties, viz., Messrs. Walpole, Pearce, Thos.
Massey, and H. Batman.
In front of Lieutenant Owens, two parties, viz., Mr. Byers, with
half of Mr. H. Batman's party, and Mr. M. Fortoza.
In front of Lieutenant Groves, three parties, viz., Messrs. G. Robert-
son, E. Blinkworth, and J. Moriarty.
In front of Captain Baylee, three parties, viz., Messrs. G. Scott,
Layman, and Jemott.
In front of Captain McPherson, four parties, viz., Messrs. Allison,
Cox, Helmslie, and Russel.
In front of Captain Mahon, two parties, viz., Mr. Doran (Peter
Scott will be attached either to this party or to Mr. Evans's) and Mr.
Thomas's.
In front of Lieutenant Pedder, four parties, viz., Messrs. Evans,
Harrison, Flexmore, and Jack Jones, all four under the joint direction
of Mr. Franks.
Captain Wentworth will also immediately form fifteen parties of
seven men each, including leaders, and on Monday morning they will
likewise take post fifty paces in front of the line, in the following
order :-
In front of Lieutenant Croly, four parties, viz., Messrs. Paterson,
Brodribb, Emmett, and Sherwin.
In front of Lieutenant Clark (Richmond force), Messrs. Kimberley,
Copie, and Lackey.
In front of Lieutenant Champ, two parties, viz., Messrs. Stanfield,
junior, and Cassidy.
172
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
In front of Lieutenant Murray, three parties, viz., Mr. Proctor (if he
shall not have returned, Stacy), Mr. Steel, and Mr. Synnott.
In front of Lieutenant Barrow, three parties, viz., Messrs. Caw-
thorne, Mills, and Shone; unattached, Messrs. Lloyd and Kirby. As
soon as the advanced parties shall have been posted in marching order
and with five days' rations, the vacancies in the line which their
advance will have caused will be filled up by the whole remaining
force closing to the left, and Captain Donaldson's force will take up
the ground which has been heretofore occupied by Lieutenant Barrow,
Lieutenant Murray, and by a portion of Lieutenant Champ's corps.
This movement, regulated by the right, must be made with the utmost
possible care, under the superintendence of Major Douglas, Captain
Wentworth, and Lieutenant Aubin, so as to prevent the possibility of
any gaps in the line.
By this movement, which should, if possible, be effected by 12
o'clock on Monday, the line will remain of its original strength, and
the scouring parties will be in readiness to advance, which they will
do as soon as the vacancies have been closed. These parties will then
advance towards the south-east, driving the Natives in that direction,
or capturing them, and on the fourth day, will reach East Bay Neck,
where they will receive further orders.
The investing line which will remain in position, must, during these
four decisive days, put forth every effort to prevent the possibility of
the Natives passing through them, as the tribes will naturally redouble
their attempts to pass when they are disturbed in the interior.
GEORGE ARTHUR.
When the force was thus extended from Sorell to the sea, the
"Long Black Line" extended thirty miles, and gave a space of
forty-five yards between the men. The right wing was at Sorell,
the left at Spring Bay, and the centre at the White Marsh. The
Neck was gained. All were in excited expectation. Every pos-
sible precaution was taken to prevent escape. The very shore
was watched. The capturing parties were told off. The Neck
was crossed, the Peninsula entered, the search made, but nothing
found! Not a Black was there!
The Line had proved so far a failure, though its indirect
advantages were great; as the Natives were shown the formidable
resources of Government, and the absolute necessity for their
submission to authority.
Many were ready to discover their own want of faith in the
enterprise, when its result was seen. Among those who volun-
teered their opinions, when counsels were too late, was the
THE NET CAUGHT NOTHING.
173
irrepressible Dane, Jorgen Jorgenson. This was his address to
Colonel Arthur on the last day of November: "I know that
Nature presented very serious obstacles, but I, also, know that
these obstacles were partly foreseen; and, in proportion, vigilance
and activity should have been exercised. I have not forgotten
that the sections were never instructed in a proper manner
during the time we remained idle,—that no proper patrols were
formed in some of the divisions,—and when proper notice had
been given of the dogs appearing in the Line, it was received as
• a matter of perfect indifference."
The work was over, and the labourers could leave the field.
The Rev. Mr. West, in his "History of Tasmania," has expres-
sively written: "The Settlers 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."
The cost of this expedition to the Government was acknow-
ledged to be thirty thousand pounds—a considerable and welcome
expenditure to many of the colonists; though, considering other
losses, and private outlay, Mr. G. A. Robinson, who was ever
opposed to the project, spoke thus of it publicly: "The entire
cost to the Colony was upwards of seventy thousand pounds,
and the result was the capture of one Black."
An English paper afterwards made merry over the subject,
having satisfied itself that the circumstances were these:-that
a soldier had killed a Native, and, if punished for the fault, all
would have been well; that as this was not done, the Blacks
arose in wrath; and, lastly, that it had taken 6,000 Europeans
to quell their revolt!!
But the worthy Governor was "game" to the last; and, con-
scious of having done his best, professed to be satisfied. He
dismissed his army with dignity, acknowledged their service with
gratitude, and foresaw their speedy deliverance with prophetic
power. His parting Order was as follows:—
GOVERNMENT ORDER NO 13.
COLONIAL SECRETARY'S OFFICE,
November 26th, 1830.
1. The first series of operations for the capture of the native tribes
having been now brought to a close, by the military and civil parties.
174
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
to East Bay Neck, and as the length of time during which those com-
posing the volunteer force have absented themselves from their homes,
renders the Government unwilling to wish them to extend their
period of service at this conjuncture, when to remain any longer in the
field would prove so detrimental to their private interests, they will
now disperse, and the assigned servants of settlers who have not been
able to be present themselves, will be marched back to their respective
districts, under the charge of constables appointed for that purpose,
with the exception of a small body, whom the Lieutenant-Governor
has judged it expedient to detain, for the purpose of protecting the
settlements, and the further pursuit of the Natives.
2. The Lieutenant-Governor cannot allow the forces to separate
without observing, that although the expedition has not been attended
with the full success which was anticipated, but which from circum-
stances could not be commanded, yet many benefits have resulted from
it, amongst which may be enumerated, the cordial and unanimous feel-
ing which has distinguished every class of the community, in striving
for the public good.
The knowledge which has been acquired of the habits of the Natives,
and which will so much tend to insure success in future operations;
the opening of communications throughout the country, which was
before their secure retreat, but which can no longer afford them the
same security or confidence, and above all, the proof which has been
given of the great personal sacrifice which the whole population were
not only willing, but most anxious to make, for the purpose of cap-
turing the savages, in order by their being placed in some situation
where they could no longer inflict or receive injury, that the race may
be preserved from utter extermination; an event fearfully to be appre-
hended, so long as they continue to commit such wanton outrages upon
the white inhabitants, and which every man of humanity and proper
feeling would endeavour to avert,
3. In touching upon the merits of the individuals composing the
force, the Lieutenant-Governor feels it difficult to attach to them the
meed of praise which they have deserved, and when all have shown.
so much alacrity, zeal, patience, and determination to overcome every
difficulty, it were invidious to extol any in particular, although it is quite
impossible to avoid noticing the extraordinary exertions which have
been so cheerfully afforded by the Surveyor General and every officer
of his department. The conduct collectively of the whole community,
on this occasion, will be a lasting source of pleasure in the mind of
the Lieutenant-Governor, but His Excellency will not fail to bear in
remembrance the separate merits of each in the proportion which his
exertions have proved him to possess. In making this allusion to the
conduct of the civil forces, he has the satisfaction at the same time to
THE GOVERNOR DISMISSES THE LINE.
175
observe, that the orderly and soldier-like behaviour of the military,
and the zeal and ability displayed by their officers, in organizing and
commanding the civil levies, merit the highest encomiums. The diffi-
culties which the forces have had to surmount in such an impervious
country as that which has lately been the scene of their efforts, can
only be understood by those who have seen it, and nothing but the
excellent spirit of the parties could have enabled them to overcome
so many obstacles.
4. The project of surrounding and driving the two worst tribes to
a particular quarter had succeeded, to the furthest extent; and, but
for their untimely dispersion by a party who too hastily attacked them
before a sufficient force could arrive to capture them, the whole project
would probably have been crowned with success.
5. The Lieutenant-Governor has, however, the satisfaction of an-
nouncing on this occasion, that a body of Natives have been captured
without bloodshed, on the northern coast, where there exists every
prospect of the remainder of the tribe being secured.
The recent treacherous conduct of a party of Natives who had been
received and treated with every species of kindness, but who had en-
deavoured to repay their benefactors by murder and rapine, sufficiently
demonstrates that it would be in vain to expect any reformation in
these savages while allowed to remain in their native state.
It will,
therefore, be the immediate subject of anxious consideration with the
Government, whether it is not proper to place those who are now
secured, and who amount to about thirty, together with any others who
might be captured, upon an island from which they cannot escape, but
where they will be gradually induced to adopt the habits and feelings
of civilized life.
6. The circumstances of the late military movements not having been
attended with the expected success, will not, it is hoped, cast any
despondency upon the public mind, for the activity and cordiality of
feeling which have been recently shown by the community, afford
sufficient earnest that the evil which has afflicted the Colony must in
the course of the summer be removed.
The most active measures will be vigorously continued for pursuing
the object in view; but, as the Lieutenant-Governor feels a strong
persuasion that there are white men among the Natives, His Excellency
does not consider it prudent to detail any future operations in public
notices.
By His Excellency's command,
J. BURNETT.
The conduct of the Governor was so loyal to the country, and
the expenditure had been so liberal, that a general spirit of
176
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
congratulation was aroused. While the question of "What are
we to do with the Blacks?" still perplexed the anxious, the
first duty of the Colonists was to thank His Excellency for his
noble response to their repeated and troubled appeals. The
Sheriff, Dudley Fereday, Esq., was requested to call a public
meeting for this object.
This heartily unanimous meeting took place in Hobart Town,
on Wednesday, the 22d of December, 1830. Political strife
was still, and the "Rights of Men" were postponed for the con-
sideration of the Rights of the Government. The following
were the resolutions of the day:
“1st. That the atrocious character of the Aborigines of this Island,
manifested by their cruel and wanton murders of the white inhabitants,
perpetrated without distinction of age or sex, and with increasing
barbarity, renders the life of a Settler insecure, and operates as a
most serious drawback to emigration to this country, and consequently
to its commerce and prosperity."
"2d. That the magnitude of the present evil is beyond the power
of the Colonists individually to grapple with, and calls imperatively
for the immediate application of a remedy on the part of Government
adequate to the evil.”
"3d. That the Colonists have seen with gratitude the unwearied
exertions of His Excellency Lieut.-Governor Arthur to suppress the
atrocities committed by the Aborigines, by capturing them, in order
to place them in such a situation that their own civilization and the
security of the colonists may be at the same time effected. And they
respectfully, but most earnestly, solicit His Excellency that he will
please to continue unrelaxed his efforts to accomplish so desirable
an end."
The fourth resolution pledged the meeting to support the
Government in their measures, and directed signatures to be
procured for an address to Colonel Arthur.
Similar meetings were held in all the leading townships of
the Colony. In the Richmond address occurs this passage:
"While we regret that natural obstacles have hitherto de-
feated every attempt for the capture or subjugation of the
Aborigines," &c.
As Britons, it became the self-satisfied Liners to signalize
their prowess in the campaign by the time-honoured formalities
public dinner. At the grand festival, held at the Mac-
ANOTHER BANQUET IN HOBART TOWN.
177
quarie Hotel, Hobart Town, the enthusiasm increased in vigour
at each successive elevation of the glass, until, from the intensity
of their emotions, and the undue excitement of their gratitude,
many of the guests exhausted their physical natures, and sank
back helpless in their chairs. At this banquet, inflated with a
grateful sense of a liberal expenditure, one gentleman had the
coolness to propose that the forthcoming address to His
Excellency be called "The Address of the Traders of Hobart
Town." Such base imputation of motives was most virtuously
repelled, and the document, laden with uncorruptible names,
and redolent with the incense of flattery, was forwarded to
Government House, and, in due course, presented at Downing
Street, as an evidence of the approval of Colonial policy, and
the warm affection of Colonists to the person of the previously
calumniated representative of His Majesty.
In the reply of His Excellency, there is another exposition of
his humanity and conscientiousness, when he says, in allusion
to the Natives, "It is undeniable that they were lamentably
neglected in the early colonization of the country, and have
been treated with cruelty and oppression by the stock-keepers,
and other convicts in the interior, and by the sealers on the
coast; and, from the want of due discernment, their vengeance
has been indiscriminately wreaked upon the unoffending settlers
of the present time. This fact must continue to disarm us of
every particle of resentment.”
While the loud hurrah of exulting meetings, the jingling of
convivial glasses, and the trumpet note of Government House,
fell on the ear as symbols of rejoicing after victory, there boomed
in the distance the sounds of conflict. From the depths of
forests, and from the expanse of plains, a cry of horror was
heard. Men returned to their habitations to find but smoulder-
ing ruins, and sought their families to behold but ghastly
corpses. Wives waited the return of husbands, transfixed with
spears. Mothers coo-ed for children, brained by waddies. The
wrath of an infuriated race was unappeased, and the memory of
their murdered kindred was unavenged. The country, scoured
in vain for their presence, now echoed with the shrieks of their
victims.
And what were to be the future operations against them?
Were fresh commandoes in preparation? Were new and more
N
178
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
vigorous assaults to be made upon those naked savages? If
the thousands of men, with the thousands of pounds spent,
were insufficient to overcome the feeble and dislocated bands of
sable wanderers, were more men and greater expenses to be
employed?
When all the power of a strong Government, and the warlike
appliances of advanced civilization, were exhausted in the vain
attempt, the simple influence of kindness in the heart of a brave
man subdued these barbarians; and, bound with the mighty cords
of manly sympathy, the brutal bloodshedders were conducted in •
triumph to the city of their enemies, and prevailed upon in
peace to forsake the home of their youth, and the graves of
their fathers.
Having been very recently favoured with the reflections upon
this interesting epoch of Colonial History by the Hon. John
Helder Wedge, I beg to publish the following extract from his
letter:
((
A plan of the expedition, and the carrying it out in detail,
was, as might be expected from the political feeling of hostility
that was entertained against the head of the Government, criticised
and commented upon in no measured terms: and these criticisms
were not unaccompanied without a leaven of personal abuse. I
thought at the time, and I still think, that the circumstances
which imperatively required that an attempt should be made to
put an end to the deadly warfare that was carried on between
the occupiers of the out-stations and the Natives, and mostly to
the advantage of the latter, were not considered with that
liberality of feeling to which they were entitled. Frequent,
and almost daily, representations were made to the Government
of the depredations and murders committed by the Natives.
Neither sawyers, splitters, shepherds, nor herdsmen could attend
to their avocations with safety; nor could the solitary hut-
keeper show himself out of doors, without the danger of being
speared, even when not the least suspicion was entertained of
there being anything to apprehend. A general feeling of in-
security was felt throughout the colony; and a demand, as
with one voice, was made that the Government should adopt
measures for the greater security of the colonists and their
property. I believe there was scarcely any possessing a know-
ledge of the country and experienced in traversing the forests,
A
LINE" FOR EGG-GATHERERS FAILS.
179
and knew anything of the habits of the Natives, who anticipated
any other result than a failure of the expedition, so far as their
capture was concerned. And I was led to believe, being present
when the Lieut.-Governor was speaking on the subject, that few
were less sanguine of success than His Excellency."
He thus closes: "I could not at the time suggest, nor have I
since been able to surmise, how the forces could have been
otherwise employed, which would have afforded a greater chance
of success-nor did I ever meet with any of the fault-finders
•who could do so."
A year had passed, and one of their great jubilees was
approaching for the Aborigines. This was the season of swans'
eggs, so favourite a food with the people of the forest.
It was
a time of tribal reunion, the anniversary of family greetings and
festive joy. A wooded, rocky point of land projected into the
eastern waters; it was known as the Schouten Peninsula. Too
barren and rough for colonization, too distant for a visit, it was
a secure asylum for the feathered race -a fitting scene for swan-
like love. This was the place, the period, the occasion, of
annual pilgrimages to the Aborigines. A large party, a mingling
of tribes, had taken advantage of the lull after the storm of war,
and had ventured by stealthy steps to the old spot. But their
tracks had been sighted, their destination guessed, and their
extermination was at once resolved upon.
The alarm was sounded. Nothing seemed easier than their
capture. Here was the proper locality for Line operations. A
Cordon could be drawn across the narrow isthmus, and the
Blacks would be secured at leisure.
Troops, constables, settlers, gathered in joyful confidence at
the gateway of the Peninsula. It was at the close of October,
1831, the loveliest season of the bright little island, the spring
of beauty and hope. The Neck was but a mile across, and upon
this the Europeans took up their position. It was a highly
romantic region. Five cones threw up their forest heads far
above the gigantic Eucalypti of the valleys. They stood as
guardian genii to protect the last home of the wasted people.
Their bastion-like masses were strengthened by intricate scrub
and pathless woods, whose black shadows fell upon the hostile
band in front. The enemy sought to gain the barbican by fire
N 2
180
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
Soon the flames were seen penetrating the dark gorges, and
climbing the rocky steeps. The colonial force constructed their
huts, established their sentries, and kept up the vast fires for
observation and destruction. Gradually long, black lanes were
made through the thicket, and fresh arrivals from the townships
around assured the Whites of victory.
It was full moon at the time of a visit of a friend, who de-
scribed to me his admiration of this stirring scene. The soft
light fell so calmly upon the roaring flames, as if to rebuke
their violence, and each hilly cone, wreathed with fire, vainly,
like Hercules of old, sought relief from the fatal robe.
But when nothing but charred timber or smouldering ashes
remained, and when the moon had evening after evening de-
creased its light till darkness rested upon the encampment at
night, then the time for watchfulness arrived, lest the imprisoned
should escape. Troops were gradually assembling; and while
some guarded the entrance with dogs, fires, and arms, others
were to pass down the peninsula and seize or kill the egg-
gatherers.
In fear, but determination, the poor creatures waited for the
favourable moment. A night of misty blackness came. They
had crept as closely as they dared to the lines, their very dogs
preserving silence, and then, with a bound and cry, followed by
their yelping friends, they dashed by the fires and guards, and
gained the dark forest beyond in safety. The only captures
made by the formidable besiegers were a few young puppies,
distanced by the tribe.
CHAPTER VI.
CAPTURE PARTIES.
1
THE reader, being now acquainted with the general features of
the Black War, together with the official proclamations and
orders connected therewith, will be introduced more particularly
to the parties employed in the capture of the Aborigines.
It was from the very perplexity of affairs that Colonel Arthur
sought the advice as well as co-operation of the most expe-
rienced and intelligent of the settlers. The leading magistrates
were addressed by circular. In reply, James Simpson, Esq. J. P.
of Campbell Town, wrote, Nov. 18th, 1828, recommending the
following up of one particular tribe, with all available strength,
night and day, till fairly run down and secured. He thought
the engagement of native women of service, from, says he,
"their hopes of advantage, or fear of ill-treatment, inducing
them to betray their friends." While transcribing Mr. Simpson's
letter, I read on the turned-down corner, in the handwriting of
the upright Colonel Arthur: "The expedient of taking some of
the women may be attempted-in fact, anything founded in
prudence, and prosecuted with humanity and firmness, I shall
approve."
Thomas Anstey, Esq. J. P., of Oatlands, near the centre of
the island, took the most active part. Among his suggestions,
forwarded Nov. 14th, 1828, were these: That parties should be
organized, under suitable leaders, to be in pursuit, and that a
few active men should be selected to look after Native fires at
day, lie in ambush near, and make their capture in the cold
morning twilight. "To rid the country of this scourge," he adds,
a considerable number of troops will be required." It was his
opinion that the employment of prisoners, or at least of men
seeking an extension of freedom, would be most advantageous, as
these would struggle to obtain a free pardon by their labours.
182
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
The Governor resolved to try the scheme, and directed the
magistrate to make a selection as a trial. By the end of
November four had been chosen. Three were ticket-of-leave
men seeking emancipation-John Hopkins, Samuel May, and
William Wakeman, all well acquainted with the native life in the
Bush. The fourth was still in the primary class of bondage, John
Danvers, a man of great ability and energy. One Reynolds, who
had but six months to serve, and in order to obtain his liberty
by efflux of time, volunteered to go, being fond of a life in the
woods, and considered a capital shot. He stayed his six months,
and then retired to freedom, demanding nothing for his labour.
Other persons were engaged elsewhere; as Messrs. Gilbert
Robertson, John Batman, Jorgen Jorgenson, Nicholas Tortosa,
James Hopkins, Mayhew Tattersall, John Eldon, W. Grant, R.
Tyrrell, Peter Scott, W. Wilson, George James, W. Holmes,
Alexander McKay, Surridge, Parish, Emmett, Brodribb, Gor-
ringe, &c.
Mr. Roberts took four Bruni Blacks after a Port
Davey tribe. Mr. Tortosa was to receive one thousand acres, in
addition to the five pounds' bounty, if he caught twenty in
twelve months. Mr. Fisher undertook to round some of them
up in an angle of the roaring Shannon River. To some of these,
perhaps, the remarks of Mr. Wedge may justly apply: “But
they in vain laboured to capture the unfortunate Blacks. They,
however, did succeed, I believe, in shooting a few of them, which
could have no other effect than to increase the hostility of the
survivors."
But little was really done until the energies and experience of
Mr. Anstey were brought into requisition. In May, 1829, all
leaders of parties were directed to make their monthly reports to
him. It was at his suggestion that twelve men were placed
under the authority of Mr. John Batman, six with Mr. Nicholas
of Campbell Town, five with Mr. Sherwin of the Clyde, and five
with Mr. Doran of New Norfolk. A man, named John Small,
was promised a free pardon should he succeed in bringing in ten
captives during the year of his engagement.
It was to enlist the utmost diligence in this service that the
celebrated proclamation was made, guaranteeing five pounds for
the capture of each adult, and two pounds for a child, belonging
to the Natives. The more respectable of the leaders were baited
with the prospect of grants of land.
MR. ANSTEY, THE LOYAL MAGISTRATE.
183
Mr. Anstey entered heartily upon his work. Of a good family
at home, a gentleman in bearing and character, he brought to
his duties an uncompromising fidelity, a stern sense of justice,
an unremitting energy, an acute sagacity, and much practical
wisdom. In devotion to duty, he reminds one of an ancient
Spartan. An anecdote is recorded of him that suggests the
parting word of the Spartan mother—" Return a victor, or upon
your shield." When his son, then out with the Line after the
Blacks, suffering from the hardships of the Bush in an inclement
season, wished to return home, Mr. Anstey forwarded this decided
reply: "Stay till all is lawfully dismissed. If you return before,
the house will be closed against you." He was of the true
Wellington stamp, appreciating duty rather than glory.
His children were energetic and intelligent like himself. One
son became an influential legislator in South Australia. Another
(Chisholm Anstey) was well known as a prominent member of
the British House of Commons.
His son George distinguished himself in the Black War. On
the 27th of July, 1830, some Natives were heard prowling about
the farm in the night. Heading a small number of servants,
the lad, being then but sixteen, dashed after the enemy. For-
tunately for the pursuers, the ground was covered with snow,
and the track could readily be followed in the darkness. The
tribe was gained, a charge was made, four were captured, and
the rest fled in terror. Not a shot was fired. Among the spoils.
were fourteen dogs, fifteen blankets, and five spears. The colony
rang with acclamations at the daring deed, and the courage of
many a drooping Bush tracker revived. The Governor honoured
the brave boy with a Gazette notice, and the gift of five hundred
acres of land.
The sequel of the incident is soon told. Three of the four
were of the weaker sex. When they were being led to Hobart
Town by the constables, the man shammed illness in the wattle-
perfumed valley of Bagdad. The constables were compelled to
place the agonized fellow in a wheelbarrow, and trundle him to
a hut for the night. Leaving him there to groan in peace, the
guardians indulged in some sleep, being perfectly assured of
the safety of the prisoner. The dark and subtle captive climbed
the chimney in the silence of night, and regained his forest
mates.
184
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
One part of Mr. Anstey's scheme, the employment of soldiers,
was not so desirable. They were slow in movement, they needed
Bush-craft, they ill sorted with civilians, they were soon demo-
ralized, they stood little fatigue, they were often cruel, and their
red coats were ready signals. A corporal with a party of the
40th earned no reputation by a most atrocious massacre of a
large number of men, women, and children, upon whose camp-
fires they came suddenly. At first, military parties had a liberal
provision when out-viz. 14 lbs. of meat a week, besides flour,
&c. Subsequently they were reduced to garrison allowance, to
the disgust of the men, who saw themselves far worse fed than
convicts. To add to their annoyance and diminish their zeal,
the Commissariat directed that they should find their own shoes
when travelling—an absurd arrangement, when the rocky, intri-
cate character of the country is remembered. Of course, the
soldiers moved very carefully, and at easy stages. They further-
more complained of the rust which exposure brought upon their
regimental fire-arms when in the Bush. Altogether, the Govern-
ment officer was right, who said, "Soldiers are unfit, in every
respect, to act with the civil power."
The difficulty which our troops have experienced while Bush-
fighting with the Maories calls to mind a project brought forward
in June, 1829, by Mr. Horace Rowcroft, and seconded by Major
Gray, to introduce a number of New Zealanders into Van
Diemen's Land. It was contended that, as they would sell
slaves for a musket each, they would be quite willing to catch
Black-fellows at the same rate. Their great intelligence, their
crafty policy, and their warlike bearing, with the use of weapons
better adapted than "Brown Bess" to forest contests, made the
plan acceptable to many. Mr. Rowcroft added a plea of bene-
volence. The Maories were then regarded as about the most.
bloodthirsty savages and cannibals that the world could furnish;
so, without reflecting upon the consequences of contact to the
poor Tasmanians, he declared that "much good would result to
the New Zealanders by their intercourse with us, and would
probably sow the germ of civilization among an energetic and
enterprising people." But the humane Colonel Arthur feared
the massacre of his Black subjects, and rejected the proposal.
As money was not a plentiful article in that era of colonial
progress, the offer of a reward for catching Blacks was so agree-
TOMMY NOTOES.
185
able to the acquisitive faculty, that not a few were ready to
dare danger for bright gold. A scheme was actually set on foot,
though detected in time, to proceed to the Straits, capture the
half-civilized women there, and claim the bounty. The Laun-
ceston Advertiser of March, 1830, sounded an alarm: "We under-
stand a party of volunteers are busily employed man-catching
in the neighbourhood; we hope they will not introduce any
stranger from the islands to the main. Five pounds a-head
is a tempting sum; but our accommodations in this quarter are
. rather too limited to furnish bread and lodging for these sable
gentry."
The "bounty five" was stopped by the order of June 5th, 1832,
when the head hunters were informed by the Governor that the
reward was no longer offered, because the "present tranquil
state of the Colony had rendered it unnecessary."
When caught, the Natives were not easily held. A good
smearing of opossum grease on their naked skins prevented a
secure grasp. Thus, four were one day surrounded, and held for
a time, at St. Paul's Plains; but three managed to wriggle them-
selves free. The ever-watchful Courier hastened to publish an
infallible cure. Some persons," quoth the paper, “adopt the
plan of getting behind them, and thrusting the arms beneath the
armpits of the Black, to bring the hands round behind the neck
or head, and, being thus clasped, completely secure and over-
power him.”
(C
Some independent parties were highly successful. Mr. Howell,
of the Shannon, obtained a thousand acres for his exploits. Mr.
James Parish, an Australian by birth, and a pilot, was said to
have been the means of securing no less than twenty-two
Aborigines, and a host of dogs, close to Swan Island, on which
he managed to place them. Another person caught a Native,
called Tommy Notoes, from having lost these useful members.
One man escaped after being first secured, but was wounded by
a shot in his retreat. He managed, however, to gain the shore,
and attempted to swim away; but, soon exhausted, he was
retaken, and his wound was dressed. Placed in a hut for
security, he again escaped, and was not recovered. Two were
caught by a shrewd fellow who exposed a sugar-bag in the Bush,
and then hid himself till his victims were in the sweets.
The Natives were terribly harassed by the roving parties.
W
186
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
x
Their sufferings were severe, especially from their fear to light
a fire to warm their bodies, or to cook their food. Children and
weak persons rapidly sunk from fatigue and want, or were
hurried by violence to a grave that would shield them from their
implacable foes. Opposing craft to force, the men of the woods
concealed themselves in chosen retreats, kept up a vigilant look-
out, and knew how, at fitting times, to silence their faithful and
obedient dogs. They were accustomed to indicate their way
through the pathless wilderness by the Indian mode of breaking
branches, or of pointing sticks in the ground, so that their ·
fellows might track them to the camp. But, pursued by the
Whites, these sticks, as previously agreed upon, were placed right
in some places, and wrong in others. Sharp points and sharp
stones were left just above ground to wound the feet of those
following them; as many of these wore home-made moccasins, a
severe laming would attend a misfooting.
The guides of the parties were either white Bushmen, or
Natives. The latter were not to be depended upon, and some
acknowledged, when on Flinders Island, having brought the
leaders near the sought-for tribe, and then refused to go further,
or lead off in another direction. Black Jack, who was out with
Mr. Gilbert Robertson, told Mr. Jorgenson, that after he had
been beaten by that gentleman, for some supposed fault, he was
often upon the track of his countrymen, but would not trace.
Black Tom, captured by Mr. Robertson near Little Plains, acted
so plausibly, as to be recommended by his captor to the Governor,
December 22d, 1829, with this character: "I believe Black Tom
to be perfectly sincere in his wish to further the views of Govern-
ment toward his countrymen, and that he fully appreciates the
benefits they would receive by embracing the proffered protection
of His Excellency."
Mungo was an intelligent lad, and did good service. He
was the son of an influential chieftain, and accompanied both
Mr. Robertson and Mr. Batman, but early died of disease. Mr.
Jorgenson had him under training, and sought to preserve his
morals by keeping the men from using bad words in his pre-
But he had little faith in native guides; saying, “I
have not found one that I could recommend, or seem fit to
be a negociator between us and his countrymen. Eumarra,
Black Tom, and Black Jack, three of the guides, possess much
sence.
NINE KILLED FOR ONE TAKEN.
187
cunning, but little manly sense, and they are otherwise cor-
rupted."
As the wild people were caught, they were transferred to the
nearest gaol. Some were at first taken to Mr. G. A. Robinson at
Bruni; or, under his care, to the establishment at Newtown, a
couple of miles out of Hobart Town. Mr. Stirling was in charge
of the latter asylum, during the journey of his chief to Port
Davey. Believing himself able to bring in some people by
means of the women, whose good opinion he believed he had
secured, he wrote on March 14th, 1830, offering his service: "I
feel," said he, "a confidence on behalf of the females who would.
accompany me, to cancel any doubts or apprehensions as con-
nected with my own personal safety." His offer was declined.
Such an establishment was soon found of little use, as numbers
came in, and numbers went out again. An island home was the
desideratum. Long before, the English colonists had much
trouble with the aboriginal Caribs of the West Indian St. Vin-
cents. After a "Black War" there, a submission led to the
project of banishment. Unwilling to forsake their own lovely
native land, the Caribs again resisted; but in vain. Capture
parties were appointed, and those secured were transported to
the little island of Balisean, that had been meanwhile allotted
for their reception. It is just possible that this scrap of Colonial
History in the olden times may have suggested the Tasmanian
Island Depôt Scheme.
In spite of the success of some of the roving parties in capture,
for 236 were secured by the end of 1832, it was felt that great
destruction of life had taken place. Mr. Carr, manager then for
the Van Diemen's Land Agricultural Company, calculated upon
the effects of the "Five Pounds' Proclamation," as it was called,
and said, "The Proclamation as usual will enjoin the sparing the
defenceless, and that the people are not to be killed, but taken
alive; and the way in which it will be acted upon will be by
killing nine for one taken." Some such feeling was evidently
shared by the authorities; for a Government Notice, appearing
on August 20th, 1830, bears upon the subject, and again utters
a warning against cruelty.
“The Lieutenant-Governor," says the command, "has learned,
with much regret that the Government Order of the 25th of
February last, offering certain rewards for the capture of the
188
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
Aborigines, appears in some recent instances to have been mis-
apprehended; and, in order to remove the possibility of any
future misunderstanding on this important subject, His Excel-
lency has directed it to be distinctly notified, that nothing can
be more opposed to the spirit of the above-named Order, and to
all that of the different Proclamations and Orders which pre-
ceded it, than to offer any sort of violence or restraint to such of
the aboriginal Natives as may approach the European in-
habitants with friendly views:-the reward was offered for the
capture of such Natives only as were committing aggressions on
the inhabitants of the Settled Districts, from which it was the
object of the Government to expel them with every degree of
humanity that was practicable, when all efforts for their conci-
liation had proved abortive.
"It was His Excellency's most particular desire, and most
peremptory Order to all persons employed under the Government,
that no violence or restraint shall be offered to the inoffensive
Natives of the remote and unsettled parts of the Territory, and
that all such as may approach the Settled Districts, and offer to
hold intercourse with the inhabitants in a friendly manner, may
be encouraged to do so, and permitted to depart whenever they
desire it; and if, after the promulgation of this Notice, any
wanton attack or aggression against the Natives becomes known
to the Government, the offenders will be immediately brought to
justice and punishment."
The best criticism upon this extraordinary Order is found in
the captures being nearly all made in the outlying districts, and
that two months afterwards the Governor himself conducted an
expedition against all the Natives in the settled districts.
Among the Leaders of Parties the name of JOHN BATMAN
stands out in relief.
Though only one of the ordinary Leaders of Parties after the
Aborigines, yet, as the most prominent of these, the most.
esteemed by the Governor, and the most approved of by the
Blacks, a separate notice might be given of his part in the war.
There is an additional reason for bringing him thus to the front,
because of the great work he was the means of accomplishing in
1835-the colonization of Port Phillip-and thus becoming the
Founder of the prosperous Colony of Victoria.
JOHN BATMAN, THE BLACKS' FRIEND.
189
John Batman was an Australian; being born at Parramatta,
in New South Wales, and subsequently becoming a farmer
under the shadow of Ben Lomond, in Tasmania. For particulars
of his career, the reader is referred to the Author's works on
"The Discovery and Settlement of Port Phillip," and "John
Batman, the Founder of Victoria."
Of powerful frame, goodly stature, great activity, untiring
energy, quick intelligence, and superior Bush-craft, he was fitted
for leadership in the Black War. But, of agreeable manners,
exuberant spirits, and genuine kindliness, he became the admired
of men, and the favourite of women. Governor Arthur acknow-
ledged the public efforts of Mr. Batman, and was pleased with
his society, while the convict servants of his household, and the
roving tribes of the island, alike felt the benevolence of his
heart, and bowed before the force of his character.
That the writer be not supposed too partial toward him, other
evidence will be produced. The Quaker Missionary, Mr. George
Washington, often spoke to me of his interest in the man, and
acknowledged the correctness of the Rev. John West, the his-
torian of Tasmania, when he stated, "To Mr. Batman belongs
the praise of mingling humanity with severity, of perceiving
human affections he was commissioned to resist. He certainly
began in the midst of conflict and bloodshed to try the softer
influence of conciliation and charity,-being one of the few who
entertained a strong confidence in the power of kindness." Mr.
Melville, another colonial historian, asserts that he "proceeded
not with the sword, but with the olive branch." Honest old
Captain Robson, who was with him in an early trip to Port
Phillip, gave me this testimony of his friend: "He was a brave,
athletic, daring, resolute man, fearing nothing-neither wind nor
weather. His perseverance was beyond anything I ever saw.”
The Hon. J. H. Wedge adds a strong recommendation of his
ancient companion. Wm. Robertson, Esq. J.P., who knew him
intimately, has this observation: "His character for veracity
and probity cannot, with regard to the truth, be in the slightest
degree impugned." Mr. Hamilton Hume, the veteran explorer,
who walked overland from Sydney to the site of Geelong in
1824, was born in the same village as Mr. Batman, and was
enthusiastic in writing to me of his good qualities, and Bush-
abilities.
190
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
Mr. Batman was called from his home, and a fine family of
daughters, to take the field after the marauding Natives. He
had previously been, from love of adventure, not less than the
patriotic impulse of a citizen, a chaser of flying Bushrangers,
and the means of the capture of notable ruffians. Delighting
in danger, and courting conflict, he was among the foremost to
proffer his services to the Government in that perilous time. In
his official letter, dated from his estate, Kingston, Ben Lomond,
June 15th, 1829, he writes: "I have formed the determination,
provided it meets with His Excellency's approbation, under
certain conditions, of devoting some time, and all the exertion
of which I am capable, toward bringing in alive some of that
much injured and unfortunate race of beings."
This gives the key to his conduct. He regarded the Natives
as injured—“ much injured "—and his sympathies were called
forth on behalf of the unfortunate people. They were being shot
down by soldiers, constables, and settlers. They were hunted
down as implacable and hungry beasts. They were unpitied
and undefended. He was resolved to stand in the breach.
Without assuming so much as Mr. G. A. Robinson, he was
actuated by a similar spirit. Not making the Christian pro-
fession that the latter did, Batman's real desire to save the
Blacks from destruction was as pure as his. The difference,
and a striking difference between them was this-that while one
took no weapons, the other did; though that was from the old
feeling of insecurity, former habits of bandit-hunting, and the
resolution to fight rather than run, when he failed to conciliate.
Mr. Robinson fled from his native pursuers; but Mr. Batman
would stand and face those to the death who rejected his
proposed kindness, and sought his own destruction.
The Launceston Advertiser of August 24th, greeted his appoint-
ment with satisfaction, saying, "We learn from good authority
that Mr. John Batman is to be employed for some time as Con-
ductor of a party of ten Crown Prisoners, part of whom are to
receive emancipation, and part tickets of leave, if they behave
well. Their task is to capture all the Aborigines, or as many as
they possibly can." Again, "Mr. John Batman is very well
fitted for this office, from his knowledge of the Bush, from hist
early habits, and from his great capability of enduring fatigue
and privation." Major Grey, his neighbour, a most energetic.
ROUGH WORK AT BEN LOMOND.
191
magistrate, was much interested in Mr. Batman's application,
and a zealous co-operator in his subsequent movements. Great
confidence was expressed; and, as one official wrote to the Colo-
nial Secretary, "A thousand acres or two of land to such a
person as Mr. Batman for such an undertaking would be no
consideration."
{
At once he went to work; for we have his letter, dated
Sept. 18th, giving a record of progress: "Seeing a number of
Natives approaching toward us, I ordered the men to lie down,
and not to fire upon them, but, when I should whistle, to rush
forward and seize them. When they approached within forty
yards, I gave the signal. We all ran forward, and secured three
women, two young children, three boys, and two young men.”
This was brave news for the settlers, as these captured ones
belonged to a troublesome tribe. The capture took place be-
tween Break-o'-Day Plains and Oyster Bay, near the east coast.
Seventeen large dogs were obtained, and a considerable quantity
of stolen goods-blankets, knives, clothing, &c.—fell into hand.
Unfortunately, that same month in the following year was
signalized by a sad affair, a solitary instance of real warfare
between Mr. Batman and the Natives. He had been penetrating
the intricate forest glens of Ben Lomond, when he suddenly
found himself confronted by a well-armed mob of seventy,
belonging to the most sanguinary tribes of the island. A flight
of spears saluted him; and so determined an assault followed,
that he was constrained to order a discharge of musketry.
Although fifteen of the assailants paid the penalty of their
attack, yet such was the valour of the Native warriors that only
one woman and one child were made prisoners by the Europeans.
The dogs, which had nobly stood beside their dark masters,
shared in their fate, for twenty were shot. Among the spoil of
the camp were thirty or forty spears, fifteen feet in length.
That there was some justification for the colonial terror, and
some need for armed parties to restrain attack, where unable
to make peaceable terms, a letter of Mr. Batman's may afford
evidence. It was written officially from Ben Lomond, and
says: "I have just time to say that the Natives last Thursday
week murdered two men at Oyster Bay, and the next day they
beat a sawyer about to death. On Sunday after they murdered
a soldier. On last Wednesday they attacked the house of
192
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
Mr. Boultby, when he was absent; and if it had not been for a
soldier who happened to be there, they would have murdered
Mrs. Boultby and all the children. On Friday last they mur-
dered three men at a hut belonging to Major Grey, and left a
fourth for dead."
Mr. Batman was the first to employ native women as spies
and guides. Mr. Robinson afterwards followed out the same
plan with signal advantage. These brought intelligence of the
wanderers, and, from sympathy with the benevolent views of
these two leaders, induced their country people to accept of the
proffered protection. They were made to understand the inten-
tions of the Governor to remove them from the bad and cruel
Whites to good hunting-grounds, which their enemies could
never approach.
Three of Mr. Batman's native females succeeded on one occa-
sion in prevailing upon nine men to come to Kingston. It so
happened that the gentleman was from home, and Mrs. Batınan
and her daughters were much terrified at the visit. She sent
over for her neighbour, Mr. Simeon Lord, who gave me a graphic
account of this irruption of barbarians. He found the new
comers about as wild a collection as the country could furnish.
They were all armed, and were prying most curiously, but good-
humouredly, about the premises. Some were enjoying the
mysteries of the mirror, and laughing at each other's transferred
features. One had a girl's cap on his greasy pate, and another
mounted a larger article of feminine wardrobe. They stalked
about in Native costume of perfect undress, and made free with
what pleased them, but carefully abstained from liberties with
the household. As hungry as hunters, they made such havoc as
to lead Mr. Batman afterwards to write: "Their appetite is
enormous, devouring everything they meet. They are parti-
cularly fond of half-roasted eggs of every description, geese,
ducks, and hens; it is all one-so much so, that Mrs. Batman's
poultry-yard will cut but a sorry figure after the company.”
The master arrived home at sundown, to the great relief of
the family. He gave the party a hearty welcome, but took no
measures to force them into confinement. The consequence was,
that the gentry departed in the night, though returning on a
subsequent day. Six having been on another occasion taken to
Launceston, the Commandant, not knowing what to do with
THE SYDNEY BLACK GUIDES.
193
them, would have let them free, had not Mr. Batman convinced
him that the poor creatures would be shot if released.
But in spite of the good service rendered by the women,
Mr. Batman believed that they were not fully to be relied upon
in an emergency; for, although conscious of the honest inten-
tions of Government toward their race, they would at times
relax in their efforts, and spread false reports, from a natural
feeling of unwillingness to see them taken prisoners.
Mr. Batman, as an old ranger in the forests of New South
Wales, had experience of the fine tracking powers of the New
Holland Aborigines, and wished to have such auxiliaries with
him in his present work. Addressing the Governor upon the
subject, on March 18th, 1830, he distinguished the kind he
required: "They should be got from the interior, as those
about the town of Sydney are accustomed to the drinking of
spirits, and have in a great measure lost their natural gift of
tracking."
Colonel Arthur approved of the suggestion. Accordingly,
Pigeon and Crook were procured, and continued for several
years attached to Mr. Batman's person, and companions in his
wonderful adventures. Years after, they and one of his old
English servants went across with him to the establishment of a
settlement at Port Phillip, where they discovered Buckley, the
Wild White man, who had been living with the Port Phillip
Blacks for thirty-two years. Such was the estimation in which
the efforts of these so-called Sydney Natives were held, that, in
1831, others were sent for by the authorities, "to be employed,"
said the Courier of September, "as instruments, under the direc-
tion of properly-qualified persons, to conciliate and civilize the
Natives of our own island.”
Pigeon and Crook were despatched for the new men, who
stipulated for a dollar a day, a suit of clothes, and a medal.
The names of the guides were John Pigeon, John Crook, John
Waterman, William Sawyers, John Peter, and John Radley.
Their native appellations were respectively Warroba, Jonninbia,
Monowara, Nombardo, Bollo'bolong, and Terro'mallee.
Their conduct, real or alleged, provoked much discussion at
the time. It was said they would be bloodthirsty destroyers of
the poor Tasmanians, and that, instead of ameliorating their
social condition, they would introduce fresh vices, and incite
0
194
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
them to worse hostilities. The dreadful deeds of Mosquito, the
Sydney monster, were paraded to the injury of the reputation of
the imported guides. Perhaps no one more violently objected
to their continued engagement than Mr. G. A. Robinson. Some
asserted that his opposition was from spleen at their success;
but he affirmed that they were untrustworthy servants, that
they corrupted the Native women, and that they were drunken
reprobates.
After skirmishing for a long time, the two leaders came to
open rupture about the strangers. Mr. Robinson having officially
complained of them, and reminded the Governor that they were
from Mosquito's own part of the country, Mr. Batman combated
for them. He gave instances of their good deeds, and related
cases in which they had stood by him in great straits, and had
one time helped him successfully to capture, without bloodshed,
a mob of thirteen Aborigines. He defended their conduct at
home, which had been assailed by the Conciliator, and declared,
“In no instance, in New South Wales, have they been known
to join the runaways." Warming at last beyond patience or
prudence, he proceeded to personalities, and circulated a slander
before raised. I cannot think," wrote he, " of any other motive
Mr. Robinson could possibly have for this assertion than his
knowledge that the Sydney Blacks were acquainted with all his
proceedings while in the Bush.”
(6
Mr. Batman, though directed to co-operate with Major Gray,
was ordered to consult the magistrate at Campbell Town, James
Simpson, Esq.; to whom I am much indebted for information
about the early times of both Tasmania and Victoria, and who
was a warm friend to poor John Batman. These two gentlemen
were favourable in their reports, as may be seen from the fol-
lowing Government Notice of Sept. 9, 1830: "Mr. John Batman,
having served the period of twelve months in pursuit of the
Aborigines, the Lieutenant-Governor, placing every confidence in
the certificates of James Simpson and William Gray, Esquires,
J.P., as to the zeal which he has manifested, has directed a
grant of two thousand acres of land to be made to him.”
"The following rewards are also to be extended to the men
who have served under Mr. Batman's orders during that period.
To James York (Juliana), a conditional pardon; James Clark
(Phoenix), ticket-of-leave; Howell Baxter (Prince of Orange),
PENAL SYSTEM OF VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.
195
ditto; James Gumm (Arab), ditto; William Gould (Arab),
ditto."
A little explanation may here be necessary. The men attached
to Mr. Batman's party were convicts. As such, they were sup-
posed dead to the law, holding no property, constantly amenable
to punishment, and subject to removal at any time to any place.
If placed in service, they were to all intents and purposes slaves
to their masters, who could get them flogged for disobedience or
negligence, and to whose engagement they were bound for a fixed
period. I have had both male and female assigned servants in
Tasmania, who were not permitted to be off my premises after
sundown without my written pass, to show any constable who
may have stopped them. According to the length of sentence, so
was the period of colonial bondage. If the party behaved well, a
Ticket-of-Leave was granted. This gave a status of freedom. The
man was free of engagement to a master-could, within a certain
limited district, seek for employment, making his own bargain-
could own property, be sued or sue, and be at liberty to marry.
Although a man could not take a wife till possessed of a ticket,
a prisoner woman might be married, having especial licence from
the authorities. At any moment the ticket man was liable to
have his privilege removed, should he be found out of bounds,
drunk, disorderly, away from periodical muster, or transgressing
one of the many police regulations. But once favoured with
a Conditional Pardon, all restraints were removed, and he was
practically a free man in the colony. He could live in any
district he pleased, or reside in another colony, but never pro-
ceed to Great Britain and Ireland. A Free Pardon only allowed
of return to the mother country. A lad whom I took from the
ship as my servant had been transported for robbing his master
at home. He proved a worthy fellow, and I was able suc-
cessively to procure his ticket-of-leave, conditional pardon, and
free pardon; and then he returned to his mother in England.
Against the name, for instance, of James Gumm the word Arab
is in brackets. This was the name of the convict-ship by which
he arrived. All persons were recognised in the police records by
their name and ship.
Mr. Batman was not indifferent to the reward of his Sydney
guides. Ten pounds were presented to each. But at the end
of the first year, he recommended that Pigeon and Crook should
02
196
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
be made Bush constables, and put on the police staff. He
suggested, also, that the same power should be granted to Black
Bill, a Tasmanian guide. He procured better rations for them.
Anxious for home and rest, he retired awhile in October 1830,
transferring his Sydney Blacks to his friend Mr. Cottrell. The
Governor, in his despatch of November 20th, is pleased to refer
to his labours thus: "Mr. Batman treated the savages with the
utmost kindness, distributing to them clothing and food. They
were placed under no restraint, but all the indulgence that had
been pledged was manifested toward them. Mr. Batman, who has.
taken the most lively interest in conciliating these wretched
people, and has been one of the few who supposed that they
might be influenced by kindness, was, with his family, most
assiduous in cultivating the best understanding."
But he never lost his interest in the work. His year of suc-
cess was that in which Mr. Robinson had been able to accom-
plish little. After this, the operations were left in the hands of
the latter, though the Ben Lomond squatter actively laboured
for the good of the unhappy race. He objected to the system
of clearing the island of all of them without exception, and
pleaded hard for the retention of youth educated by settlers,
and devoted to their service. This brought him into collision
with Mr. Robinson, who was ever jealous of his intimacy with
Colonel Arthur and the higher officials, and who formally com-
plained of his keeping two Native lads on his farm near Ben
Lomond, for he would not return them at the mission leader's
orders.
A passage-at-arms occurred. Mr. Robinson was backed by the
Aborigines' Committee of Hobart Town, while his rival had the
ear of officialdom. Mr. Batman declared that he was not obstruc-
tive, but that he acted as the guardian of the boys, because their
mothers, on being forwarded to Flinders Island, refused to take
the lads from the kind care of the Blacks' friend. The Committee
wrote to Ben Lomond, urging the removal of the two, stating that
Mr. Robinson had intimated the clamour among the exiles at
their absence. Lieutenant Darling, the beloved Commandant at
Flinders, espoused the side of Batman, and addressed a letter to
him, March 25th, 1834, declaring that the mother of Jackey had
told him, in answer to his question: "No-no-no! let him
stay at Mr. Batman's, till he gets a long fellow." Mr. Darling
BATMAN AT BEN LOMOND.
197
continues: "I have seen Jackey (then ten years old), driving
the plough at your farm, and have expressed to you my admira-
tion of his shrewdness and intelligence, and my hope that under
the care and kindness with which both he and little Benny are
evidently treated by your family, they would one day become
useful members of society." He wished that all the children at
Flinders were similarly placed. Ultimately Mr. Robinson gained
his end.
I have in my possession, through the favour of Mr. Weire,
Town Clerk of Geelong, who married Mr. Batman's daughter
Eliza, the little memorandum book in which the leader of the
roving party kept his Journal, from March 3d to September 29th,
1830. Outside, it is directed from his farm, Kingston.
A slight analysis of this Journal will illustrate the labours of
the man.
The scene is laid about Ben Lomond.
This grand pile of rocks lies toward the north-eastern corner
of Tasmania, and is the source of the North Esk and South Esk,
whose waters unite at Launceston. The district is one of great
interest to the geologist. It is about twenty-six years ago since
I had the pleasure of travelling through it on my way to the
East Coast. Leaving the neighbouring farm to that where Mr.
Batman lived in the olden times, I traversed the carboniferous
and silurian county of Fingal, crossing several creeks that had
cut through the bituminous coal, and glancing at the quartz
veins of the paleozoic rocks from which the gold is now ex-
tracted. The granite succeeds, and carries one on to the shore.
Overflowing these various formations, and presenting most
fantastic appearances when prismatic, there is the greenstone.
This ancient igneous rock constitutes the huge bulk of Ben
Lomond, which I found to be a table nearly eight miles in extent,
with an elevation of five thousand feet. The whole neighbour-
hood of Ben Lomond is a vast forest, varied by scrub and huge
boulders. Lofty isolated hills of carboniferous order, as Mount
Nicholas, are to be observed with remarkable caps of greenstone,
telling the old story of denudation. It was amidst such a region
that our leader and his party spent the winter and spring,
watching for the Aborigines.
A little story of the author's Bush experience may afford the
reader further insight into the nature of the place, and the
characters one might have met in the period. The time of my visit
198
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
was some seven years only after the departure of Mr. Batman
for residence in Port Phillip.
I started from near Kingston, under the guidance of a convict
shepherd, who carried the swag, and led the way. He enter-
tained me with narratives of bushranging and native hunting,
to lighten my toilsome march. After travelling for about ten
hours over very rough ground, the sun was setting before the
welcome sound of a dog broke the silence of the mountain soli-
tude, and guided us to the lonely hut of old Boco, the one-eyed
tenant of Ben Lomond. He was lord of the wastes, the supposed
shepherd of a flock feeding on the sparse vegetation of the rocky
slopes.
He received me heartily, and proclaimed his ample store of
mutton, damper, and tea, for my entertainment, objecting to the
opening of the haversack which my companion carried. The
hut was of slabs of unhewn timber, rudely plastered with clay.
The floor was of mother earth. The huge fireplace opened into
the hut; and, being unprovided with a chimney, furnished the
inmates with a sight of the stars, or a sensation of rain, accord-
ing to the weather. The billy was swung, the tea was made, the
chops were fried, the damper was brought, and the weary
wanderers were soon at ease.
Old
But the company-it is time they were introduced.
Boco, who had passed through some singular passages of history,
and whose hut was, perhaps slanderously, supposed the re-
ceptacle of curiosities, surreptitiously conveyed there from the
regions below, was of most forbidding aspect, torn and rent
by years and usage, like the mountain of which he seemed the
genius. He was not alone. A number of friends had dropped
in. Two shepherds were seeking lost animals. Three men were
out kangarooing. Three were servants sent to cut posts and rails
for fencing.
Two were constables on the search. All were of
the convict class. Even these were not unattended. Every
man seemed to have a dog; and the noise these creatures made
through the night would have disturbed the rest of any but
Bushmen. A new-comer, when informed of the character of his
associates, might have felt uncomfortable.
The supper over, the chat commenced vigorously. An un-
necessary apology was made to the gentleman for the absence of
grog.
It had been all drunk, and Boco had nothing but good
A NIGHT UNDER BEN LOMOND.
199
Ben Lomond ale (water) to offer. A very dirty pack of cards
gave amusement to one party, some indulged in a song, while
others smoked before the blazing logs. Being all early risers,
there were speedy arrangements for bed. My guide had an
opossum rug for me, which he disposed on one of the three side
bunks of rough slabs. As soon as I had settled myself, a
peculiarly odorous splitter enveloped himself in a filthy blanket,
retaining his boots, and occupied the spare place beside me.
The rest folded their rugs or blankets around them, and coiled
about on the mud and moistened floor.
Some were not ready for sleep, and called upon a scholarly
mate to give them some literature. He produced a disreputable
looking book, and brought the light near him, as he lay upon
the floor. The candlestick was a disabled tin pannikin. The
tallow was the fat of the chops poured off from the hissing pan.
The wick was a piece of Old Boco's well-worn shirt, and gave
a flickering and smoky flame. In a monotonous manner, Jack
read a very characteristic work, considering the country and
company-"The Wonderful Escapes of Jack Sheppard!"
Some such associations, with the addition of native society,
probably surrounded the rude hut erected for the Ben Lomond
sojourn of Mr. Batman.
To return to the Journal. The entries are very brief, often
roughly and incorrectly written, but evidently made honestly on
the days in question. The only thing noticed outside of his
work was the eclipse of the moon on March 9th, when "not one
bit of her was to be seen." The Governor took much notice of his
proceedings, and Mr. Batman rode occasionally to Launceston or
Hobart Town to confer with His Excellency. We read: "Had
a long talk with His Excellency;" "Had a long conversation
respecting my expedition against the Aborigines." Having some
trouble to get a couple of women out from gaol at Launceston, he
had to see the Governor before securing their liberty. Colonel
Arthur promised Pigeon "a great deal, if he could succeed in
bringing in a tribe on friendly terms."
Mr. Batman, after several long and painful journeys, with fruit-
less return, was obliged to have a substantial hut made as a
depôt for provisions, as well as a home for the party. From this
centre he despatched his people on search, though often enough
there is the entry, "No sight of the Natives." He would send
200
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
the men by themselves, or with the native women.
Thus we
have, “The women left this morning with Gunner, Pigeon, Crook,
and Black Bill, to scour the country." For reasons not explained
the women "expressed a wish to go away by themselves." They
promised to bring in the tribe if permitted to travel alone, and
the leader started them from the east end of Ben Lomond. He
gave them complete supplies, besides "three dogs, knives, pipes,
&c., to carry with them." Three men took the burden some
considerable distance for them. His faith was strong in their
intentions, for we have him writing: "I have every hope of the
women bringing in their tribe." His confidence was not mis-
placed. When he sent either his European or Sydney men with
them, he would not permit them to take fire-arms. Mr. Robinson
was not alone in his belief in moral suasion.
Occasionally he was directed to go in pursuit of some mur-
derous gang. He came too late to catch the murderers of three
men at Major Gray's. Hearing of a mob attacking Mr. Hooper's
place, he rode hastily off. His day's record says: "The house
surrounded by Natives. I galloped down, and the whole of
them fled. The first thing we saw was the dead body of Mr.
Hooper, and a great number of goods lying outside the house."
He was quite ready to acknowledge something to the credit
of the foes of the settlers. Ordered off to another reported
scene of outrage, where it was said that Mr. Newland's man had
been killed, he arrived, "and found the whole of it to be false.
The man (who originated the story) was a cripple, or I should
have taken him before a magistrate." Another notice evidences
his good feeling: "They went also into a house where a woman
was, took one blanket, and did not hurt her. This shows they
do not commit murders when they might." After another ride,
upon a report, he returned, as he wrote, "without seeing the
least trace of the Natives, and think the whole of the reports
to be false."
Among the walking feats, we have noticed fifteen, twenty, and
twenty-five miles a day. The wet and cold sorely tried them,
but the snow, three or four feet thick for a week at a time, shut
them up in their secluded mountain hut, or detained them on
the lower plains.
There was under the rough exterior of this powerful Bushman
no small share of the tenderness belonging more to the other
sex.
GILBERT ROBERTSON, THE LEADER.
Several entries in his Journal prove this.
201
He was very
His notice of
fond of children, and very gentle to women.
April 6th is: "The women here all day. This evening, the
young child, belonging to one of the women, that sucked at the
breast, died. I put it in a box, and buried it at the top of the
garden. She seemed much affected at the loss of the child, and
cried much." The next day's entry commences, "This morning
I found the woman, that lost her child, over the grave, and
crying much."
As John Batman had no fluency in writing, and confined him-
self to the fewest possible sentences in his official reports, as well
as the most barren statements in his journal, it is pleasing to
notice this evidence of his natural good feeling. Even while out,
his care for the black women was conspicuous. Such entries as
the following are worthy of record: "The black women could not
walk well." "Caught a kangaroo for the women."
"The women
much tired: made them some tea, and gave them bread and
mutton." "The black women arrived here about twelve o'clock :
made them tea, gave them bread, &c." He was evidently very
uneasy about the long absence of the women on two occasions.
For a whole fortnight we have the entry of "No signs of the
women." When he heard that in their search after their
countrymen they had been snowed up, he was much concerned
about sending them relief. Then, upon their return, he would
not for several days permit them to leave the hut, because of
the snow.
Mr. Gilbert Robertson, one time chief constable at Rich-
mond, a man of powerful frame, possessed qualities admirably
fitting him for a leader. Thoroughly educated, of independent
character, with a relish for public life, he occupied a prominent
position in political affairs at a time when it was indiscreet to
speak, and dangerous to write. He had the boldness to expose
evils, and the temerity to confront authority. He was prepared
to vindicate his views in the presence of His Excellency, as well
as expound them through the press before citizens. A little
time-serving would have saved him much loss, if it had not led
to better fortune. Co-operating with Messrs. Gregson and Mel-
ville, he earnestly contended for the emancipation of colonists,
and the end of irresponsible government, content to suffer with
202
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
others the odium of their opposition, and the penalty of ob-
noxious laws.
It is fitting that the men who now enjoy such extension of
franchise in Australia should cast a grateful glance on the
memory of those who bled in their purse, and ached in their
imprisoned bodies, that British settlers might possess British
rights. At this moment, one of the worthy fathers of the
colonial press, and one of the fathers of colonial freedom,
wanders through London a too-forgotten and neglected man."
In the feebleness of advanced age, with the pressure of impe-
cunious circumstances, he can stand forth as a man who, with
all the strength of conscious intellect, and the resolution of
an unquailing will, could endure the confiscation of fortune, and
the indignity of a gaol, while battling against the despotic régime
of the past, and helping to usher in a brighter and a better day.
The name of Mr. Gilbert Robertson shines in the annals of
the "Black War," and will be often recognised in these pages.
It was after his engagement with Government that his career as
a politician began. Strong-headed and impulsive as he was,
too unbending in opinion, too unrelenting in attack, he was not
unpossessed of geniality, and had a warm interest in the Natives
from his sympathy with the rights of man. Such a person was
not likely to find favour with the advocates of Imperialism. It
is to be regretted, however, that when he sought the recom-
mendation of his chief, Mr. Anstey, on behalf of some indul-
gences for his men, his application was rather surlily refused.
In his address to Colonel Arthur on November 17th, 1828,
his energetic and sanguine nature led him to exclaim: "In
that time (a year) I think I could manage to catch every one
in the Settled Districts." He stipulated, upon engagement,
December 25, 1828, that he should receive a salary of 150l.,
with rations, and a grant of land, if successful; but that, in the
event of any casualty occurring to himself, his wife should
receive a grant of land, and be provided with the means of
returning to Scotland.
His engagement extended to March 24th, 1830. As may be
imagined, the restlessness of his spirit did not render him sub-
missive to the stern rule of the Superintendent, Mr. Anstey, who
complained of his irregularity of reports, and his impractica-
bility with other leaders. He felt himself exposed to the array
COTTRELL, THE LEADER.
203
of fortune-hunters, G. A. Robinson, John Batman, Jorgen Jor-
genson, &c. He denounced their complicity with unconstitutional
measures, their truckling for favour, their immoral intercourse
with female guides, and their persistent thwarting of his own
operations. He sought a conference of leaders, that a better
plan might be adopted than the desultory one pursued, urging:
"I really think that all our efforts have been too much at
random." He fell foul, especially, with the astute, Anstey-
shadow Jorgenson; resenting the employment of a man in the
•position of leader who had not escaped the barrier of penal
bondage, and who was addicted to drunkenness. The other, a
ready writer, and not too scrupulous an opponent, felt himself
backed in the antagonism by the moral support of authority.
Mr. Anstey, meantime, amused himself with writing about "the
rival chieftains."
When his term of twelve months had expired, during which
his success had been neither according to his expectations, nor
equal to his exertions, Mr. Robertson wrote to the Colonial
Secretary. He frankly states the case: "Unfortunately I have
been able to do so little good for the expense which I have cost
the Government, that I do not expect His Excellency will con-
sider it expedient to require an extension of my services beyond
the present year, though I do not think my health could stand
another year of the hardships which I have undergone." Again,
he says:
"I do not wish nor expect any remuneration for what-
ever extra duty I may have to perform in pursuit of the Natives
at any time, or to any place, where His Excellency may be
pleased to order me, if it is his pleasure that I shall return to
my office of Chief District Constable of Richmond after the
1st of January."
But he had not been unsuccessful, if even the capture of the
bold chief Eumarra had been his sole performance. This man
and four others were taken in October 1829. It was said by
some that the cudgel and musket were necessary to their sub-
mission. One thing is certain, that Eumarra became the friend
and helpmate of Mr. Robertson. Upon his retirement from
service, the leader secured a thousand acres of land.
Mr. Anthony Cottrell was a valuable leader. In December
1831, he laid hold of two men and a woman, and made such
good use of them as to gain their assistance to secure the rest of
204
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
their tribe toward the north-east; though we find Colonel Arthur
writing: “I am very apprehensive that Mr. Cottrell may lose
the Natives he has already taken." In the following November
he made an excellent haul. His advocacy of the principles of
the Conciliatory Mission may be gathered from his official report,
in which he was proud to say: There was not the least force
used toward the people that joined us on this occasion, and
they were allowed to retain their spears, &c., and to do as they
pleased."
He subsequently went to the west coast, and followed after.
the Arthur River tribe that had speared a Sydney Native, and
had forced Mr. G. A. Robinson to run for his life. Two of his
men were unhappily drowned near the mouth of Pieman's River.
On January 10th, 1833, he fell in with the tribe of twenty-six,
some thirty miles from the Macquarie Harbour Heads, and would
have met with a favourable response to his appeals, but for the
vindictive jealousy of Edick. They had agreed to submit, and
stayed one night and part of a day with him; but afterwards,
when passing through a dense scrub, Edick persuaded the party
to leave their white friends. Mr. Cottrell could not detain
them, as he was unprovided with trinkets and provisions to
induce them to remain.
However, he gallantly pressed forward in pursuit, and saw
them, at length, on the opposite shore, at the mouth of the
Arthur River. Rapidly constructing a raft, with the assistance
of Mr. Robinson's son, then with him, he attempted to cross;
but the frail vessel struck against a bar, and was wrecked.
Nothing daunted, Stewart, one of his men, manufactured a rude
canoe. In the meantime, Mr. Cottrell saw some on the other
bank ready to join if they could get over. As the exploit would
be one demanding not merely courage, but good swimming
qualities, a Sydney Black of the party undertook the work. One
by one did he succeed in securing the voluntary prisoners.
There were five men, two women, and a child. The last time of
crossing, Edick observed the treason, and rushed down to the
shore with his spearmen. The Sydney man lightened the bark,
by leaping into the water, leaving his last rescued to paddle
more swiftly and safely to the other bank. Rapidly came the
storm of spears; but, instead of blindly swimming onward, the
wary New Hollander watched the progress of a spear, dived, and
M'GEARY AND M'KAY, THE CAPTORS.
205
swam under the surface, rose for a breath, and dived again
before the next missile could reach the spot of his last appear-
ance. The brave fellow gained the shelter of his friends, but
was thoroughly exhausted with his effort. Mr. Cottrell took the
eight who came to him on the 5th of February, and placed them
for temporary safety on Grummet's Island, Macquarie Harbour.
When his superior, Mr. Robinson, returned to the camp, and
was told of the success, he was not so disinterested in his
patriotism as to rejoice at the event.
Mr. M'Geary was an unlettered man, but one of great ex-
perience in Bush-craft and acquaintance with the Natives, whose
language he spoke with much fluency. He was associated with
Mr. Robinson, and once, when that gentleman was absent, he
fell in with a tribe near Cape Portland. There he brought his
tact to bear so well, and so convinced the Aborigines of their
peril in falling in the hands of the remorseless Red-coats, that
they agreed to go with him. Accompanied by their forty-two
dogs, they followed him to Swan Island depôt.
Mr. M'Kay was, also, a very useful man in this important
sphere of action. In 1830, assisted by M'Geary, he was able to
capture thirteen at one time, and twelve at another. He was
successful in catching four of the renowned Big River tribe. The
Aborigines' Committee recommended on November 21st, 1831,
that he be retained to follow the tribe, and attempt to conci-
liate them, or "capture them unhurt." They thought that if he
fell in with Mr. Robinson he should place himself under his
orders. It was M'Kay who, when on one occasion attached to
Mr. Robinson's Conciliatory Mission, was severely treated by
some rough Blacks, that thought to complete their work by
dashing his brains out with waddies. But the Bushman had
secreted, against orders, certain weapons, of so unmistakeable a
power, that four of his antagonists were dropped, and the rest
departed in haste.
Mr. Surridge, when coxswain of a boat at Waterhouse Point,
to the north-east, made a fortunate capture of several Natives;
and, with the help of some sailors, obtained others. In October
1830, he placed three males and two females on Gun Carriage
Island. In November, with the aid of native women, he ob-
tained eight men and two women near the Forster's river to the
north-east. Three had yielded with the Stony Creek tribe, but
206
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
had run away from Mr. Robinson.
Seventeen spears were pre-
sented to the Launceston Commandant. After this, near C. Port-
land, he got another man; this Native had previously yielded to
Mr. Robinson, and then escaped. Honourable mention of Mr.
Surridge was made by the Lieutenant-Governor.
Mr. Jorgen Jorgenson must next be presented. This extra-
ordinary man was an adventurer of no ordinary kind. Nearly
five-and-thirty years ago, he wrote his life for one of the Hobart
Town Almanacks. A native of Denmark, and a sailor, he came
over to England in early manhood. He was with the expedition •
that settled Hobart Town in 1804. After various vicissitudes,
he came under the cognizance of the British Police Authorities.
Delivering himself from their grasp, he reappeared on another
scene. With a few adventurers, he landed upon the out-of-the-
world isle of Iceland, made glowing speeches upon grievances
of which the people had no previous knowledge, proclaimed
himself their deliverer from the thraldom of Denmark, and
actually succeeded in placing himself at the head of the Govern-
ment of that island of volcanic heat and glacial cold. The
untimely arrival of a small vessel from Denmark suggested
unpleasant remarks, and led to his speedy exit from the throne.
He again visited London, again fell into old habits, again was
recognised as an old offender, and, with complaints from Den-
mark, secured a free passage to Van Diemen's Land.
Yet, though simply a convict, his fertility of resources, energy
of character, and absence of bashfulness, brought him into notice.
A good penman, a diligent worker, a compliant servant, he
attracted the attention of Mr. Anstey, and secured his favour.
When, therefore, the Roving Parties were appointed, the Dane
made himself so useful as a handy man of all work to the police
magistrate, that he was eventually promoted to the command of
a party himself. He proudly styles himself the only prisoner of
the Crown entrusted with such a commission. He was allowed
an extra shilling a day when out. In his acknowledgment to
Mr. Anstey, August 11, 1829, he modestly says, "I hope you
will do me the justice to believe that, had I any other means to
supply my wants than by the bounty of Government, I would
most cheerfully do so."
He set out with a determination to make himself famous, to
feed his love of applause, to satisfy his ambition. He pleased
JORGEN JORGENSON, THE LEADER.
207
Mr. Anstey, and therefore the Government, no less by the regu-
larity and voluminous nature of his reports, than by his dashing
activity. A clever, shrewd, but calculating old man, he secured
the approval of a few, but earned the indifference or dislike of
many. Mr. Robinson in vain endeavoured to dislodge him from
the confidence of Mr. Anstey. Others stormed and threatened.
He still held on in triumph. But when useful no longer, he
was suffered to sink into obscurity, whither his old habits of
intemperance had been gradually leading him. An article in a
.paper would now and then sparkle with his old fire, and amuse
by its eccentricity.
After his return from his Native hunting, he prepared a record
of his own experience in the Bush, detailing circumstances con-
nected with the "Black War." This manuscript he presented
to Dr. Braim, afterwards the learned and much esteemed Arch-
deacon of Portland, in the colony of Victoria, who very gene-
rously gave it to me, in order to assist me with some materials
for the present work.
Mr. Jorgenson from the first took a correct view of the dis-
orderly movements of the Roving Parties. These were driving
the Natives hither and thither, without any settled and united
plan of action. As he properly observed, when addressing his
patron, Mr. Anstey, "We should never drive an enemy (unless)
we absolutely want to get rid of him) from the place where we
know him to be, to places where we cannot easily trace him,
much less from such a district as Swanport into the interior,
where the Natives, if attacked or defeated, might take the selection
whether they would fly to the eastward or westward." He pro-
posed the adoption of the Fabian system, "slow and cautious;"
knowing that the Government, in doing so, "must bear the
taunts of disaffected squatters, and the gloomy ill-will of assigned
servants." Both masters and men had been sufficiently tried by
their troubles with the Aborigines, and wanted a prompt and
certain cure applied.
In a well-written paper he unfolds the various causes of the
want of success in the existing arrangements.
scribes them :
"1st. Want of a plan of combined operations.
"2d. A total absence of discipline.
He thus de-
“3d. Inveterate laziness, which induces the parties to proceed
208
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
over the best ground they can find from one place to another;
and the Natives, thus knowing their customary haunts, can easily
avoid them.
"4th. That the men forming the parties have been promised
indulgence at the expiration of a certain time, without the
additional condition that none would be granted unless the
Natives were fallen in with, captured, or otherwise disposed of.
"5th. The imposition and deceit practised by prisoner leaders,
wishing to stand well, and be called good fellows by their fellow-
prisoners, and thus indulge the parties in idleness, and stifle all.
complaints.
"6th. (But which I advance with great caution.) Black Tom
and the other Blacks accompanying the expedition not being
willing to bring the parties to where the Natives would be likely
to be.
"7th. The imposition practised, to screen idleness, to hold out
that the Aborigines are men of superior cunning, and amazingly
swift runners, whereas the facts show to the contrary."
The enemies of Jorgenson, who admitted his facility of com-
position, and his ability to find fault with others, pointed
triumphantly to the meagre results of such lofty talk and great
promise of achievements. He could reprove others for their
absurd methods, but failed in catching the Blacks himself. He
is descriptive to prosiness of his own performances, and tells his
chief how he got through a dense scrub. "My little band of
fifteen," says he, "now entered a thick and sometimes uearly an
impervious scrub. We were now obliged to march one after the
other, taking the lead in succession, clearing away the scrub
before us, and thus preserved our strength."
Occasionally the dulness of ordinary reports is relieved by a
play of pleasantry in the pages of Jorgenson. In a certain
part of the Bush, on the banks of the Jordan, he seems to have
fallen upon a Welsh colony, as he thought. Surely the worthy
Welshman, who wrote to prove the origin of the Hebrews from
his own ancestors, would have felt an interest in the following
geographical discovery by the Danish leader:-
"Within a very narrow circumference all the farmers and
settlers are named 'Jones,' although of different families, and
not related to each other; viz. the married Jones, residing in
Four Square Gallows, whose Christian name is Robert; the
CAUGHT BY SEA-SICKNESS.
209
unmarried Robert Jones, whose hut stands upon the banks of
the Jordan, and not five hundred yards from the farmhouse of
the married Robert Jones, although on opposite banks of the
river; Michael and John Jones residing at the Sideling Hill,
and also on the banks of the Jordan; and Mr. John Jones,
nearer Jericho, on the Jordan."
The last native family known to be out, consisting of an old
man and an old woman, three elder children, and a little boy,—
the last of his race,-were captured near the Arthur River, on
the north-west coast. A reward of 50l. had been offered for
their persons. The native female companion of a leader accom-
plished the feat by artfully representing to the affrighted crea-
tures that she could conduct them to fine hunting-grounds,
where no Whites could molest them. Once in the boat, and
tossed on the western waters, they became helplessly sea-sick,
and, in that condition, were taken to a British establishment at
Woolnorth, near Cape Grim.
The Committee, who had never wholly approved of the roving
parties, and had believed the too frequent charges brought
against them of shooting the Natives, which they considered
in no other light than that of murder, took action in recom-
mending their withdrawal from the field. On February 2d,
1830, even, they wrote to the Governor that "they were unani-
mously of opinion that martial law should be suspended during
the period of Mr. Robinson's Peaceful Mission; and they are
further of opinion that more missions of a similar nature could
be employed with advantage, provided proper persons can be
employed to take charge of the parties." They suggested the
propriety of calling in the roving parties till the success of Mr.
Robinson be known. Though that was not done, and the said
parties continued to be usefully engaged some time longer, they
all gradually withdrew as Robinson advanced, as the bright stars
retire before the rising sun, and left the crowning work, and
crowning glory, to that distinguished leader.
P
ند
CHAPTER VII.
GEORGE AUGUSTUS ROBINSON, THE CONCILIATOR.
TOWARD the close of 1841, I was introduced by the Aborigines'
friend, Mr. George Washington Walker, Missionary of the Society
of Friends, to the studio of the Hobart Town artist, Mr.
Duterreau. There I was surrounded by figures of Tasmanian
Natives. The venerable painter was enthusiastic in his story
of the fate of those whose portraits he had taken. But the
grand tableau upon which he was then engaged was the scene
of Mr. Robinson's great moral conquest. The old gentleman
pointed to the figure on the canvas, and exclaimed, "There is
a real hero, though not one of your world's heroes.”
The worthy artist then introduced me to the celebrated com-
panions of the Conciliator-the members of his Mission. I saw
the massive form of Wooreddy, the magnificent head of Mana-
lagana, and the sparkling features of Truganina. I had the
story of the black man's wrongs and sufferings fresh from the
lips of an ardent sympathiser. But again and again would the
enthusiast turn with glowing face toward the portrait of
Robinson, and once more rehearse his noble deeds.
It was on that occasion I formed the secret resolution to
gather up fragments of the sad story, and some day write of the
"Black War,” and the work of George Augustus Robinson.
He was
Mr. Robinson's career had a humble commencement.
employed as a bricklayer in Hobart Town. His education had
been neglected in youth, and his official communications in after
years needed the pruning hand of a scholarship better than his
own. But though unpolished and rude, his intellect was vigorous
and healthy, and his common sense and powers of observation
placed him far above the average of working men.
In his physique, he was about five feet seven inches in height,
with a thick-set frame, and a florid complexion. His nose was

Till
MR. ROBINSON ON HIS CONCILIATION MISSION.
(From MR. DUTERREAU'S great picture.
ROBINSON'S TRAINING FOR HIS WORK.
211
large and broad, his forehead was expansive, his lips were full,
and his hair was of a light red colour. He walked with a firm,
decided step, indicative of self-reliance and conscious dignity.
His resolute look showed, as a friend expressed to me, "that he
would knock down St. Paul's to carry his object." But it was
his moral character that gave strength to his will, and led to his
achievements. A member of the Wesleyan Society, his ardent
temperament brought him into action under the auspices of a
religious organization celebrated for the zeal of its converts, and
the energetic policy of its ministers. George Robinson helped
in the Sabbath School, and distributed tracts. Extending his
efforts to the shipping, he became the Secretary of the Bethel
Mission. Through the patronage of the Colonial Chaplain, the
Rev. William Bedford, he obtained access on the Sunday to the
convicts at the prisoners' barracks. To these unhappy men he
gave tracts and religious counsel. In his own plain way he
occasionally indulged in preaching. It was in the pursuit of
such works of usefulness that he was being prepared for a more
honourable position, demanding all his natural and acquired
resources, and bringing into exercise his love of danger, his
desire of applause, his sterling benevolence, and his faith in
God.
The condition of the poor Natives engaged his sympathies at
a very early date. The working bricklayer sought out the dark
wanderers straying about the settlement, and brought them to
his house. There he gave them "plenty tucker," as they called
it, and sought to bring light to their ignorance. He investigated
their habits, and acquired their language. His influence over
them was extraordinary. Such a man could not fail having a
deep interest in the struggle then going on between his own
people and the coloured race. He thoroughly believed in the
wrong-doing of the settlers, and heartily denounced their in-
justice and cruelty. At an early period he was persuaded that
it was his mission to rescue the unhappy creatures from destruc-
tion, and that he could get them in. Lieutenant Gunn, for many
years the superintendent of the prisoners' barracks, Hobart
Town, and now Police Magistrate of Launceston, told me that
Mr. Robinson had several times laid his scheme before him, and
that he felt confident of its success if tried. When, therefore,
the first opportunity presented itself, by which his services for
P 2
212
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
the unfortunates could be more extensively employed, he
promptly availed himself of it.
The following advertisement appeared in the Gazette of March
1829:-
In furtherance of the Lieutenant-Governor's anxious desire
to ameliorate the condition of the aboriginal inhabitants of this
territory, His Excellency will allow a salary of 50%. per annum,
together with rations, to a steady man of good character, that
can be well recommended, who will take an interest in effecting
an intercourse with this unfortunate race, to reside on Bruni.
Island, taking charge of the provisions supplied for the use of
the Natives at that place."
Here is the opportunity :-to be with the Blacks, to help
them, to work for their good. But the prospect was not very
favourable. It was no liberal offer. A pound a week, and a
ration of food! He could make more than that at his trade.
He did not seek great returns for his usefulness, but it was
necessary that he should live decently. Besides, he was a
married man. He had a wife to consider; his children must
not be sacrificed to his public spirit. The man, in a subsequent
review of this period, said: "There were many powerful reasons
against my entering upon such an enterprise. I had a wife and
several children dependent on me. But my mind was under an
impression which I could not resist. I reasoned the matter over
with Mrs. Robinson, and with difficulty obtained her consent."
On the 16th of March, 1829, he penned the following appli-
cation:-
((
Feeling a strong desire to devote myself to the above cause,
and believing the plan which your Excellency has devised to
be the only one whereby this unfortunate race can be ame-
liorated; that as the Hottentot has been raised in the scale of
Being, and the inhabitants of the Society Islands are made an
industrious and intelligent race, so likewise, by the same exer-
tions, may the inhabitants of this territory be instructed. With
these impressions, I beg to offer myself for the situation. I
would beg leave to submit to your Excellency that a salary of
fifty pounds per annum is not sufficient for the support of my
family-would therefore request that you would be pleased to
make such additions to the salary as you may think meet.
Should my offer be accepted, I do not wish the superfluities, I
BRUNI ISLAND.
213
only desire to be able to procure the necessaries of life. I wish
to devote myself to this people."
The letter was backed by good names and good words. He
was successful. The salary was to be 1007., with rations for one
person. The scheme was ridiculed, and the man was denounced
as a mad enthusiast; but as he said himself once at a public
meeting, "I would not give a fig for a man who enters upon any
enterprise of moment, unless he possesses some enthusiasm.”
In very truth, he would want all his soon.
Bruni Island, so called from Admiral Bruni D'Entrecasteaux,
lies between the channel and Storm Bay, and extends to the
south-westward for fifty miles. South Bruni, in which Cook's
Adventure Bay is situated, is nearly separated from North Bruni :
a low, narrow neck of land unites the two. South Bruni, at the
time of our story, was uninhabited. Upon the northern portion
were the salt works of Mr. Roberts, and a few farms. The land
generally is unfit for cultivation, and the sparse vegetation
affords little advantage to pastoral pursuits. Belonging to the
carboniferous and silurian systems of the main opposite, the
place bears the record of subsequent and long-continued igneous
action. The rocky coast exposed to the southern ocean is much
torn and battered by the ever-boiling billows, and is carefully
shunned by the mariner. Even upon the inner side, the access
is often difficult from the frequent and sudden storms which
rush up the channel. A fantastic pile of lofty cliffs of basalt
has been cut off from the island by the surging sea, and now
stands, as the southern Bruni bulwarks, to receive the onset of
the Antarctic currents, and break their crests. The whole island,
from its deep indentations, exhibits the mark of such violent
and long-sustained oceanic assaults, that it seems but to require
a few charges more to destroy its unity of structure, and to
reduce it to some straggling islets in a seething sea.
In a little cove, on the western and inner side of Bruni, and
two miles from the northernmost point, called by the French
Expedition Cap de la Sortie, the Black station had to be
formed.
Thirty years of suffering had passed away when I last looked
into that place of settlement. The avenger and his victim had
alike disappeared. The neophyte of civilization and the red-
handed savage slept beneath the fallen leaves of the forest. I
214
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
turned my gaze from the bay to the opposite side of the channel.
There, at Oyster Cove, at the distance of two or three miles from
the scene of the first Black settlement, stood before me the rude
homes of the last feeble few of the race! There is something
of a peculiarly melancholy interest in the reflection, that the
remnant of the Tasmanian tribes should expire within sight of
the Bruni depôt of their day of strength and independence.
Rations of bread and potatoes were served out to any Natives
who could be induced to reside at the Station. These rations
were poor in quality and deficient in quantity. The biscuits.
were the refuse of supplies, and the few potatoes a day would
be but a miserable substitute for the plentiful and varied meal
which the forest and sea provided for free rangers. It was no
wonder, then, that the Blacks induced to settle at Bruni, for
protection and civilization, sickened of their asylum, and re-
peatedly escaped to the mainland. Sickness soon set in, and
poor Robinson vainly attempted to afford relief. He shared his
own personal rations with the poor creatures, urgently wrote for
more support, and asked for a small amount of tobacco for those
who had acquired the civilized art of smoking. Some tea and
sugar were ordered, but the tobacco was prohibited as a luxury.
The sickness increased. Wooreddy lost his first wife and child,
another leading man and his two wives died, and a sad story is
told of an infant being found suckling at the breasts of its dead
mother. The cry was, "No good-this bad place-no egg-no
kangaroo-no like-all die."
But a severe trial followed. The Blacks were to be civilized,
and rendered fit instruments to benefit their wilder countrymen;
yet they were placed on Bruni in close proximity to some of
the worst characters of the colony. Mr. Robinson had repeated
complaints from the women of cruel assaults by convict wood-
cutters on the island, and he observed, with indignation, the
effects of intercourse with the whalers. At that time the black
whale came about the southern coast, and into the Storm Bay,
and several permanent whaling establishments existed on Bruni
and the mouth of the channel. A rough class of men, with full
rations of beef, spirits, and tobacco, they found ready means of
attracting the presence of the females of the Black settlement.
The locality of the depôt did not furnish sufficient means for the
isolation of his charge, and the Superintendent represented the
BRUNI DEPÔT A FAILURE.
215
necessity of removal to Barnes Bay, and, as he stated in his
official letter, care should be taken that they have no cor-
respondence with the white heathen."
The evil continued. The gins left the depôt for the favourite
company of the sailors, and introduced contention and disease.
into the camp. Mild expostulations and angry denunciations
were alike of no service, and Robinson wrote almost despairingly
about the moral pestilence. The Colonial Secretary (Mr. Bur-
nett), in reply to a request that the Port-officer be ordered to
keep off the whalers, emphatically wrote: "The Port-officer is
quite satisfied that it is altogether impossible to prevent com-
munication between the native women and the whalers, as they
appear in all cases to prefer them to men of their own tribes,
whom they usually treat with great contempt after they have
been for a short time associated with the whalers." This, alas!
was a sad truth, and similar results have elsewhere appeared
with a so-called partial civilization. The worthy Governor took
a desponding view, and declared, "It is lamentable that nothing
can be done in this matter.”
But the storm of war was rising. Outrages and cruelties
increased. The Whites became more infuriated, and the Blacks
more determined. The latter saw no hope, and resolved to die
spear in hand. With another people, this would be heroic. We
readily agree with Dr. Johnson, that a man's patriotism must be
quickened at the sight of the plains of Marathon. We sym-
pathised with Abd-el-Kader's struggles in Algeria, and Exeter
Hall memorialised the French Government upon the treatment
of the Tahitians. But when our own colonists are brought into
collision with the races whose lands they have seized without
compensation or inquiry, the feeling is otherwise; the heroism
of the foe is lost in the mist of our own selfishness. Louis-
Philippe, therefore, could not more effectually silence the clamour
of England against his operations in the South Sea Island, than
by his quiet reference to the operations of British forces at that
very time against the Maories, quite as Christian and as noble
as the Tahitians themselves. The resolution, therefore, of the
Tasmanians to make no peace with the possessors of their
hunting-grounds excited the indignant displeasure of the colony.
It was then that Mr. Robinson, sick of his miserable failure on
Bruni, and conscious of his power to do something more effective
216
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
for the Natives, proposed going after the marauders of the wilds
with a mission of mercy. The Aborigines' Protection Committee
seconded his suggestions, and the Government sanctioned his
object.
Jorgenson thus describes it: "He proposed nothing less than
proceeding into the wilderness, with a few companions, all
unarmed, endeavour to fall in with the aboriginal tribes, if pos-
sible, to bring about conciliation, and persuade them to surrender
themselves peaceably. I must confess that, after all I had seen
and experienced, I thought Mr. Robinson either a madman or an
impostor." And so did many others. Only those who knew
the indomitable courage of the man, and fully appreciated his
enthusiasm, could have had any faith in the scheme. Thus
was really inaugurated the celebrated Conciliatory Mission. The
Hobart Town Courier of January 1830 thus semi-officially refers
to it: “Mr. Robinson, the superintendent of the establishment
for the civilization of the Aborigines at Bruni Island, is, we are
happy to learn, about to proceed on an expedition towards Port
Davey, and other parts of the interior, with the hope of forming
some pacific arrangements with the several tribes, he having
already acquired as much of the language as will enable him to
make himself understood among them."
But let us hear an exposition of the system from the re-
flection of its author, when a septuagenarian. "I considered,"
he said, "that the Natives of Van Diemen's Land were rational;
and although they might, in their savage notions, oppose violent
measures for their subjugation, yet, if I could but get them to
listen to reason, and persuade them that the Europeans wished
only to better their condition, they might become civilized, and
rendered useful members of society, instead of the bloodthirsty,
ferocious beings they were represented to be. This was the
principle upon which I formed my plan."
Now for the coadjutors-the means of working out the pro-
ject. A dozen Natives had been captured by Mr. Gilbert Robert-
son and others, and lodged for safety in the Richmond gaol. It
was arranged to forward four of these to Robinson, though the
latter relied more upon his Bruni friends. The following were
at first appointed to act as interpreters of his party: Black Tom,
Pegale, Joseph, Doctor, and Maclean, a white man. Eumarrah,
with Manalagana and wife, were afterwards with him. But the

WOOREDDY, TRUGANINA'S HUSBAND.
From MR. DUTERREAU'S portrait.)
།་་
TRUGANINA, THE BEAUTY OF THE TRIBES.
217
one upon whom he most relied, and who proved a faithful and
efficient ally throughout his subsequent Bush career, was the
youthful Truganina (spelt by Mr. Duterreau, Truggernana).
This was the Beauty of Bruni, and one of the romances of
Tasmanian story. When I saw her, thirty years after her won-
derful career with Mr. Robinson, I understood the stories told of
her vivacity and intelligence. Her eyes were still beautiful, and
full of mischievous fun. Thirty years before, she would have
been captivating to men of her colour, and not by any means an
uninteresting object to those of whiter skins. Her mind was of
no ordinary kind. Fertile in expedient, sagacious in council,
courageous in difficulty, she had the wisdom and the fascination
of the serpent, the intrepidity and nobility of the royal ruler of
the desert. Would that we could say that her purity of morals
equalled the brilliancy of her thoughts, and that her love of
virtue were akin to her love of adventure! She was but a
savage maiden, trained in the wilderness. A lady described to
me her appearance in 1832. She declared her exquisitely formed,
with small and beautifully-rounded breasts. The little dress she
wore was thrown loosely around her person, but always with a
grace and a coquettish love of display. The Courier of Hobart
Town notices one characteristic in her portrait by Mr. Duterreau :
She is the very picture of good-humour."
She was a wife, though never a mother. Certainly, her older
and more sober husband had no little anxiety with his fickle
partner, and no small difficulty in restraining her erratic ten-
dencies. We know not why she, who was ever so inconstant of
purpose, should have so perseveringly followed the Mission, and
why she, who was a woman of the forest, should have devoted
years of her life in fatiguing and perilous journeys to entrap and
secure her countrymen. Some have thought vanity was her
leading passion, and that the desire of distinction among Whites
and Blacks induced her to become the prominent guide and
interpreter. Without doubt she was personally attached to Mr.
Robinson, and strove earnestly to serve him. It was for this
purpose that she studied to acquire other dialects, so as to hold
intercourse with the wilder tribes of the interior. Although her
husband, Wooreddy (or "the Doctor"), consented to be one of
the Conciliator's party, there is a story told that shortly after
the departure of the Mission, in January 1830, as Mr. Robinson
218
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
1
was sleeping near a large cave, the excited husband arose in the
night, took a weapon in his hand, and would have murdered our
white friend, from jealousy of his influence over Truganina, had
not his intention been discovered in time. And yet Wooreddy
continued to accompany him. "He was present," says Mr.
Duterreau, “at all Mr. Robinson's interviews with the Blacks.
Through the intervention of this man, Mr. Robinson has been
preserved from extreme danger when his life was about to be
taken from him."
Manalagana and his wife performed a noble part in the trans-
actions of this Mission. They are described by a Hobart Town
paper of 1833 as "two most excellent, well-disposed people."
Manalagana (or, as called sometimes, Limina Bungana), "as a
warrior," said Mr. Duterreau, "stood unrivalled amongst the
Aborigines, and was considered a sage by his tribe." The artist,
who was a devoted friend to Mr. Robinson, goes on to observe :
"Such was the commanding influence Mr. Robinson possessed
over these singular people, that, at the first interview, Mana-
lagana left his native wilds, and accompanied Mr. Robinson on
all his missionary enterprises throughout the island, to whom he
continued faithfully attached to the conclusion of his service in
1835." Manalagana then removed to Flinders Island, whither
all the captured were taken, and died in March of the following
year, 1836.
Of his wife Mr. Duterreau has these words of commendation:
"This woman laboured incessantly to promote the objects of the
Mission. Tanleboueyer and her sister were originally stolen
from their country by the sealers, when children, and held in
bondage until emancipated by Mr. Robinson (in 1830). She
was superior to the other Natives both in person and intelligence,
and possessed much dignity of manners, seldom participating in
those frivolities the others indulged in. She was exceedingly
attached to her husband. The feeling was mutual, for during
the period of six years they were with Mr. Robinson they never
quarrelled."
The start was not an auspicious one. A boat had been pro-
vided for the passage to Port Davey, on the south-west; but it
was wrecked, with the loss of nearly all the supplies. The
determination of his character would permit of no delay, nor
retrograde movement; so Mr. Robinson set off with his knapsack

الآن
MANALAGANA.
(From MR. DUTERREAU'S Portrait.)
...
ROBINSON CHASED BY AN AMAZON.
219
of bread, and tramped it to the place. He had given himself to
his work, and was resolved, like a good soldier, to go through
the campaign he had begun. His engagement with the Govern-
ment was for twelve months; but, aware of the uncertainty of
life, he had required payment of one half-year's salary in advance
for his wife, and the Governor's authority for some provision for
his family in the event of his decease.
The country through which he was going was most inhos-
pitable in character, being both wet and cold, with high ranges,
deep gullies, extensive morasses, and dense scrub; having no
civilized settlements, and furnishing little food even to the sons
of the forest themselves. His hardships were severe, and knew
no relief; but his ardour carried him onward, and his kindness
and commanding mind secured the faithfulness of his barbarian
followers. Yet his success was not commensurate with his
enthusiasm, and months passed with little done. Even the
Governor wearied of expectancy, and wrote home, on August
27th, 1830, saying, “All Mr. Robinson's efforts to hold a con-
ference have hitherto failed." That gentleman himself acknow-
ledged as much in his speech at a public meeting, in 1838, at
Sydney; of which the reporter said: "He pursued his journey
overland to Port Davey; fell in with a tribe of Blacks, and
made an appointment to meet them on the following day.
He repaired to the appointed spot, taking with him two out
of the five of the Natives of Bruni Island who accompanied
him. The tribe he fell in with were very suspicious, having
been fired at by the Europeans; and, although he carried no
arms-nothing, in fact, but a knapsack of bread-and endea-
voured to explain to them his pacific intentions, they left him
on these occasions without any sign of desire to repose trust
in him."
His mission had nearly terminated in his destruction in this
first year of his course. Walloa, a female Aborigine, rose, like a
Joan of Arc, amidst a nation of warriors, to deliver her people.
She gathered a party by her eloquence, and urged a band to
violence and war by her appeals, and by her courageous conduct
in the field. Heading at last the Port Sorell tribe, she led them
to the murder of Captain Thomas and others. Hearing that Mr.
Robinson was in her neighbourhood, she immediately directed
her force against him. Being warned of her approach, he fled
220
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
in haste. For five days did the pursuit continue, when, just as
all hope of escape was relinquished by the Mission, he was de-
livered from this tigress of the north by the unexpected arrival
of M'Geary and his party. So strong a front of armed Euro-
peans stayed the expected assault, and the dark Semiramis
retired northward again.
But, though for the present all seemed dark and unsatisfactory
to our leader, his heart did not yield its hopefulness, nor his
energy relax in effort. It was during the last quarter of 1830
that the great campaign called "The Line" took place, which
absorbed the attention of the colony, and exercised a powerful
and happy influence upon the fortunes of the Conciliatory
Mission. The whole strength of the island was collected to be
hurled in anger against the dreaded Blacks. That manœuvre,
though unsuccessful directly, was doubtless the means of com-
pleting the success of Mr. Robinson.
In his first year he had traversed the whole of the western
and northern country. At Cape Grim, to the north-west, he
had met with the distinguished Bendoadicka, his wife Narraga,
and brother Peewee. Two went onward with him from the
Mersey. While the Line was out he was in the Cape Portland
District, north-east. It was there he heard of the splendid
capture of thirteen at one time, and twelve at another, by the
party of Messrs. M'Geary and M'Kay. Disappointed in his
own plans, it was then that he executed the first part of his
mission among the sealers. That formed the relief to his year
of failures. Having authority from the Government, he visited
some of the islands in the Straits, and rescued eighteen females
from the sealers.
In 1831 the Governor sought the trial of moral agency
alone. Mr. Robinson had urged the withdrawal of the armed
parties from the Bush. Some said this was to secure the whole
management of the capture, and deprive the earlier leaders of
the prize. Certain it is, however, that high rewards were offered
to secure the aid of persons in this benevolent enterprise of
unarmed intervention, without a single response. Mr. Robinson
had, therefore, the problem to resolve alone. His salary was
raised to 2507., and a strong force organized. There were many, of
course, who saw no hope in such chivalrous ventures, and derided
the sugar-plum speculation.
PLAN OF THE MISSION.
221
A story is told with much satisfaction by the anti-peace
party. As soon as Mr. Robinson became the actual leader of
the movement, he made a very judicious selection of officers;
engaging such excellent Bushmen and successful captors as
M'Kay, M'Geary, Surrage, Cottrell, &c., but strictly prohibiting
even the carrying of fire-arms. It is said that the disobedience of
this order saved the life of some Europeans, and proved a warning
to the Blacks. M'Kay was on one occasion suddenly surrounded
by some hostile Natives, who knocked him down, and would
have murdered him had he not drawn forth pistols, hitherto con-
cealed, and shot down four of the foremost. When Mr. Robin-
son reported the affair, he declared it "very imprudent and
barbarous on the part of M'Kay." His subordinate, however,
did not feel himself prepared for martyrdom, and was satisfied
with his own forethought about the weapons.
Truth compels the historian to admit that Mr. Robinson, like
many great and good men, had certain weaknesses of character,
especially arising from his perfect satisfaction with himself.
This made him at times rather pompous and overbearing in his
manner towards the Europeans of his party, and he suffered
himself to exhibit some annoyance and chagrin when captures
were made in his absence from the camp.
As he had to forego the use of physical force, he had recourse
to stratagem and bold deeds. His black female guides were
decorated as decoys in gaudy ribbons, to attract the eye of the
Bush wanderer. Trinkets were distributed, and marvellous toys
provided. An ex-Bushranger assured me that he had found
red feathers, red strings, and other pretty-looking objects hung
in the trees of the far interior by the adventurous party. Goose-
berry, Violet, Molly, Truganina, and others, looked well in their
civilized adornments, and employed their arts and smiles to
secure their simple countrymen. They were the light skir-
mishers of the force. But that upon which stronger reliance was
placed was the power of sympathy. The gathering numbers
added, like a rolling snowball, to the strength of the Mission.
One had a sister or brother in a neighbouring tribe, and natural
affection urged the search after the lost one, to save such from the
danger of the war. Or, a wild son of the tribe had longings after
a wife previously captured, and would enter the fold to find a
mate. A father sought a son, or a child a parent; and many a
222
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
joyous reunion was thus effected. Then, as the families formed,
or sufficient numbers arrived, they were draughted off to join
the free and happy neighbours already safe in the glorious new
hunting-ground.
The first conquest of 1831 was the Stony Creek tribe. Its
chief, Moultehalergunah, as Mr. Robinson spells his name, had
been a great White-hunter. Twenty of these were secured by
Mr. Robinson, with M'Geary, M'Lean, and Platt. Limina, or
Manalagana, was of service near Cape Portland. It was affecting
to hear the gathering tales of trouble. One asked for a son,
another for a sister, a third for a wife. One was much interested
in a sister, Black Jock, who had been stolen by the sealers, and
entreated the Marmanuke, or Father, to go in search of her.
Eumarra met Mr. Robinson in the forest, rushed towards him,
and grasped his hand with warmth. He brought five men and
a woman in with him. In June 1831, in his official report,
Mr. Robinson was able to say that, through the efforts of himself
and others, 123 had yielded, 236 had been communicated with,
110 had returned to their hunting-grounds, and 16 had escaped
after capture. He himself had become acquainted with sixteen
tribes of this people.
It was toward the end of 1831 that Mr. Robinson had such
remarkable success. His faithful friend, Manalagana, was with
him. This noble-minded savage is always presented to us in
heroic attitude, and the enthusiastic painter, Mr. Duterreau, with
other admirers, were justified in their estimation of the superior
intellect, courage, and benevolence of this extraordinary man.
His son had been murdered by a ruthless tribe, and yet, with
all the natural feelings of a father, and the human passion for
revenge, he appears to have acted the Christian part of not only
restraining the impetuous vengeance of his sable friends, but of
co-operating in good faith and principle with Mr. Robinson to
bring in the offending tribe without bloodshed, so that they might
be saved from destruction. It was as much as he, the chief,
could do, on several occasions, to prevent the Mission of Con-
ciliation becoming a March of Massacre.
The Mission arrived at Lake Echo on the 18th of November.
It was a strong force, consisting of Mr. Robinson, his son, a
Sandwich Islander, a messenger, and twelve friendly Aborigines.
They had ascended from the valleys of Central Tasmania, and
ROBINSON'S GREAT MORAL VICTORY.
223
had reached the vast and irregular plateau, occupying a position
somewhat similar to the Deccan of India. It was once the
theatre of volcanic action. Like the turret-pointed hills of the
kingdom of Hyder Ali, the land of the lakes of this southern
island formerly heaved beneath the molten mass, and cooled in
broad sheets, prismatic columns, and romantic peaks, of basalt.
This again appeared likely to become a battle-field.
The smoke of the fugitives was distinguished, rising into thin
columns through the foliage, by the keen eyes of the Friendlies.
A rush was made towards the camp fire. But it was too late.
The hunted creatures, always on the watch, with true Indian
sagacity had discovered their supposed enemies, and hastily
retired before being observed. Robinson urged on the pursuit.
One Native only, a female, knew the country; but, alarmed at
the proximity of the much-dreaded tribe, she designedly led the
party astray, and a whole month was lost. On the last day of
the year they came in sight of the lost prey. Here Robinson
practised his Bush-craft. Sending forward some Native decoys,
he and the rest planted, or hid, themselves in a thick scrub, most
anxiously awaiting the result of the negotiation. The rest may
be better described in his own words :-
me.
"In less than half an hour afterwards I heard their war-
whoop, by which I knew that they were then advancing upon
I also heard them rattle their spears as they drew nearer.
At this moment Manalagana leaped on his feet in great alarm,
saying the Natives were coming to spear us. He urged me to
run away. Finding that I would not do so, he immediately
took up his spears and kangaroo rug, and walked away. Some
of the other Natives were about to follow his example, but I
prevailed upon them to stop. From their advancing with the
war-whoop, the Aborigines as well as ourselves considered that
they were approaching us with hostile intentions, and that they
had either killed the Natives who had been sent from us, or that
those Natives had joined the hostile tribes. As they drew nigh,
I did not observe my people amongst them. The hostile Natives
being a large body, I was rather anxious as to the result. It
was not until they approached very near that I saw my own
people with them. They continued coming up in the same
warlike attitude. I then went up to the chiefs and shook hands
with them. Having explained to them in the aboriginal dialect
224
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
the purport of my visit amongst them, I invited them to sit
down, gave them some refreshment, and selected a few trinkets
as presents, which they received with much delight. They
evinced considerable astonishment at hearing me address them
in their own tongue, and from henceforth placed themselves
entirely under my control. The men were accompanied by the
women; and, after taking their refreshment, I returned with
them to their own encampment, where the evening was spent
in mutual good humour, each party dancing alternately."
Thus terminated most satisfactorily this day of anxiety. The .
colonists, upon reading Mr. Robinson's announcement of victory,
were disposed to make a little merry with the style of the narra-
tive. The ego came forth, as usual, most prominently. The
blast of the trumpet was unmistakeably clear. Though con-
fessing to a little prudent concealment, he acknowledged no fear,
though careful to speak of his friends' fright. He was simply
"rather anxious as to the result." Then, too, he claims all credit
for the negotiations. Giving no heed to the action of his own
dark companions who had brought the warlike tribe in peace
to his hiding-place, he asserts his own part as pacificator. As
it was well known that the Natives of one tribe found much
difficulty in understanding others, the colonists were amused at
the assumed facility of Mr. Robinson's converse with these
dreaded strangers, and professed to be as much astonished as the
warriors themselves at this strange tongue development.
But in spite of the fun and criticism, the strong fact was
apparent. The dangerous people were secured.
The capture of this Big River, or Ouse River tribe, was by far
the grandest feature of the war, and the crowning glory of Mr.
Robinson's efforts. Having learned the story from various
sources, I would attempt a description of this bloodless victory.
The leader had ventured under the shadow of the French-
man's Cap, whose grim cone rose five thousand feet in the
uninhabited western interior. There, at last, appeared the tribe
of which they were in search. It was a terrible hour,-one in
That tribe was the terror
which a man lives years in minutes.
of the colony, the "Black Douglas" of Bush households. Con-
fident in their strength, the Natives stayed for the approach of
the strangers. Mr. Robinson was accompanied by his brave
stripling of a son, by M'Geary, Stanfield, and a Hawaiian
1
•
THE HOUR OF TRIAL.
225
Islander. Manalagana and Truganina were there. The stout-
looking but handsome Montpeliata, the chieftain, glared at them.
He grasped a spear eighteen feet in length. Fifteen powerful
men, with three spears and a waddy each, filled with all the hate
and loathing for white men which such a war had excited, were
ill restrained by the voice and gesture of their head. They
rattled their spears, shouted their battle-cry, and menaced the
Mission party. The women kept to the rear, each carrying on
her back a fresh supply of weapons. One hundred and fifty
dogs growled defiance at the intruders.
It was a moment of trial to the stoutest nerves. The Whites
trembled. The friendly Blacks, half palsied with fear, would all
have fled but for the self-possession of their commander. They
were, as it were, beneath the dreaded eye of the storm, around
whose treacherous calm the wild cyclone was dancing in fury.
A word from that stern chief, and every man would be transfixed
with spears.
"I think we shall soon be in the resurrection,"
whispered M'Geary, a veteran in Native-hunting. "I think we
shall," rejoined Mr. Robinson.
(C
They came into the presence of the tribe, and stood still.
The chief advanced toward them, some sixty yards in front of
his tribe. He saw the friendly Natives quivering with alarm,
and the Europeans firmly standing, though apparently without
arms. “Who are you?" shouted Montpeliata.
We are gen-
tlemen," was the response. "Where are your guns?” was the
next question. "We have none," said the leader. Still sus-
picious, though astonished, the dark warrior cried out, "Where
your piccaninny?"—alluding to pistols, or little guns.
"We
have none," was again the reply.
There was another pause. Their fate was not yet decided.
The male guides were much alarmed. Bungena fairly ran over
the hill. Then came the first gleam of hope. The chief called
after him, and told him to come back, for he would not hurt
him. Meanwhile, some of the courageous female guides had
glided round, and were holding quiet, earnest converse with their
wilder sisters. Another few minutes of irresolution, and then
Montpeliata walked slowly to the rear to confer with the old
women-the real arbiters of war. The men pointed their spears
in watchful guard; but the yelping curs were called off. With
admirable discipline, the brutes retired, and were instantly quiet.
226
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
As the fallen gladiator in the arena looks for the signal of life
or death from the president of the amphitheatre, so waited our
friends in anxious suspense while the conference continued. In
a few minutes, before a word was uttered, the women of the
tribes threw up their arms three times. This was the inviolable
sign of peace. Down fell the spears. Forward, with a heavy
sigh of relief, and upward glance of gratitude, came the friends
of peace. The impulsive Natives rushed forth with tears and
cries, as each saw in the other's rank a loved one of the past.
Eumarra recognised his two brothers in the tribe, and his wife
embraced three other relatives. The chief of Bruni grasped the
hand of his brother Montpeliata.
It was a jubilee of joy. A festival followed. And, while
tears flowed at the recital of woe, a corrobory of pleasant laughter
closed the eventful day.
A
When this desperate tribe was captured, there was much sur-
prise and some chagrin to find that the 30,0007. had been spent,
and the whole population of the colony placed under arms, in
contention with an opposing force of sixteen men with wooden
spears! Yet such was the fact. The celebrated Big River or
Ouse Mob, that had been raised by European fears to a host,
consisted of sixteen men, nine women and one child. With a
knowledge of the mischief done by these few, their wonderful
marches and their wide-spread aggressions, their enemies cannot
deny to them the attributes of courage and military tact.
Wallace might harass a large army with a small and determined
band; but the contending parties were at least equal in arms and
civilization. The Caffres who fought us in Africa, the Maories
in New Zealand, the Indians in America, were far better pro-
vided with weapons, more advanced in the science of war, and
considerably more numerous, than the naked Tasmanians.
Governor Arthur rightly termed them a noble race. Though
they submitted to moral agencies, it was because they felt their
work was done. They had fought for the soil, and were van-
quished. They had lost fathers, brothers, sons, in war. Their
mothers, wives, and daughters, harassed by continued alarms,
worn by perpetual marches, enfeebled by want and disease, had
sunk down one by one to die in the forest, leaving but a misér-
able remnant. Their children had been sacrificed to the cruel
exactions of patriotism, and had perished of cold, hunger, and
ROBINSON'S SUCCESS HELPED BY THE LINE.
227
fatigue, or had been murdered by parental hands, as the Roman
maiden of old, to prevent a supposed worse fate.
Dr. Story, in communicating with me, declares of the Line
that it “struck them with such surprise, and displayed the powers
that could be brought to bear against them, that G. A. Robinson
had less difficulty in persuading them to accompany him where
they would not be molested by the Whites, and have ´plenty
damper, sugar, blanket.' When he landed on the north-east
corner of the island, he with his tame Blacks followed the wild
ones for some days before they would return with him to his
boat. They had been terrified by the Line, saying it was 'pop,
pop, pop, all pop.' 'If,' he said, 'you go there, you get killed.
Come with me-you get plenty damper. I don't want you to
come with me, but you get killed, if you go there.' And thus he
worked upon them; some going with him, others following after
a time."
The Hon. J. H. Wedge, when speaking of the Line, adds,
"Notwithstanding the want of success attending the expedition,
I am impressed with the belief that it had a considerable moral
effect upon the minds of the Natives, and disposed them to lend
a more willing ear to Mr. Robinson's propositions, when he suc-
ceeded in gaining an interview with them." Dr. Braim goes
even further, and remarks of Mr. Robinson's success:
"It was
solely attributable to the formation of the Line; it showed the
Aborigines our strength and our energy."
But however much credit we may give to the Line move-
ment for the submission of this formidable tribe, no one will
deny Mr. Robinson full credit for his final work. As Jorgenson
observes: "They could form no notion that the Whites would
be unable, for a great length of time, again to take the field;
and thus they imagined that we should not cease till they were
so harassed that either surrender or extermination must ensue,
and they preferred the former, but not without great exertion
and danger on the part of Mr. Robinson." Elsewhere he refers
to him: "Nothing daunted this gentleman; conscious of his
philanthropic views, conscious of the integrity of his intentions,
he fearlessly advanced, extending his arms, and speedily con-
vinced the Natives that they had nothing to fear from an un-
armed party." Mr. Robinson's own way is curiously expressed
in his letter of December 14th, 1830: "The grand object is in
Q 2
228
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
getting to them, for until this is accomplished, speaking to them
is out of the question. There is not a nation or people with
whom I have conferred, but what have fled at my approach, as
clouds before the tempest, yet I have never left them, until I
have eventually succeeded in effecting an intercourse with them."
This letter is in his own handwriting; it has its own peculiar
orthography and punctuation.
The tribe had yielded as friends, not prisoners. It is true
that they laid down their spears, and brought forth from hidden
places sixteen stand of arms, which they had taken in the war;
but the captors had prudently as well as generously returned
their spears, so needful for hunting purposes. At an easy rate
the mixed parties proceeded toward the settlement of Bothwell,
situated to the westward of the main line from Hobart Town to
Launceston. They arrived there, to the great alarm of the in-
habitants, on the 5th of January, Mr. Robinson guaranteeing
the peaceable behaviour of his wild charge. When visiting
the little township in 1842, I was shown the site of the
encampment, and I heard the tale of unnecessary fears.
On the road thither the Conciliator conversed with his sable
companions, and heard many sad stories of the sufferings of
the tribes, and vehement denunciations of the cruelties of
the Europeans. They showed him their wounds. They all,
“men, women, and child," he said, "had dreadful scars. He
went to the Bothwell Inn, and had the unwonted luxury of
a bed, with no apprehension of the tribe leaving him in the
night.
""
From Bothwell he addressed this letter to head-quarters, on
January, 5th, 1832: "On the 31st ultimo, I succeeded in effect-
ing a friendly communication with these sanguinary tribes.
Their whole number was twenty-six, viz. sixteen men, nine
women, and one child, including the celebrated chief Mont-
peilliatter of the Big River tribe. I fell in with these people
thirty miles N.W. of the Peak of Teneriffe."
The forty miles to Hobart Town passed merrily enough.
Arriving at Constitution Hill, nearly thirty miles north of the
capital, the leader addressed another letter to the Colonial Secre-
tary. It was written under difficulties, causing me some trouble
to decipher. The information given is this: "I beg to inform
you for the information of the Lieut.-Governor, that . . . arrived
TRIUMPHAL ENTRY INTO HOBART TOWN.
229
here last night accompanied by the whole of the Big River and
Oyster Bay tribes of . . . and proceed immediately on my way to
H. Town. I expect to reach H. Town either to-night or early to-
morrow morning, and wish in the first instance to proceed direct
to Government House with those people."
On they came in their confiding trust, though much to the
terror as well as curiosity of the settlers. Mr. Robinson was
greeted indeed with a triumphal entry. His own house was at the
head of the town, and his wife and children were spectators of his
glory. He came with prisoners, but no victims. He ended a
war, and presented voluntary captives. The whole population
assembled to witness the procession. First came the worthy
victor, with his white companions. Then were seen his own
fourteen faithful native followers, and the twenty-six wilder
people of the woods, all with their spears in hand. Shouts
of welcome greeted all. The estimable Governor was deeply
moved, and waited at Government House to receive and enter-
tain his guests. The tender eyes of women were swimming
with tears as the dark race passed on, and kind looks and smiles
fell gently upon the war-tossed ones. Presents came before the
Governor's feast; lollies or sweetmeats, toys, pictures, dresses
were showered upon them.
Two specimens of Colonial poetic fire appeared to commemo-
rate so auspicious an event. One, by Hobartia, was published in
the Hobart Town Magazine, for 1834. It commenced :-
They came, sad remnant of a bygone race,
Surviving mourners of a nation dead;
Proscribed inheritors of rights which trace
Their claims coeval with the world! They tread
Upon their nation's tomb !
*
*
They came like straggling leaves together blown,
The last memorial of the foliage past;
The living bough upon the tree o'erthrown,
When branch and trunk lie dead."
The next is called "Lines written on the recent Visit of the
Aborigines to Hobart Town: "—
""
They are come in their pride, but no helmet is gleaming
On the dark-brow'd race of their native land;
No lauces are glittering, nor bright banners streaming,
O'er the warriors brave of that gallant band.
230
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
"They are come in their pride, but no war-cry is sounding,
With its woe-fraught note, over hill and plain;
66
For the hearts of those dark ones with gladness are bounding,
And bright songs of peace breathe loud in their strain.
They are come—they are come, and a boon they're imploring,
Oh! turn not away from their soul-felt prayer,
But to high hopes of Heaven this lost race restoring,
For yourselves gain mercy and pardon there."
Colonel Arthur pleased them with his courtesy. Anxious to
afford them additional gratification, he ordered the band out. But
the effect was different from that which he expected. The poor
creatures screamed with terror, and crowded round Mr. Robinson
with entreaties for protection. It was long before their fears
subsided, when they would cautiously approach the drums and
touch them, as if to test the power of the noisy animal.
Then a grand demonstration took place. During the festival
their confidence increased, and they were induced to show forth
their strength and skill, after being personally decorated with
ribbons by the Governor. Ondia put a crayfish on a spear, and
at a distance of sixty yards brought it down with another spear.
Thus hours passed in the Governor's garden, which was thrown
open to all comers on the occasion. That evening Mr. Robin-
son took them to his own home, and they camped about his
premises.
It was
on this occasion that portraits were taken of the
Aborigines by Mr. Duterreau, and by my most esteemed friend,
Mr. Thomas Napier, J.P., now of Essendon, Victoria, and copies
of which paintings I have secured by the brush of Mr. Thomas
Clark, the artist, of Melbourne.
A few days afterwards a vessel was prepared, and the Natives
were induced to go on board to proceed to splendid hunting-
grounds, where no soldiers and parties were to be found, and where
they would never be molested. On their way to the Straits they
suffered much from sea-sickness. The captain of the vessel
assured me that it was pitiable to witness their distress. Their
moaning was sad indeed. They appeared to feel themselves for-
saken and helpless, and. abandoned themselves to despair.
The children, with few exceptions, were not suffered to go to
the prospective settleinent, but were placed in what was known
as the Orphan School, near Hobart Town. This establishment
was for the care and education of neglected and orphan children
REWARDS FOR MR. ROBINSON.
231
of convicts. The building is of great extent, the grounds are
spacious, and the arrangements generally are suitable for the
object. Hundreds of children, from helpless infancy to the age
of fourteen, are there provided with board and education. It is
about eight-and-twenty years ago since I had the pleasure of
seeing there the dark offspring of the warriors of the Black War.
Most of them struck me as being sickly and depressed, and I
wondered not at the terrible mortality that had thinned their
numbers.
The greatest enthusiasm attended the reception of Mr.
Robinson. The newspapers were loud in his praise, and the
jealousy of his rivals yielded to admiration. Although his
salary as Conciliator, or head of the Friendly Mission, had been
previously raised to 2507., and a bonus of 1007. bestowed, some
fresh demonstration of gratitude for his efforts was demanded.
He himself wrote a letter, presenting his claims. The Committee
for the Protection of the Aborigines were prepared to second his
memorial. Some delay disheartened or displeased him, for we
find him on the 3d of February saying, that the illness of his
wife, the disorder of his affairs, and the hardships of the life
had impressed him with the conviction that he had better leave
others to complete the work. This decided the action of Govern-
ment, as it was believed that nothing but the prestige of Mr.
Robinson could succeed with the remaining Natives in the Bush,
A grant of four hundred pounds was made on the 9th, and
a promise of seven hundred more upon the completion of his
wonderful mission.
Ever prompt in his decisions and movements, we find him off
on the 11th of February for Great Island, afterwards Flinders
Island, to report upon a suitable home for the captured ones.
Then he struck off to the west once more, as the poor hunted
creatures had by this time quite and for ever deserted the central
and eastern portions of the island-the scene of the Line opera-
tions. At Port Davey twenty-six were saved. Several of these
were found to be above six feet in height. One old man put
the captor in mind of Abraham with his white beard. The
tribe had never been active in the war.
I have been much struck with the barrenness of information
about the habits of the Tasmanians, when perusing the letters
of Mr. Robinson, at the Record Office of the Colonial Secretary.
232
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
No one could have told us so much, and yet we hear so little
from him. A few stray statements have appeared, bearing his
authority; but all must regret that a man of such observation
and opportunity, and who lived in ease upon the pension of the
Colonial Government so many years, made known scarcely any-
thing of these curious and interesting tribes.
More conquests of peace followed the capture at Port Davey.
At Birch's Rock, sixteen were taken; at West Point, six; at
Mount Cameron, five; at the Surrey Hills, four; and at Sandy
Cape, thirty-seven. From the report of July 12th, 1832, we
learn that thirty-two were gained in the neighbourhood of Mac-
quarie Harbour. At one place on the west coast, where sixteen
were collected, their appearance was so wretched as to resemble
ourang-outangs rather than human beings. One poor old man
had had his eyes shot out by some Christian pursuer. The
benevolent heart of Mr. Robinson was much moved at this
spectacle of misery.
A most formidable difficulty was experienced by Mr. Robinson
on the Arthur River. This was in the inhospitable region to the
north-west, even to this day unsettled by our countrymen. A
strong band of Aborigines had been brought under his notice by
the friendly Blacks, and a conference had been held one evening
in September 1832. In spite of the appeals of the Nestor,
Manalagana, and the lucid exposition of the situation by the
leader in his best Tasmanian speech, the forest men distrusted
the offered conditions, and sullenly declined the advances of the
Whites. A night of dreadful suspense followed. After the
conference, the strangers camped at a little distance, and kept up
noisy talk and rattling of spears through the hours of darkness.
Our leader, conscious of the necessity of reassuring his own
party, put on a calm and confident appearance, threw off his
clothes, rolled himself in his blanket before the fire, and watch-
fully waited for the morn. The subsequent adventures are thus
told by himself:-
At the earliest dawn of day they made a large fire, around
which the men assembled, and began preparing their weapons
intended for my destruction. At this juncture, one of the wild
Natives (a relative of one of my friendly Aborigines) commenced
a vehement discussion, and argued against the injustice of killing
me, and asked why they wanted to kill their friend and protector.
PERILS AT ARTHUR'S RIVER.
233
I had by this time put on my raiment. My aboriginal com-
panions were exceedingly alarmed, and, on looking for their
spears, found that the wild Natives had taken them away during
the night. Several of their blankets had also been stolen, and
attempts had been made to tie up the dogs. In the midst of the
discussion I rose up, and stood in the front of them with my
arms folded, thinking to divert them from their savage purpose.
I said if they were not willing to go with me, they could return
again to their own country. Scarcely had I spoken ere they
shouted their war-whoop, seized their spears, and proceeded at
once to surround me. With their left hand they grasped a
bundle of spears, whilst in their right they held one. My
Aborigines shrieked and fled. The Natives had nearly encircled
me. Their spears raised were poised in the air. The friendly
Aborigines were gone. At this crisis, I made off. Although I
saw not the slightest chance of escape, I pursued my way rapidly
through some copse, winding round the acclivity of some low
hills, and took a north-east direction toward an angle of the
river; on approaching which I saw one of the friendly Natives
who had escaped, who, with much trepidation, said that all the
rest of the Natives were killed. At the same instant she descried
the hostile Blacks approaching, and in much alarm begged of me
to hide, while she swam the river and went to the encampment.
To have attempted concealment at such a crisis would have been
next to suicide. And looking up (for the river hath steep banks
on either side), I saw one of the wild Natives looking for my
footsteps. At this instant he turned, and I lost sight of him.
I saw no chance of escape, except by crossing the river. The
difficulty appeared insurmountable. I could not swim. The
current was exceedingly rapid, and it required time to construct
a machine. The Natives were in strict search after me, and I
expected every moment to be overtaken. The raft on which I
came over was nearly a mile lower down. I was persuaded the
hostile Natives would be waiting to intercept me. I therefore
abandoned all thoughts of crossing on this machine. I made an
attempt to cross on a small spar of wood, and was precipitated
into the river, and nearly carried away by the current. After
repeated attempts, I succeeded, with the aid of the woman, in
getting across. (My clothes were left behind.) I then proceeded to
my encampment, where my son and some Natives were staying."
234
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
This celebrated official document is evidently not the produc-
tion of the honest bricklayer, but that of some convict attendant,
who had had more education than his worthy master. Some-
what stilted in style, the heroism is thoroughly well maintained
throughout, and the narrative is deeply interesting. But the
historian may be excused presenting some other versions of this
curious adventure. Though the second tale was written thirty
years after, and published in Mr. Lloyd's "Thirty Years in Tas-
mania and Victoria," it evidences a good memory, and is written
in a simple, natural style, that commends it the more. He does
more justice to our good friend Truganina. This was written in
England, in 1861:
"After I had effected the removal of these tribes, I started for
the Arthur River, where it was reported that a tribe were out;
and here I had another miraculous escape of being killed. It
appeared that the Blacks had meditated my destruction, and laid
their plans for preventing my escape, by placing sentinels all
round me. I was with the tribe, when I observed an unusual
excitement among them: they were much agitated, and employed
in sharpening their spears and other instruments of war. I
addressed them, stating that I could not, neither did I wish to,
compel them to go with me against their will; and if they did
not like to accompany me, they might remain where they were.
They began to encircle and close on me; when, for the first time
since I had undertaken this fearful mission, I fled from them.
In my flight I overtook a black woman near to a wide and rapid
river, which I was desirous of crossing from my pursuers; but
as I could not swim, I hardly knew what to do. The woman
advised me to hide myself in the bushes; but I knew too well
the keenness with which the Blacks tracked the smallest object
to trust to that; therefore, as my only hope, I launched a log of
wood into the river, on which I leant, and the kind-hearted
woman immediately jumped into the river, and swam across,
drawing the log after her.”
In the Sydney Press of 1838 one may read his statement at
a public meeting in New South Wales, when he gave full credit
to Truganina for saving his life.
It is pleasant to record this acknowledgment that he owed his
life to his black guide and faithful companion. The real story
is closely allied to the last account, saving that the man tried to
TRUGANINA SAVES ROBINSON'S LIFE.
235
get across the river by striding a log and paddling with his hands
and arms, when, falling over into the water, he would have been
certainly drowned, had not the courageous Native jumped into
the water and rescued him. Some years ago I reminded her of
the incident, when the little old woman clapped her hands,
danced about, and laughed most merrily. She then gave me her
version of the affair, adding most expressive and pantomimic
performances to aid her in her narrative.
The sequel of this adventure was, that upon his arrival at his
party's retreat, Mr. Robinson found several of his Natives missing.
In the meantime, instead of rushing across the rapid stream, the
wild Blacks were content with sitting on a hill on their side of
the water, and indulging in bad language. They threatened that
if they caught the chief of the Conciliatory Mission they would
burn his body, and make charms of his ashes to wear round their
necks. The Englishman sought to mollify their wrath, again and
again urging his innocence of any evil design against them. His
appeals had, at least, some effect, for the soft heart of a girl was
moved at his eloquence, and Kyenrope, the daughter of the chief
of the Pieman's River tribe, made her way over the river, and
joined the Mission. Old Wyne, her father, witnessed her flight,
and denounced her folly in choicest native Billingsgate.
Still, Mr. Robinson did not feel comfortable in the vicinity of
such neighbours, and made use of a ruse to extricate himself
from the dilemma. He caused his men to make a great fire of
damp wood and leaves, so as to create a vast cloud of smoke, as
if signalling for assistance from some countrymen near at hand.
The alarmed Aborigines beat a precipitate retreat, and left the
course open to the exultant beleaguered. Though now forty miles
from Cape Grim, the nearest British settlement, he hastened off
to that place of refuge.
Notwithstanding Mr. Robinson was in this instance unsuc-
cessful, we may credit him with having left some impression;
for we read in Mr. Cottrell's letter to Mr. Robinson, on January
19th, 1833: "On the 10th, we fell in with the tribe that attacked
you at the Arthur's River. Old Wyne and Edick were with
them. They remained with us all night, and agreed to accom-
pany us to Macquarie Harbour; but when we had marched
about four miles, the following day, they disappeared amongst
some scrub."
236
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
Well might the good man exclaim in after-times: "In all
my difficulties, my sole dependence was on the Omnipotent
Being; and I may truly say, I was led in the paths which I
knew not, preserved in danger by His power alone. Frequently
have I seen the sun go down without any expectation of behold-
ing it again in the morning; and I have been surrounded by
savage Blacks, with their spears presented at me, and have been
spared when all hope had fled."
In all his laborious Bush enterprises, he so gained upon the
affections of the Natives as to retain their confidence. The
Rev. John West has an illustration of this in his work :
"In the
course of one of the expeditions, they ran short of provisions,
and had but very scanty food for several days, and yet, though
starved with hunger, these Blacks did not desert Mr. Robinson
and his party, consisting of himself, with two white servants,
and his aboriginal attendants." That successful Fijian Mis-
sionary, Mr. Hunt, told a meeting in Sydney: "It is very easy
to sit down and write, 'I don't believe the Blacks to be men ;'
much easier than to go among them, as Mr. Robinson has done,
and show that they were not the brutes they are represented
to be, but were susceptible of moral improvement, and fully
possessed the attributes of humanity."
The work went on. More came in 1833. In October of that
year, Mr. Robinson returned to Hobart Town, with his son,
bringing thirty Aborigines. These were taken to Government
House, royally entertained, and subsequently forwarded to the
island retreat in Bass's Straits. Their friend, in his official com-
munication, wrote: "It cannot afterwards be said that these
people were harshly treated, that they were torn from their
country. No; their removal has been for their benefit, and in
almost every instance of their own free will and consent.”
In 1834, we find the indefatigable man at his post. On
February 28th he succeeded in capturing eight, and placing
them, for temporary safety, on Hunter's Island, at the western
entrance of the Strait, with the help of some sealers' boats.
Three others followed on March 14th, and nine on April 12th.
These twenty-seven men, five women, and eight younger per-
sons—were then conveyed in the Emerald to Flinders. These
were all obtained in the north-western corner of Van Diemen's
Land, and were, singularly enough, the remnant of that tribe
SUFFERINGS IN PURSUIT.
237
that attacked Mr. Robinson on the Arthur River, two years
before. They confessed their intention was to have murdered
him on that occasion. These were followed with much diffi-
culty, as many outrages had been committed by them on the
servants of the Van Diemen's Land Agricultural Company, whose
settlements were in that quarter, and the Black guides positively
refused to go after so dreaded a band.
Upon native information, Mr. Robinson wrote to the Governor
that there were but two old men and their families left at large
in the island. Colonel Arthur and the Colonial Secretary thought
otherwise, and so it proved.
It was in relation to these that the following, the last, Gazette
notice appeared:-
GOVERNMENT ORDER,
((
April 23, 1834.
"Authentic information having reached the Government of the
reappearance of a few Aborigines in the Settled Districts, the Lieu-
tenant-Governor, at the same time that he is desirous to caution the
Settlers against any hostile attacks, requests that they will enjoin their
Servants to abstain from acts of aggression against the Natives, and
desire that all arms may be removed from their Stock Runs.
"By command,
"J. BURNETT.”
Onward, still onward, was the order of the indomitable Robin-
son. No one ignorant of the western country of Tasmania can
form a correct idea of the travelling difficulties. While I was
resident in Hobart Town, the Governor, Sir John Franklin, and
his lady, undertook the western journey to Macquarie Harbour,
and suffered terribly. One man, who assisted to carry her
ladyship through the swamps, gave me his bitter experience of
its miseries. Several were disabled for life. No wonder that
but one party, escaping from Macquarie Harbour convict settle-
ment, arrived at the civilized region in safety. Men perished in
the scrub, were lost in snow, or were devoured by their com-
panions. This was the territory traversed by Mr. Robinson and
his Black guides. All honour to his intrepidity, and their won-
derful fidelity! When they had, in the depth of winter, to
cross deep and rapid rivers, pass among mountains six thousand
feet high, pierce dangerous thickets, and find food in a country
forsaken even by birds, we can realize their hardships.
238
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
1
After a frightful journey by Cradle Mountain, and over the
lofty plateau of Middlesex Plains, the travellers experienced
unwonted misery, and the circumstances called forth the best
qualities of the noble little band. Mr. Robinson wrote after-
wards to Mr. Burnett some details of this passage of horrors. In
that letter, of Oct. 2, 1834, he states that his Natives were very
reluctant to go over the dreadful mountain passes; that “ for
seven successive days we continued travelling over one solid
body of snow;" that "the snows were of incredible depth;" that
"the Natives were frequently up to their middle in snow." But
still the ill-clad, ill-fed, diseased, and wayworn men and women,
including the merry little Truganina, were sustained by the
cheerful voice of their unconquerable friend, and responded most
nobly to his call; while their legs, as we are told, were cruelly
lacerated in threading the thorny scrub, and clambering the
sharp rocks.
But their labours were splendidly rewarded. The last party
were caught. They were seen at the extreme Western Bluff,
December 28th, 1834. There were four women, a man, three
boys, with an attendance of thirty dogs. Long had they desired
to come in, and join their relations taken before. They had even
at times ventured within sight of an isolated hut; but the shot
fired at them warned them rather to trust to the inhospitable
winter western forest, than place themselves in the way of white
men. Mr. Robinson thus graphically describes in his letter the
scene of the meeting: "The moment these poor creatures saw
our Natives advancing, they ran forward, and embraced them in
a most affecting manner. To this truly affecting scene, a most
interesting conversation followed." All honour to the man who
had brought such peace to these wanderers!
On the 22d of January, 1835, the last party of eight Abori-
gines came into Hobart Town. The Mission was accomplished.
Mr. Robinson had finished his work. In 1830 and 1831 he had
brought in fifty-four; in 1832, sixty-three; in 1833, forty-two.
The last two years of 1834 and 1835 saw the island swept of its
original inhabitants.
Now came the question-what should be done to the man
whom the nation delighted to honour? The promised cash from
the Government came to hand, and a thousand acres of land fell
also to his share. Public meetings were held to acknowledge his
DEATH OF MR. ROBINSON.
239
services, and raise funds for a testimonial. Subscription lists
lay at the banks, the offices of police magistrates, and other
places. The Aborigines' Committee actively turned canvassers
for the object. A good sum was presented. The Danish his-
torian has this remark: "He had large grants of land bestowed
on him, with additional sums in money, amounting altogether to
about 8,000l." Whatever he obtained, he deserved. The envious
might regret the extravagance of payment, but could not deny
the labour done.
For a short time only, Mr. Robinson became Commandant of
Flinders Island; but his administrative abilities were inferior to
his Bush lore. For his life in the island, the reader is referred
to the chapter on Flinders Island.
A new sphere opened for him. Tasmanian settlers had crossed
the Straits with their flocks, and the plains of Port Phillip were
dotted with homesteads. The Native difficulty had arisen there.
Cruelties on the one side, and outrages on the other, had indi-
cated the beginning of another Black War. The Home Govern-
ment, anxious to prevent a further depopulation of original
inhabitants, sought by wise measures the conciliation of the
dark tribes, and the safety of the colonists. Mr. Robinson
received an offer of 500l. a year to be Protector of the Aborigines.
of Port Phillip. In 1838, he became a citizen of that colony. It
is not within the scope of the present work to criticise the per-
formance of his duties there. In 1853, he retired to enjoy his
wealth in England. Advancing age subdued the fire of his
character, and in peaceful quietude he spent his declining days.
He died at Prahran, Bath, on the 18th of October, 1866.
CHAPTER VIII.
FLINDERS ISLAND.
THE removal of the Aborigines from the island of Tasmania to
one of the islands in Bass's Strait, had been spoken of before the
appointment of the Capture Parties. The Colonial Times of
December 1, 1826, counselled the Government to send them to
King's Island. We make no pompous display of philanthropy,"
says the editor; "we say unequivocally, 'self-defence is the first
law of nature' The Government must remove the Natives; if
not, they will be hunted down like wild beasts and destroyed."
But the semi-official Hobart Town Gazette, a month before,
had made that suggestion in this language, "Were the tribes
here alluded to, and one or two others, on whose heads perhaps
all the mischief is to be charged-were they to be collected and
removed to some island in the Straits, where they could have
an equal chance as here of animal support without the molesta-
tion of white men, we think the happiest results would ensue."
It was the general feeling of insecurity that prompted this
sentiment, while the few who espoused the cause of the hunted
tribes desired the change, as they foresaw the difficulties coming,
and the impending destruction of the whole race. It was this
impulse that induced Colonel Arthur to establish a depôt on
Bruni Island, and appoint Mr. Robinson as guardian of such
poor creatures as could be prevailed upon to remove there. Mr.
Chief Justice Pedder protested vigorously against the scheme
of transportation. He declared it an unchristian attempt to
destroy the whole race, as once taken from their ancient haunts
they would, he said, soon die. Sir John Pedder, in after years,
saw the fulfilment of his prophecy.
In 1826 the public mind was much excited about the question.
Some were for entrapping the people, and shipping them off to
the neighbouring shores of Port Phillip.
Others objected to
KING'S ISLAND TERRORS.
241
this on two grounds: that it would be cruel to place them in
the way of the barbarous tribes there, who would certainly
destroy many of them, and that such a wretched, sandy, barren
country would not furnish them with sufficient food. A writer
in the Gazette of that year takes a canine view of the question :
"They cannot," he says, "continue in their present state. The
daily extension of the inhabited districts, and the vast increase
of their dogs, must besides conspire to shorten their present means
of subsistence, and to render their repeated attacks of aggression
on the Whites still more probable." He suggests that the
Government shall take advantage of the season when they go to
the east coast for swans' eggs, seize them, conduct them to the
capital, and carry them thence to King's Island.
KING'S ISLAND, lying half-way between the Cape Otway of
Victoria, and the north-west corner of Tasmania, is thirty miles
in length and from twelve to fifteen in breadth. The first regular
survey of it was made in 1827, when Mr. Barnard recommended
it as a site for the punishment of reconvicted felons, as there
was little chance of their escape, and no inducement to take to
the Bush there, because of the extreme sterility of the soil, and
the utter impenetrability of the country. He pronounced it
certain death to attempt to cross the island without a compass,
and reported that "none of the sealers could ever accomplish it,
even aided by black women as guides." On the east coast a
small stream enters Sea Elephant Bay; so called from the num-
ber of those gigantic seals found there. But a tremendous surf
beats against a basaltic barrier outside, in one part of the island,
or rolls against a low and harbourless shore in the other.
That King's Island was not improperly called the "dread of
seamen," will appear from the account of several fearful ship-
wrecks. The convict ship Neva went ashore there, and out of
three hundred female prisoners but eight were saved. In 1845.
the Cataraqui was lost on the south-west coast of the island,
and only nine of four hundred and twenty-three persons sur-
vived. On nearing the island the captain had slackened sail,
and exhibited due caution. The surgeon superintendent of the
vessel ridiculed the prudence, and openly jeered at the skipper's
want of courage. Stung with the remark, the thundering order
came forth, "Shake out the reefs, and stand on.” On flew the
ship, and, in the darkness of midnight, struck upon the rocks.
R
242
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
The Bishop of Tasmania, whom I heard preach one of his
most thrilling and eloquent discourses upon the occasion of this
catastrophe, revisited King's Island years several after, and thus
refers to that awful night: "The surgeon was the first to perish;
the poor, unhappy girls were tossed into the ocean as they were,
unclad, unprepared; the wild, screaming death shriek mingling
with the wilder storm." The good man walked along the beach,
accompanied by the sealer who had found the wreck two days
after the accident. He heard him say, "Yonder I dragged on
shore the bodies of eighteen poor girls; some were locked in
each other's arms, others as tranquil as though asleep, others
bent and twisted with the most distorted forms; and here I dug
their grave and buried them." In one place he buried fifty;
in another, twenty; and in a third, two hundred and forty-five
bodies.
Such a place, though favourable on account of difficulty of
approach, was not suitable as a home for the Aborigines, as it
was held of great importance to have them under some civilized
control.
The KENT'S GROUP, named after H.M.S. Kent, presented some
advantages at first, and were recommended by the Aborigines'
Committee as early as December 1st, 1829, because of their
utter isolation from the Main, and as possessing wood, water,
mutton-birds, and some game. But they were exposed to terrific
southerly gales, and were cold and wet. Deal had water in its
granite crevices, but Erith, four miles in extent, was utterly
barren. Passing them this year I was struck with their repul-
sive appearance. A lighthouse stands on Deal, 1,600 feet above
the sea.
A pyramidal granite rock rears 300 feet high in the
midst of the sea.
CAPE BARREN ISLANDS, South of Flinders, was suggested by
the Committee, on May 26th, 1831, but was also objected to;
though twenty miles long, it is a hopeless country. Clark
Island, ten miles from the Main, and south of Cape Barren
Island, next rose in favour, but was found by Mr. Robinson
without anchorage, water, soil, or food.
MARIA ISLAND was the one most approved by Mr. Robinson.
It possessed charms to alleviate the sorrows of banishment. It
was a lovely spot, abounding in picturesque scenery, noble
forests, undulating downs, mountain streams, and fertile valleys.
SWAN ISLAND DEPOT FORMED.
243
The soil was known to be remarkably adapted to cultivation ;
and the Hobart Town philanthropists, desirous of the civiliza-
tion of the scattered ones, hailed the proposition with delight.
There was something in its aspect which would rather suggest
the idea of an Isle of Calypso than of a St. Helena. When
Tasman, the Dutchman, first beheld its wooded, hilly shores in
1642, he could think of no better appellation for that Isle of
Beauty than the name of a distant charmer, Maria Van Diemen,
the daughter of the Batavian Governor.
But they were not to go to Maria Island. All its attractions
were admitted, but objections ruled. In 1825 it had been made
a penal settlement. Darlington station stood on the north side,
near the curious rocks of the Bishop and Clerk, hanging one
over the other. There a coarse woollen cloth was made by the
men, and afterwards manufactured into garments by the convict
women of the Hobart Town Factory. Though suggested by
Mr. Robinson, recommended by the chaplain, and hoped for by
many, the design was not carried out. Apart from the loss in
relinquishing the works of the penal settlement, it was contended
that the island had no good harbour, and that its proximity to
the eastern main, three miles, would render it no secure en-
campment, as the Natives could readily cross the water and
renew their distressing ravages. The Aborigines' Committee
reluctantly disallowed the proposition in February 1831.
When, however, the roving parties had collected some of the
unfortunate Blacks, it became imperative to find an asylum.
SWAN ISLAND was, therefore, selected. This lies between Clark
Island and the mainland of Cape Portland, being only three
miles from the parent island. It had little in its favour, as its
water was brackish, its soil most hopeless, and its size but a
mile and a half in length. It was asserted also that the
imprisoned ones could easily swim the little strait, and gain
their old quarters. But this would not have been easy, as a
very rapid current passes between. The Bishop of Tasmania
described it in 1854 as little more than a succession of sand-
heaps, covered here and there with tussock and stunted shrubs."
At any rate it would do for a depôt. Mr. Robinson placed
twenty-three there on November 20th, 1830, and thirty-three
more on December 13th.
They were not unhealthy on this
desolate granite rock. One little incident occurred there which
R 2
244
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
illustrates the melancholy condition of the captives. Among
them was an intelligent and faithful female guide of Mr. Robin-
son's. When the second party of Blacks arrived on the island,
the earlier transports were eager to learn the fate of their friends.
Among the many sad tales rehearsed by the new-comers was the
intelligence of the murder by the Whites of the two brothers of
the guide. It were vain to picture the harrowing sorrow of the
unfortunate woman, or to describe her regret at the part she had
taken with the Mission, and the indignant reproaches she cast
upon the enemies of her people.
The limited area of Swan Island soon compelled the Govern-
ment to find another home. VANSITTART, or GUN CARRIAGE
ISLAND, was then talked of.
The supposed resemblance of a hill there to the carriage of a
gun procured it its name by the sealers. Lying half a mile on
the north side of Cape Barren Island, and four miles south of
Flinders, one is at a loss to know why the poor captives were
to be taken to that miserable little place, which was only half a
mile broad. It is nearly surrounded by dangerous rocks, and
the surf rolls with tremendous fury on its granite shore. On the
4th of February, 1831, the Aborigines' Committee officially re-
commended it, and on the 3d of March the Chief Secretary,
Mr. Burnett, directed Mr. Robinson to occupy it. He sailed in
the brig Charlotte to execute the order.
But there lay an impediment in the way. Sealers had occupied
the only suitable locality, and were living there with their
families. In those days of despotic irresponsibility, such diffi-
culties were but as cobwebs in the path. Mr. Robinson had
authority to remove the Straitsmen; and he was not accused of
refinement in his mode of executing the order. They were
enjoined to leave immediately, and under no pretence to approach
the island again.
Sulkily did these primeval settlers prepare for their departure.
In the meanwhile, the impetuous Mr. Robinson brought his black
charge from Swan Island to the Great Dog, a little islet between
Flinders and Gun Carriage. One cannot but sympathise with the
evicted sealers. Gathering up their little property, their goats,
their household stuff, their children, they put off upon the stormy
ocean in their whale-boats, to seek another home. The hut, the
little garden, the potato plot, the scene of so many years' labour
REMOVED TO GUN CARRIAGE ISLAND.
245
and pleasure, were deserted, and no compensation was awarded.
Bitterly, indeed, did they complain of their arch-enemy, and
heavy were the charges made against him for unnecessary haste,
and for the wanton destruction by fire of property left behind.
The settlement was formed in April 1831, in a little bay on
the western side of Gun Carriage, and Dr. Maclachlan was left
in charge of the sixty people. Sergeant Wight was ordered
there in June, with a small military party, to take charge of the
stores, to protect the females from ill-treatment, to keep off the
sealers, and to govern in the absence of Mr. Robinson.
It was not long before the utter unsuitability of the location
became intelligible to all. It is true that, though so small, the
island was but half a mile from Cape Barren Island, in whose
wooded retreats it was thought the men would find superior
hunting-grounds. But the passage was too full of rocks, and too
often boiling with contending currents, to tempt the swimmers.
The unfortunate creatures, having no motive for exercise-for
little game ran within those narrow boundaries-used to sit day
after day on the beach, casting tearful glances across the stormy
sea toward the mountains of their native land. Those denizens
of the thicket and the forest, with no maritime tastes, with nothing
at every turn but the ever-restless, hateful waters, pined in their
rocky prison. Their officers were as dissatisfied with the dun-
geon-like residence. Strong representations were made as to the
wretchedness of the climate, and the barrenness of the ground.
No means existed for the arrest of the terrible home sickness
which was carrying off so many of the Natives. An Old Hand
assured me that they "died in the sulks, like so many bears."
This was in allusion to the Kaola, or tailless opossum, which
rarely survives its capture, but mopes at its chain, refuses its
food, and dies.
This was the Elysium contemplated by Hobart Town in the
distance, and described by the Courier as presenting "the most
favourable openings for a safe receptacle," and possessing "much
fine open tracts of rich and fertile soil." No kangaroos were
there, and the whole colony of the place would have perished
for want of supplies, had not a sealer's boat, laden with potatoes,
most providentially called in for shelter in a storm.
This second refuge must be abandoned, and that after so short
a trial. The sealers, whose huts and crops had been so cruelly
246
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
and unnecessarily destroyed, might soon return to their old
quarters.
GREAT ISLAND, afterwards called FLINDERS ISLAND, was to be
selected. Sergeant Wight was sent to report upon it on Novem-
ber 2d, 1831, upon the special recommendation of the site to
Government by Captain Jackson, and named by the Aborigines'
Committee before Colonel Arthur, September 28th, 1831. In
October the Launceston Independent has this notice "The
Natives, when caught, are to be placed upon an island in the
immediate vicinity of the one at present occupied as a depôt for
the Aborigines, known by the name of Great Island, being
about fifty miles in length, Gun Carriage Island being too cir-
cumscribed to afford a livelihood for those placed thereon."
The island is forty miles long, and from twelve to eighteen
broad. It rises boldly from the sea, and has some prominent
mountain ranges. Strzelecki, to the south-west, is 2,550 feet
high. Three peaks to the east are called the Patriarchs. They
are near the Babel Isles, where Flinders was so confounded by
the noise of sea-birds. A massive breastwork of hills opposes
a defiant, abrupt front to the prevailing west wind. Like the
rest of the Bass's Strait Isles, it is substantially of granite,
though the sedimentary primary rocks are not wanting. The
metamorphic, especially mica schist, is in great force. In this
respect its conformation is similar to the northern coast of Tas-
mania. Precious stones have been reported, especially diamonds
of good size; but the lapidary would not estimate them very
highly. A magnificent crystal was discovered in the ancient
days on the top of a mountain. It was two feet in height, and
had the appearance of seven pillars. So great a curiosity was
presented to Governor Sorell upon his departure from the colony
in 1824.
But however attractive to the lover of the picturesque, or the
student of geology, it had no charms to the farmer or grazier.
Without rivers, it had vast morasses. Without fine forests, it
was overrun with grass-tree (Xanthorrhea) scrub and tea-tree
thickets. Without alluvial deposits of good soil, the interior
was rock, where it was not sand or swamp.
The place chosen for the settlement was called The Lagoons,
as to the rear of a dreary tea-tree (Melaleuca) scrub, nearly bor-
dering the sandy shore, was a salt lagoon, or shallow lake. Fresh
FLINDERS ISLAND, THE LAST STRAITS' HOME.
247
water was only to be found in the hollows of granite rock, or
dug for in morasses, or in the white sea-sand.
Is it to be wondered at that the chilling aspect of the locality
struck to the heart of the simple captives? Captain Bateman
and others have described to me the despairing look of the
people at their new home. A Government surveyor, engaged
on the island at the time of the first arrivals,—the party from
Gun Carriage,-informed me that when they saw from shipboard
the splendid country which they were promised, they betrayed
the greatest agitation, gazing with strained eyes at the sterile
shore, uttering melancholy moans, and, with arms hanging beside
them, trembling with convulsive feeling. They were not recon-
ciled even when, upon landing, they found plenty of kangaroos
in the interior, as the Straits' climate followed them. They were
located on the south-western side, exposed to the ever-boisterous
western breeze, unsheltered by forests, and unprotected by rising
ground near. The winds were violent and cold; the rain and
sleet were penetrating and miserable. With their health suffering
from chills, rheumatism and consumption diminished their num-
bers, and thus added force to their forebodings that they were
taken there to die.
The Charlotte carried thirteen females, twenty-six males, and
one infant, from Gun Carriage, on January 25th, 1832, and landed
them near the south-western point of Flinders, opposite the Green
Island, at the Hummocky Point of the sealers. The east coast
was more sheltered, but almost entirely unapproachable by reason
of shoals. Some sheep, which had been presented to the Natives
by Captain Dixon and other kind settlers, were taken to feed
upon the Barilla, or Salt Bush, of Green Island.
Old Sergeant Wight reigned on the island. His soldiers had
been directed to put up some long huts of wattle-and-daub
(branches and mud), about twenty-five feet long each, leaving
an entrance at one end, and a hole in the roof to let out the
smoke of their fires. The Blacks were expected to keep these
clean. But the commander, however fitted to govern military
men, was ill able to control the contending elements around him.
Though sixty-six years of age, it was said that he possessed
considerable energy, with strength of will and passions.
Difficulties beset him at the outset in the hostility of the
various tribes. Certain coalitions existed; but bitter quarrels,
248
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
proceeding to blows, were of daily occurrence. The Ben Lomond
and Big River tribes were at open issue. The Western would
side with either, according to caprice. The Cape Grim Mob, the
most remote and barbarous of all, kept completely aloof from
the rest. All was in chaos. The native women went about
wholly naked, and the greatest disorder prevailed. To add to
their trouble, fresh people kept landing, supplies were not flou-
rishing, and the climate put all in bad temper.
A rebellion broke out. The old Sergeant adopted summary
measures. He enlisted the services of the sealers, who mounted
guard over the Natives. He seized fifteen of the most powerful,
or quarrelsome, of the men, and put them upon a granite rock
in the ocean, without food, water, or wood, although he had been
directed to employ no restraint. Captain Bateman told me that,
passing near in the Tamar, he descried the wretched people, and
rescued them in an almost dying state, they having been exposed
to rough weather, without shelter or rations, for five days. Their
tale was a simple one. They declared they had been carried off
that the soldiers might have no interruption in their criminał
commerce with the women.
Mr. Wight's story was that he had discovered a rebellious
attempt to upset his government, and to murder the Whites.
The Opossum cutter had landed a dozen Aborigines on January
22d. These, with forty others on shore, were to come to the
huts of the Europeans by night and kill them. Some native
women betrayed the plan to their military friends. A search in
some huts was made, and fresh-made spears and waddies weré
found concealed. Black Tom, the interpreter to the authorities,
had informed the Sergeant that the Opossum men were growling.
The Blacks were to have seized the boats, and taken their way
back to their beloved native country.
The acting Commandant had made up his case. He had got up
a statement, certified by Robert Gamble, Joseph Mason, and John
Strange, his mark, purporting to be the evidence given on the 30th
of January, by no less distinguished a person than Piucommiumi-
ner, more commonly known as Wild Mary. It was as follows :—
"That Broom-teer-lang-en-er was the first who proposed
taking the boat away that was on Green Island, belonging to the
sealers. She, also, stated that Cantityer, her husband, meant to
have put a fire-stick in the thatch of the hut where the surgeon
LIEUTENANT DARLING, THE FIRST COMMANDANT.
249
sleeps-that they intended to call at other islands, and to take
the females from the sealers, as also the boat belonging to John
Smith, and to kill two half-caste children belonging to this man
-to take his woman alsó."
We may smile at this harmless manifestation of the great
Rebellion of Flinders; but it is certain that the fright did good
for the Natives, for the Governor immediately despatched a
suitable officer to rule them. This was Lieutenant Darling, a
brother of the late Governor of Victoria.
He was the first Commandant of Flinders. Attached to the
63d Regiment, he combined the firmness and discipline of a
military officer, with the intelligence and urbanity of a gentle-
man, and the benevolence and sympathy of a Christian. He
arrived in March 1832, and immediately adopted such measures
as tranquillized the minds of the excited savages, and disposed
them to listen to their first lessons in civilization.
The primary difficulty was the want of water; this he relieved
by digging in the Lagoon, and in the white sand of the shore.
His policy, with respect to the sealers, was very decided. He
ordered their absolute withdrawal from every part of the island.
and put written notices on posts around the coast, warning them,
under penalty, from approaching the place. Great irregularities
must have been known, when the Launceston Advertiser, in an
article, before the advent of Mr. Darling, while noticing the dis-
graceful conduct of a boat's crew at Green Island, asks whether
the Aborigines are really to be treated as prisoners of war, or
have an opportunity of being schooled into habits of industry.
Now came the humanizing processes. The Commandant, by
his kind, persuasive manner, succeeded in effecting some change
in the rough habits of his charge; while, by his determined
character, he kept the turbulent in check, and shielded the
gentle and weak. He sought to engage the men in employment,
and the women in domestic cares. His solicitude about the
elevation of the gins testified to the intelligence of his plans. In
one of his earliest official communications, he said: "Good
motherly women who could instruct the aboriginal women
would be very useful." The encouragement is indicated in the
assertion that "the greatest part of the females are young, and
are willing and anxious to learn." Would that the counsel of
this worthy young officer had been adopted! With the means at
250
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
hand he greatly improved the comfort of the captured, and
secured the approval of his chief. In a despatch home on April
6th, 1833, Colonel Arthur thus acknowledges the work :-
The benevolent exertions of Ensign Darling of the 63d Regi-
ment have accomplished more than I could have anticipated, in
happily conciliating the poor creatures entrusted to his charge,
and in developing many excellent qualities in their character,
for which few persons are willing to give them credit. He has
engaged in the duties which his appointment as Commandant
rendered incumbent upon him, with an ardour bordering on
enthusiasm, but tempered with much judgment and discretion."
It was during the period of his excellent government that the
two Quaker missionaries, Messrs. Backhouse and Walker, paid
their interesting visit to the island. We have in their narrative
no exhibition of Rousseau sentimentality for savages, or Quixotic,
whining philanthropy, but the genuine display of simple, fervid,
Christian feeling, and matter-of-fact, practical benevolence.
They were certainly disposed to look upon the aboriginal side of
the picture; but, by the very expression of their sympathy, they
got a readier access to the hearts of the Natives, and a clearer
conception of their habits and condition.
They found the settlement removed from the Lagoons, a dozen
miles further, to a spot called Civilization Point, or Wybalenna,
the Black Man's House, and formerly known to the sealers as
Pea. Jacket Point. There were twenty cottages for the Blacks ;
but eleven were tenantless. They were of wattle and plastered
clay, well whitewashed, with roofs of coarse grass thatch. They
were extended in the form of a crescent, and placed about a
quarter of a mile from the encampment of the Whites. There
were there forty-seven male adults, forty-eight female adults,
seven boys, four girls, one male little one, and four female
children under five years. They were not only protected from
sealers, but from a worse foe-Strong Drink.
In their published narrative of their religious visit to the Cape
Colony, Mauritius, and the Australian colonies, the excellent
"Friends" give us a humorous account of a tea-party on the
island, which affords us an insight into the moral and elevating
designs of the officer. The surveyor, Mr. Woodward, assured me
that every Sunday Mr. Darling and the doctor would invite
some of the Natives to dine with them. On this particular
VISIT OF THE QUAKER MISSIONARIES.
251
occasion, a singular compliment was paid to the benevolent
travellers; for they tell us: "A large party of the Native women
took tea with us at the Commandant's. They conducted them-
selves in a very orderly manner; and, after washing up the tea-
things, put them in their places." It would have been gratifying
to have been present at the party of the Government official in
his regal state, the two smiling Quaker gentlemen, and the ebon
fair ones.
One wonders what they talked about. If among
themselves, over the scandal cup, the ladies might have been
traducing the character of their absent lords, showing some
waddy marks upon the skull, or detailing slights to one and
favours to another. But before three such gentlemen, and in the
palace of Flinders too, they must have "conducted themselves
in a very orderly manner." It is not usual, however, to invite
company, and then to leave them to wash up.
A formal Report of this visit was made to the Governor, at his
request. From this a few extracts are given. "Little," said
they, "can be said of the religious state of the establishment;
yet there is reason to believe the pains that have been taken
have been successful in producing attention to the most pro-
minent points of morality." The good men had little belief in
the machinery of religion, and even doubted the efficacy of
knowing the Catechism and prayers by rote. One point of im-
provement they notice: "Nearly the whole of them are associated
as married couples. No marriage ceremony is used among them;
but when the parties agree to be united, they are thenceforth
recognised as husband and wife, and are not allowed to change."
The latter provision must have struck the aboriginal mind
from being novel to their habits, and at variance with their
traditions.
The moral work attracted much of their attention, and the
Friends dilate upon it satisfactorily. "The Catechist," they
write, “has taken great pains to inform the Aborigines of the
existence and character of the Deity, and most of them now
have some idea of these important truths. He has translated
into one of the dialects a large portion of the first three chapters
of Genesis. The Natives are daily instructed either in the house
of the Catechist or in their own huts, amid the interruptions to
which both of these places are subject."
Anyhow, sufficient was seen to satisfy one that the civilizing
252
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
agencies were at work under Lieutenant Darling, and not com-
menced, as supposed, under Mr. Robinson two years after.
Appended to the Report were certain suggestions for the good
of the people. They recommended a further supply of cows, of
shoes for wet weather, of boxes for clothing, and of stools for
seats. They urged the erection of a church or school-house, and
thought the women should be provided with checked cotton
bed-gowns, stuff petticoats, checked aprons, and neckerchiefs.
There is a pleasant notice in Dr. Ross's Almanack, written
only a few months after, in which there is reference to the things
suggested by the pious visitors: "Every little family has a hut,
built by their own hands, with a fireplace and window. They
have tables, chairs, and bedsteads, neatly manufactured of the
timber of the island, imitating as closely as they can the customs
of their White associates. The females attend to the domestic
duties, keeping their little family parlours clean, and washing
clothes. In their hunting excursions, they bring home the skins
of the wallabies and kangaroos, which they stretch out with
pegs on the grass to dry, and send to Launceston, to be exchanged
for knives, handkerchiefs, and other useful little articles. They
cultivate one large garden in common, moving the hoe to the
tune of one of their wild melodies." Really, after reading this
romantic account of the Flinders' residents, especially of the
musical agriculturists, we quite fancy we are listening to the
entranced Frenchman, and expect to behold the rosy cheeks of
the innocent and modest Ourâ-ourâ.
((
Dr. Ross, the editor of the Courier, wished to see the sunny
side of the Flinders' experiment, and dilated upon the happiness
and security enjoyed by the favoured there. The Rev. Dr. Lang,
of Sydney, took up his Hobart Town press friend rather smartly :
Happiness and security, Dr. Ross! The security of death, you
mean!--the happiness of leaving their unburied bones to be
bleached by the sun and rain in every nook and dell of that
island, where they fell, unpitied, by the bullets of Europeans!
In thirty years—the period which it required, under the iron rod
of Spain, to exterminate all the native inhabitants of Hispaniola
—the numerous tribes into which the Aborigines of Van Die-
men's Land were divided have been reduced, under the mild
sway of Britain, to 118 souls, imprisoned on an island in Bass's
Strait
May the Lord long preserve this miserable remnant of
put
•
LIFE ON FLINDERS ISLAND.
253
a race so nearly extinct! And, in the mild spirit of Christian
charity, may they forget the wrongs of their nation, and exem-
plify in their own persons and characters the triumphs of
Christianity!"
In 1834, Mr. Henry Nickolls was appointed Superintendent,
at 1827. 10s. salary; Mr. Robert Clark, Catechist, at 1207.; Mr.
Loftus Dickenson, Store-keeper; and Mr. Allen (who subse-
quently married a daughter of Mr. Robinson's), the Surgeon of
the establishment. In that year there were not less than 30
Whites to look after the 120 Blacks.
It is evident that Governor Arthur did not feel satisfied with
his prisoners being kept in the Straits; for he made a pro-
position to the Home Government to let them loose on the
southern shore of the continent of New Holland, on the site of
the present colonies of Victoria and South Australia, founded
directly after the suggestion made by Colonel Arthur. The
Secretary for the Colonies, Lord Glenelg, objected on humane
grounds. Varying his scheme, we find the Governor next pro-
posing that Mr. Robinson, who had just brought in his last party
of wanderers, should proceed to that opposite coast, with some of
the Flinders Island Aborigines, to civilize the wild Australian
Blacks. That idea being abandoned, he resolved to send Mr.
Robinson to take charge of the island prison. He took command
in November 1835.
Agreeably to his temperament, he came with a clash of
trumpets. Nothing had been done before him, and he would
and could do all that was necessary. With his accustomed
energy, he threw himself into the work of reformation, and
certainly revived the spirits of the decaying tribes.
At a public meeting, in 1838, held at Sydney, he is reported
to have brought testimony to show the dreadful state on the
island before he went there; showing that the place had more
the appearance of a menagerie, than the habitation of human
beings. He then gave the following narrative of his success on
the island:—" Their present condition could best be described
by reading some replications to certain queries which had been
addressed to him by the Government. The tribes formerly most
opposed to each other were now the most friendly. If excited
to anger, a look was sufficient to allay their feelings. They were
placed under no kind of restraint, but enjoyed every degree of
254
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
personal freedom consistent with a due regard to their health,
and the formation of religious and civilized habits. They were
instructed in the Christian religion. Their attendance was per-
fectly voluntary: all, however, attended, and their conduct would
be a pattern to many congregations of civilized Europeans. In
sacred melody they had displayed great proficiency.—He had
established three schools on the settlement-a day-school for
boys, a day-school for girls and women, an evening-school, and a
Sunday-school. They had neat stone cottages, with gardens, in
which they raised their own vegetables; with cooking utensils
and other useful articles."
In 1861, reviewing the past, Mr. Robinson said: "I established
at Flinders Island an Aboriginal Fund, which was raised from
the proceeds of work performed, and the sale of various articles
prepared by them; such as salted mutton-birds, birds' skins, &c.
—which were generally sold at Launceston. I also formed an
Aboriginal Police, to preserve order, and to decide all disagree-
ments which might arise among them. I also established a cir-
culating medium amongst them, which was attended with the
happiest effects, as it gave them a knowledge of the rights of
property; and lastly, and consequent upon the latter, I esta-
blished a market, to which they brought their produce. Thus
they acquired the habits of civilized life, and felt an interest
in the acquisition of property, which rendered them indus-
trious and cleanly."
Dr. Ross intimated, in his Courier of October 8th, 1836, that
"Mr. Robinson has been the means of establishing a weekly
newspaper among them. It is entirely written by the Aborigines,
and is published under the name of the Aboriginal Flinders
Island Chronicle, on half a sheet of foolscap, every Saturday,
price twopence each, and the profits arising from the work are
equally divided among the editors." Concerning this, the subse-
quent Superintendent, Dr. Jeanneret, writes: "I have no know-
ledge of the newspaper you refer to. None, in my time, were
capable of such a work.”
We cannot pause in this glorious career of civilization, and
again introduce Mr. Robinson as the speaker :----
"At the periodical examination of the schools, some of the
native youths were able to answer questions in the leading events
of Scripture history, Christian doctrine and duty, arithmetic, the
ROBINSON'S REPORT OF FLINDERS' PROGRESS.
255
principal facts of geography, and also on several points of useful
information. Some very fair specimens of handwriting were
exhibited on such occasions; one, in particular, was worthy of
notice, being an original address from the writer-a native youth
of fifteen years of age, who was employed by me in my office-
to his countrymen. It was expressed in simple and tolerably
correct language, and breathed a warm spirit of gratitude to
myself. In the schools they were taught various handiwork,
such as knitting in worsted, sewing, &c.; and they proved to be
apt and industrious scholars." In his Progress Report, dated
May 17th, 1837, he wrote: "The schools and religious services
are still maintained, and the Natives are constant and regular
in their attendance. They are rapidly acquiring industrious
habits. The settlement is in a very powerful, tranquil state."
What more could be wanted? It was an age of steam.
Flinders rose at once, under Mr. Robinson, to its highest deve-
lopment, like Athens, under Pericles; and it sank more rapidly
into barbarism upon the departure of its master.
A little must be placed to that love of "high talk" which
ever accompanied the declarations of the Commandant; as the
examination, to be detailed hereafter, hardly indicates so lofty an
intellect, or exhibits so marvellous a moral result.
The last passage of the celebrated Sydney speech is a painful
commentary upon this work of progress: "The only drawback on
the establishment was the great mortality amongst them." But
even then his exultant spirit hopefully cries: "But those who
did survive were now happy, contented, and useful members of
society." In 1861 he saw the non-fulfilment of his prophecy.
This is his remarkable expression :—
"The most serious drawback to the success of the establish-
ment was the great mortality among them, which has continued
to so lamentable an extent, that at the present time there are
but a small remnant living. Had the poor creatures survived to
have become a numerous people, I am convinced they would
have formed a contented and useful community."
Alas! it is the story of the Frenchman's horse, that died just
when he had acquired the power of living without eating. In
the process of regeneration they lost the life they had. Even
the Committee of the Aborigines' Society were at last sensible
of the folly of this over-legislation; for, in their Report for
256
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
1839, they regretted that "from the first a system had not been
applied more suitable to the habits of a roving people, instead of
the highly artificial one whose details have been referred to" (in
Mr. Robinson's report).
A colonial writer of the period comments upon the system in
1838. "The Commandant," he writes, "has an establishment of
thirty-two convicts to wait on the Aborigines, and supply the
deficiency of their own labour, and is rewarded by a great deal
of reading, writing, singing, rehearsal of the Catechism, tailoring,
submission, attachment, decorum, tranquillity—everything, in a
word, which gratifies superficial examination; and he persuades
himself that he is eminently successful with them; but they
have no free agency, are mere children at school, and they cannot
escape from their prison. They cannot subsist at a distance from
it; they must not break its rules; it must be a place of exten-
sive ennui to them: as moral agents now, they are lower than
when they were savages, and they die, I fear, the faster for this
kindness. The Commandant imputes the mortality among them
to the situation and climate, and wishes to transport them to, the
south coast of New Holland; but in six months, I am persuaded,
they would be on this place happy savages in the Bush."
The more civilized they became, the more dependent were thẹ
Blacks upon their masters for supplies, and the less disposed
were they to exert themselves. Listless and good, they wanted
energy to pursue the bounding kangaroo, or clamber after an
opossum. In Mr. Robinson's letter, March 8th, 1836, we have
this announcement: It has been intimated to the Natives that
they are shortly to be supplied with fresh meat, which intelli-
gence affords them much pleasure." It would, certainly; though
it doubtless puzzled their unarithmetical heads what became of
the several hundreds of sheep given to them by settlers in 1833,
and increasing on Green Island, &c. Besides, the Government
had sent cattle and more sheep. Before the receipt of the
Commandant's letter, three hundred breeding sheep and ten cows
were forwarded. And yet not once in six months did the Blacks
eat of their own mutton! Some other people preferred fresh
meat to salted rations. In 1838 there were still 1,800 sheep
and 62 head of cattle.
Among the singular crotchets of Mr. Robinson's was that one
of altering the names of the Natives. Certainly, surrounded as
CHANGE OF NATIVES' NAMES.
257
he was, with a host of white servants who could not catch the
long and liquid words of the native tongue, it might seem neces-
sary to make a change, but hardly to form so absurd a catalogue
as he did. It would be interesting to know whose philological
and literary assistance he obtained; some one of his convict
servants might have been an M.A. But he evidently imagined
he had performed an important and useful service, making it the
subject of a special report on September 14th, 1836. He pre-
sented two lists-his own nomenclature, classical and grand;
and beside it, the aboriginal, or the absurd English, name.
These are the males:-
Adolphus
Tommy
Hannibal
Parley
Alexander
Long Billy
Hector
Hector
Alphonso
Big Jemmy
Isaac
Problattener
Arthur
Jemmy
Joseph
Rose's Jemmy
Albert
Warnee
James
Alpha
Doctor
Milton
Jessy's Father
Penemeroic
Achilles
Roulebauna
Matthew
Jacky
Augustus
Ben
Nimrod
Kangaroo Billy
Andrew
Dray's Jerry
Napoleon
Jacky
Algernon
Charley
Neptune
Ajax
Moultchelargene
Noemy
Alfred
Big Billy
Omega
Ballywinny
Bonaparte
Little Jacky
Peter Pindar
Peter
Benjamin
Ben
Philip
Columbus
Lenerugirin
Rodney
Christopher
Dick
Romeo
Constitution
Daniel
Big Jacky
Goannah
Robert
David
David
George Robinson
William Robinson
Bung's Jacky
Larmodrick
Tomten
Big Tenry's Jemmy
Pennebricke
George
Edward
Little Billy
Samuel
Kit's Jemmy
Edmund
Tonee
Tippoo Saib
Jacky
Eugene
Nicominic
Thomas
Heedeivick
Frederick
Tommy
Washington
Mackamee
Francis
Big Mary's Jemmy King William
Governor
King George
Old Tom
Henry
Henry
Walter George Arthur Friday
The others were with but one name each: George, Davey,
Peter, Thomas Thompson, Peter, Charley, Manune, Teddy. These
were the fifty-nine males. The females were as follow:—
Queen Adelaide Governor's Lubra
Queen Andromache Larrentong
Princess Clara
Catherine
Princess Cleopatra
Deborah
Queen Evelene
Teddeburric
Narrucker
Kyenrope
Larmodrick
Amelia
Kittanah
Agnes
Ann
Blind Poll
Dinah
Queen Charlotte
Big Tenry
Queen Elizabeth
S
Wongeneep
Big Bet
258
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
Emma
Flora
Henrietta
Harriet
Helen
Little Tenry
Bangham
Big Mary
Watty
Twopence
Matilda
Maria first
Nancy
Patty
Pauline
Pyterunner
Maria
Younah
Goneannah
Little Sally
LIFE
Juliet
Jemima
Jane
Louisa
John
Cranky Poll
Boatswain
Eliza Robinson
Rose.
Sarah
Sophia
Charlotte's daughter
Gooseberry
Tibb
Dray
Crook
Jumbo
Lucy
Mytermoon
Sabina
Princess Lalla Rookh Trugenanna
Susan
Margaret
Bung
Semiramis
Lock Jaw Poll
Jenny
The one-named females were Daphne, Fanny, Jessy, Wild Mary,
Maria the Second, Petuck, Tingenoop, Tidderap, Tarehamenneve,
Tinedeburric, Maryann, Bessy, Cowlim, Mary Thompson, Wyree,
Puepedar, Pillah, Moicrune, and Nomyuncric. Why the latter
of the fifty-seven should not be supplied with more manageable,
if not queenly, names, may be subject of inquiry. Perhaps the
philological conclave became exhausted at this juncture.
The following is a list of some of the names of the men on
the island in 1834. They are given as spelt in the original
document, as Mr. Robinson would also spell them, though sub-
sequently changes have been made-as a for er. There were
Worethetitatilargener and Moullteerlargener, chiefs of the Ben
Lomond tribe; Calamaroweyne, the supposed murderer of Cap-
tain Thomas; Marenerlarger, Teelapana, Walentirloona, Pana-
coona, Wowee, Mackamee, Paropa, Nicamenie, Tymethie, Pre-
ropa, Pyntharyne, Toinchonc, Peey, Boobyinthie, Toindeburic,
Rowlapana, Toby Langta, Lamaima, Conapanny, Packabanny,
Wymeric. Three of them were husbands of Wild Mary, and
who all died in a fortnight.
Because of the difference of dialects, there naturally grew
upon the island a sort of Lingua Franca,--a commingling of
tongues, native and English. There was a difficulty in pro-
nouncing our d and s.
The man who entered most into the feelings and sympathies
of the Aborigines of Flinders, was the well-known catechist,
Mr. Robert Clark-the Father Clark of the Natives.
My first acquaintance with this devoted man was in the
beginning of 1842, when he brought to my house several of his
juvenile pupils, well clothed, with smiling faces, who read to me,
with correct intonation, several verses from the New Testament.
MR. CLARK, THE CATECHIST.
259
They looked up to him with the same filial regard which his
own children felt for him.
Appointed to his position of schoolmaster and catechist in
1834, he, for a little time, gave place to the Rev. T. Dove, Pres-
byterian clergyman, and assumed a secular office, without dimin-
ishing his efforts for the moral good of his dark-coloured friends.
He was obliged to resign, from the adoption of schemes he con-
sidered opposed to the welfare of the Aborigines. On his coming
to Hobart Town I became intimately acquainted with him,
. and attached to his person. After a year or two, to the joy
of his old friends, he was restored to his situation as cate-
chist, which he retained until his departure for a better world,
in 1850. Often have I listened with deep emotion to his sad
stories of the sufferings of his charge, while his tremulous voice
and moistened eyes declared the depth and sincerity of his
sympathy.
He gained the confidence of all. He would sit down on the
ground with the men, and smoke his pipe with them, while
listening to their yarns of hunting and war, when he would
appeal to them, in their own soft tones, about Him who loved
the dark-skinned race, and yearned over them for good. With
the gins he was ever a favourite; having the ready kind word
and smile for each, with a bit of ribbon for one, a piece of
tobacco for another, a joke for a third, and good counsel for all.
Mrs. Clark was a helpmate to her husband, and their children
were schoolmates and playmates with the Natives.
Mr. Robinson appreciated his help. When, in April 1838,
the Rev. T. Dove was appointed catechist-a regular clergyman
being supposed essential to the importance of the establishment
-Mr. Clark acknowledged the kindness of Government in
bestowing on him the position of storekeeper, and thus ex-
presses his sentiments to the Colonial Secretary: "Its value is
doubly enhanced by our continuance among our dear black
friends, in whose welfare and instruction we are so deeply
interested, and for whose moral and physical improvement our
energies will continue, with God's blessing, to be exercised.”
It was of him that Mr. Robinson wrote on the 2d of May :
“I have found him a faithful, zealous, and efficient officer, amply
qualified for the duties he had to perform, and one willing to
render services that had for their object the amelioration and
S 2
260
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
improvement of the Natives." He added a word, also, for Mrs.
Clark: "She has been instrumental in initiating the female
Aborigines in the first principles of the Christian religion. The
marked results attendant thereupon have been mainly attributed
to her personal exertions." Captain Stokes, the explorer, when
visiting Flinders in 1842, refers to the lasting effects produced
by Mr. Clark upon the Aborigines, "for whom," he says, "they
all continue to feel great veneration, and to exhibit that respect
which is due to a parent." Elsewhere he remarks: "We heard
all the Natives of both sexes, old and young, sing several hymns
taught them by this excellent person."
Mr. Dove, though without the susceptible and genial nature
of my Irish friend, was an earnest, faithful man. The restraint
of his ecclesiastical habits, perhaps, prevented him fraternizing,
so to speak, with the people; and not even the orthodoxy and
sincerity of his discourses could save them from a certain amount
of dryness and doctrinal rigidity, which, however agreeable to
a Scotch congregation, was scarcely to be appreciated by his
ignorant, fickle, and child-like audience in the Straits. He was
better fitted for the charge at Swanport, to which he retired, and
where he has resided for so many years. A pleasing story is
told of the good man attending the death-bed of King George,
alias Old Tom, and taking such real interest in the poor fellow,
that the last effort of the dying man was affectionately to smile
at the pastor, and squeeze his hand.
I have now before me a manuscript book, presented to me by
the widow of the venerated Rev. Frederick Miller, of Hobart
Town, which had been prepared by my old friend Mr. Robert
Clark, giving full particulars of an examination held in February
1838, when the Rev. T. Dove, chaplain, presided, and Mr. George
Augustus Robinson, Mr. Dickenson, storekeeper, and Dr. Walsh,
were spectators.
Young Mr. William Robinson's class first came forward, under
the monitorship of Thomas Thompson, and consisting of the
following remarkable characters :-Isaac, Edward, Washington,
Albert, and Leonidas. Edward is pronounced imperfect in the
alphabet, and goes down. Washington attempts to spell; but
brave Leonidas, more ambitious, makes a trial of reading from
the spelling-book. Leonidas, the hero of the class, repeats the
Lord's Prayer, the Collect, the names of the months and days of
EXAMINATION AT FLINDERS ISLAND.
the week, in addition to counting up to one hundred.
261
His theo-
logical knowledge was sounded. I copy a few of the questions
and answers :—
"Do you like the Devil?
دو
"No."
“Do you like God? "Yes."
“Can you see God?”
"What is the Devil?
((
""
"No."
"The father of lies."
What did God do with Adam's rib?"—" Make a woman
of it."
((
""
Who did God take the woman to? -"To Adam."
"Do you pray to God?"—"Yes.”
In Mr. Charles Robinson's class, Neptune attempts to read,
and Peter Pindar is pronounced perfect in the alphabet. Nep-
tune is fluent upon early Scripture history, and his creed may
be taken as the orthodox of the period. A few of the questions
are appended :—
"Burn it."
"What will God do to this world by and by?".
"What did God make us for? "His own purpose."
""
"Who are in heaven?"-" God, angels, good men, and Jesus
Christ."
"What sort of a country is heaven?"-" A fine place."
“What sort of a place is hell?"—"A place of torment."
What do you mean by a 'place of torment?'”—“ Burning
for ever and ever."
""
"What is the seventh day called?"-" Sunday." (?)
"What do you love God for?"-" God gives me everything.'
Though apt in the general catechism, he fails to count beyond
ten. His memory was not mathematical.
Peter Pindar again came before the gentlemen. Of him it is
said in the Report: "Similar questions were put to Peter Pindar
as to Neptune, which he answered in a similar manner. He
named the days of the week. This individual has family worship
every evening.” Though only knowing his letters, he was superior
to others in morals.
Albert was not examined in detail; but his teacher answered
for his being as perfect in all the answers as Washington or
Leonidas. Noemy, Albert, and Eugene did as the foregoing.
Alexander, I regret to say, attempted to read; but, like his
ambitious namesake, did not succeed in all his ventures. Tippoo
Saib sought to spell a little, while Arthur struggled through the
262
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
alphabet. Tippoo went over the approved questions, giving the
approved answers according to rote. Most of the class could
repeat the Lord's Prayer, and the Collect for the Second Sunday
after Advent. Alexander reckoned up to sixteen, but Tippoo
and Arthur only got to ten. The organ of number was always
deficient in that poor race.
The junior class then appeared. Frederick attempts to spell,
and Bonaparte to read, while Rodney and Adolphus attempted
nothing, and King Alfred was too sick to exhibit. The Report
adds: "At this stage of the examination, Mr. G. A. Robinson •
referred to the former notes for questions to find the class."
Then follows the same series of "Who made you?"
"Who was
the first man?" "What is heaven?" &c. &c. Young "White
fellows," who smile at reading this account, may know that the
Poll Parrot system is not quite extinct in their day.
Bonaparte answered eight questions, and appeared to have a
more decided and satisfactory faith than the Emperor. Being
asked, “Do you like God?" he promptly answered, "Yes." A man
named Augustus was able to read a little in the New Testament,
and counted up to one hundred. It is furthermore mentioned
concerning him, can add a little." This was the Dux of the
class. In another class, two were perfect in the alphabet, and
one was ill.
The boys' class taught by the catechist formed, of course, the
prominent feature of the examination. Bruni, Thompson, and
Walter could read, write, and even cipher a little. The two first
died soon afterwards. The last was subsequently known to me.
He was far above the average of the Aborigines. He could
converse with intelligence, and reason with ability. I saw his
Bible on the side-table, when I took tea with him and his wife,
in their own neat little hut.
Walter and Bruni having read the first chapter of the Hebrews,
the Rev. Mr. Dove questioned them upon it. According to the
Report, one man "spelled and attempted to read in a part he
had committed to memory at the Orphan School for the purpose."
Such an effort ought to have been successful, but was not.
Although there is a reflection upon the professional ability of
another teacher, it must be admitted that much of the learning
paraded on Flinders Island was obtained at the Government
Orphan School, near Hobart Town.
EXAMINATION OF THE WOMEN.
263
The following are some of the questions put to the Upper
Form:
<<
""
Where was Jesus Christ before He came on earth? "In
heaven with His Father."
(C
What should Cain have done when he knew he was wrong ?"
"He should have prayed to God."
"Did God make man in His own image?"
"Yes."
"How did they lose His image?"-"By eating the forbidden
fruit."
"What was the text Mr. Dove preached from last Sunday?"
"The Parable of the Ten Virgins."
"What happened to the Five Foolish Virgins?""They were
kept out of the Bridegroom's Chamber." (?)
"Do you remember the Prodigal Son?"-" Yes, sir."
They answered well upon the life and death of Jesus Christ.
The examination of the males-thirty being present-termi-
nated in two days.
The female intellect was now to be exhibited, and twenty-
three candidates for honours were found. Mrs. Dickenson's
class was the first. I regret to say that the report, though brief,
is not commendatory: "Clara reads-Daphne attempts to read—
Emma attempts to read-Rose attempts to spell - Sophia
attempts to spell-Sabina imperfect in the alphabet-Henrietta
imperfect in the alphabet-Lucy imperfect in the alphabet-
and Wild Mary imperfect in the alphabet." It may be pre-
sumed that Wild Mary was a step above Queen Adelaide, as
that lady, though present, did not enter the lists.
My par-
ticular friend, Lalla Rookh or Truganina, was not examined in
literature.
In the course of questions a slight variation once appeared,
evidencing the superior originality of the feminine mind, as the
sable lords never altered their replies. When it was asked,
"Will you die?" Caroline cried out, "I will;" while Lalla Rookh
contented herself with "Yes." Again, "Have you a soul?"
Daphne said, "I have;" and Wild Mary uttered "Yes." All
the questions on Scripture History were very simple. Several of
the pupils repeated the Lord's Prayer and the approved Collect.
The senior women's class, under Mrs. Clark, distinguished
themselves. Bessy reads the whole of No. 1 Spelling-book.
Patty attempts to read. Paulina spells words of three letters.
264
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
Juliet reads four easy pages. Semiramis knows her English
letters—a feat the Assyrian queen could not have performed.
Some of the interrogations were more advanced.
"What was Jesus Christ for us?"-" Our righteousness."
"What is the Devil?"-"A roaring lion seeking whom he
may devour."
"Who is the Devil?".
<<
The enemy of souls.”
"How did sin enter into this world?
"What did Jesus Christ do for you?"
according to the Scriptures."
""
((
'By Adam."
"He died for our sins,
"Who is in heaven?"-"God, angels, Jesus Christ, good men
and women."
“What did God make beside the light?"-"He made every-
thing."
"What is an ark?"-" A bigmee ship."
"How long did Jesus stay in the grave?"-"Three days and
three nights."
"What must you get before you go to heaven?"—" A new
heart and a right spirit."
What was Jesus made for us?
Who crucified Jesus Christ?
""
"Sin for us.'
""
""
"The Jews."
"Who were the Jews?" "The people of God."
((
Do you love God and wish to pray to Him?"—“ I do, sir.”
'Did you know anything of God before you came to this
settlement?"-" No, sir."
"Did the sealing men tell you anything about God?"—" No,
sir."
"Did you know anything about God before Mrs. Clark taught
you?”—“No, sir."
The last three questions were, perhaps, impromptu ones.
How far the women comprehended some of the questions and
answers cannot be known. How Jesus was made sin for them
might have puzzled them, and they might have wondered how
the people of God could be so bad as to crucify the Saviour.
But it is more probable that they did not trouble their faculties
to inquire. It is enough that the examiners were satisfied.
Then follows a singular passage in the Report: "School ad-
journed at 3 o'clock. On the resuming of the examination of
Mrs. Clark's class, they appeared very sulky, and it was with
some difficulty they were induced to answer the questions pro-
NAPOLEON, THE BAD SCHOLAR.
265
posed to them; several questions they would not, which are
omitted here." What could have been the matter? What
had been done to put the dark beauties out of temper? Did
some get more praise and pudding than others? One thing we
do know the gentler sex won the day, for the young men had
to come to the rescue, and take up the questions.
After more Scripture, the lads were taken to the secular.
They were examined in addition, and information was volun-
teered to the chairman that some could write large hand.
The examination ought to have proceeded next day, but for
circumstances mentioned in the story: "Reassembled this morn-
ing at 10 o'clock. Maryann (afterwards the half-caste wife of
Walter) did not attend with her class, and information was
received that the females were washing their clothes, and the
native men were at a distance from the settlement, where they
had remained all night, making a road. Adjourned till to-
morrow."
It may be that some officials thought the catechism, after
lasting three or four days, was too much for the men, and had
sent them off to work; while the women, obeying the laws of
feminine civilized nature, had embraced the opportunity of
attending to their linen, which important personal duty could
not give place to literature.
A crowd of sovereigns appeared on the following day. The
truth must be told that they least distinguished themselves.
King Alfred, however, was perfect in his alphabet, and could
tell who made him. King George knew the first man, and who
made the trees and tall mountain, but was not troubled with
more questions. King Alpha was content with playing ditto to
his royal brother George, and said that God made the tall moun-
tain. But Napoleon rushed boldly forth to the front, with
ready replies, after attempting to spell. It is very unsatisfactory,
however, to quote a remark upon this conqueror: "This native
attends school but very seldom, and is not improving. Mr. Dove
addressed him very feelingly on his neglect of instruction."
Poor fellow! he lived but little time to profit by the White
man's teaching.
One Andrew is made to say that he likes to be a good man,
that he loves to go to heaven, and that he prays in his house
every night. He counts to eighteen, and repeats the Lord's
266
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
Prayer, Collect, and General Confession. Several were brought
up to answer one question only-" Who made you?"-" God."
Among those not examined were Eliza, Helen, Eve, Tidderup,
and old Maria.
This is the closing certificate:
"I have carefully perused the foregoing report of the late examina-
tion of the Aboriginal School in this place, and can attest it to be as
faithful as it is minute.
"THOMAS DOVE,
"Chaplain of Flinders."
The history of the last few years of Flinders is soon told. It
is chiefly the story of death. Captain Stokes found that, of 200
that had been captured, 150 had perished. Governor Arthur wrote
home, on January 27th, 1835, deploring the rapid decline, and
adding, "Their number has been reduced to only 100." To save
the younger ones, fourteen were sent from the island to the
Orphan School of Hobart Town. One of the earliest victims
was Mungo, the guide to the parties of Messrs. Robertson,
Jorgenson, and Batman. Poor Manalagana, the noble chief, died
in March 1836. Surgeon Allen officially reported, Sept. 20th,
1837: "On my arrival I found one-fourth of the Natives on the
sick list, and since then more than one-half have been ill." Dr.
Story gives it as his opinion to me, that "the deaths at Flinders
Island and the attempt at civilizing the Natives were consequent
on each other."
No wonder that Mr. Robinson was anxious to remove the
people from the island, when he was appointed Protector in
Port Phillip, and that his suggestion was received with acclama-
tion by the pent-up islanders. A petition, signed by the twenty-
nine living men, was addressed to Governor Sir John Franklin,
on Aug. 12th, 1838, begging for translation to Port Phillip. His
Excellency's heart was moved, and he directed Mr. Montague,
then Colonial Secretary, to open up a correspondence with the
Government of New South Wales about their reception. Some
opposition being presented, the question was referred home,
when Lord Glenelg objected to their removal. The Rev. Dr.
Lang thus comments upon the circumstance: "But even this
miserable boon has been refused them, on the ground of their
not being sufficiently civilized and christianized yet, by a com-
DR. JEANNERET, THE COMMANDANT.
267
mittee of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, with a
Protestant Bishop for their chairman.”
After the departure of Mr. Robinson, and the failure of their
hopes of transmission to Port Phillip, the Aborigines sank into
an apathy from which they never emerged. Captain Smith
officiated for a time, and then Mr. Fisher; but Dr. Jeanneret
received the appointment of Superintendent in 1842, at the
hands of Governor Sir John Franklin, who, like his benevolent
and learned lady, was ever interested in the condition of the
Blacks.
Dr. Jeanneret was much shocked at the island affairs. He
found the rations inadequate for his charge, and even tampered
with by the small military party still esteemed necessary for the
safety of the settlement. Of an impulsive, energetic nature, and
highly sensitive in his conscientiousness, he was led from the
rebuke of wrong-doing to active denunciation, and was early in-
volved in personal collision with the soldiers, whom he accused of
malpractices with the Natives; he, also, engaged in voluminous
correspondence with Government. The officials, long tired of
the Native question, and never appreciating the pertinacious
exhibition of abuses in any of their departments, preferred to
get rid of the difficulty by the suspension of the Superintendent,
in 1844.
Not made of yielding material, the Doctor fought out the
battle in England, and was reinstated by Lord Derby in 1846.
His triumph over the local authorities did not lessen the spleen
of his enemies, nor silence the voice of calumny and reproach.
Almost immediately upon his return to Flinders, a petition
against him was got up by somebody, and signed by eight of the
Natives. He was charged with frivolous offences against their
personal comfort. The poor men afterwards repudiated their
own act, and attributed it to bad counsel. Inflexible in justice,
the Doctor needed suavity to soothe. Earnest in the discovery
of a wrong, he may have lacked that judicious prudence which
refuses to see everything, or which perceives extenuating and
ameliorating circumstances. His very integrity dissociated him
from the sympathies of his subordinates, and the rigidity of
his righteous rule perhaps increased the restlessness and dis-
content of his little state. Yet, knowing him well, and honour-
ing him much, I am sure he misrepresented himself; for, of all
268
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.

GAS Pabinson
(The Conciliator of the Tasmanians.)

Galber & Robertson
(Leader of a Roving Party.)
John Bahman
Friend of the Natives, and Founder of the Colony of Victoria.)


Rob+ Clack
( Catechist of Flinders Island and Oyster Cove.)

WP Darling.
(The first Commandant of Flinders Island.)

Watter & Arthan
؟
(The civilized Tasmanian.)
LAST DISPUTES ON FLINDERS ISLAND.
269
men, I know of few with more real kindliness of nature, or more
profound regard for duty to his God. For his pious and gentle
lady the Natives cherished tender feelings Dr. Nixon, Bishop
of Tasmania, was ever a friend to both.
The Catechist he accused of cruel treatment and neglect of
the children under his care, and he therefore removed the young
people from his roof, and suspended the officer from service.
Mr. Clark did not deny his having flogged the girls, but declared
he had done so in religious anger at their moral offences. One
in particular had been seduced into improper society, and was
long kept in rigid seclusion. With all my admiration for the
Catechist, I regret that his excitable temperament should have
led him to such excess of discipline. It is not a solitary instance
of benevolence held in abeyance through respect to Solomon's
counsel of using the rod.
The Superintendent was right in principle, though the Govern-
ment failed properly to support his authority. He was zealous
in the performance of his duties to the Natives, but was aware
of the hostility rising against him. In a letter, answering some
inquiries of mine about the Blacks, he wrote, in the bitterness of
his disappointment, on March 10th, 1847: "The official direc-
tions of the Government provide amply for their handsome
provision, though hitherto a faction has often interfered with the
instructions furnished. I think, so far from being neglected,
they are, and have been, plagued by too much interference.”
Elsewhere he assigns a reason for the non-progression of the
people" the withering uncertainty of the principles of their
superiors."
It was a month after the date of that letter that the following
communication was addressed to Dr. Jeanneret: "His Excellency
has it in contemplation to break up the aboriginal establishment
at Flinders Island at an early period, and that, should his inten-
tion be carried into effect, your appointment as Superintendent
would probably cease, as your services would not be required.”
No charges are here named, no reference is made to mal-
administration. On May 4th he was directed to replace the
children with Mr. Clark. On the following day a letter was
sent, intimating the appointment of a successor-Dr. Milligan
-"for the express purpose," added the document, "of effecting
the removal of the Aborigines to the mainland. As this is to
270
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
be accomplished without any unnecessary delay, Mr. Milligan's
arrival will take place on or about the first proximo, when you
will have the goodness to hand over the charge to that gentle-
man, and be prepared to return to Van Diemen's Land by the
same vessel which conveys him to the settlement."
In vain ever since has Dr. Jeanneret sought compensation for
the harshness of his treatment. It may be some satisfaction for
him to know that, when I was at Oyster Cove a dozen years after,
his name was spoken of with respect by the Natives.
Even one
of them, who had before opposed him, declared him to be a just
and good man; and another asserted that he kept the bad men
from troubling them there, and that they were far happier on
Flinders than ever they had been since. But the easy, jovial,
rotund Irishman, with his laughing wit, his demonstrative sym-
pathy, his affectionate language, his companionable nature, was
naturally preferred to the more scholarly, upright, but externally
colder, Superintendent.
Dr. Jeanneret was virtually the last Superintendent of Flin-
ders Island. He remained to see the embarkation of the Natives
under his successor, Dr. Milligan, all bound for Oyster Cove, in
D'Entrecasteaux Channel.
After the departure of the people, the island was let with the
stock to Captain Smith, at a rental of 1007. a year.
The Bishop
in 1854 thus moralized over the past: "Nearly eleven years
have passed since I landed on the self-same rocks with Sir John
Franklin. How changed the scene! Then, the beach was
covered with the Aborigines, who greeted their kind and loved.
benefactor with yells of delight; capering and gesticulating with
movements more indicative of exuberant, wild joy, than of
elegance or propriety. Now all this is still. It was painful to
witness the scene of ruin in the once neat and well-ordered
settlement. Desolation stared me in the face, wherever the eye
was turned the comfortable house of the Superintendent
rapidly falling to decay; the gardens well-nigh rooted up; the
range of buildings in which the Aborigines were formerly
hutted, untenanted, broken, and tumbling down."
:
But a more indignant letter was published in 1862, describing
the visit of Mr. Nantes. Arriving at Settlement Point, he ex-
claims: "This is the spot that was chosen by the Van Diemen's
Land Government for the settlement of the Natives when
THE SETTLEMENT IN RUINS.
271
banished from Van Diemen's Land. It bore traces of having
been at one time a large settlement, but now exhibited only
neglect, dilapidation, and decay; the roofs fallen in; doors and
windows without existence, or fallen down; the chapel, once
dedicated to the service of the Almighty, used as a barn and
a store for farm implements; and the fences torn down and dis-
appearing, evidently for firewood; the cemetery, where lay the
remains of our uncivilized but still brethren, trodden down, and
turned into a stockyard and sheepfold. The whole bore such
a pitiable sign of wanton neglect and destruction, that it was
hard to conceive that some few years before life, numerous life,
had in its active state been busy and employed, and now so
silent and desolate. Although foreign to the purpose of these
notes, I cannot but remark on the shameful neglect that could
allow a building dedicated under God, and the last resting-place
of these poor exiles, to be thus desecrated."
Such is the last sad scene of the Flinders' drama. Since the
departure of the Aborigines, I have passed by the island some
half a dozen times; and not many weeks ago from the moment
of writing this passage, I sailed along the western and northern
shores for forty miles. As I gazed upon its storm-torn coast,
and my eyes rested upon its bleak and fantastic hills, the whole
story, in all its varied and stirring phases, came before me, and
I felt quickened in my resolution to tell my countrymen the
sorrows of the Tasmanians.
CHAPTER IX.
OYSTER COVE.
THE terrible mortality of the Natives on Flinders Island excited
the sympathy of their friends in Hobart Town. Several times
had Mr. George Washington Walker and I conversed upon the
subject, and wished that the remnant could be brought nearer
town. We knew that this was the desire of the Blacks them-
selves, who said if they could only live in their own country
again, they would all be healthy and happy. One Hobart Town
paper had a violent leader upon the subject, expatiating upon
the outrages of 1831, and predicting a bloody renewal of them,
should the Natives be allowed to leave the Flinders' asylum.
As if twelve men, the number then alive, could light up the
fires of country homesteads, and resume the spear of slaughter,
in a colony of eighty thousand Whites!
The Natives obtained their wish. In October 1847, forty-
four of the Tasmanian race were removed from Flinders Island
to Oyster Cove. There were twelve men, twenty-two women,
and ten children, or non-adults. Some of these, the latter par-
ticularly, were half-castes. The boys ranged from the age of
four to fourteen years; the girls, from seven to thirteen. When
Mr. Clark wrote to me in August 1849, he had then with him
but one child, six others being placed at the Orphan School-—
to die.
OYSTER COVE is but a few miles' distance from Hobart Town.
Leaving the park-like South Arm to the left, and Mount Louis,
680 feet high, to the right, the junction of the Derwent with the
ocean is gained. There the Storm Bay opens to the south-east,
and the narrow D'Entrecasteaux Channel to the south-west ;
these waters being separated by Bruni Island. Entering the
channel, Mount Louis is on one side, and the old aboriginal
settlement of North Bruni on the other. The first little harbour
BOTANY AND GEOLOGY OF OYSTER COVE.
273
gained, after crossing the mouth of North-west Bay, is Oyster
Cove, nearly opposite Barnes Bay, of North Bruni.
The French expedition had called it the Bay of Oysters. The
water is so shallow that the little pier can only be reached at high
tide. Mr. John Helder Wedge told me that he had a saw-mill
there in 1830. A very expensive and profitless Probation penal
settlement was existing there for seven years. A reserve of 1,700
acres was proclaimed, though the native reserve is 1,000 acres.
It is not a very attractive place for farmers, the soil being
heartlessly barren, though, a few miles further, the traveller
passes valleys of surpassing richness. The timber, however, is
of gigantic growth. Eucalypti, of the gum-tree kind, run up to
300 feet. I have measured sixty feet round the butt of a tree
in the forest near. To the westward of the Cove is the track
to the Huon, where a clergyman discovered a gum-tree which
was 330 feet to the summit, and 106 feet in circumference at a
height of six feet from the ground. Myrtles towered there 150
feet. The Banksia contended with the Xanthorrhoea, or grass-
tree, for the possession of desolate spots, while the Epacris and
Kennedia sought the humbler levels. The Tasmanian lily
(Blandifordia) hung out its bells of orange and scarlet in cool
and moistened nooks. The Waratah, or Telopea, threw out its
gorgeous crimson blossoms from the mountain heights over-
looking the Cove, and attracting the Aborigines to the charming
gullies beneath, where sparkling waters trickled by the stems of
romantic fern-trees.
The Geology of the Cove may be briefly described. Imme-
diately round the station the rocks are the argillaceous contem-
poraries of the palæozoic limestones of Hobart Town, and abound
in pectens, spirifers, terebratulæ, &c. A slaty porphyry trans-
mutes this bed in the neighbourhood. In the north and south
the basalt encroaches, having upon it the soil so dear to the eye
of an agriculturist. Southward of the cove, along the channel,
bituminous coal deposits are bordered by greenstone floors, and
lie upon ancient slates. Greenstone and basalt are opposite the
cove upon the shore of Bruni Island, where, also, the coal reap-
pears. To the rear of the cove rises the massive Wellington
range, a monument of past igneous action, on whose sides respec-
tively the basalt and greenstone tower as columnar pillars, or
repose as Titanic blocks.
T
274
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
For a time the new settlement prospered, or seemed to prosper.
Mr. Clark wrote to me cheerfully: "They are now comfortable,"
said he; “have a full supply of provisions; are able to till their
gardens, sow peas, beans, and potatoes; anxious to earn money,
of which they know to a certain extent the value. They are
thankful to the Lieutenant-Governor and the Colonial Secretary
for removing them from Flinders Island, and to Dr. Milligan for
all the trouble he has taken. The women can all make their
own clothes, and cook their food by either boiling or roasting.
Their houses are comfortable and clean. They are as contented
as possible." So far this is all satisfactory.
But the Hobart Town people began to doubt the wisdom of
the plans pursued at the Cove, particularly when Mr. and Mrs.
Clark had gone to their rest. At the end of 1854, there remained
of the original forty-four, only three men, eleven women, and
two boys at the station. But the colonists found themselves
charged with the following little bill for the establishment that
was rent free, with wood and water allowance: the expenses for
that year stood at 2,0061. 8s. 8d. Curious folks divided this by
fourteen, omitting the two boys, and got as a result nearly three
pounds a week for each. The Protectorate was then pronounced
too extravagant, and a more suitable outlay was ordained.
When I visited Oyster Cove in 1859, a sad spectacle met my
eyes. I simply now record what I stated to Dr. Nixon, Bishop
of Tasmania, on my return to Hobart Town. I went to him,
knowing him to be really interested in the Aborigines, and aware
that a long and painful illness, which subsequently led to his
resignation of the episcopate, had prevented his attention to
their claims. Blame might naturally be attached to somebody.
The blight had fallen upon the Natives, and produced the dis-
orders, doubtless, which appeared in their midst. Mr. Dandridge,
located with them, seemed kindly disposed toward them, but
evidently regarded himself as a sort of ration-distributor only,
being, as he told me himself, convinced that he could do nothing
to arrest their progress to the grave. He and his wife were then
keeping a school for the children of the farmers and labourers
outside of the Reserve. Instruction was considered hopeless for
the Blacks. But might not a little more have been done?
I saw a miserable collection of huts and out-buildings, the
ruins of the old penal establishment, profoundly dirty, and
THE AUTHOR'S VISIT TO OYSTER COVE,
275
swarming with fleas, as I found to my cost. The Superinten-
dent could not clean all the places himself; he had no man-
servant, and the Blacks had no inclination to do the work. So
it was not done. The buildings formed the sides of a square,
enclosing a large courtyard. The officer's family were not
luxuriously housed. The Natives were in several contiguous
huts or offices. The earthen floor of these was in a sad state.
Some had parts of wooden planking remaining. The sides of
the huts were in a ruinous condition. The roofs were not all
waterproof. Many of the windows were broken, and the doors
of some closed imperfectly. The furniture was gone. Here and
there a stool was seen, or a log, though the women preferred
squatting on the ground or floor, and that not always in the most
decent attitude. The apology for bedsteads and beds was the
most deplorable of all. I turned round to the Superintendent,
and expressed my concern at the frightfully filthy state of the
bedclothes. In some places I noticed but one blanket as the only
article on the shelf, and remarked the insufficiency of bedclothing
for old people, and at that cold season of the year. Mr. Dan-
dridge appeared as surprised as chagrined, and, calling the
women, commanded them to tell where all the blankets had
gone to.
One of them quite coolly answered: "Bad white
fellow him steal 'em all." The Superintendent's explanation
was, that they were so given up to drink as to sell for liquor the
Government blankets, and even their very clothing, to the low
population about. But could no protection be afforded them?
The gardens, so praised by Mr. Clark, had all gone. There
was no sign of reading in those wretched abodes. The cooking
was managed, apparently, by boiling, judging by the big round
pot I saw in each hut, and generally in the middle of the floor.
Several times I saw the dogs licking out the vessel, for both
brutes and human beings seemed to have common bed and
board. The weekly rations then were 14 lbs. meat, 10 lbs. flour,
3 ozs. tea, 14 ozs. sugar, 3 ozs. soap, 2 ozs. salt, and 3 ozs. tobacco.
For clothing, an allowance of blue serge, 3 yds. by 11, was
made, which they rudely made into a loose garment. A flannel
petticoat, red cap, handkerchief, comforter, cotton frock and
jumper, were supposed to be provided, and some I saw in stock
at the store. Handkerchiefs, at any rate, were not required,
judging from appearances. When expecting company, they were
T 2
276
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
decked out suitably. Calico for chemises was once issued, and,
doubtless, made up by some of them in olden days. The polka
jacket was gaily got up, though only worn on festive occasions.
When I made a remark as to the paucity of clothes, and their
miserable appearance in such weather, there was the repetition
of the complaint of their selling for drink the dresses, even
though all had been stamped with the Government mark.
In the time of Governor Denison they were happier, according
to their own account, as that gentleman often paid them a visit,
bringing some of his family with him, and having a packet of
toys, marbles and balls. He would spread out the treasure, join
in their games, play even at leapfrog with them, and finish off
with merry laughter and good feed. Lady Denison would some-
times ride down with a party of ladies, and bring a lot of them
up to town in cabs for a change. His Excellency has sent down
a stage-coach to fetch some to Government House for a dinner,
and afterwards give them a laugh at the theatre. Dr. Nixon,
the learned and kind-hearted bishop, often paid them a visit,
giving them ghostly counsel, but never omitting, according to
their version, to bring them some tucker. A basket of apples,
and a genial smile, brought attentive listeners to his devotional
exercises. The removal of the Governor, and the lengthened
indisposition of the Bishop, had darkened their latter days.
They spoke freely of their friends, but could not forbear a
word about the past Black War and its troubles. The "bad
white fellows" often came up in their talk. The "bad white
fellows" haunted them still, stealing their clothes, and making
them drunk. Little or no restraint was laid upon their move-
ments. No fence enclosed their ground, and the wide Bush was
theirs for wanderings. Occasionally they indulged in a ramble
for days, and returned improved in health by their absence.
The diseases troubling them were those arising from neglected
colds. I was taken to a bit of ground enclosed by Walter, which
was the cemetery of the departed. There was nothing romantic
about it, though much that was painfully suggestive.
The moral condition of the station was the subject of indig-
nant complaint from Maryann, the half-caste wife of Walter:
"We had souls in Flinders," said she, "but we have none here.
There we were looked after, and the bad Whites were kept from
annoying us. Here we are thrown upon the scum of society.
DEATH OF MR. CLARK, THE CATECHIST.
277
They have brought us among the offscouring of the earth
(alluding to the convict population about). Here are bad of all
sorts. We should be a great deal better if some one would read
and pray to us. We are tempted to drink, and all bad practices,
but there is neither reading nor prayer. While they give us
food for the body, they might give us food for the soul. They
might think of the remnant of us poor creatures, and make us
happy. Nobody cares for us." These are the expressions I find
recorded in my note-book.
Mr. Dandridge informed me that the Bishop had made some
provision for their religious instruction, by requesting a neigh-
bouring clergyman to give them an occasional service. But the
gentleman was unpopular; and, whenever his horse was seen on
the hill, it was a signal for general dispersion. There being no
congregation, the service was not held.
It was from Maryann that I obtained an account of the last
hours of my friend Robert Clark.
Removing from Flinders Island, with his beloved Blacks, he
hoped to spend some happy years with them at Oyster Cove,
and enjoy some of the sweets of Christian fellowship, as he said,
by being only a few miles from Hobart Town. His kind-hearted
'ife, whose benevolent exertions for the good of the Aborigines
were so appreciated by Mr. Robinson, was pleased with the
prospect of removal, not merely because she hoped it would be
for the happiness of her dark charge, but for a mother's natural
anxiety about her own large family, whom she wished to see
placed once more with the civilized community.
He arrived with sanguine expectations. He had forty-five
Natives remaining. He would do his best for them. He would
get gentlemen of Hobart Town interested in their welfare. He
would ask friends to visit them. He would have books, pictures,
toys, and other amusements. He would excite their ardour to
raise provisions for the Hobart Town market. He would esta-
blish them in a good dairy farm. He would make them live on
the fat of the land, and save money beside. He would so em-
ploy them, so keep them interested, that they should not die at
that terrible rate they had died in the Straits. He would live
long as the father of a happy family.
Alas! there could be no arrest of the fatal disease.
sickened and died. The rest began to lose heart.
They still
They had
278
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
believed their decline caused by the climate and confinement of
Flinders Island, and were so sure that they could not die so in
the new home on their own native land. When they discovered
the delusion, they were chilled and disheartened. Yes-they
were to die-they must die—they would all die soon. Then
why should they till the ground? For whom would the potatoes
be grown? What would be the use of a dairy? Why need they
trouble about dress-they, the dying ones? Pictures lost their
interest. Books were left unopened, or looked at with glazed
eyes. They read their fate. In such a mood, they cared for
nothing. They lost interest in all about them. Everything
seemed to remind them of their end. Was it strange, then, that
when temptation came near they fell? When the drink was
brought secretly, was it strange that they took it as the Aryans
their divine Soma, the drink of the gods, the reliever of sorrow,
the life-giver, the joy-friend?
Mr. Clark was spared the grief of seeing the worst. His
wife's health was affected by the ill-conditioned quarters
allotted to her family. She was removed to Hobart Town for a
change, and died there. Her tender-hearted husband returned
to Oyster Cove a changed man. He had lost a partner indeed.
He strove at first to forget the past, and live for his future.
But his future had been bound up with the life of his wife, and
the life of his Natives. The first had gone, the second was
going. Why should he stay? In a few weeks the melancholy
of the Aborigines seemed to fall heavily upon him. He took to
his bed of death.
At this stage of the story, Maryann pointed to a ruined hut
near which we had walked. It was of slab timber, roughly
hewn, and roughly placed, but now falling to decay. The
paling sides had gaped open. The brick-nogged enclosure had
given way. The windows and doors had been stolen. A luxu-
riant Macquarie Harbour vine had spread itself over the roof,
seeking, but in vain, to bind the ruin together. Native flowers
crept into the vine, sheltering their weak stems beneath the
strong and hardy climber. "Here," said my weeping companion,
"here poor Father died.”
After a little silence, the sad story was resumed. "I attended
him,” said she, “along with his daughter, night and day. But
all the people wanted to do something for him, for all so loved

PATTY, THE RING-TAILED OPOSSUM.
(Photographed by MR. C. A. WOOLLEY, 1806.)
-
ན
WAPPERTY, A TASMANIAN WOMAN.
(Photographed by MR. C. A. WOOLLEY, 1866.

THE TASMANIANS AT THE COVE.
279
He
him. And then he would talk to us, and pray with us.
would tell me what to read to him from the Bible, when too
weak to hold the book himself. How he would talk to us!
When he thought he was going to die, he got the room full,
and bade us 'Good-bye.' He held up his hands and prayed for
He did love us. And then he said, while he was crying,
you be sure and all meet me in heaven!'
6
us.
• Mind
The poor creature could not tell me any more, but fairly
sobbed aloud. I tried to comfort her, saying that God had
kindly allowed him to go to his wife in heaven, and to the
good Blacks who had died before him, and who would be so
glad to see her there. If only Walter and she would keep his
counsels, they might yet see him again. She shook her head,
and mournfully, and yet with bitterness, replied, "No one cares
for the Natives' souls now that Father Clark is gone."
And now she has gone, and Walter has gone, and the Blacks
are all gone but an old woman. Father Clark had gone to his
It is good to read of
harshness and selfish-
rest before such blighting sorrow came.
such a man as he. It is a relief to the
ness of life to know such a man as he. It would be a blessing
to the world if more would live his life and die his death, even
should clouds dim the horizon of hopé.
I proceed now with a brief notice of the Natives on the
station at my visit in 1859.
Old Sophia, then apparently over sixty years of age, had
white hair, and the most monkey-like face I ever saw upon a
human being. The projection of the lower jaw and the low
cast of countenance denoted an inferior physique.
She was
born on Bruni Island, and had given birth to two children.
A troop of mangy dogs accompanied their aged mistress, who
held forth long harangues to the curs, that answered in snap-
ping barks of recognition. Two of them lay in her wretched
bed with her, to keep her back warm, as she told me.
"Thunder
Ragged Wapperty was not a desirable-looking old lady. Her
country was near Patrick's Head, to the north-east. Her native
name was known formerly as Woonoteah coota mena-
and lightning." There was nothing brilliant about her then.
Her countrywoman Flora seemed about forty to forty-five years
old. Her mouth was the most demonstrative part of her person.
As I was being shown through the store by the Superintendent,
280
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
and receiving explanation of the dresses worn by the ladies,
Flora appeared at the door. She was called in to give me an
illustration of the charms of a holiday attire, such as may be
seen in the photograph taken by the Bishop of Tasmania.
Without a judicious regard for the proprieties, or from an
antiquated piece of coquetry, she suddenly untied a string, and
let fall to the ground her only serge garment. Then she pro-
ceeded leisurely to enrobe herself in the finery, and was
evidently gratified at my expressed satisfaction.
Patty, alias Cooneana, the Ring-tailed Opossum, might have
been from fifty to fifty-five; though, in the account of her
death at the Hobart Town Hospital, in July 1867, she was said
to be seventy. She left but two women behind her. She was
the wife of Leonidas, of whose literary acquirements notice is
given in the chapter on Flinders Island. Patty belonged to the
Kangaroo Point tribe, of the Derwent. Her distinguishing
feature was a very broad nose. Emma, rather younger than Patty,
was of the Patrick Head tribe, and had been married to Albert.
Caroline, commonly called Queen Caroline, was the relict of
the renowned chieftain of the Big River Natives, Roumetewah,
or the Wombat. Her native name was Ganganinnanah. She
appeared one of the most aged among the party, and sat away
from the others crying in an imbecile manner. The Coal River
tribe had been her childhood's friends.
Bessy Clark, called after the wife of the Catechist, was then
under forty years of age, and was the best-looking of the sister-
hood. There was no projection of the lower jaw, and her good-
humour gave a pleasant expression to her swarthy features. Her
native name was Pinnano bathæ, the Kangaroo head. She had
not led a forest life with her people, having been rescued in
early childhood. When Mr. G. A. Robinson was out with his
son and others seeking after the Macquarie Harbour tribe, a
family was disturbed at their roaring fire so suddenly, that a
mother in her fright forgot her little girl whom she had left near
the warm embers. The deserted infant was placed on the back
of young Robinson, and ultimately confided to the care of a
country-woman on Flinders Island. When old enough, she
was sent for education and training to the Orphan School at
Newtown, near Hobart Town. It was thought she would there
be removed from the temptations of aboriginal life. Subse-

...
PATTY IN OYSTER COVE HOLIDAY COSTUME.
(Photographed by DR. NIXON, LORD BISHOP OF TASMANIA.)
Un

BESSY CLARK, OF OYSTER COVE.
(Photographed by MR. C. WOOLLEY, 1866.)
BESSY CLARK AND LALLA ROOKII.
281
quently she was removed to Flinders, and married to Augustus
the magnificent.
((
This lady indulged me with full particulars of her courting
days. "He," said she (meaning Augustus), "tell me plenty
times he love me, then he make love, then he ask me be his
wife. I tell him go ask Father (Mr.) Clark. Father and Mother
say, 'You marry him.' So I did.
him.' So I did." She then confided to me
some of her conjugal troubles. Like many more of his sex, he
had relaxed in his attentions to his partner; though, having the
youngest and most beautiful, he might be supposed out of the
reach of more attractive influences. Anyhow, he was tired of
home delights, and was seriously contemplating leaving her for
a whaling cruise, as William Lanné, the last man, had done.
And now," added she, "he want to leave me." Some of the
old ladies near commenced in rude English to declaim upon the
evil propensities of men in general, and Augustus in particular.
Of course I expressed my sympathy, and declared that if he dared
carry out his wicked intentions, I would come and take her back
with me to Port Phillip. This caused shouts of laughter from
the aboriginal ladies. Bessy wished to give me a parting gift.
Not knowing what to bestow, I suggested it should be something
of her own manufacture. After thinking a while, she darted off
into the swamp near, and reappeared with a handful of native
flax. Squatting down on the ground, she turned up her garment,
exposed her thigh, and began diligently rubbing the fibres on
her bared leg, until she had made a length of string for me.
She spoke very feelingly of Mr. Clark, and repeatedly uttered,
as if half to herself, "Very good man! All the Black fellows
love him."
Laughing little Lalla Rookh, or Truganina, was my especial
favourite of the party. She acted among the rest as if she were
indeed the sultana. She was then much over fifty years of age,
and preserved some of those graces which made her beauty a
snare in olden days, and sadly tried the patience of respective
husbands. Her coquetry reminded me of the faded loveliness
of French courts; and, as she stood smirking and smiling beside
me, I thought of the septuagenarian admirer of Voltaire. Her
features, in spite of her bridgeless nose, were decidedly pleasing,
when lighted up by her sparkling black eye in animated con-
versation. Her nose was of the genuine saucy retroussé order.
282
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
She was further adorned with a fair moustache, and well de-
veloped, curly whiskers, that were just beginning to turn with
advancing years. She was in 1829 the wife of the bold
Wooreddy, the chief of the Bruni tribe. Her appreciation of
English society was a sore trial to her more solemn-looking
native companion. As her name so often appears in this work,
it is needless to say more of this sylvan goddess of Tasmania.
She is the last of the race.
Maryann, the half-caste, was the wife of Walter, King Walter,
or George Arthur Walter. She had the appearance of her mixed.
race. Her delicate hand, her dark eyes, her nose and mouth,
declared the native mother; but her broad and lofty forehead
indicated the European descent of the father. She was unques-
tionably a woman of weight in the country, bringing down upon
the floor as she walked a pressure of some seventeen or eighteen
stone. There was not only vigour of intellect, but a strength
and independence of will, stamped upon her expansive features.
The base of her brain represented the portentous character of
animal appetites, while the loftiness and breadth elsewhere ex-
hibited the force of moral sentiments. She was a woman who,
placed in happier circumstances, could have been the Czarina of
Russia, and would have emulated the intellectual prowess of a
Catharine, though she might have betrayed an equal intensity
of passions.
Her mother, Sarah, had been stolen from her forest home by one
of the early sealers of the Straits, whose name was Cottrel Coch-
rane. He had not proved a cruel husband, nor a wholly neglect-
ful father. When, however, Mr. Robinson made his raid upon
the Straitsmen, and carried off their dark-skinned partners,
Maryann found a new home on Flinders Island. There she was
cared for as the daughter of a black woman rather than the child
of an Englishman. Her associates were her mother's race, and
she felt her degradation in the presence of her whiter female
acquaintance. With such extraordinary powers, had she been
received into a respectable family, and treated in a proper
manner, she might have been a happier and more useful woman.
As it was, she became the wife of Walter. She never had a
child.
The masculine element of Oyster Cove was not in the
ascendant. There was poor Tippoo Saib, no longer a terrible

:
WALTER GEORGE ARTHUR, AND HIS WIFE MARY ANN THE HALF-CASTE.
MARYANN AND WALTER.
283
warrior, like his Hindoo namesake, of tiger celebrity, but old,
feeble, and nearly blind. He was of the Coal River tribe, and
claimed Flora for his bride. Augustus, the husband of Bessy
Clark, has already been presented. Willie, of whom the women
seemed never tired of talking, was the youngest living of the
Tasmanians, and had just before reached his majority. He was
declared to be "fine young man-plenty heard-plenty laugh-
very good, that fellow." As he was absent on a whaling voyage,
I had not the opportunity of seeing him then; though, as
William Lanné, the last of the Tasmanian men, he was in
Hobart Town at the time of another visit, in 1867.
Black Allen, Jackey, the Leonidas of Flinders Island, was the
husband of the Ring-tailed 'Possum, Patty. He had associated
with Whites from a boy, and had accompanied Mr. John Bat-
man in his expedition after the Blacks in 1830. I regret to
say that Jackey was much advanced in one civilized habit—
that of indulgence in strong drink. This was ultimately the
cause of his death-being drowned when returning drunk from
Hobart Town, in May 1861.
Walter was far above the rest of the people. He was of royal
blood, being the son of King George; and he was named George
Arthur, after the Governor of the colony. His face presented
no aggravation of the Native features, though sufficiently betray-
ing the Black man. If standing on the steps of the Piazza di
Spagna in Rome, he would have been often selected as a model
for his magnificent head. His nose was depressed, a charaċ-
teristic of his tribe; but his eye was of even unusual expres-
siveness. His general aspect was one of seriousness and
melancholy.
I am not ashamed to confess that, when I have sometimes
stood silently and thoughtfully before an Aborigine, and looked,
though but for a moment, into that dark and dreamy eye of his,
catching the expression of its melancholy gaze, I have been
oppressed with the feeling that there lay something behind that
glance I so wanted to know, but never could know, a something
he might dimly conceive, but not accurately realize. Once,
when so I looked, and so I felt, before my friend Walter, he
answered my silent speech with such a look and start as I shall
never forget, and even now remember with moistened eyes.
Involuntarily he held out his hand, grasped mine, and walked
284
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
quietly away. The extremes of colour had met, and both knew,
without being ever known. When after a few moments we
walked together again, and spoke upon indifferent subjects, there
was such a gentleness of manner in him, so subdued a tone, that
I knew I had gained his heart, and developed his nature. But
for what?—for whom? Going afterwards into his hut, he re-
appeared with some pebbles in a bit of rag. They were diamonds,
so called, which he had gathered on Flinders Island. He put
them in my hand. It was his treasure. He had no child and
no brother. I understood him, and accepted of his gift. He
has gone to his fathers, and his present is one of my most
cherished mementoes.
He was then employed to take passengers to and from
the steamer, on its way from the Huon to Hobart Town. He
received one shilling a day for attention to the mail-bags, and
earned money by the execution of various business commis-
sions. He cultivated at his leisure a part of his own little farm
of twenty acres. Having been able to learn more than his
countrymen, he had quite a civilized appearance, spoke English
with fluency, and even wrote with moderate accuracy. His
Majesty took me into particular favour, and invited me to a
banquet in the palace-or tea in the hut.
Arrived at the door of a neat three-roomed Bush cottage, I
was received with many smiles by the buxom Maryann, who
introduced me within. There I found my royal host conversing
with a Sydney half-caste, who had come on a friendly visit.
The room into which I was brought had many tokens of civiliza-
tion and gentility wanting in most of the country cottages of
England. The furniture, though homely, was suitable and com-
fortable. A carpet covered the floor. Not a particle of dust
could be seen. A few prints adorned the walls, and books lay
on a side-table. The Bible occupied a conspicuous position.
The daily newspaper was there, as Walter was a regular sub-
scriber for the press. The table was laid with quite a tempting
appearance, and a thorough good cup of tea was handed round
by the jovial-looking hostess. It was about the last evidence
of civilization to be witnessed in connexion with the interesting
race of Tasmanians.
Our conversation was an interesting and a merry one. The
Sydney half-caste, out of respect for the white visitor, soon
DEATH OF WALTER, THE CIVILIZED BLACK.
295
quietly retired, and left me alone with the proprietors of the
neat little hut. I have elsewhere described the gift of some
Flinders Island diamonds from poor Walter. I was to receive a
parting remembrance from his wife. He had given me what
was most valuable in his eyes. She presented me with what
was pleasing in hers. It was a charming necklace of the
smallest and most brilliantly-polished shells I have ever seen.
Even then I felt the delicacy of her nature, as she said, putting
the glittering object in my hand: "Give that to your daughter."
I thanked her, and inquired if my lassie should wear it as a
necklace. "No," replied my poor friend, "let her wear it on
her back hair as the Indian women do." Ten years have passed;
but I never see my daughter adorned with this pretty wreath
without thinking of Maryann the half-caste.
When I parted with them, a thorough cordiality of feeling
had been established between us. Knowing the moral danger
of their position, I earnestly warned them of the evils of intem-
perance for what seemed so friendly to them in their weary
lives of objectless effort, and so companionless of sympathy, as
the cup that elevates and cheers, although it blights and it in-
toxicates! It was needful warning. The curse had already
been felt in their little homestead, for Walter had already fallen
to the drunkard's stage. One evening, in May 1861, he and
Jack Allen went on board their boat at the Hobart Town wharf,
on their way to Oyster Cove. They had been to the public-
house, and were seen in a state unfit for the voyage. After pro-
ceeding three miles, when off Sandy Bay, the boat was upset,
and both Walter and his mate sank to the bottom of the
Derwent.
CHAPTER X.
THE SEALERS.
THE rough sealers of the stormy Bass's Straits would form an
interesting chapter in the early history of the colonies, apart
from their association with the Aborigines of Van Diemen's
Land, and the part they took in the Black War.
The primitive Straitsmen were runaway convicts, of a seafaring
turn. On shore they would have been Bushrangers, and defied
the law. On the waters, at the onset, these bold spirits, in their
little whale-boats, waylaid vessels, and levied black-mail upon the
cargo. Occasionally they hovered near some coast settlement,
and dashed upon a solitary settler for supplies. They seemed
the veritable descendants of the ancient sea-kings. But though
the latter were honoured in their day as heroes, and are respected
for their poetical exploits by our living men of song, the others.
earned a disreputable character, and were chased as piratical
vagabonds.
Either the force of circumstances, or the development of latent
honesty, led them to change their mode of life, and confine their
operations to more legitimate pursuits. The growth of commerce
converted them into producers. The love of roving, the restless
energy, the dislike of restraint, the thirst for independence, and
a sort of morbid passion for the wild solitudes of nature, were
alike gratified in their selection of employment. The granite
islands which form a kind of Giant's Causeway from Victoria to
Tasmania, afforded them at once a home and a field of labour.
In sheltered nooks they raised a cabin, enclosed a garden plot,
obtained some goats, and sometimes had no other companion
than man's own faithful friend-a dog. But they lacked the
contemplative enjoyment of a Robinson Crusoe, and sought
pleasure in the screaming of wild birds, the roar of billows, and
great muscular exertion in the midst of danger. Armed with a
LIFE OF THE STRAITSMEN.
287
rude lance or the mighty club, they rowed to a rock whereon the
seals were basking in the sun, and furiously attacked the huge
blubbery masses; or they pursued the monsters into their
caverned retreats, and fought like knights-errant of olden
chivalry. The tripod was raised on the blazing fire, the fatty
carcases were melted in the pot, the oil was poured into the
barrel, and home came the man toiling with the oar on a tem-
pestuous sea, with his dearly-purchased pleasure.
Success did not always reward their efforts. Many a mile
was rowed, and no prey seen. Often would their natural foe,
the raging waters, defy their return, imprison them on a sandy
strand, unsheltered and unprovisioned, until, starved into resolu-
tion, they put off into the surge, and were buried in the sea. At
times, imprudent from courage, they were seized by the teeth of
the seal, or crushed beneath the ponderous body of the animal.
The boat, driven from its moorings by the tempest, might leave
the mariner to perish alone on the ocean-girt rock. Even when
associated with others, the violence so characteristic of the race
would lead to hasty quarrel, and sudden, fatal retribution. Law-
less themselves, bound by no ties but convenience and self-
interest, conflicts were not uncommon, and the community
sought no protection but their own strong arms, their own swift
and certain revenge.
Captain Flinders applauded the enterprise and daring of the
sealers, as qualities his own nature could well appreciate. But
their wild energy led them into such crimes as to call forth the
denunciations of Government, and the horror of tranquil citizens.
Fifty years ago a colonial paper exclaims: "Are then these men,
thus strangers to religion, strangers to principle, among whom
rapine of every kind, and even murder, is not unfrequent-are
they to be suffered thus to debase human nature?" Again and
again were the authorities entreated to disallow any boats in the
Straits, and to check, under the cover of sealing, the perpetration
of infamous deeds.
M. Perou met with a party on King's Island in 1802. Six of
them had been thirteen months on that inhospitable coast, and
were waiting for a vessel to convey their skins to port. Their
rude generosity and attention were admired by the Frenchmen.
But so long as their crimes were confined to themselves, and
they only were plagued by their own boisterous passions, they
288
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
would not have been introduced to the reader of these pages.
But their cruelty to the Aborigines, their intercourse with the
Tasmanian gins, and their connexion with the Isle of Exile, force
them into this history. The gratification of lustful impulses,
the satisfaction of savage instincts, and the desire of gain in the
abduction of slaves, brought them to the pursuit of the weaker
sex, and the destruction of the stronger. The unfortunate Natives,
when flying from the stern Bushmen of the interior, found them-
selves confronted by the still more cruel coasters; like the
miserable flying-fish, which are chased by the monster of the
deep into the voracious jaws of the bird of prey.
Their ravages were as extensive as they were remorseless.
Some carried on their operations beyond the limits of civiliza-
tion, for the security of their persons, and for the greater harvest
of their gains. But wherever they roamed, their Sabine pro-
pensities exposed them alike to the reproach of Christians and
the revenge of barbarians. Even as far as the western limit of
the continent of New Holland was their name a terror. Major
Lockyer, being sent from Sydney, in 1827, to attempt a convict
settlement at King George's Sound, thus accounts for some
outrages of the Blacks:-
It is but too certain that they were driven to it by acts of
cruelty committed on them by some gang or gangs of sealers,
who have lately visited this place. The fact of these miscreants
having left four Natives on Michaelmas Island, who must have
inevitably perished if they had not been taken off by the boat
sent by the Amity, that brought them to this harbour, when one
of them exhibited three deep scars on his neck and back that
had been inflicted by some sharp instrument, sufficiently proves
that they have suffered injuries from white men; and it is
not to be wondered at that they should, as people in a state of
nature, seek revenge."
Explorers have lost their lives through the awakened hostility
of wild tribes. The death of the excellent Captain Barker, at
the mouth of the Murray in 1836, excited much surprise at the
time, from the apparent absence of motive in the act. But Mr.
Windsor Earle declares that he was murdered on the south
coast of Australia, by a party of runaway convicts from Van
Diemen's Land, who resided on an island near the coast, and
who were in the habit of visiting the mainland for the purpose
((
THE IRISH BLACK OF FLINDERS.
289
of carrying off the native women, and of shooting the men who
endeavoured to defend them." This refers to the iniquitous band
of Kangaroo Island. There was a settlement of forty persons,
of both colours and sexes, indulging in vices to an extent only
limited by their passions and means. Major Lockyer may well
report: "At Kangaroo Island a dreadful scene of villany is going
on, where, to use their own words, 'there are a great many deaths.'
He describes them as a regular set of pirates, traversing from island
to island along the coast, from Rottnest Island, Swan River, to
Bass's Strait, but having their chief den in Kangaroo Island.
When the sealing season was over, the party retired to a
sheltered valley of the interior to their gardens and fields, sur-
rounded by a landscape of loveliness, and enjoying a climate of
almost unequalled attractiveness.
There is an amusing tale given in an early number of the
Adelaide Miscellany, relating to one of these Kangaroo Island
sealers, who removed with his worldly goods to Flinders Island.
"A native of the Emerald Isle, named Brien, made a descent
on the mainland and carried off a native female to share with
him the sway of Flinders Island; for of that island he had con-
stituted himself sole monarch. The woman had with her a
son, then about twelve months old. Brien was, according to
custom, about to kill the boy; but the entreaties of the mother
on this occasion prevailed, and he said, 'As he had stolen the
dam he would keep the cub.' In a few years, Bill (for that was
the name conferred on him by his abducer) became very useful
to Brien. He could handle an oar, help to capture a seal, dis-
charge a rifle with precision, and execute any manual labour
with the efficiency of a European youth. His habits became
those of his teacher, and the few ideas he managed to acquire
were derived from the same source. In the occasional absence
of the old sealer, he was not a bad hand at bartering skins and
melons for garments, tobacco, or spirits, with the crew of some
whale ship cruising in the neighbourhood. His own language
he never knew, after a few years he forgot it; but instead, he
imbibed the rich brogue of old Brien. His first interview with
his own countrymen amused me excessively. I introduced him
as a brother native, but they denied the soft impeachment. I
asked, 'Is he then a white man?? To which they replied, in a
patois consisting of about equal portions of European and native,
U
290
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
'Why not, since he lives with you, speaks your tongue, wears
your dress, and uses your implements?' Then with scornful
expressions of countenance and angry intonation, they summed
up all by declaring that he was neither a white man nor a black
man, and added, in pure English, 'He is no good.' Bill, on the
other hand, being asked, after the interview, what he thought
of his countrymen, replied, 'Oh! they are dirty brutes;' and
added, 'I don't like Black fellows, they are a dirty, lazy set.'
The occupation of sealers and their aboriginal companions
would lead one to the natural history of the seal, chased by the
men, and the mutton-bird, caught by the women.
The seal of the Straits early excited the acquisitiveness of
the new settlers of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land.
Mr. Flinders, when in those waters in 1798, describes the crea-
tures as "thousands of timid animals." Of his disturbance of
one community, near the Furneaux group, he thus speaks:
"Those who have seen a farmyard, well stocked with pigs,
calves, sheep, oxen, and with two or three litters of puppies,
with their mothers, in it, may form a good idea of the confused
noise of the seals at Cove Point. The sailors killed as many of
these harmless, and not unamiable creatures, as they were able
to skin during the time necessary for me to take the requisite
angles; and we then left the poor affrighted multitude to recover
from the effects of our inauspicious visit.” It is somewhat
singular that the discoverer, so to speak, of the Straits' seals,
and the discoverer of Flinders Island, should have been thus
indirectly associated with the extinction of the furred animal-
and the dark-skinned man.
Mr. Flinders also led the sealers to Kangaroo Island. When
he discovered the place in 1801, he found the kangaroos and
seals had passed so undisturbed an existence in this paradise of
theirs, that, upon the approach of the sailors, the seals gazed
upon them with complacency, from the probable likeness to the
kangaroo, and the hopping animal confronted them without fear,
from the supposed resemblance they bore to the crawling seal.
Both parties were, unfortunately, soon made aware of the
difference, and of the termination of their golden age, by the
advent of a cruel iron one.
Captain Collins, who had the story of the Straits discovery
from Mr. Bass, tells us: "The males, who possessed a rock to
HABITS OF THE SEAL.
291
themselves, where they sat, surrounded by their numerous wives
and progeny, on his (Bass) drawing near them, hobbled up with
a menacing roar, and fairly commenced the attack, while the
wives seemed to rest their security upon the superior courage
and address of their lords; for, instead of retreating into the
water in the utmost consternation, they only raised themselves
upon their fore fins, as if ready for a march, keeping their eyes
upon the males, and watching the movements of the enemy."
M. Peron, the naturalist to the French expedition of 1802,
was much interested in the seal of Bass's Straits. He speaks of
sea elephants there thirty feet in length, and more than half
that extent in girth. They were of a greyish blue colour. He
sympathised with them, in his remark, "The English have in-
vaded these long-protected retreats. They have their organized
massacres throughout." The sealers, with their lances fifteen
feet in length, seized the time when the animal raised its left
fore fin, and plunged the weapon to the heart.
"As soon," says
the Frenchman, "as they see themselves attacked, they seek to
fly. If their retreat is cut off, they are violently agitated; their
looks carry the expression of despair; they shed tears. I have
myself seen one of these young females shed them abundantly,
whilst one of our sailors, a cruel, wicked man, amused himself,
every time she opened her mouth, with striking her teeth with
the thick end of one of the boat-hooks: this poor animal in-
spired pity: all its mouth was bloody, and tears ran from its
eyes."
From the observing M. Peron and others, the following par-
ticulars of this interesting marine creature are obtained. The
dam is led by instinct, toward the end of her term of nine
months, to the distant shore; that is, in November and December.
After giving birth, she is said to have little or no food during
the period of lactation, which lasts seven or eight weeks.
Should one seek to desert her young one for a plunge into the
sea, she is immediately driven backward by the males, with
cries, with thrusts, and even with the teeth. The young grow
rapidly, increasing in eight days from seventy to one hundred
pounds. The first teeth appear in a fortnight. After weaning,
the females spend a month in freedom, engaged in active sport
to renew exhausted nature. At the end of that month they
return to land for the purpose of reproduction. Then comes the
U 2
292
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
great struggle-the rivalry of love. Fully appreciating the
sentiment of "None but the brave deserve the fair," the contest
for possession commences. It is a bloody and terrific tourna-
ment, the females gathering in a trembling group to watch the
issue of the combat that is to decide their fate. The rocks are
dyed with blood, and strewn with slain. The victors approach
the weaker sex, triumphantly make their selection, and adopt
their partners for the season.
A rich harvest rewarded the early sealers. Of the two species,
the black is preferred for its finer and longer fur, the skin fetch-
ing double the price. Captain Flinders speaks of the crew of
the Nautilus getting 9,000 skins in a very short time. Captain
Fawthrop informed me that he knew a party of 35 men collect
36,000 skins in eighteen months. Then the skins sold at the
rate of eight to a dozen for a gallon of rum, valued at five
shillings. The oil in the early times fetched six shillings a
gallon. The profit of the merchants was enormous by exporta-
tion. It was an uncertain fishery. A large number of seals
having been observed on Macquarie Island, a strong party was
fitted out at Sydney for their capture. Arriving at evening, the
sealers declared there were 50,000 of them; but in the morning
not one was to be seen. From a perusal of old Sydney Gazettes,
the following is taken :-The schooner Endeavour, from March 9,
1803, to May 28, 1804, got 9,514 skins and 200 gallons of seal
oil. The Surprise, from March 11 to September 15, 1803,
15,480 skins and 610 gallons; the Governor King, 3,288 skins.
In September 1803 a vessel brought to Sydney 11,000 skins.
The numbers rapidly diminished in the Straits owing to the
fishery being improperly conducted. Legislation should have
restricted the period of the chase; as the slaughter of mothers
during the time of suckling caused the death of the young ones.
It is related that, at the South Shetland Islands, off the Horn,
300,000 seals were captured in two years, and that 100,000
young were supposed to have died from want of maternal sup-
port. They are now nearly extinct there. Even in 1826, the
Hobart Town Gazette urged Government to protect the breeding
season. In March of that year it is written, "Young Scott, who
has been an inhabitant of the Straits, and has cohabited with a
black woman, by whom he has three children, declares that he
has known 300 pups to have perished on one bank, owing to the
THE MUTTON-BIRD.
293
premature desertion of the mothers, driven away by unseason-
able disturbance of the sealers."
The animals were persistently followed. When retreating to
caverns, they were frightened out by explosions of powder, to
meet the lance or the club. The adventurers would descend
cliffs and caves by ropes to reach their victims. It is no wonder
then that they became so soon extinct on the Australian and
Tasmanian shores. We cannot say of the Straits, with Sir
Walter Scott-
"Rude Heiskar's seals, through surges dark,
Will long pursue the minstrel's bark."
The MUTTON-BIRD, the sorrow of the aboriginal captive slave
of the sealer, is so called from its supposed taste: It is the sooty
petrel of naturalists. Web-footed, it skims, with its long wings,
over the ocean for its food, the floating spawn, or a green slimy
substance. This gelatinous material it gathers from the waves
to feed its young. Captain Flinders was so struck with one vast
cloud of these birds, that he entered upon a calculation of their
numbers, and estimated them approximately at one hundred
millions!! Smaller than a duck, but somewhat larger than a
pigeon, it accumulates fat to an enormous extent, and furnishes
by pressure alone a considerable amount of oil.
The time of incubation is toward the end of the year. The
female comes to land, burrows in the sand of the shore, or the
decomposed granite of the islands, often to the depth of four
feet, and deposits its eggs. These were diligently procured by
the black women, and carried by the sealers to Launceston and
other markets. The egg is nearly the size of that laid by a
goose, with the taste of a raw onion about it. The male bird
would sit in the hole by day, and the female by night. When
the young appeared, the gins permitted them to get in good con-
dition, and then captured them. This was done by stopping up
the entrance, and then digging down to the birds with a stick.
Thrusting the arm in the hole was not always safe, as snakes
often took shelter there. The capture made, the burrow was left
in order, that the next season might bring an occupant.
King Walter gave me an account of their Straits' hunting for
these birds. He said they ate well if kept for a day in brine,
or if broiled after smoking them. They were, after preparation,
put into casks containing each some three or four hundred birds.
294
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
The feathers were plucked and dried, being used for beds, and
other purposes. In warm weather the organ of scent is rather
disturbed, as I have experienced, when one rests upon a bed of
ill-prepared mutton-bird feathers. It would take about five-
and-twenty birds to produce a pound of feathers, which used to
sell for sixpence.
The sealers' women had an ingenious mode of catching the
birds to procure their feathers. They selected the very early
morning, when the birds that had stayed on the island by night
were not yet stirring. Having previously got a large pit made,
with a brush fence on one side, they would rouse the birds from
their slumbers, and drive them, like a flock of sheep, toward the
hole; as, with their long wings, the creatures could not take
flight without a fall first, so as to expand their pinions. On
coming to the edge of the pit, the birds would readily find their
wings, but would strike against the obstructing fence, fall
downward, and be rapidly covered by the advancing throng.
At their leisure, the gins would then descend, seize, and pluck
their prize.
A narrative is given by a person voyaging to Sydney in 1816,
which illustrates the perils of the craft. In the Straits a boat
was overtaken containing a sealing party, evidently in distress.
The captain lowered a boat, and heard what they had to say.
They had stayed so long on one of the islands as to be out of
provisions. In making their way to port, the weather was tem-
pestuous and their progress slow. Exhausted by hunger, having
nothing but seal-skins to devour, they were quite unable even to
trim the sail to the changing wind. Supplying their immediate
necessities, the English skipper would willingly have taken them
in tow; but being only a day's run from the harbour, they
declined the offer. The ship stayed six months at Sydney, but
nothing was ever heard of the struggling crew, who were sup-
posed to have perished in the gale.
A sealer left on a reef between Cape Grim and King's Island
to collect skins was not called for in time; impelled by want,
he constructed a boat of seal-skins, and managed to get to the
island. Another, anxious to get to a cave in a rock, and unpro-
vided with a boat, fastened some skins together, and floated over
with the tide. He succeeded in killing a number of fat cubs,
when a huge mother seal returned. Raging at a cry of her
HOME LIFE OF SEALERS' WOMEN.
295
young one, she attacked the rude craft, bit a hole in it, and
obliged the terrified man to swim for his life. An old sealer
told me of a mate of his who had been landed on a rock with a
cave in it. The little vessel could not return in time, and the
man perished with thirst. His body was discovered in the cave,
encrusted with salt from the droppings of water from the roof.
The life of the sealer at home has been variously estimated.
That the animal nature was gratified thereby cannot be denied.
Most of the sealers continued such a life to the end of their
days. Unable to secure their own civilized countrywomen, they
were compelled to adopt the society of savages. Occasionally
their women were procured by special treaty and judicious
purchase. The presentation of European luxuries would obtain
the transfer of a partner, whose consent was neither solicited
nor expected. In most cases, however, it cost less, and saved
troublesome negotiation, to steal the matron or the maid. This
might be done after the approved classical mode of inviting the
tribe to a festival, and then proceeding to the abduction of the
moveable property of their guests; or a stealthy march inland
would lead to the discovery and capture of a black charmer.
The poor creatures were literally the slaves of the sealers.
They were no "Lights of the Harem," reposing on soft cushions
of happy indolence, beguiling the leisure hours of their guardian
lords. They were removed to the rocky islets of the Straits,
and made to till the land, collect sea-birds and feathers, hunt
after and preserve the skins of the wallaby, pick up the nautilus
shell driven on the sands by the storm, and take their turn at
the oar.
That the connexion was not absolute misery may be believed,
and that the course of existence was relieved by some sunny
scenes, if shaded by darker memories. The men had doubtless
a rough humour of their own, which would be expressed in the
peculiar gibberish of the pair; and few men, however abandoned,
are continually cruel. It is hard to credit that they would
habitually ill-treat their paramours, or subject the mothers of
their children to continued neglect. The treatment of the women
was doubtless subject to the moral status of their masters, and
alleviated by their possession of offspring. These pledges of
union, if not of affection, would tend to bridge over, so to speak,
the social chasm between the parents. As the question of
296
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
Half-castes is treated of elsewhere, it is sufficient to state here
that family attractions might well secure the gins' continued
residence with the sealer, even when brutalities and want of
congeniality of ideas would have driven them to attempt an
escape from slavery.
The reader may form a more definite notion of their condition
by the presentation of the two features of the case. There are
not wanting those who had a good word for the sealer.
All were not runaway convicts; though, perhaps, all were of
a type belonging to no high order of civilization. Even those
who had in early age been notorious for infamies, might with
advancing years have sown wild oats, and become perhaps moral
in degree. I have heard of some instances of men holding family
prayer with their half-caste children, and of others who obtained
a Bible, and instructed the young in their duties. The mother,
under such circumstances, would, at least, be comfortable. The
Bishop of Tasmania found more than one instance of healthy
moral progress in the Straits.
Captain Fawthrop, an ancient colonial mariner, informed me
that the aboriginal halves had no great objection to the life, and
in many cases much preferred it and its comforts to the forest
rule. He knew of men permitting their gins to go with a boat
on a visit to their native tribe, and carry presents to friends at
home, yet always calculating upon their prompt return. Mr.
Godwin, in 1823, ventures upon an explanation why they should
even prefer the island home. He speaks as a witness: "They
say they find their situation greatly improved by so connecting
themselves with the sealing gangs, for their native husbands
make them carry all the lumber, and perform all kinds of hard
work. They have always proved faithful and affectionate to
their new husbands, and seem extremely jealous of a rival."
The last authority takes a strong view of the case. Poor
things though "jealous of a rival," they had to submit to the
indignity, for some men had four such helpmeets, and two and
three were by no means uncommon.
Lieutenant Jeffreys, is
He pathetically relates
The chivalrous admirer of half-castes,
anxious to believe the best of the union.
something about an ode sung, to a wild and sorrowful cadence,
by one of the stolen brides of the sea, as if appealing to God for
His protective power on behalf of an absent cruiser.
MUNRO, KING OF THE SEALERS.
297
Captain Stokes, while condemning cruelty in some men, is
ready to acknowledge a better feature when it came before him.
He met with two women on King's Island, clothed in great-
coats of kangaroo skins, who "seemed quite contented with their
condition;" though he affords a sure clue to the motive, in
adding, "their offspring appeared sharp and intelligent." Both
wives worked the boat for their common lord. He has quite a
sailor conception of one scene, when referring to the purchase
of three gins by the gift of three fat seals to the tribe near
St. George's Rocks.
((
"s
'Man," he affirms, was never born to be satisfied with
his own society; and the Straitsmen, of course, found beauties
suitable to their taste in the natives of the shores of Bass's
Strait. The sealers took their new-bought sweethearts to
an island in Banks' Strait, and there left them to go on
another sealing excursion. Returning one day, they were sur-
prised to find their huts well supplied with wallaby by the
native women. Interest cemented a love that might other-
wise have been temporary. Visions of fortunes accumulated
by the sale of wallaby skins flashed across the minds of
the sealers; who, however, to their credit be it spoken,
generally treated their savage spouses with anything but
unkindness."
The history of old Munro, the "King of the Sealers," is a
favourable one for the times. For a quarter of a century he
lived on Preservation Island, near the main, and in Banks'
Strait; it was so called from the preservation of a crew there in
a shipwreck. There he held sway over his wild neighbours,
who were accustomed to go to the "Governor of the Straits,"
and refer to his judgment and decision their small subjects
of litigation; although an Old Hand declared to me that the
secret of his superiority lay less in the strength of his intel-
lect and the astuteness of his counsels, than upon the use of
"a lot of crack-jaw dictionary words and wise looks." There
he had at one time three female Tasmanians and a half-caste
family. This patriarchal group were much esteemed by the
sealers, and acknowledged with respect by some of higher pre-
tensions. Yet of this very man, the Quakers, Messrs. Back-
house and Walker, have not a favourable report to make. After
talking with Munro about his wives, Jumbo and three others,
298
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
:
they sought to convince him and a mate of the impropriety of
their conduct. But the conclusion of the conference is thus
told:-
"From the admission of these men, we learned that their
reasons for not choosing to marry the women with whom they
cohabit is, that, in the event of leaving the Straits, they would
feel them an encumbrance; hence unequivocally intimating that
they hold themselves bound to these poor women by no other
ties than those of convenience or caprice."
The darker side of the picture came before the public at the
close of the Black War, when arrangements were being made to
exile the Aborigines to an island in the Straits, and when Mr.
Robinson, armed with the Governor's authority, sailed among
the islands for investigation of sealers' doings, and the rescue of
the native women from their captivity. Still other evidence
than that of the officers of Flinders Island tends to affix a stigma
upon the name of "sealer.”
A
The earlier the period the more disgraceful the stories. Thus,
we hear of wretches who boasted of shooting their women.
poor creature was being beaten, when, by struggling, she released
herself from her tormentor, and fled. The fellow coolly took up
his gun and shot her. Being afterwards asked why he beat her
in the first instance, he simply replied, "Because she wouldn't
clean the mutton-birds."
In 1826 the Hobart Town Gazette éxclaims, in relation to the
Straits, "How truly appalling to the contemplative mind was
the renewed and alarming accounts of those miserable hordes,
compared with whose conduct we consider the ignorant and
wild natives of the mountains of Van Diemen's Land innocent
and happy!"
We have Mr. Robinson's authority for the statement that a
wretched man, named Harrington, had stolen a dozen women
and placed them on different islands to work for him. Upon
finding insufficient labour done, he would, upon his return, tie
them to trees for twenty-four hours in succession, flogging them
from time to time. He has been known to kill them in cool
blood when stubborn to his will. Captain Stokes tells us of a
brutal sealer who volunteered a passage of his autobiography:-
"He confessed," says the Captain, "that he kept the poor
creature chained up like a wild beast, and whenever he wanted
TREATMENT OF THE STRAITS' WOMEN.
299
her to do anything, applied a burning stick, a firebrand from the
hearth, to her skin."
Lieut. Darling gives them no good character, saying, “As to the
sealers themselves, they are, with very few exceptions, a drunken,
lying, lazy, and lawless lot." As to the effect of their inter-
course with the women, he assures the Governor that these poor
Natives, "instead of being in any degree civilized or enlightened
by the sealers, rather became corrupted and depraved. They
were made to dance naked, and encouraged in many of their
savage propensities; and, by being united to them by marriage,
they would be left entirely in the power of these men, and be
for ever shut out from the chance of civilization." In his
official letter, May 20th, 1832, dated "Flinders Island," he says:
'I regret to say that I have every reason to believe that the
reports respecting the sealers are, in most cases, but too true.
There are several women here who have lived with them for
years, and yet there is not one, though I have frequently
questioned them upon the subject, who wishes to go back again.
On the contrary, they express abhorrence at the thought, and
have frequently told me that the sealers are in the habit of
beating them severely, and otherwise ill-treating them." He
gave an account of a man named Woolley, who was married to
a half-caste, but who cohabited with a Black called Boatswain.
Upon Mr. Darling's visit to the island, the Aborigine left and
went off to Flinders. She had once been the wife of a chief,
and had great force of character. She told him the reason of
the hesitancy of some women to leave the sealers, and he wrote
to Colonel Arthur: "I learned from her that many other women
were anxious to join their friends and relations (at Flinders), but
that the sealers were constantly telling them that if they came
here they would starve, they would get no tobacco, no biscuit;
in fact, they would be miserable." Curiously enough, however,
old Sergeant Whyte wrote from Flinders: "I had no reason to
believe that these women had received any ill-treatment from
the sealers, on account of their being so anxious to return.”
When the Government craft, belonging to Flinders Island, was
lying off Circular Head, on the northern side of the island, a
sealer's boat came off to it. In the stern was seated a young
Aborigine of an interesting appearance, of mild features, but with
a brow clouded by sadness. Neatly dressed, she was evidently
300
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
better treated than most of her class; but the low tones in
which she spoke, and the furtive glances she threw at the
sealers, sufficiently indicated the terror under which she lived. A
Black fellow from the ship began conversing with her, and urged
her to fly from the Whites, and go to Flinders. Jackey, as she
was called, was excited, but declined leaving the whale-boat.
Lieutenant Darling was on board, and, guessing the reason of
her refusal, gave her to understand that he had power from the
Governor to take her from the sealers. As soon as she under-
stood this, she bounded upon deck with a burst of joy. Another
woman strongly censured her conduct, and went ashore with the
sealers. But in the night she ran off, and came to the cutter
with her little child.
Mr. Darling was acting in obedience to Government direc-
tions.
Upon the advice tendered his Excellency, that the
women be taken from the bad sealers, a note was forwarded that
"this measure be carried into effect; with all the discretion Mr.
Darling can apply to it, and he will, as far as possible, ascertain
the treatment which the native women receive from the sealers.”
Mr. Robinson's campaign in the Straits was carried on with
all the resolution of his nature, and with little refinement of
manner, or hesitancy of action. He was the bête noir of the
sealers. Armed with required powers, and sufficiently attended,
he cruised among the islands, compelling men to give up the
women, and not very careful about the consequences of the
abrupt order, either to the husband or the family.
He gave a sad recital of his first capture, the women of which
he carried to Gun Carriage Island, and who told their tales of the
past to him. One spoke of having been stolen by the veteran
Munro, another of being bought for some skins, while a third
detailed her sufferings from the lash: Jock, or Ploic-ner-noop-
per-ner, spoke of the way the sealers tied her up and beat her.
Smoker was given up to the sealers by her husband, and that
after she had given birth to several of his children. She had
run away, was chased, taken, and severely flogged. It was with
much difficulty Mr. Robinson succeeded in procuring some of
them, as the sealers, aware of his errand, concealed them. Among
those thus taken were Kit, Sall, Judy, Mother Brown, Little
Mary, Little Buck, &c.
Although his instructions were to employ force where the
ROBINSON'S RAID IN THE STRAITS.
301
women wished to leave and the sealers did not consent, he was
particularly warned not to interfere should the females object to
go.
The sealers declared, and with some show of reason, that
these orders were not strictly obeyed. Some of the more intel-
ligent and determined, as Munro, memorialised the Government
upon the question, and made out a strong case. Mr. Robin-
son replied to the charges on May 9th, 1831, saying, "I then
required of them, in the name of his Majesty's Colonial Govern-
ment, to deliver up all such native women then in their posses-
sion, and assured them that, unless they complied with my
demand, compulsory measures would be resorted to to accomplish
this purpose."
This was taking a lofty position. But the Colonial Secretary
notified "the women were not to have been taken from the
sealers against their will, which Mr. Robinson in his notices
seems to have overlooked." Mr. Robinson charged some of his
crew with complicity in these affairs, and with giving notice to
the sealers of his intended visit. He was very bitter against
the sealing race, declaring that they had rendered themselves
more obnoxious to the Blacks than any other white persons.
The sealers return to the charge, and certain demands are
made for women taken violently from their roofs. They com-
plain of the loss to themselves in being deprived of their
helpers in the fishery, and of the cruel wrong to their children in
tearing the mothers from their embrace, and depriving their
tender infancy of maternal care. The list is sent back to
Mr. Robinson. But he is not the man to yield. He wishes
to know if he is to free women against their own free-will
and consent. He tells the Governor that the applicants seek
their object "with a view to reinstate them in the same state
of slavish and licentious concubinage." He then particularises
and selects one name, showing that the man's treatment was
cruel, and the female averse to return. He goes further, and
looks at the demand from another point of view. "The feelings
of the male Aborigines," says he, "would be materially excited
on beholding their female partners thus taken away, and asso-
ciated with men whom they regard as common enemies of
their race."
The end of the discussion was an order from Colonel Arthur,
on June 18th, that "until we have more certain information of
302
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
the conduct of the sealers, the women had better be detained at
the asylum provided for them by the Government."
That very month, however, there is a new and extraordinary
phase. Mr. Robinson appears triumphant in an official sense,
but is compelled to adopt a compromise with these pertinacious
rovers of the sea. The two irreconcilable foes are seen on terms
of agreeable amity. The shrewd, crafty, and energetic Munro
directs the tactics of his subjects. Policy succeeds where force
is of no avail. Mr. Robinson wants to catch the Blacks, and
the sealers want their women. Who could be of such service to
the hunter as the enterprising and not too scrupulous fishermen ?
They knew the coast and the haunts of the tribes. They had
boats, and could carry off small parties to the depôt. This is
laid by the logic of Munro before the leader of the mission. It is
very true, and very clear. He is informed that the men are pre-
pared to help him, and that they can, and would, bring him lots
of glory and substantial recompense as the prince of capturers.
The bait is skilfully laid. It received approval. But why
this sudden change,-this conversion of implacable resentment
into proposed coalition? What is the price? The noble sealers
disclaim selfish principles; they want to serve Mr. Robinson and
the Government. But they gently submit that, though thus
willing and ready, they need one necessary auxiliary,—the pre-
sence of their faithful and affectionate spouses for guides!
Negotiations are completed. The guides are allowed.
Few things more amused me in tracing the course of Mr.
Robinson through his scarcely-to-be-distinguished manuscript
correspondence, than the official announcement of the terms of
this positive treaty, and his chuckling over the clever bargain he
had made; though, in fact, he had shown his hand and lost the
game. This passage occurs in his letter of June:—
"As a further inducement for the sealers to act energetically
in the enterprise that they are about to be engaged in, I allowed
them the privilege of their native women in its widest sense; in
doing which I found it expedient to use much finesse, in order
to cope with the different characters of these peculiar people."
He adds naïvely enough, "The sealers are perfectly satisfied
with the arrangements." Certainly.
The "slavish and licentious concubinage" is permitted for
reasons of State!
THE QUAKERS' TESTIMONY OF THE SEALERS.
303
As may be supposed, the partners soon quarrelled. Mr.
Robinson got little aid from the sealers, except where a hand-
some cash return could be obtained for labour done.
One cause
of disagreement was the female question again. The rough
sealers went beyond the bond. Not content with the liberal
terms they had secured as to women, they dared lay claim to
some agreeable young captured gin. Mr. Robinson demanded
her of them, and they, as partners, refused to yield her. An
open rupture followed, the sealers gained the day, and the leader
saw his mistake.
Again we plunge into his ready-letter writing. The "peculiar
people" are now decided enemies to the cause of humanity."
He has rediscovered "the impolicy of employing them in the
present important work." He will have no more of them.
They are traitors to the Government, and to himself. He uses
rough language in his anger, and is vehement in his desire to
deprive them of their mates. Thus he says:-
I trust that the circumstances of these ruffians perambulating
the mair with their deadly weapons, and associating an important
public duty with the consummation of their unwarrantable de-
signs, will at once convince the Government not only of the utter
worthlessness of such characters, but of the staunch necessity
which exists of immediately depriving them of those unhappy
females whom they have succeeded in obtaining from the
Government."
The Quakers must now appear in evidence. They relate what
they saw and heard, though, perhaps, they saw and heard with some
slight though unconscious bias. Intimately acquainted with the
late excellent George Washington Walker, I recently received a
copy of his journal, left in the hands of his pious widow. This
work of friendship and literary aid was performed by one of his
sons. It will please the numerous friends of those two estimable
missionaries to know, that the children of the late Mr. Walker,
so well trained by the father and mother, are all following in the
footsteps of their honoured parents, being diligent in all bene-
volent offices in Hobart Town. From this journal, I make an
extract :-
"From conversation with several sealers in the Straits, twelve
of whom we have seen, and from the testimony of other persons,
confirmed by that of native women who once lived with the
.
304
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
sealers, but are now at the settlement (Flinders), we cannot
regard the situation of the aboriginal females amongst that class
of men as differing materially from slavery, unless the circum-
stance of one man having only one woman and living with her
in a state of concubinage, and holding himself at liberty to
abandon her when it may suit his own convenience, constitute
the difference. The object of these men in retaining the women,
most of whom, it is asserted, were originally kidnapped, is
obviously for the gratification of their lust, and for the sake of
the labour they can exact from them. In resorting to coercion
in order to extort the services of these poor defenceless women,
great cruelty appears to have been used by their unfeeling
masters, with a few exceptions.
"At our request, a woman, named Boatswain by the sealers,
with whom she lived some years, gave us some particulars rela-
tive to the treatment of the women amongst them. This she
did partly by words, and partly by expressive signs, that could
not be misunderstood; and her statements were fully confirmed
by other women who were present, and who had been similarly
dealt with. She was requested to show in what manner they
beat them. She then made signs of being stripped, stretched
her hands up against the wall, in the attitude of a prisoner tied
up to be flogged, making at the same time a doleful cry, and
personating a flagellator in the exercise of his duty. After this
she described a different scene. She represented a person
striking another over the back and legs, and then herself as
sinking down on the ground, while she repeatedly exclaimed, in
a piteous tone, 'Oh, I will clean the mutton-birds better,' until
at last her voice seemed to fail through exhaustion. She said
the men beat them with great sticks. When asked if certain
men beat their women, she excepted four, the woman of one of
whom was weakly, and would have died if he had beaten her. On
her observing of one of the men that he beat his woman,' it
was remarked, with surprise, that she had an infant. To this
she replied, 'Yes, he beat her when the child was in her.' On
inquiry being made, if she would go back to the sealers, she
replied, in strong terms, that she would not, and the other women
joined with her in making the same declaration.
((
They appear to have made little or no progress in civiliza-
tion, or in anything but what contributed to the pecuniary
MURDER OF SEALERS.
305
advantage or gratification of their masters. They have even
been encouraged to perpetuate their barbarous customs. What,
indeed, can be expected at the hands of men who, though nomi-
nally Christians, live in open violation of the principles of the
Gospel, and have little claim to the appellation of Christians?"
It is not to be expected that the sealers in their course could
avoid collisions with the Natives, and come off victorious on all
occasions. Revenge for their wrongs the tribes would have. A
party of sealers came to steal some women. Unguardedly they
moored their boat for the night, and slept on the shore. The
Natives, aware of the intention of their enemies, came stealthily
upon them as they slept, and murdered them all. Tucker and
five others were killed in an attempt to get off some gins, their
former women, from Flinders; but, betrayed by a girl, they were
similarly caught napping by indignant fathers and brothers.
Often were these rough boatmen the cause of outrages on the
main. For injuries received from them, others and innocent
ones of their countrymen suffered. One, who was among the
most vindictive of the Blacks-the chief Montilangana-acknow-
ledged, when on Flinders, having speared to death four females
and seven men of the Europeans. But he had a strong motive
for vengeance: he had seen, when a lad, his mother and his two
sisters carried off with cruel violence by the sealers.
From a Sydney newspaper of 1824, the particulars of the
following tragedy were learned. One Duncan Bell, the leader
of a sealing crew, had two or three years before stolen a Tas-
manian Native girl, with whom he continued to cohabit. In the
month of October 1824, he endeavoured, through the medium
of this young woman, to obtain temporary wives for his mates.
She seemed perfectly agreeable to the scheme, and engaged to
decoy some females of her tribe. Leaving their island home,
therefore, the sealers rowed to that part of the main from which
the girl had been stolen, and which, from prudent motives, they
had since avoided. The captured beauty was with them in the
boat, carrying her little child with her. She was landed upon
the hunting-grounds of her tribe, and she proceeded in search of
her people. After an absence of three days, she returned with
the intelligence that she had succeeded in drawing some women
near the spot, and that the next day they could be caught. That
night she managed to secrete the only musket the Europeans
X
306
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
possessed. In the morning, following her suggestion, Bell
remained in charge of the boat while she proceeded with the
rest of the men. Leaving them concealed in the Bush while she
went to entice the forest maidens towards the ambush, she kept
an appointment with her armed and angry tribe, and led their
warriors to the appointed spot, where the defenceless Whites
were slaughtered. In the meantime it is thought she gave the
father of her child some warning, for, by the time the Blacks
got down to the shore, he had an intimation of danger, and so
escaped. It is singular that the father of one of the murdered
sealers had been despatched some years before by the enraged
Natives.
CHAPTER XI
HALF-CASTES.
THE subject of Half-castes is one of the saddest of the many
dark stories in the history of the Tasmanians.
Some travellers have expressed themselves so strongly upon
the repulsive characteristics of our Southern races, that it might
occasion surprise to hear of association between their females
and the stranger son from Europe. But, after the French por-
traiture of an Ourâ Ourâ, and the romancings of even some
graver Englishmen, we may be prepared for the manifestation
of some sympathy between the opposing colours. The rougher
class of our people would be the first attracted, and the pre-
sentation of food, a fig of tobacco, or a gaudy dress would
occasionally melt the chaste bosom of a dark beauty.
In all parts of the world such alliances may be found, though
more abundant and stable in proportion to the agreement of
hue. The lighter the complexion, the greater the antipathy to
union with black people; but the Southern men of Europe-
the Spaniard, Portuguese, Italian, and Turk-have no such
refinement of scruples. The connexion would be either of a
lasting character, almost approaching the condition of formal
marriage, or one of simple convenience and the impulse of
the hour.
The chastity of the dark races has been much, and most
unjustly, impugned. We have incontrovertible evidence that
many Blacks, especially among the Papuans, illustrate that
virtue quite as much as the lighter and more civilized peoples.
Even in Africa, in many parts, travellers assure us of the
propriety of women, and the extreme difficulty of procuring a
return of love, unless upon a basis recognised by the laws of
the tribe. In all countries where a form of marriage existed,
the European has had to go through certain legal ceremonies
X 2
308
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
before being permitted freedom by the females. A payment
has elsewhere been enforced, as a recognition of the principle.
It has been said with derision that the formality was of so
trifling a nature that the virtue must be weak indeed. To this it
may be replied, that the Scotch law of marriage, at least, is not
very formidable in provisions, and yet satisfies an otherwise
particular people. It is neither safe nor kind to pronounce upon
the relative chastity of countries, until we know the principles
upon which they form their moral code. That which was quite
correct in the days of the patriarchs would subject one to legal
penalties in Europe. The debasement of the fair sex, in all
periods and climes, has made the question of chastity one of
grave difficulty. In almost all places and times it is only a
question of agreement between parents, and the rate of barter.
As the Tasmanians had no elaborate ceremonies before mar-
riage, and as their women were, as in Europe, the property of
the men, we must be discreet in our judgment of their acts.
The Frenchmen of 1792 and 1802 found them proof against
their seductions, and deaf to their voice of love. In this respect
they were, as the Papuan race generally upon first acquaintance
with the Whites, different in their grade of virtue to the more
civilized South Sea Islanders. The shyness of the tribes, their
early suspicion of the colonists, their speedy experience of the
heartless cruelty and selfishness of such associations, tended to
discourage contact and diminish vice. But as some, by the
force of circumstances, were brought in proximity with settlers,
the barrier was occasionally broken down.
In the chapters of "Cruelties" and "Sealers," some details
may be read proving force to have been one prominent means,
employed by unscrupulous men to overcome the virtue of the
women of the forest. But desire for the curious and palatable
food of the new-comers, or for the bright and pretty things
they possessed, exercised a charm over feminine fancy in Van
Diemen's Land as similar temptations do elsewhere. A third
and more humiliating cause of these alliances may be found in
the enforcement of the rights of property; for husbands, after
the degradation of a pseudo-civilization, are sometimes found
ready to barter the virtue of a wife for a piece of tobacco, a
morsel of bread, or a silver sixpence. This is well known to
residents even now in the vicinity of European settlements in
WOMAN A PROPERTY EVERYWHERE.
309
Australia, Cape Colony, and America. The laws of civilized
and Christian nations acknowledge the abstract principle; as in
England, a husband cannot punish a man who has desecrated
his domestic hearth, and cursed him and his children with a
life-long sorrow, otherwise than by charging the villain with
injuring his property, and so procuring damages for loss in his
goods! When woman has her real rights in Britain, men may
speak more freely in condemnation of customs elsewhere.
The character of the union between the two races influenced
the morals of the parties in question. A mésalliance without
respect to residence is never one calculated to do otherwise thau
deteriorate; but that attending habitual companionship, though
for no determined period, is deprived of much of its wrong, at
least; and in certain instances may be the occasion of even the
moral elevation of a person. But it is not merely a question of
the moral state of the individuals, but of effect upon the off-
spring. The fruits of concubinage are not to be envied any-
where. The experience and poems of Savage illustrate the sad
tale. The sins of the fathers have been bitterly visited upon
the children. The unknown author of the apocryphal "Wisdom
of Solomon" declares that "the imperfect branches shall be
broken off, their fruit unprofitable, not ripe to eat, yea, meet for
nothing. For children begotten of unlawful beds are witnesses
of wickedness against their parents in their trial." Elsewhere
he refers to such seed, and exclaims, "Horrible is the end of the
unrighteous generation." Alas! this is the cry of the historian
when he speaks of the Tasmanian half-castes.
These unhappy products of intercourse in the Bush, the
marriage of the hour, if permitted to see the light, seldom lived
long in the tribe. The mother, to conceal her shame, or repent-
ing of her act, would often prevent the birth by abortion; or,
if unsuccessful, would destroy the infant upon its entrance into
the world. If the philoprogenitive instinct led her to spare her
child, the husband or brother might avenge the family wrongs
by a fatal blow.
Dr. Broca is mistaken in thinking that "the murder of the
Australian mulattoes is a vulgar tale," and that the destruction
of half-castes by the Natives is unnatural. Dr. Story tells me
that he never knew a half-caste in the tribe with which he was
acquainted in Tasmania. So others have said of the wandering
310
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
tribes. Even in Australia it was exceedingly rare to see a half-
caste, at a time when children's laughter rang through the
encampment. Then, as Mr. Schmidt, the Queensland missionary,
found, “it was the rule to destroy the half-caste immediately
after birth." Mr. G. A. Robinson and other Protectors said the
same thing of Port Phillip. In more modern times, since a birth
of any kind has become so uncommon a circumstance, the half-
castes have been occasionally suffered to live, and have been
even cherished with pride by the tribe. I have been several
times pleased with the exultant satisfaction of the miserable
remnant of a once mighty tribe at the yellow baby. Once,
while admiring a very pretty specimen of the mixture in Vic-
toria, a fine-bearded young fellow strode up smiling to me,
saying, “That me picaninny-you gib it tixpence." He then
burst into a roar of laughter at his assumption of paternity.
But even these, as Mr. Protector Parker observed, disappear
mysteriously at the age of puberty, if suffered to last so long.
To the honour of the Government of Van Diemen's Land,
efforts were made to save the offspring of such connexions. We
read of a sawyer, one Smith, and his black friend, Mrs. Fanny
Cochrane Smith, receiving twenty-five pounds a year for their
half-caste child. Grants of land have been made to reputed.
parents, subject to the life of the offspring in some cases, and in
others contingent upon the orthodox marriage of the mother.
But the tribe have repeatedly avenged their honour by murdering
the little one, whom they decoyed to their secluded haunts.
That which has excited most astonishment and disgust has
been the indifference of English fathers to the future being of
their progeny.
Dr. Carl Vogt, in his work on Man, thus
calls attention to the charge :-"Even if it were true that the
Australians (or Tasmanians) killed the bastards who with their
mothers return to their tribe, it might at the same time be fairly
assumed that all European fathers, who produce children with
Australian women, were not such monsters as to expose them to
certain death. We cannot suppose such an abnegation of every
human feeling to have existed, even among the first criminal
population of Australia." Yet such was the case.
It can
scarcely be pleaded in extenuation of their brutality, that gen-
tlemen at home, admitted into the best circles, have been quite
as heedless as to the future existence, or otherwise, of the fruits
SLAUGHTER OF HALF-CASTES.
311
of their illicit intercourse with their own but poorer country-
women.
It is not upon the first convicts only of these settlements,
but upon those of all subsequent periods, that the sad charge
can be laid; and not of convicts only, but those of higher
position, free from legal restraint. It is not often, however, that
such a narrative can be written as that by Mr. G. A. Murray,
Police Magistrate on the river Murrumbidgee. He was officially
informed that eleven half-caste boys had been decoyed, mur-
dered, and afterwards their bodies consumed to ashes in separate
fires. He rode to the spot, saw the remains of the fires, and, in
raking about the ashes, discovered fragments of human bones.
In his evidence he averred that, though female half-castes were
sometimes permitted to live, the males were invariably destroyed
in his district. Even the former were tolerated only as minis-
tering to the lustful appetites of the tribe, and an additional
means of obtaining supplies from lascivious white men. The
mother of one of the slaughtered infants sought to deprecate the
anger of the gentleman by this: "Cawbawn me sorry; cawbawn
me sorry; Black fellow always do like that.”"
How strange is it, then, to meet with such a passage as this
in the medical works of Dr. Carpenter: "There is strong reason
to believe that these hybrid races, the parents of whom are
Europeans on the one side and the aborigines of any country on
the other, are generally destined to become the dominant popu-
lation of those countries!" Before the half-castes existed in any
number, or when mostly confined to the sealers of the Straits,
the Surveyor-General of Van Diemen's Land in 1823, Mr.
Evans, in common with some other benevolent individuals, had
a dim hope, amidst the rising horrors of the Black War, of the
future utility of the half-castes. Alluding to the massacre of
1803, he continues: "The inimical impression will doubtless
wear off, and the mixed race, now arising from the British sea-
men and the native females, will essentially contribute to bring
about so desirable a reconciliation." Such a mission never was
fulfilled. The Eurastians of India, the Griquas of the Cape, the
Mulattoes of America, have hardly produced such a result.
It may be questioned whether more could be expected from the
half-castes of the little island than from those of other parts of
the world. It has been observed with pain, that, while in intellect
312
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
they have been superior to the dark race, they have been,
perhaps, even inferior to them in morals. How far this has
arisen from unfavourable circumstances may appear in subse-
quent narratives. The Rev. George Taplin, Missionary to the
Australian Natives, once gave me this description of the half-
castes: "They are generally very bad and low, especially the
women." Professor Agassiz has some melancholy reflections
upon this subject. "Let any one," he says, "who doubts the
evil of this mixture of races, and is inclined from a mistaken
philanthropy to break down all barriers between them, come
to Brazil. He cannot deny the deterioration consequent upon
an amalgamation of races, more wide-spread than in any other
country in the world, and which is rapidly effacing the best
qualities of the white race, the Negro, and the Indian, leaving
the mongrel nondescript type deficient in physical and mental
energy."
Although it is said that there are used in Peru twenty-three
appellations for varieties of humanity from the three stocks of
White, Negro, and Indian, we may cite the following from Dr.
Wilson's "Prehistoric Man," as known in Mexico :-
White and Negro
White and Indian
Indian and Negro
White and Mulatto.
•
produce a Mulatto.
Mestizo.
""
Chino or Zambo.
""
Cuarteron.
""
White and Mestiza
•
Creole.
White and Cuarterona.
Quintero.
White and Quintera
Negro and Mulatto
White.
"
Cubra.
""
Negro and Mestiza
Mulatto-Oscuro.
•
""
Mulatto and Zambo
Zambo.
Mulatto and Mestiza
Chino.
""
An interesting question has been raised as to the fecundity of
the mixed races. Dr. Broca, of Paris, is correct in saying, "We
may assume it as a fact that cross-breeds of Europeans and
native Australian men are very rare." Some reasons have been
already mentioned. It should, however, be borne in mind that
while intercourse between Whites and Tasmanian gins was not
unfrequent, the latter were almost uniformly found among the
besotted and degraded creatures near the townships, subsisting
upon the food of the strangers, and given up to drunkenness
and indiscriminate licentiousness. To suppose such women
FECUNDITY OF MIXED RACES.
313
capable of having offspring by either White or Black, is to
credit public prostitutes with fecundity.
But to the abstract question of the fertility of mixed races
the learned have directed our attention. Mr. Brace, in his
Races of the Old World," sees no objection, and instances the
families of Mulattoes and Indian half-breeds, and adduces the
fact of the Mohawk tribe having only two of the original stock.
Dr. E. Dally says, "If cross-breeding in families is necessary,
the same thing among races is also necessary; and if crossed
families are superior to pure blood, why refuse the same supe-
riority to crossed races ?" M. Pouchet adheres to the law that a
half type cannot exist by itself. Senor Pacheco declares that
there are not eight thousand pure Spanish in the eight million
population of Mexico. Dr. Nott, the distinguished ethnologist
of the United States, assures us that the Mulattoes are the most
short-lived race in the world, and are less capable of fatigue
than the present races; that the women are bad breeders, ex-
tremely delicate, and very subject to abortions; and that many
children die young. Dr. Broca takes a more hopeful view; and,
after mentioning the rarity of cross-breeds in Australia, adds:
"The fact is so much opposed to the usual theory of inter-
breeding of human races, that it is worth while to examine whe-
ther there may not be other than physiological causes for it."
In the elaborate work of Messrs. Hombron and Jacquinot,
alluding to the few half-castes of our Southern coloured people,
it is written: "This absence of the mixed race between two
peoples, living in contact upon the same country, proves very
incontestably the difference of species."
With the advocates of non-fertility there is the learned Dr.
Knox. Mr. Hyde Clarke believes in the utter extinction of the
Turk before long from intermarriage, and says, "It was very
rare to see a Mulatto in Turkey, though there were many black
children." Professor Agassiz, after telling us of the Mamelucos
of Brazil, the offspring of Indian and White, and of the Cafuzo,
the children of the Indian and the Negro, proceeds: "My obser-
vations upon the cross-breeds in South America have convinced
me that the varieties arising from contact between these human
species, or so-called races, differ from true species, and that they
retain the same liability to revert to the original stock, as is
observed among all so-called varieties or breeds."
314
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
Mr. Warren wrote: "The half-caste of India comes to a pre-
mature end, generally without reproduction; and if there are
any offspring, they are always wretched and miserable." Volney
was struck with the paucity of remains in Egypt of the light
Mameluke blood, though those brave warriors held concubines
of the country. Graf Gortz, cited by Professor Waitz, declares
the cross of Dutch and Malay to be weak both in body and
mind. The same has been said of the offspring of Arabs and
Negresses. Kohl records the deficiency of vitality in the
cross of French and Indians. Boudin agrees with Dr. Yvan
that Mulattoes are not productive after the third generation.
The same thing has been said of the Mulattoes of Java.
the third stage, girls only are produced, who are almost always
sterile. The Lipplappen race of Java, a cross of Dutch and
Malay, form a distinct class in Batavia, but are remarked as
dying out. Dr. Gutzlaff, referring to Cambodia, observes: "The
marriages of native females with the Chinese are productive at
the first generation, but gradually become sterile, and completely
so at the fifth generation."
At
Some other authorities are more hopeful. Professor Quatre-
fages contends that weakness is not such a quality of the mixed
races. The Paulistras of Brazil, from the union of Portuguese
and Indian, though much condemned by the Jesuits, are thought
by others a powerful and energetic race. Dr. Rufz asserts, "We
are warranted in concluding that the interbreeding of the White
and the Black races has exercised a favourable rather than un-
favourable influence upon the resultant race." M. Thevenôt, in
his enthusiasm, exclaims, "The Mulatto may be all that the white
man is. His intelligence is equal to ours." M. de Gobineau
regards the crossing as a cause of degradation; but Quatrefages
triumphantly holds up the European, "the hybrid crossed a
thousand times from the Allophyllic and the Aryan races.”
There are, however, some remarkable evidences of the per-
sistency of race, a subject ably treated by Sir William Denison.
It is observed that in four generations Mulattoes will become
white, or black in five, according to the character of marriage.
Many are of opinion that the intermarriage of Mulattoes pro-
duces a sickly offspring, and that hence the women of that race
prefer a connexion with the Whites. The Indian stiff hair is
preserved in the mixed people to the third generation. Castelnau
RETURN TO PARENTAL TYPE.
315
found the child of a white man and Indian female more of its
mother's type; that of an Indian and Negress had stiff hair and
oblique eyes; and that of a white man and Mestiza having
a light copper colour, with oblique eyes and stiff hair. A dark-
skinned woman has been often noticed with lighter coloured
children by her own race after bearing offspring with a white
man. The Griquas of South Africa by continued crossing have
become almost pure Africans. It is singular that while the
union of a white man and a Negress is fecund, that of a black
man with a white woman should be often sterile. Professor
Waitz ascertained that while Mulattoes were not very fertile
among their own people, they were sufficiently so with the
original races, and more so with the darker than lighter
partners.
A remarkable case of tendency to return to the parent stock
is narrated by Sir W. Denison, formerly Governor of Tasmania
and of New South Wales. Norfolk Island was then one of his
dependencies, and the Pitcairn islanders had been lately removed
to that lovely and fertile home. "But," says the Governor,
"they are gradually getting darker, and reverting to the Tahitian
type; not on account of the climate, for they are in lat. 33° S.,
but, probably, I should say possibly, owing to some quality of
skin handed down by their Tahitian mothers."
It may, perhaps, be admitted that to some extent, at least,
mixed races are of transitory duration, and of varied character.
The distinguished Parisian anthropologist, Dr. Paul Broca, con-
tends for the principle of changing and unequal degrees of
eugenesic hybridity. He describes the differences thus :- - the
hybridity of fertility; the agenesic, or unfertile; the dysgenesic,
or nearly sterile; the paragenesic, or of partial fecundity. Dr.
Peter Browne, of Philadelphia, in his learned treatise on Hair,
perceived no tendency in half-breeds to produce a new and
separate form of hair, but only to perpetuate one kind of pile,
or more commonly to possess the character of the hair of both
parents on the head at the same time. But he was led by his
examination to assert-"When the progeny hold an interme-
diate place, and they breed together only, they gradually become
less and less capable of reproduction, and after a few generations
the race runs out."
Although one of the American Indian protectors has lately
316
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
inserted in his report, "A visible increase is discerned among
the half-breeds" of one tribe, yet the contrary is the rule. In
1858 there were but three half-castes in the powerful tribe of
the Ngatowhauroa of New Zealand. Mr. Consul Pritchard
deplored the rapid decay of that beautiful race in Samoa and
other South Sea Islands, pronouncing their intermarriages as
less prolific than the parent stock, and by no means so robust,
or so easy to rear.
In Tasmania the half-castes were certainly never numerous
under the most favourable circumstances. This induced Dr.
Gliddon to announce :-"Even a convict population of athletic
and unscrupulous English males failed, in their intercourse with
Tasmanian females, not merely to produce an intermediate race,
but to leave more than one or two adult specimens of their
repugnant unions.” The French author Jacquinot wrote:-
"When the ancient inhabitants of Van Diemen's Land, reduced
to the number of 210, were taken to Flinders Island, not only
had the union of the women with the unscrupulous convicts
been unable to form a distinct race, but only two adults were
found who were the produce of these unions." And yet Mr.
Robinson, when depriving the sealers of their black companions,
acknowledges that a large number of children remained behind,
few coming off with their mothers. One woman had thirteen
children by a sealer. Maryann, the wife of King Walter, assured
me that her black mother had five by her white father. Captain
Stokes counted twenty-five on Preservation Island and neigh-
bourhood. But Dr. Jeanneret reported on Flinders Island, in
1846, forty-seven Natives of pure blood, and five of half-caste.
I have endeavoured to ascertain the number living, both of
the first and second degree. The best reply to my inquiries
came from Mr. Surveyor-General Calder, of Hobart Town. In
November 1868, he sent me word that the total number then
amounted to eighty or ninety. "This statement," he adds, "I
make upon faith of a letter lately received by me from Captain
Malcolm Laing Smith, formerly of the 78th regiment, I think,
who interests himself much about them. They are stationed
on some of the smaller islands of Furneaux' group, between, or
about, Flinders and Cape Barren Islands."
My half-caste friend Maryann gave a pleasing account of her
father and mother in their island homestead. Before removal to
HALF-CASTES IN THEIR ISLAND HOME.
317
Flinders Island she had resided at Launceston, being conveyed
there by her father to the care of a friend. Although she was of
superior ability to most white children, and would, if more hap-
pily situated, have become a truly distinguished woman, she was
thrown by officials among the degraded Blacks of the island, to
her own serious moral and intellectual loss. Repelled in cold.
disdain by her father's blood, she clung to her mother's kind,
and ultimately contracted a childless marriage with Walter
George Arthur, the most intelligent and educated of the Native
race. Her sister Fanny, many years younger than herself,
married a European, after some vicissitudes of virtue. After a
marriage of five years, she gave birth to a child. The Govern-
ment had made the pair a grant of one hundred acres of land,
though not to be sold. Maryann had, at the time of her conver-
sation with me, recently received a letter from her sister, stating
that she was then living perfectly happy with her husband in
Hobart Town.
A friend lately gave the melancholy account of a family of
half-caste girls, all of whom but one had turned out badly, and
died early from dissipation. Another instance was more favour-
able. A lady had taken a boy and girl under her care. They
had not been related, but were ultimately married, went on a
farm, and did well. There was lately a Tasmanian half-caste
couple living on the Victorian diggings.
Dr. Nixon, first Bishop of Tasmania, undertook a voyage to the
islands of the Straits, on an episcopal tour, but with particular
reference to the condition of the half-castes there. His notices
of them possess much interest. He baptized many of them and
their children, besides having the pleasure of uniting some in
marriage who had long cohabited unlawfully. Full of sympathy
for the mixed race, he was ready to see, if possible, a favourable
side to their character, and foster in their minds a love for the
truthful and good. In his interesting narrative of "The Cruise
of the Beacon," he bestows a compliment upon one whom he de-
scribes as "the greatest lady" of his acquaintance. It is another
corroborative testimony to the care exerted by some white
fathers of this interesting race, who acted as old Adams of the
Pitcairn islanders. His lordship says, "Lucy Beadon, a noble-
looking half-caste, of some twenty-five years of age, bears the
burden of twenty-three stone. Good-humoured, and kind-
318
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
hearted, she is every one's friend upon the island. High-
minded and earnest in her Christian profession, she has set
herself to work to do good in her generation. From the pure
love of those around her, she daily gathers together the children
of the sealers, and does her best to impart to them the rudi-
ments both of secular and religious knowledge."
A Launceston newspaper of January 1867 adds some further
information concerning the family of the worthy Lucy. Her
father, it would appear, assumed the name of Beadon, but was
connected with a highly respectable family in England, and for
a number of years was in the receipt of a handsome allowance,
transmitted through a colonial firm. His early career was
doubtless a wild and unsatisfactory one. Circumstances led
him to adopt the sealer's life about the year 1827. An abori-
ginal woman bore him several children besides Lucy. What-
ever his habits when young, he evidently adopted a better course,
and endeavoured to promote the real welfare of his family.
Although possessed of means with which he could have com-
fortably resided in civilized society, he preferred his rocky,
storm-girt home on Badger's Island. His wife and most of his
children died before him, and were buried on Gun Carriage
Island. In January 1867, he expired at the ripe age of sixty-
nine, and was laid, at his own request, beside the remains of
the Tasmanian mother of his offspring.
Having to christen a child at one place, the Bishop has given
us a notice of the juvenile half-caste. "One of them,” he says,
"a boy of two years of age, was as magnificent a little fellow as
I ever saw. His large, full black eyes, and finely-formed features,
would have done honour to any parentage."
He writes with much feeling of his astonishment and pleasure
at finding in most of these regions of storm, and among so rough
a class, the observances of religion, and those of his own Church.
In that ramble of 1854 he visited Gun Carriage Island, from
which the sealers were originally driven by Mr. Robinson for
a temporary home of his gathered exiles, and to which, upon
the transfer to Flinders, they were permitted to return. There
he conducted service, and afterwards tells his tale :-
"It was with a solemn sense of the privilege conferred upon
me, that there, in that storm-girt hut, the winds and the waves
roaring around me, I, as the first minister of God that had set
BISHOP NIXON'S VISIT TO THE STRAITS.
319
foot upon the island, from the dawn of creation until then,
commenced the humble offering of prayer and praise to that
creation's Lord. . . . . These simple half-castes, the last relics
of the union of aboriginal women with the sealers, had taken
the Prayer-book as their guide, and did not set up their own
rebellious wills against its plain injunctions. They were not
too proud to kneel; their psalmody, too, was correct, and touch-
ing in its expressiveness. There was a deep earnestness with
which my half-caste congregation joined in the several parts of
the service, that I should be glad to witness in the more edu-
cated and polished gatherings of Christian worshippers.'
Visiting their simple burial-ground with gratification, he ob-
“I endeavoured, and I hope not without success, to
impress upon them the true Christian reason for this feeling;
reminding them, that as the body is the temple of the Holy
Ghost, so each corpse must be reverently handled and dealt
with, as a something which God himself has vouchsafed to
honour and to sanctify for his own dwelling."
serves:
دو
Quite another scene is now presented by his pen: “I united
an old sealer, named Edward Mansell, to Judy Thomas, an
aboriginal woman. Upon investigating the facts of the case, I
was glad to find that the best motives induced the man to repair
past sin and folly by a union with this woman, aged as she was.
She, poor creature, could with difficulty repeat the necessary
words of the service. Indeed, her English, if such it might be
called, was such as to elicit a violent explosion of mirth on the
part of the bridegroom, an unseemliness which was promptly
repressed and rebuked by Captain King, who acted as father
upon the occasion.
""
Some of the half-castes have been noticed as possessing un-
common beauty, and travellers, like Lieutenant Jeffreys and
Captain Stokes, have been eloquent in their praises. The dis-
tinction between them and the real aboriginal girls has been
thus indicated by the latter: "One was half European and half
Tasmanian, and by no means ill-looking. She spoke very good
English, and appeared to take more care of her person than her
two companions, who were Aborigines of pure blood. A few wild
flowers were tastefully entwined with her hair, which was dressed
with some pretensions to elegance." The very beauty of the
little things has, without doubt, been the means of sparing their
320
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
lives awhile, even with the wild tribe. A writer of the year
1815 had a funny tale to tell of a pretty half-caste child, whom
he observed in company with one of the Natives. Turning
toward the man, he jocularly exclaimed, "That not your child
-too white." The savage, ready at a joke, and willing to give
a laughable turn to his partner's frailty, claimed the little one
as his own, but excused its pale colour because "my gin (wife)
eat too much white bread."
In the early days, a sealer of King's Island was drowned,
leaving behind two pretty little half-caste girls and a boy. Some .
benevolent person, pitying the state of the children, made some
representations to the Governor, and the Gazette appealed to the
public on their behalf. Mr. Fairfax Fenwick took the boy, who
soon, however, ran away from his guardian. Two maiden ladies,
Miss Newcombe and Miss Drysdale, afterwards historical charac-
ters in the annals of Port Phillip, accepted the charge of the
girls, and conscientiously performed their duty toward them.
They were well instructed and religiously trained. Kitty was
remarkably attractive in person; and, being taken by her friends
to the new colony across the Straits, obtained a husband, and
lived there respectably. I heard of her last removing with her
husband to Ballarat. Her sister, the much-admired Mary, was
more erratic than Kitty. After some changes, she settled down.
as the wife of an Englishman, and became the mother of a fine
family. Few troubled themselves about the parental feelings of
the sealer's partner, the black mother of these half-castes. Soon
after her children had been forcibly removed from her, she fretted
so much as to die of a broken heart.
The wayward and passionate nature of the half-caste race
may be illustrated in the following story: When on a visit to
an aboriginal station in Victoria, I saw a fine, fat, rosy, jolly-
looking girl, about eighteen years of age, whose sparkling, mis-
chief-loving eyes would readily attract the gaze of the visitor.
She was a half-caste, and, like the rest of her people, had more
of the instincts of her ebon mother than of her European
father. The superintendent gave me her curious history. A
few months before, she was missed from the school. After
police inquiries, he traced her to the hut of an old man near the
Murray, and compelled her to return with him. The day after,
she eluded his observation, and was lost again. Another search,
BONG AND HER DAUGHTER DOLLY.
321
The
another capture, brought her in safety to the station.
matron, as well as the excellent superintendent, endeavoured
by suitable homilies to teach her her duty; but the spirit of
the woods was too strong for moral suasion. That same night,
by the aid of a young man, she gained liberty through the
window, and was once more a wild tenant of the Bush.
A patriarch of the tribe was shocked at these mésalliances,
and resolved for the honour of savage domesticities to capture
the truant. Many a mile he traversed in tracking her course, till
he secured the naughty maiden. The old man returned with his
unabashed captive. What was to be done with such a self-
willed lady? What would reform such erratic tendencies? She
must be married. Among the dark skins she selected her future
mate, who informed me that when he had finished his hut
on the aboriginal station, he would lead to the altar this his
blushing bride.
The romantic story connected with this subject remains to be
told. It is the history of Miss Dolly Dalrymple, the first known
half-caste of the colony, and so called from being born near Port
Dalrymple, the port of the River Tamar.
Dolly was born in 1808. She was seen by Lieutenant Jef-
freys in 1820, and described as "remarkably handsome, of a
light colour, with rosy cheeks, large black eyes, the whites of
which were tinged with blue, and long, well-formed eyelashes,
with teeth uncommonly white, and the limbs admirably formed."
She was then living with a lady and gentleman in Launceston
who had undertaken her education and care.
Her mother, Bong, a genuine Tasmanian beauty, had been
attracted to the side of a young sailor of the Straits. He is said
to have been of respectable connexions at home, but of "a wild
and volatile disposition." Dolly was not her only child; and it
is in relation to another that she experienced a remarkable
adventure. As may be conjectured, the men of the tribe were
angry with the Whites who had stolen their gins, but especially
indignant against those of the female members who preferred
the society of the opposite colour. Several instances are re-
corded of murders on this account. The known attachment of
Bong to the father of her children marked her out as an especial
object of their jealous rage.
One evening, the sealers' party having been to Launceston for
Y
322
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
the sale of skins and the purchase of supplies, and Bong to
revisit her eldest child, the boat had been anchored about ten
miles from town, and Bong took a stroll in the Bush with an
infant at her breast. Unfortunately, she was seen and tracked
by a bloodthirsty company of Aborigines. The child, the mark
of her tribal crime, was dragged from her, and pitched remorse-
lessly into a native fire. The mother, in a fury of parental
feeling, tore herself from her murderous countrymen, rushed to
the fire, extricated her darling from the flames, and darted off
into the obscurity of the forest for safety. Loud were the yells
of the pursuers, and eager the search for their victim. Aware
of her inability to outrun the men, she very adroitly sought the
covert of a dense shade, and lay down breathless with fear and
anxiety. Unable to find her track in the dark, the fellows
gradually returned growling to the camp-fire, and after threats
of revenge disposed themselves to sleep. The watchful mother
keenly marked their reclining, and hastened to renew her flight,
arriving at Launceston by the morning dawn. Her little one
died in a few days from the burning.
It may be remarked, before leaving poor Bong, that, when the
Conciliatory Mission was formed, she attached herself to the
party, and proved of valuable service. Her vengeance for the
loss of her baby was found in her labour of love for the redemp-
tion of her race from their forest miseries. Instead of recog-
nising the claims of family, when the Black War was over,
Mr. Robinson harshly ordered her to be sent to Flinders Island,
with the other Blacks, instead of permitting her to live with
Dolly Dalrymple, or with another daughter whom she had in
Launceston.
The handsome Dolly, as usual, was exposed to many tempta-
tions. We have no record of her Launceston career after twelve
years of age, but may fear the effect of her beauty in a colonial
period not celebrated for the virtues. History brings her before
us in the midst of the Black War, when living at the Dairy
Plains, as the companion of a stock-keeper named Johnson.
A man, called Cupid, having been speared by the Quamby
Bluff tribe, ran for shelter to Dolly's hut. She had no sooner
extracted the spears from the body of the wounded man, than
the mob surrounded the place. Seizing a double-barrelled gun,
she gallantly defended her fortress, and compelled her assailants
THE HALF-CASTE FIGHTS FOR HER HOME.
323
to retreat with heavy loss of life. Particulars of the conflict are
given elsewhere. It is sufficient to say that, in addition to other
testimonials, she received a grant of ten acres in the township of
Perth, and the governor promised Johnson other ten acres, and
a free pardon, he being then a convict, if he became legally
married to the brave woman.
This was done, and the beautiful children she had were legi-
timized. She lived to bring up a family of girls, celebrated all
over the country for their loveliness. One of them had per-
fectly white hair.
Y 2
CHAPTER XII.
NATIVE RIGHTS.
THE apostolic Bishop Selwyn, the lover of the coloured race,
had been deeply affected with the story of the Tasmanians, and,
upon his appointment as Missionary Pastor of the Maories,
resolved to contend for their freedom as far as possible. In 1847
he uttered these memorable words :-
"I am resolved, God being my helper, to use all legal and
constitutional measures, befitting my station, to inform the
Natives of New Zealand of their rights and privileges as British
subjects, and to assist them in asserting and maintaining them.”
It is undeniable that the British Government converted the
island of Van Diemen's Land into what has been called a dust-
hole, for the reception of the moral rubbish and turpitude of
Europe, without the least consideration of the question of the
Aborigines. The authorities were pleased not only to seize and
hold the island, without consultation of the will of the inhabi-
tants, but actually, without their knowledge, and most certainly
against their wishes, constituted them British subjects. As will
be seen in the course of this book, the several Governors of the
colony have declared that the Natives were entitled to all the
rights and privileges of British subjects. What that means will
be understood.
What is the opinion of European jurisconsults, statesmen,
and others, relative to aboriginal rights?
When Dr. Wardell, of Sydney, defended an Englishman
charged with the murder of a Black, he argued from Lord Bacon,
Puffendorff, and Barbeyrac, that savages who fed upon human
flesh (as the Australians were by him assumed to do), were
proscribed by the law of nature; consequently it was no offence
to slay them.
NO RIGHT TO THE SOIL.
325
Dr. Arnold observes: "So much does the right of property go
along with labour, that civilized nations have never scrupled to
take possession of countries inhabited only by tribes of savages,
countries which have been hunted over, but never subdued or
cultivated." Vattel, the greatest authority upon international
law, is adduced as favourable to the same side from the fact that,
while condemning the occupation of land already inhabited, he
mildly observes: "One does not, then, exceed the views of
nature, in restricting savages to narrower limits." These words
are interpreted into seizure in full.
The soil was no
Mr. Hepworth Dixon discusses the question of the Indian right
to the soil thus "The soil! they have no soil.
more to them than the sea and the sky are to us. A right to go
over it they claimed; but to own it and preserve it against the
intrusion of all other men, is a claim which the Red man has
never made, and which, if they should learn to make it, should
never be allowed by civilized men. No hunting tribe has any
such right; perhaps no hunting tribe can have such right, for, in
strict political philosophy, the only exclusive right which any
man can acquire in land, the gift of nature, is that which he
creates for himself, by what he puts into it by way of labour
and investment, alike for his own and for the common good."
This argument has been applied in two other ways. The
holding of great quantities of land, kept only for park or
hunting purposes, has been regarded by others as opposed to the
law of nature, and a revolution has furnished the occasion of
confiscating some of this waste land, that it may be applied to
more productive utilitarian ways. So long as this law was made
applicable to savages it was held legitimate, but denied when
pressed into the service of either English or French reformers.
But, in Australia, the argument has been directed to the dis-
placement of squatters, as the pressure of population has ren-
dered necessary. They have had their runs in part or whole
taken from them, and cut up into farms for cultivation by
another class. The squatter has resented the application of the
argument as unjust in principle.
Turning to the other side-the right of the Aborigines to their
land—we find some good authorities.
Grotius, the learned jurist, denies the
seize the uncultivated lands of another.
right of one people to
Lord Bacon wrote: “I
326
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
like a plantation in a pure soil; that is, where people are not
displanted to the end to plant in others, for else it is rather an
extirpation than a plantation."
Vattel gives this opinion: "When a Native finds a country
uninhabited, and without a master, he may lawfully seize upon the
same. The law of nations, then, will recognise the proprietary
right and the sovereignty of a Native over only uninhabited
countries, which it shall have occupied really, and, in fact, in
which it shall have formed a settlement." Then, as concerning
the Aborigines, he goes on to say: "Since men are naturally
equal, and that their rights and obligations are the same, as
coming equally from nature, nations composed of men, and con-
sidered as so many free persons who live together in a state of
nature, are naturally equal, and hold from nature the same
obligations and the same rights. Neither strength nor weakness
produces, in this respect, any difference."
Voltaire, when speaking of the struggle in America for
supremacy between the French and English, sarcastically con-
cludes: "They had quite made up their minds in one point,
viz. that the Natives had no right at all to the land in question.”
Thus Buchan declares that "the colonists and the Natives are
necessarily brought into painful collision at the very outset; the
one seeks to obtain possession of the lands secured to them by
Act of Parliament, the other to keep possession of those very
lands which are theirs by a prior right."
William Penn, who purchased a right from the Indians, was
able to add these memorable words in his treaty: "And if any-
thing shall offend you or your people, you shall have a full and
speedy satisfaction for the same by an equal number of just
men on both sides, that by no means you may have just occasion
of being offended against them." He who had treated them as
men, equal in natural rights, when dealing for land, could afford
to recognise their citizen rights under a common government.
An old Delaware Indian Sachem spoke conclusively in relation
to the quarrel between the English and French: "The French
claim all the land on one side of the Ohio, the English claim all
the land on the other side,-now where does the Indians' land
lie ?" Another chief thus addressed the French envoys :
"The
land belongs to neither of you. The Great Being allotted it to
us as a residence. So, fathers, I desire you, as I have desired
1
NO TRIAL BY HIS PEERS.
327
our brothers, the English, to withdraw, for I will keep you both
at arms' length.”
((
Count Strzelecki has pointed out the consequences to the poor
Native of this disregard of their rights to the soil. Since the
time," he says, "that the Aborigines have been declared by law,
or rather, sophistry of law, to be illegitimate possessors of any
land which they do not cultivate, the Australian has been looked
upon, ipso facto, as a sort of brute intruder, and, in the trans-
actions which ended in the taking possession of New Holland
by the English, has been allowed no more voice than the
kangaroo."
This is a truth of which colonization furnishes us with many
examples. When, notwithstanding the fact of the tribes having
specific boundaries to their respective grounds, and across which
it were trespass to pass, we see their land privileges wholly
ignored, it can excite no surprise that their personal rights
should receive little respect. And, in spite of the exhortations
of Secretaries of State, and the Proclamations of Governors, to
treat Aborigines as equal with the Whites in the sight of the
law, it is notorious that their claims have been rarely admitted,
and still more seldom acted upon. If poverty alone be held a
sufficient plea in England for subjecting a man to the virtual
deprivation of civic rights, and the rejection of his share in the
government of his country, it follows with more force that the
landless Native would, while acknowledged a British subject, be
denied the franchise. Even universal suffrage in a colony could
never reach his position. But he is not permitted the exercise
of that common right of all other British subjects-trial by his
peers.
Worse still, he is made amenable to laws of which he is
totally ignorant, and the correction of which is beyond his
power, while the customs of his own people are utterly dis-
honoured in the eyes of his foreign rulers. To complete his
sense of degradation, he discovers that his testimony against a
White, a fellow-subject, is absolutely valueless; and that no
amount of counter Native evidence can shake the stability of
the unsupported word of one European against him.
The Peruvian Government of the Spaniards humanely treated
the Indians as minors, and protected them by special laws as
such. "But," says the traveller Mr. Markham, "the opposite
plan, which has been adopted in some of the English colonies,
328
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
of making Natives equal to Europeans in the eye of the law, is
a mere mockery, and cannot by any possibility exist in reality."
And, as Lord Goderich remarked, "they are brought into ac-
quaintance with civilized life, not to partake its blessings, but
only to feel the severity of its penal sanctions." Count Strzelecki
affirms of their naturalization, that it "excludes them from
sitting on a jury, or appearing as witnesses, and entails a most
confused form of judicial proceedings; all which, taken together,
has made of the Aborigines of Australia a nondescript caste;
who, to use their own phraseology, are neither white nor black.”
Mr. Bannister, once Attorney-General of New South Wales,
sought to further the ends of justice when he said, "We ought
forthwith to begin, at least, to reduce the laws and usages of the
aboriginal tribes to language, print them, and direct the courts
of justice to respect those laws in proper cases." We have paid
that respect to written codes of the conquered in India, while
the unwritten laws of the hunters of Tasmania were definite in
object, binding in obligation, and suitable to their condition.
Our own modes of thought and action are so different to theirs,
that some respect to their tribal customs would have been as
humane as politic.
New South Wales stands forth proudly as the only one of our
southern colonies seeking to do tardy justice to the Native: An
Act was passed by the Sydney Legislature, October 8, 1839,
allowing the Dark subjects, under certain circumstances, to be
admitted as witnesses in court. But the majesty of England
could not sanction the innovation. Governor Grey tells us, “I
have been a personal witness to a case in which a Native was
most undeservedly punished, from the circumstance of the
Natives, who were the only persons who could speak as to
certain exculpatory facts, not being permitted to give their
evidence." Mr. Powlett, P.M. of Victoria, would have native
evidence received for what it is worth. Mr. Protector Robinson
always maintained that the legal disqualification to give evi-
dence was not only the cause of many outrages, but accelerated
the destruction of Blacks by the Whites; adding, "They consider
any injury they can inflict upon white men as an act of duty
and patriotism; and, however much they dread the punishment
which our laws inflict upon them, they consider the sufferers
under those punishments as martyrs in the cause of their country."
LEGAL RIGHTS OF THE ABORIGINES.
329
Dr. Jeanneret refers to the treatment of the Aborigines' wives as
"evils aggravated by their entire inability to comprehend how
to obtain redress and protection."
It was a remarkable acknowledgment of Governor Arthur's,
in a despatch home in 1835: "On the first occupation of the
colony, it seems a great oversight that a treaty was not, at that
time, made with the Natives, and such compensation given to
the chiefs as they would have deemed a fair equivalent for what
they surrendered.”
A few illustrations of the practical working of the law may be
cited. When Jack Congo was tried in 1836 for the murder of
Jabengi, the plea was entered, "An Aborigine, and not subject.
to law, as not recognising law or king." The Chief Justice
turned to the Attorney-General, and asked what he would do.
The other replied that he did not know, and must consider of
it. When Mr. Martin Montgomery, the distinguished writer,
spoke of the execution of Black Tommy at Sydney, in 1827,
he said, "I believed the man to be innocent, and I, there-
fore, attended his trial to aid in the defence of a man who
knew not a word of our language, and owed no obedience
to our laws." Several Blacks, known to be murderers of parties
in Van Diemen's Land, were not tried for their crimes when
captured, and removed to Flinders Island. It was felt, rather
than declared, that the crime was not murder in our accepted.
sense of that word.
The Report of the Colonization Commissions in 1840 to the
House of Commons contains this sentence: "To subject savage
tribes to the penalties of laws with which they are unacquainted,
for offences which they, very possibly, regard as acts of justifiable
retaliation for invaded rights, is a proceeding indefensible, except
under circumstances of urgent and extreme necessity." The
strong language from the pen of Mr. Howitt would have lost its
sting had this act of justice been performed. "We have actually
turned out the inhabitants of Van Diemen's Land," quoth he,
'because we saw that it was a 'goodly heritage,' and have com-
fortably sate down in it ourselves; and the best justification that
we can set up is, that if we did not pass one general sentence of
transportation upon them, we must burn them up with our
liquid fire, poison them with the diseases with which our vices
and gluttony have covered us, thick as the quills on a porcupine,
330
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
or knock them down with our bullets, or the axes of our wood-
cutters."
Two Tasmanian Natives, Robert Jimmey Smallboy and Jack
Napoleon Tarraparrara or Timninaparena, had been induced by
their friend, Mr. G. A. Robinson, to go with him, from Flinders
Island to Port Phillip, upon that gentlemen being appointed
Protector of the Aborigines in the latter place. He thought the
presence of some civilized Tasmanians might be of service to
him with the wilder Australians. These two men were accom-
panied by three female islanders; viz. Truganina or Lalla Rookh,
Fanny Waterfordia, and Maria Matilda Natopolina. Truganina
was the special companion of Mr. Robinson in his successful
mission to capture the Blacks of the island. The other two
women had been sealers' gins, and had also rendered important
service to the Government. The two men, Bob and Jack, were
two useful Tasmanians, who had accompanied Mr. Robinson for
a dozen years, and were well known in Hobart Town.
It is not necessary to our story to say why they left the
service of their Protector in Melbourne. In November 1841,
they were down in Western Port District, where they formed
acquaintance with some runaway sailors, or whalers. To supply
their civilized necessities, they robbed the huts of some settlers.
After a quarrel, the Blacks charged their European sailor friends.
with having fired at them; and, ultimately, the assault ended in
the murder of William Cooke and Yankee, two of the whalers.
The police were soon on the track of the murderers. The
women showed Mr. Powlett, Chief Commissioner of Police, the
graves
of the dead. All five were captured, and brought up for
trial in Melbourne. The case was clearly proved against them.
I was in Hobart Town at the time of the trial, and took much
interest in the proceedings, because my artistic friend, Mr.
Duterreau, was so attached to those Aborigines of the island.
The old gentleman shed many tears at their fate. Judge Willis
saw the difficulties connected with their position as Natives, and
much excitement prevailed about the question of legality. The
women were set free, and sent back to Flinders Island, but the
men were condemned.
Their friend, Mr. Robinson, bore honourable testimony at the
trial. Of Bob, who had been with him for eleven years, he de-
clared, "I never knew him guilty of any dishonest act." He
HANGING OF FOUR TASMANIANS.
331
said Jack had been his companion for thirteen years, and that
during all that time, his conduct has been most satisfactory.
Regarding the case as one of great provocation on the part of the
sailors, he told the judge, respecting the two Natives, "I have
never found these persons wanting in humanity." Mr. Barry,
now Sir Redmond Barry, the real founder of the noble Mel-
bourne Public Library, and the Chancellor of the University,
pleaded feelingly for the poor creatures.
But though the lives of these Tasmanians, who had rendered
such good service to the State in the Black War, were sacrificed
to the demands of the law, justice was not so inexorable when
that same year three men were charged with shooting three
three native women and a child at Port Fairy, and afterwards
burning their bodies. The prisoners were acquitted by the jury.
But the Governor, Sir George Gipps, has this remark in his
despatch home: "It seems to be established beyond any rational
doubt, that the three aboriginal women and the child were
murdered by a party of white men, who left Mr. Osprey's hut
with fire-arms, and returned to it after about an hour's absence,
on the 23d of February, 1842; that two at least of the persons
who have been acquitted accompanied the party."
In May 1826, the trial of Jack and Dick took place in Hobart
Town. The excellent Governor was resolved to give the accused
every supposed chance of fair play, although he had, like pre-
vious governors, neglected to place at the bar of justice such
white men as had murdered black fellows. The two were charged
with committing a murder, and were condemned only upon the
evidence of convict stock-keepers, who were thought by some
to have been concerned in the death for which the others
suffered. Colonel Arthur nominated counsel to defend the
Natives, and had interpreters to aid on the occasion. Old Dick,
a miserable victim to disease, was carried screaming to the
gallows. In his struggles he loosened his arms, and reached
upward to his neck, a deluge of blood pouring from his mouth.
The hangman laid hold of his legs, and so hastened the strangu-
lation. The other man walked quietly to the scaffold, protesting
to the last that he was not even present at the melancholy affair.
They were thus launched into eternity; "there," says the his-
torian of the event, the Rev. Mr. West, "to discover whether
a warfare in defending their soil from the spoilers, and their
332
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
females and children from outrage and destruction, were or were
not crimes in the estimation of the almighty Creator of all men."
The criticism of the anti-Government paper, the Hobart Town
Colonial Times, of that date, brings out the leading principles of
law as applicable to the Aborigines:
"By reference to our report of the proceedings of the Supreme
Court, it will be seen that the two Aborigines, named Jack and
Dick, have been tried and found guilty of murder. We are
aware of the legal dogma that all persons on English land
become subjected to English laws. Good! But as far as these
poor wretches are concerned, it is not quite clear that as relates
to them it is English ground. It is true that formal possession
has been taken of this country by the hoisting of the English
flag, and by other mummeries of the same description. But what
do these poor creatures know of this?" After the citation of
cases, the editor proceeds: "We hope there are those here who
will use their influence to prevent these poor creatures becoming
victims to a breach of law which they understood not, and their
responsibility to which is questionable by the very highest
authority. As examples, their execution will be worse than
useless."
The civil position of the Aborigine is thus pointed out by
Judge Willis: "As a British subject, he is presumed to know
the laws, for the infraction of which he is held accountable, and
yet he is shut out from the advantage of its protection when
brought to the test of responsibility. As a British subject, he is
entitled to be tried by his peers. Who are the peers of the black
man?"
Governor Hutt, of Western Australia, in a despatch to
Lord Glenelg, said: "Here is one class of Her Majesty's subjects,
who are debarred a true and fair trial by jury, whose evidence is
inadmissible in a court of justice, and who consequently may be
the victims of any of the most outrageous cruelty and violence,
and yet be unable, from the forms and requirements of the law,
to obtain redress, and whose quarrels, ending sometimes in
bloodshed and death, it is unjust, as well as inexpedient, to
interfere with." Lord Stanley sympathised in the wish to do
something for the Natives' relief, writing, in a despatch to
Governor Gipps, "agreeing, as I do, in the general opinion that
their evidence should, to a certain extent at least, be received in
the courts of law."
NATIVES HAVE NO HOME IN THEIR LAND.
333
Mr. Protector Robinson often felt the want of a code suited to
the Aborigines. In 1843, he asserted that "the destruction of
the aboriginal native has been accelerated from the known fact
of his being incapacitated to give evidence in our courts of law.
I have frequently had to deplore, when appealed to by the
Aborigines for justice in cases of aggression committed on them
by white men, or by those of their own race, my inability to do
so in consequence of their legal incapacity to give evidence."
Among other expressions of opinion this is that from Mr.
Eyre, afterwards Governor of New Zealand, and lately Governor
of Jamaica:—
It is true that they do not cultivate the ground; but have
they, therefore, no interest in its productions? Does it not
supply grass for the sustenance of the wild animals upon which
in a great measure they are dependent for their subsistence?
Does it not afford roots and vegetables to appease their hunger,
water to satisfy their thirst, and wood to make their fire? or
are these necessarics left to them by the white man when he
comes to take possession of the soil? Alas! it is not so.
are in turn taken away from the original possessors."
All
To show that the Native has no home, let the judgment of
Judge Willis, of Melbourne, be cited: "I have," said he, "on a
recent trial stated my opinion, which I still maintain, that the
proprietor of a run, or, in other words, one who holds a lease or
licence from the Crown to depasture certain crown-lands, may
take all lawful means to prevent either Natives or others from
entering or remaining upon it."
The Aborigines, therefore, are pronounced by the laws of
civilized England to be without right or title to the land they
have first occupied, and occupied as a people for some thousands.
of years; they are forced into the condition of subjects to the
Crown, without the recognition of civil rights; and they are,
furthermore, admitted to have no claim to rest their foot upon
the soil which they had supposed their own. It was reserved
for modern Christian civilization to advance, and act upon, a
theory, which ancient heathen philosophy would have declared
inhuman and unjust.
CHAPTER XIII
CIVILIZATION.
An interesting discussion has occupied the minds of the learned.
Archbishop Whately gave utterance to the opinion, entertained
by most of the so-called religious world, that barbarism was
merely the result of lost civilization, and that no instance had
occurred of unassisted elevation.
Certainly Australia has given little evidence of self-exalta-
tion; simply preserving, as far as we can discern, that measure
of civilization brought by the dark people from the parent-home of
India, or wherever else it may have been. It has been usual to
allow that the ingeniously constructed boomerang was a remnant
of previously existing civilization, or, at least, copied from the
Egyptians when their fathers were their neighbours; but Sir John
Lubbock regards it as a step in advance, and urges, "We cannot
look upon it as a relic of primeval civilization." Sir Thomas
Mitchell once said of the Australians, "Perhaps the iron toma-
hawk is the only important addition made to their implements
during the last three or four thousand years." Mr. Tylor
favours the idea of gradual progression from within. He sees
the evidence of this in some of the lowest tribes, and talks of
"a growth in man's power over nature, which no degrading
influences have been able permanently to check." Mr. George
Roberts, the geologist, assumes something of the same, when he
writes, "A small amount of anthropological data accumulated
already by travellers, shows that the manners, customs, and
other features of the Stone Age are still existent, and that a
separate scheme of progress throughout time must be drawn
for every people in every land."
The "Degradation Theory" of Archbishop Whately has been
contested by Sir John Lubbock, one of the ablest ethnologists
WHATELY'S DEGRADATION THEORY.
335
of the day. He cannot see reason in the argument presented
on the other side that climatic circumstances influence men,
as Abbé Domenech represents in his work on the Deserts
of North America, where he says: "A country rich in the
beauties of nature, possessing a mild climate and a fertile soil,
abounding in natural resources, influences the moral character
of its inhabitants to a considerable extent, by diminishing their
physical wants, and the labour necessary to supply them, and
by leaving more leisure and more strength for the development
of their intellectual faculties." Sir John replies that the
Tasmanians, &c., were "living in countries eminently suited to
our domestic animals and to the cultivation of cereals, and were
yet entirely ignorant both of the one and the other."
He then turns to the pre-civilization doctrine, remarking, “It
is, I think, improbable that any race of men who had once been
agriculturists and herdsmen should entirely abandon pursuits
so easy and so advantageous; and it is still more improbable
that, if we accept Usher's very limited chronology, all tradition
of such a change shall be lost." He instances the fact that no
fragment of pottery has ever been found belonging to Australia
before the occupation by Europeans. He sees five stages of
civilization: 1st, Omnivorous; 2d, the Hunting condition; 3d,
the Pastoral; 4th, the Agricultural; 5th, when Letters and Coins
were used.
Sir John Lubbock, at the British Association at
Dundee, carries out hopefully his views. We shall not,” said
he, "be the less inclined to adopt them on account of the cheer-
ing prospect which they hold out to the future. If the past
history of man has been one of deterioration, we have but a
groundless hope of future improvement; but if, on the other
hand, the past has been one of progress, we may fairly hope
that the future will be so too."
((
Captain Grey, the explorer of Western Australia, saw the
same result.
"We cannot argue," said the traveller, "that this
race was originally in a state of civilization, and that from the
introduction of certain laws among them, the tendency of which
was to reduce them to a state of barbarism, or, from some other
cause, they had gradually sunk to their present condition; for,
in that case, how would those laws, which provide solely for
the necessities of a people in their present state, have been
introduced amongst them?"
336
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
Being desirous of learning the opinion of that excellent
missionary and judicious scholar, the Rev. Mr. Ridley, upon the
question, I wrote to ask him if he knew anything in the con-
dition of the Australian natives that would sanction Arch-
bishop Whately's argument. In his reply he says: "It is
difficult to reconcile their actual ignorance of the use of clothes
and houses, and no tribes that I ever saw had any idea when
first discovered by white men of the use of either, with the
supposition of pre-existing civilization." And yet he thought
he highly developed language afforded a clue to another and
igher condition formerly.
Dr. Von Martius, the Brazilian traveller, rather favoured the
legeneration theory. Mr. Tylor, a philosophical writer, says:
“I do not think that I have ever met with a single fact which
seems to me to justify the theory." He could rather, with Sir
John Lubbock, look forward hopefully to the rise of the race.
"The course of development," said he, "of the lower civilization
has been on the whole in a forward direction, though interfered
with occasionally and locally by the results of degrading and
destroying influences."
The idea of a previously existing civilization known to the
Australians and Tasmanians receives some support from the
inquiry into their superstitions. Although that subject will be
treated in extenso in a subsequent work upon the ethnology of
those two races, it is sufficient to say that customs were retained,
and traditions were taught, which evidently were fragments of
knowledge belonging to other climes. The language, from its
beauty and grammar, has been long regarded as the chief argu-
ment. The Rev. Dr. Lang says of it: "There is an adaptation
for the expression of shades of thought decidedly indicative of
a mental power and accuracy far beyond what the present
habits of the people would lead one to suppose." But he
cannot be so readily followed when he speaks of them as
originally a comparatively civilized people, strongly addicted
to maritime pursuits, &c." He esteems them a race driven from
"their own happy home," and "forced to become wild men,”
adopting as a matter of choice a mode of life originally one of
necessity. Then he exclaims in wonder-"How has he com-
How has he
pletely lost his superior skill in navigation?
ceased entirely to be a cultivator of the soil ?”
<<
GEOLOGY AND CIVILIZATION.
· 337
The non-progression of some races has been accounted for on
geological grounds. Mr. C. S. Wake contends that the Asiatics
are inferior to the Europeans, as inhabiting an older formation;
while the Africans are still more degraded, because dwelling in
a region so long undisturbed by geological changes. On this
supposition he places the Australians lowest in the scale, because
he has been informed that New Holland is the oldest country,
geologically considered, on the face of the earth. He assumes,
too, that our southern races were, in the infancy of their career,
placed most unfortunately as to climate and soil; that this
retarded their progress when they might have grown, until they
became so stunted in intellect as to transmit ever since a low
and enfeebled condition. Once it was supposed that nothing
but primary and tertiary rocks existed, the secondary being
absolutely unknown in Australia. But recently a sufficiency of
the last formation has been discovered to place that continent
on a level with the civilized world of Europe. There is nothing
so lithologically sui generis as to put the Australians and Tas-
manians out of court. Do the Laurentian rocks of Scotland
presuppose the existence there of the primitive people of the
world?
But Sir Samuel Baker, the author of one of the most inter-
esting books of travel ever published, has contended for the
uncivilization of his very rude equatorial Blacks on a geological
plea. He first claims for them a lofty antiquity, upon the idea
of their country-mostly of secondary rocks—having been undis-
turbed while other regions were convulsed with change. He
finds them so ignorant of a Supreme Being, so lost in brutish-
ness, that he regards them as being "cut off from that world,
lost in the mysterious distance that shrouded the origin of the
Egyptian Nile." Assuming that "the historical origin of man,
or Adam, commences with a knowledge of God," he proceeds:
"Historic man believes in a Divinity; the tribes of Central Africa
know no God. Are they of our Adamic race?”
The same argument can be applied to our Tasmanians with
even greater force. Mr. Logan says: "The ultra-Indian and
Indian races, whose migrations gave the earliest known popula-
tion to the Eastern Isles, had not advanced beyond the Australian
grade of culture when these migrations commenced." As they
were, so they remained. Disconnected, we may say, as the
Ꮓ
338
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
equatorial negroes, they never advanced, as they could not raise
themselves. There is this difference, however, between them:
the Tasmanian had no way of contact with higher cultivation,
while the African, with the great Nile highway, must have had
the shadow of old Ethiopian culture, although he failed to be
impressed with its value. The latter never tamed the elephant;
the former never improved native fruits by culture. Both
simply belong to the unadvancing races.
On the aptitude of the Tasmanians and Australians, Dr. Davis
has some observations, after an inspection of some of their
skulls. He assumes that they were "rendered by nature utterly
devoid of the power to receive that which is designated civiliza-
tion by the Europeans-i.e. an extraneous and heterogeneous
cultivation, for which they have no taste or fitness, but which
has to be thrust upon them by the high hand of presumed
philanthropy, and under the influences of which their own
proper endowments are constantly injured, and they themselves
are inevitably destroyed."
When lately examining the splendid collection of crania in
the Jardin des Plantes of Paris, I took up a skull of a Tasmanian,
and requested the opinion of an eminent French anthropologist
upon it. He was pleased to describe it as equal to that of most
civilized people of Europe, and superior to many crania of the
educated. No phrenologist could object to its development, or
doubt the civilization of the man on whose shoulders it once
rested. Van der Hoeven had noticed that the skulls of Tas-
mania and New Caledonia equalled those of Europe in size,
though they were different in shape. This induced a writer in
the Anthropological Review to say: "Have we not in this fact
a key to the psychological peculiarities which discriminate the
two races? Is it not the different conformation of brain, running
through all its organization, that lies at the basis of the great
essential diversities of the two peoples ?-one of which may be
called the civilizable, or ceaselessly and almost endlessly pro-
gressive; the other, savage and stationary-if moved, moved
only to destruction."
The American Indians were of old placed with the Tasmanians
among the unimprovable races. Both roamed the forests, clad
in skins of beasts, and subsisting upon the produce of the chase.
The wigwam was preferable to the gunyah; but the seasons of
UNIMPROVEABLE RACES,
339
the beaver-land were sterner than the soft airs of Tasmania.
The cultivation of the ground and the tending of cattle were
despised by both peoples. The settlers believed both of them
incapable of labour, and unqualified for improvement. And yet
nations of refinement have arisen in the depths of the forest, and
left vast memorials of intellectual greatness. The conformation
of mummy skulls in Peru, and the crania of ancient Mexico,
alike indicate the identity of the past with the present Indians.
How then did these barbarians of so low a physical type become
raised to such a social eminence ?
It is said in their legends that white and bearded men from
the mountain lake Titicaca, and the pale-faced Quetzalcoatl from
the plateau of Central America, brought the general blessings of
civilization to the Red man. The savages were humanized by
a few strangers of a superior order and benevolent character,
and not by the inroad of an extensive emigration, like that of
the English in Australia. Numbers, unless governed by good
motives, rather repel than attract the barbarian.
Something has been done in more modern days to raise the
rude Indian. Some Christian boys in white surplices, led by a
venerable monk, walked quietly through an Indian encamp-
ment, sweetly chanting a service of the Church. The entranced
warriors and their squaws gazed and listened, till wonder and
pleasure brought tears to their eyes, and their knees to the
stranger. A marvellous change was wrought by these Jesuits in
Paraguay; but the Spanish authorities interfered with the mis-
sion, confiscated the property, expatriated the fathers, and gave
the lands to greedy colonists. The pueblo is in ruins, the churches
are lost in tangled thickets, the fields are a wilderness, and the
converts are naked savages of the rocks or pampas again.
We often speak of the Primitive man; where is he? The very
despised Tasmanian had advanced in one respect, according to
our notions of civilization, beyond the age of Abraham. We
read of him marrying his half-sister; a practice which, though
recognised as proper with his people, was abhorrent to the
customs of Diemenese. The primitive man owned no family,
for the children were the mother's only. With the wild race in
the South, the father had a place in the community.
The Tasmanians had already advanced. But why had they
not done more? Not certainly because of the fright their
Z 2
340
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
escaped ancestors got at the Deluge, according to Dr. Martius;
nor because, as Schlegel considered, they were so doomed by
the law of nature. Why should they not have formed some
rude pottery, when able to construct nets? But how did it
happen that their clever neighbours of New Zealand and the
South Seas were equally ignorant of clay moulds? It was not
because, according to Klemm, they belonged to the Passive
formation. Ritter once said of the Africans: "Must it be that
civilization is to be brought from the exterior and inoculated, so
to say, upon the inhabitants of the Soodàn, because, to judge
according to the entire development of history, the others are
called upon to give, and these to receive!" It was in this way
that Eichthal would regard them as a portion of the female
element of humanity in organization. It could not be because
of their deficiency in physical beauty, as Courtet de l'Isle sup-
posed, for perfection of form is a matter of taste. Other authors
have regarded their inertness from the inauspicious position in
which nature placed them. But, as Dr. Waitz properly observes,
"The white man is not less dependent on external circumstances
in his progress toward civilization than the black man." Mr.
Buckle makes the civilization of Egypt, India, and Mexico, to ·
arise from fertility of soil, while others see the advance of Europe
from the rigour of climate and the inhospitality of soil. A
German author declares for the state "where a people living in
a healthy climate is master of the soil." But this was the con-
dition of the Tasmanian.
The antagonism to progress, according to that thoughtful
anthropologist, Mr. Wake, F.A.S.L., lies in the "permanent
arrest of mental development." They were, to use the familiar
expression of farmers, bark-bound, so as to present no per-
ceptible growth. But Dr. Waitz, while acknowledging the ten-
dency of the uncultivated, "be it European or African," to resist
progress, according to the law of inertia, wishes it to be under-
stood that the state "does not irresistibly lead to the conclusion
that savage peoples are irreclaimable." Mr. Wake takes this
hopeful view: "The explanation of the arrested development of
the Chinese will be also that of the degradation of the negro
and the native Australian; and an examination of the sub-
ject will show that both may be accounted for by the influences
of the external conditions of existence, without requiring in
THE IRISH ONCE THOUGHT HOPELESS.
341
either case an original inferiority of physical or mental develop-
ment." Lauzun, 200 years ago, saw the chaos of Genesis in the
condition of Ireland. And Desgrigny calls the Irish "such beasts
that they have hardly a point of humanity. Nothing moves
them. Menaces astonish them not. Even interest cannot en-
gage them in work!" Is not this a case of "special stolidness,"
or of “arrest of mental development"?
While the Native has been too readily pronounced incapable
of civilization-that is, the acceptance of our form of civilization
-sufficient apology has not been made for the conservative in-
fluence of tribal usages. Bound by the chain of custom, and
swayed by the practice of forefathers, it is no less difficult for us
to engraft our manners upon the naked savage, than upon the
cultivated Hindoo. How could we expect to change the course
of thought in such barbarians, when we have succeeded so ill in
our teaching elsewhere? and that with races accustomed to
think, and dependent upon us! The antagonism of aboriginal
traditions and unwritten enactments to our projects of civiliza-
tion has been thus expressed by Captain (now Sir George) Grey :
"He is in reality subjected to complex laws, which not only
deprive him of all free agency of thought, but, at the same time,
by allowing no scope for the development of intellect, benevo-
lence, or any other great moral qualification, they necessarily
bind him down in a hopeless state of barbarism, from which it is
impossible for him to emerge, so long as he is enthralled by these
customs, which, on the other hand, are so ingeniously devised as
to have a direct tendency to annihilate any effort that is made
to overthrow them."
To break through these, after having been subject to such
laws, would require the self-denying, self-sacrificing courage
which a Jew must exercise to become a Christian. The rarity
of success with the latter class should teach us modesty and
patience when attempting the civilization of savages.
The effects of our civilizing processes have not always been
happy, and have not proved very enduring. The first Aborigines
with whom the English were brought in contact were the
Indians of North America, and after that Hottentots, Australians,
and Tasmanians. The language of Mr. Commissioner Bigge, as
applied to Africa, has much force when used in other directions:
'I am not aware," wrote he, in 1830, “if any attempt have been
342
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
made or sanctioned by the Colonial Government to instruct the
Hottentots, or to promote their improvement." Although a re-
deeming feature is prominent in the Australian and New Zea-
land Governments, especially since 1840, still the civilization of
Natives has been left to chance influences, or to mere contact of
the white and coloured man. The effort to raise the latter has
been made without the direction of reason, conducted without
system, and led by no benevolent impulse.
Not to refer at present to the extent of this civilization, let us
look to the effects upon the race supposed to be benefited by its
blessings. Although one branch of this subject is brought under
notice in the chapter on "Decline," a few words upon the broad
basis may be expedient. M. Rienzi, like many others, saw light
and hope for the future of the Aborigines in the use of such
means, and thus dwells upon the prospective advantages to the
Van Diemen's Land Natives: "They have no other means of
safety than to adopt the civilization of those whom they have
unhappily learnt to despise; therefore they will finish by dis-
appearing from the soil which belonged to them. A glory
bright enough is reserved to the English; it is to enlighten and
soften these ferocious islanders; it is to ameliorate their con-
dition, in expiation of the evils which they have done to them.
""
The Rev. J. H. Hagenauer, Moravian Missionary to the
Blacks of Victoria, in answer to one of my questions, as to the
effect of our civilization upon them, gave the key to the diffi-
culties of our work in saying: "In general it has thrown them
back into a sort of despair." They are oppressed by our weight,
and sink under the burden. This leads them to drink, as afford-
ing them a relief from their sense of abasement. This renders
families unfruitful. This lowers the nervous tone, predisposing
to disease, and arresting the progress of recovery. This robs of
energy, so that they become feeble hunters, relinquish exercise,
and depend upon the food of charity.
Men are accustomed to talk about the virtues of national
elevation, without realizing the meaning of the term. One has
written these thoughtful words: "Progress is a taking word,
and civilization, like a cardinal's red hat, covers a multitude of
sins and crimes. It is a tinkling cymbal, which drowns the noise
of all other discordant things." We appropriate the land of a
people, and gratify our self-love, while silencing the accusations
EFFECTS OF CIVILIZATION.
343
of conscience, by promising them all the delights and exaltations
How ill we perform our part of
They did not ask for bread, but
gave them stones. Though not
of our civilization in return.
the bargain, history can tell.
we promised it, and then we
fascinated by our fruit of knowledge, we gave them some, and it
proved to their taste but the apple of Sodom, with its ashes,
that filled them with pain and disgust. The learned Austrian
savan, Dr. Hochstetter, gave utterance to a sad experience when
he wrote: "Despite the many advantages it has brought to the
Natives, the European civilization and colonization acts upon
them, after all, like an insidious poison, consuming the inmost
marrow of their life." Mr. Consul Pritchard contends that,
"just as the white man and the influences which accompany
him intrude upon the home of the Pacific Islanders, so the
latter, accepting the habits of the former, gradually but too
surely wane."
There must indeed be something terribly wrong in our teach-
ing, or faulty in our principles. Civilization indicates advance-
ment, and has with it associated all that can enhance the
happiness, purify the nature, and elevate the being of man.
But much of that which is extolled is too often of a pscudo
character; else, why is it that, at the present epoch of our
national progress, so many authors lament the curses of our
refinement? One has said, "Whatever civilization has done, it
has not, to all appearance, materially diminished the sum of
human misery and crime. Is all civilization, then, but a vicious
circle, and our efforts, from century to century, but the oscillations
of a pendulum?-Is it only a change of form in man and in
states, not an essential change of nature or condition?" At any
rate, we may say with Sir John Lubbock, "In reality we are but
on the threshold of civilization.”
To expect, therefore, from barbarians raised to civilization, a
great exhibition of the virtues, and a considerable accession of
enjoyment, may be hoping for that which we cannot observe
among our own selves. They wear our clothes, and lose their
grace and health. They eat our food, and suffer indigestion and
idleness. They learn our language, and assimilate our vices.
May it not be that the very great contrast between our state
and theirs strikes them with awe, and appals them by its mag-
nitude? Might we not more wisely, and more successfully,
344
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
introduce some of our maxims and practices which could be
easily engrafted upon theirs, without requiring them absolutely
to resign their own, or contemptuously deride the ways of their
forefathers?
(C
It must be confessed, to the shame of our age and progress
elsewhere, that we know not how to treat the Aborigines.
Search history," says Mr. F. Boyle, F.R.G.S., "and in the north
and south, east and west, the story is ever the same,—we come,
we civilize, and we corrupt, or exterminate." We attempt too
much at first. If we meet with a hunting tribe, we seek to
make them farmers and clerks at once. In the processes of
nature, it took, perhaps, thousands of years to effect this trans-
formation with our own ancestors, when we would fain accomplish
it in a year with others.
Mr. Brooke, jun., of Borneo, had no such great expectations
of immediate returns, when-speaking of the Bakatans-he
writes: "who have become sufficiently civilized to build habita-
tions, although they will be little able to appreciate them for at
least a generation to come." De Maistre exhibits our folly and
failure with Natives. "For three centuries," exclaims that
author, “we have been there with our laws, our arts, our
sciences, our civilization, our commerce, our luxury; what have
we gained upon the savage state? Nothing! We destroy these
unfortunates with the sword and brandy; we thrust them in-
sensibly into the desert interior; until, at last, they disappear
entirely, victims of our vices as much as of our cruel superiority."
Our striking failure with both Australians and Tasmanians
has brought forward many apologies for our ill-success, and
some commiseration for the Blacks themselves. Mr. ex-Protector
Dredge exclaims indignantly, "They have been treated empiri-
cally; and, because the nostrums have proved valueless, their
failure is attributed to some latent, inherent incompetency in
the patients, which places them beyond the reach of ameliorat-
ing appliances; and we are upon the point of pronouncing their
case hopeless, and abandoning them to their wretched fate."
This outburst of virtuous indignation is hardly justifiable.
Mr. Dredge and several other gentlemen were sent to Port
Phillip about 1840 to act as Assistant Protectors under Mr. G.
A. Robinson, the Tasmanian hero of the Conciliatory Mission.
They had their own plans, they had the support of the Home
TRAINING OF NATIVE CHILDREN.
345
Government, they had abundant supplies of money, and they
failed. Even Mr. Robinson-who tried so desperately to civilize
the Tasinanians on Flinders Island, and was held forth to be the
very man to raise and save the Blacks-when removed to a new
colony, under the most favourable circumstances, with a good
staff, and the smile of the authorities, hardly ever attempted
anything for the civilization of the Port Phillip Natives, and
lived there long enough to witness the extinction of several im-
portant tribes under his protection, and the miserable decline of
all others.
Count Strzelecki takes another view of the case in these
words: "The Natives appeared unable to comprehend civiliza-
tion, which to them consisted in a routine of irksome labours ;
and a critical examination of their religious views and attain-
ments was ever a ludicrous and deplorable exposure. Why,
then, continue that vegetative existence upon the isolation prin-
ciple, which, if partially successful in one point of view, was
yet wholly the reverse in every other, as it took from these poor
creatures every hope and joy, every object and motive of exertion
and of life, and gave them nothing they either understood or
cared for in return? Why tear children from their clamorous
parents, training them in spite of both parties into habits which
they are ready on the first opportunity to abandon."
Lord John Russell having once said, "The best chance of pre-
serving the unfortunate race lies in the means employed for the
training their children," a great impetus was given to native
schools. I have seen the Polish count's language illustrated in
life. Once, in particular, I was much affected at seeing a Lubra
at the door of the Black School, crying out piteously, with tears
flowing down her maternal cheeks, "Jemmy, you come. No you
stop along there. Jemmy-you come along a me." The English
words were more intended for the softening of the heart of the
Protector than reaching the ear of the child. And what was
the result? Simply this, that the boys and girls, after all the
care and training, took to the Bush. And when the excellent
Archdeacon Hale succeeded in forming his depôt at Port Lincoln
on a new principle-the association of schooled and civilized
Blacks on a station by themselves-while the immediate re-
sults seemed Christian and satisfactory, it was soon perceived.
that nothing but new importations could support the colony,
346
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
for hardly ever was a child born, while the deaths were sad
indeed.
Some complaint having been made in the colonies of native
lads, brought up by the settlers, taking themselves off to the
Bush, and delighting in the rude habits of the tribe, the editor
of the Gazette in 1819 thus moralizes :-"In all this was nothing
to be wondered at; that state among the white population that
was assigned them was positively little better than the one they
had forsaken; the meanest offices of drudgery, always reflecting
on their minds a picture of debasement, a want of attention to
their common wants, of which our very dogs and horses have
not to complain. Such treatment could not be considered a fair
trial of their capacities or fixed inclinations. Out of the woods
the poor half-civilized Native has no chance of a mate; no
chance of ever sharing in the tender feelings of a parent, which
the very crocodile evinces."
The great obstacle to our civilizing exertions lies in the in-
troduction of intoxicating liquors. Who can adequately describe
the effects of strong drink upon aboriginal people? The prison,
the asylum, the many spectre-haunted homes of civilization
tell what it has done for us. Its history unfolds more horrors.
than pestilence, more miseries than famine, more destruction
than war.
But we have some resisting media to its attack;
the remedies of medicine, counteracting stimuli, moral antago-
nisms, the forces of education, the voice of affectionate warning,
the pleading example of self-denying ones. But what has the
savage? It comes as a friend to relieve his ennui, and it
supplies the lack of previously existing natural excitements.
It represses energies, now no longer required, and it deadens
sensibilities, now out of exercise. No shame stays its ravages,
for the stranger has stolen native pride. No conscience
struggles against its influence, for the canker of new vices has
consumed his heart. He is too despised to hear the cautionary
word of kindness, and the common moral fall of the tribe drags
him quicker, deeper, down to ruin.
Alas! how many a tale could I tell of the ravages of this
element of civilization! How full are the narratives of travellers
of reference to its effects! How many a missionary enterprise
has been arrested or overturned by its introduction! How
happily did real civilization progress till the arrival of this
DRINK AND CIVILIZATION.
347
dreadful foe to peace! It came with the settlers into colonies.
The Jesuit missionaries suffered from it in Paraguay as soon as
the Spanish Government permitted settlements in the country.
One of them says of his Indians: "They were not only made
to contract a liking for brandy there, but even prevailed upon to
bring quantities of it home with them, unknown to the mis-
sionaries. By this means drunkenness was introduced into the
Reduction (Mission), and caused in it all those disorders that
might naturally be expected from barbarians so lately reclaimed."
In fact, it destroyed the influence of the padres, and was the
principal cause of the ruin of so fair and promising a moral
structure. Piotrowski assures his readers that the Ostiacks of
Siberia, "although they exhibit no sympathy for the better
influences of civilization, are all ready to accept its vices;
without exception, they have the true savage love of spirits, and
instances have not unfrequently occurred when its victims have
drunk themselves to death at a single sitting." Similar records
can be written of other races.
The Tasmanians were affected as others by its use. Mr. G.
Robertson, the leader of a roving party, says of them: "You
must not judge of their capability by what you have seen of
those who have been caught and trained to rum-drinking,
smoking, and swearing among the most abandoned of our
prisoner population." As early as Nov. 7th, 1818, there was a
Government order against giving the Natives "Bull," or spirits,
whereby the said Natives have become riotous and offensive
by their fighting in the streets, and committing wanton
barbarities on each other."
((
But it is useless to descant further upon evils admitted by all
to be the product of drink among the Aborigines.
As at the time of writing this part of the work I am being
whirled round the tempest-torn shore of Cape Horn, I am
reminded of the swarthy race paddling from islet to islet of
Terra del Fuego.
Of their lack of civilization Captain Fitzroy and others have
informed us, of their pre-existing civilization we can see no
trace, of their ultimate civilization we have little hope. Their
origin is set in darkness, their fate is gloomy extinction.
Patagonia, with its vast plains of glacial loose rocks and
pebbles, presents few attractions for colonization, leave alone
348
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
the savage audacity and proud independence of its gigantic
Indians. Fuego, though so much more southward, though
stormed by western gales, and though oft wrapped in wintry
fogs, has so much greater geological advantages, that it may
before long be appropriated by Europeans, who will till its rich
valleys, fish in its prolific waters, and raise their homesteads to
leeward of its wood-crowned hills.
What will then be the fate of its dark tribes? Without a
faith, they are little likely to accept of one. Migratory, they
will not dwell in huts, or cultivate the soil. Like the Tasmanians,
they will have no other land to fly to. They may retire before
the white faces more southward from Magellan's Strait, more
westward from the sheltered valleys, till the rigour of an in-
clement coast, and the melancholy of evil days, sink them from
sight and memory. As fishers, not bold hunters, they may not,
like our islanders, resist the stranger, and oppose the axe and
gun with spear and waddy, but pass away in silence, leaving
one race less of coloured Aborigines.
From general views of civilization let us descend to particular
ones. A writer in the Christian Recorder for 1824 gives no
flattering picture of Tasmanians when he says, "Though they
have now been accustomed for several years to behold the
superior comforts and pursuits of civilized men, they have not
advanced one step from their original barbarism. All that they
have imbibed from us is a smattering of our language, and a
fondness for tobacco and spirituous liquors." But there are a
few instances where the Tasmanians have been brought up from
infancy in the homes of colonists, and have received a good
training as well as fair education. But the ingrained barbarism
often glanced through the superficial gloss of our civilization.
A good story is told by Mr. Gideon Lang, of Melbourne,
about an Australian of his acquaintance, which will apply to
the case of the home-taught children of the forests of Van
Diemen's Land, and exemplify the difficulty of overcoming the
savage instincts. A certain Jemmy, who had been brought up
from mere infancy by the missionaries, was able to read his
Bible, and was reputed as a fair-going sample of a Christian.
One day Mr. Lang found him reading the "Sermon on the
Mount," but looking very fierce and gloomy. Upon inquiry, it
was learnt that the man's mother was dead.
Bogan black
WANT OF SUCCESS.
349
fellow kill her," said the fellow; that is, though she had died
from a lingering disease, he insisted, according to native super-
stition, that the neighbouring tribe had bewitched her, and
occasioned her decease. Resolving upon revenge, and quite
forgetting the practical lessons of which he had been reading,
Jemmy waylaid and murdered an old friend, but one who,
unfortunately, belonged to the other tribe.
The first account of attempting Tasmanian civilization I saw
in the Sydney Gazette of Sept. 2, 1804. It is related that a
child was found in the Bush near Risdon, that had been lost by
its native mother, and was taken care of by a gentleman re-
siding at Sullivan's Cove, or Hobart Town. "In compliment to
his native soil," says the paper, "and in remembrance of the
month upon which it was the will of fate that he should be
released from a state of barbarous insignificance, he has been
baptized Robert Hobart May.” In all probability the little
foundling was picked up after the massacre of the tribe in May,
1804. The parents had been, perhaps, murdered, and the little
one was to be brought up, like a transplanted flower, under
uncongenial and unnatural circumstances.
In the course of the work several instances are mentioned of
half-civilized Blacks. Few girls were taken into households,
for, before their arrival at puberty, their instincts led them to
the camp in the Bush, or the tribe stole or decoyed them away.
But several persons whom I knew in the island had tried to
train up boys.
The children placed at the Orphan Schools of New Town,
near Hobart Town, do not appear to have turned out well,
though some laudable efforts were made by kind, Christian
people to do them good. They could not be happy at the
school, and they were not content with their position in a family.
However English lads may reconcile themselves with a life of
subordinate servitude, it was too opposite to the instincts of the
Aborigines, and they fretted under restraint. As a writer in
a colonial paper of 1818 observed: "A poor native boy in a
kitchen was worse than in a state of solitude; for he had con-
stantly, and the more so as he improved in faculty, to lament a
debasement which Nature alone had stamped upon him." Two
lads, Joey Tamar and Teddy Flinders, had been placed at the
Orphan School at nursing age; but, as they grew up, they were
350
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
wearied at the irksome life, and repeatedly broke loose from
bounds. Several times they were captured far off in the forest.
It was found impossible to tame them, and so they were sent off
to their native companions on Flinders Island.
In the Hobart Town paper of August 23, 1823, there is a story
of partial civilization. A native girl had learned the equestrian
art, and made use of her acquirements to assume the Bush-
ranging profession, having stolen a splendid horse, worth one
hundred guineas. The Gazette went on to relate that “the animal
was rode at a full gallop down a valley, in view of Allanvale
House, by a black native girl, with a long tether rope round
the horse's neck. A servant was immediately sent on horseback
in pursuit of the fair Tasmanian jockey (the first of her race,
perhaps, who has ever before been seen on a horse at full speed);
but, owing to her riding the animal so wonderfully fast, the man
could not come up with her, after a pursuit of four days.
""
A few have been so civilized as to contract marriages after
the approved fashion of Europeans. The first took place at
Launceston. Two, who had long resided in the families of
colonists, were formally united in St. John's Church, Laun-
ceston, August 16, 1830. On Flinders Island marriages were
duly celebrated, though rather an unnecessary form with the
free-and-easy living Natives; but it pleased the Whites, and got
the pair some extra indulgences.
The civilization practices of Flinders are particularized under
the head of « Flinders Island." They belonged rather to the
forced bed process, and produced a few abortions. Without
doubt a great outward change was apparent. Messrs. Backhouse
and Walker, in their official report to the Governor of their
visit to the place in 1833, expressed much satisfaction. "The
women," said they, "are constantly clothed, and are more cleanly
in their persons than formerly. They sweep their cottages
regularly, rub their tin ware bright, and wash their own clothes,
and those of the men, once a week." A moral change appeared:
They attend the public worship on that day (Sunday), and
conduct themselves with great decorum; and, however little
they may understand the nature of that institution, by their
attendance they at least evince a readiness to conform to the
wishes of those whom they regard."
((
A criticism appeared some few years ago in a leading article
CIVILIZED OFF THE EARTH.
351
of the Melbourne Argus, which rather too extravagantly reviewed
the Flinders Island system, but which expresses the sentiments
of not a few colonists:-
"Look at the means had recourse to in the case of the
remnant of the aboriginals of Tasmania! They were beguiled
to the number of some hundreds from their native haunts, and
transferred to an island in Bass's Straits, where a system of
restraint and plodding methodised daily pursuits was imposed
upon them, which would be perfectly unbearable to our own
people, and has terminated in those savages pining away, and
dying en masse. They were, in the most literal sense, 'civilized
off the face of the earth' by that process of 'vegetable existence'
which the European finds too irksome to subscribe to himself,
but which he thinks quite good enough to be the preliminary
step for introducing and reconciling the wild denizen of the
woods to the new condition proffered to him-proffered in so
uncongenial, or rather absolutely revolting, a manner that it is
impossible of acceptance."
The "Penny Cyclopædia" has no friendly notice of the
civilization of Flinders Island. This is the article:-
"It would be tedious to detail the features of the civilizing
system pursued there. It is sufficient to mention that every
habit and amusement peculiar to the Aborigines has been dis-
couraged; the cumbrous and uncongenial forms and incidents
of advanced civilization have been enforced in everyday life;
the native language has been as much as possible suppressed;
native names have been made to yield to those of the Cæsars,
the Hannibals, and the Scipios; a disposition to indulge in the
pleasures of the chase has been recorded as a delinquency; and
the verbal repetition of the Commandments and the Catechism
is alleged as the evidence of religious progress, and a confutation
of all disbelief as to the capacity of uncivilized races to appreciate
the doctrines of Christianity."
There is no doubt that the over-sanguine mind of Mr. Robin-
son, his intense energy, and his overwhelming will, did multiply
tasks ad nauseam, and expect the barbarism of thousands of
years to be exorcised by his own word. Too much exultation
was manifested at exterior change, and too high an estimate was
attached to learning by rote. But it is not less true, that a
decided improvement was conspicuous in the tribes that had
.352
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
been brought there untutored savages, and that they were, on
the whole, as happy and contented as could have been expected
of such exiles by necessity. The fatal extinction of the race
was wrought out there by causes engendered long before. They
came there a dying people.
We will hear what Captain Stokes, the explorer, has to say of
some who were trained on Flinders Island. He visited the place
soon after my arrival in Hobart Town. He speaks thus of two
whom I afterwards knew:-"Walter and Maryann, a married
couple who had recently returned from Port Phillip, where they
had been living in the family of the former superintendent, Mr.
Robinson, were so civilized and proficient in all the plain parts
of education, that they possessed great influence over their
countrymen, who, incited by the contemplation of their supe-
riority, were apparently desirous of acquiring knowledge. The
barracks in which the Natives dwell form a square of good stone
buildings; but Walter and his wife have a separate cottage, with
a piece of land attached. Maryann is a very tolerable needle-
woman, and capable of teaching the others." In Dr. Jeanneret's
time the pair dwelt in a hut apart from the rest.
I have now before me the original letter addressed by Walter
George Arthur, commonly called King Walter, when he sought
to buy a piece of land near the aboriginal station of Oyster Cove.
When I knew him, he was keeping a boat there, taking charge
of the mail, and waiting upon passengers desirous of landing
from the steamer. The letter occupies more than three pages of
note-paper, and has been rather roughly struck off in a hurry.
It has been kindly presented to me by Sir Richard Dry, who
thus permitted Mr. Surveyor-General Calder to keep a certified
copy in the office. Walter entreats Dr. Milligan, the Protector,
to get a certain eight-acre block for him, and, as he says, “ascer-
tain from the Government what would they charge for it, the
8 acres." He gives his reasons for the purchase, and is generous
enough to use the plural number in the first person; for his wife,
Maryann, being a scholar, and weighing nearly twenty stone,
was a partner demanding consideration. "We would very much
like to have it,” he continues, “to make it a little homestead for
ourselves. My reasons for Troubleing you so much is that there
is no distance from the water's edge, and that it is more Dryer
than the other Piece of ground up the creek by Claytons, and
WALTER THE CIVILIZED.
353
not only that, if we put anything into the ground up the creek
it either gets trodden to Pieces or otherwise rutted up by some-
body, or spoiled in some way so that we can't do any good by
it." He is too independent to solicit eight acres of the soil
seized by the Whites from his nation, but adds: "I mean for
to buy it out."
The same person, believing himself possessed of sufficient.
means to keep a man, applied to Government in 1856 for a
convict servant. This was his letter:-
I beg respectfully to apply for permission to hire a Pass-
holder Servant man subject to existing regulations."
Although many a white man who had been exiled for his
country's good, and who had been utterly illiterate, obtained
this privilege, it was not thought expedient to place a Christian
Englishman under the authority of a savage, and the application
was refused. Mr. Calder, who knew him well, gives this report,
in 1868, of my aboriginal acquaintance, as it is in reply to
a question of my own:—
<
"Mr. Bonwick asks if the Blacks of Tasmania were capable
of true civilization. My reply is, Yes, undoubtedly;' and I
give as an example the case of Walter George Arthur, a Tas-
manian aboriginal, whom I knew well, who was captured when
a mere infant, and brought up and educated at the Queen's
Orphan School (at Hobart Town). His ideas were perfectly
English, and there was not the smallest dash of the savage in
him. He was a very conversible man, fond of reading, and
spoke and wrote English quite grammatically. His spelling was
also quite correct. This man had a hundred acres of land, and
knew his rights in relation thereto quite as well as you do yours.
An instance of this, quite as creditable to his acuteness, sense
of right, and of honourable feelings, was related to me by our
old friend Bennison, the surveyor. One of Arthur's neighbours
was a grasping and rather unprincipled fellow, who mistook
Arthur for a person with whom he might do as he pleased, and
encroached on a cultivated part of his land, which Arthur had
no idea of suffering. So, after expostulating with him to no
purpose, he employed and paid Bennison to resurvey his land,
which was done in presence of both litigants. This operation
proved that Arthur was right, and that he knew his proper
boundaries quite well. And when he saw that his opponent
A A
354
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
was satisfied, he said to him, 'Well, Mr., though you have
tried to wrong me, I will treat you very differently from what
I believe you would have done to me, if I were in your place.
You can come on to my land and remove your crop when it
is ripe.''
He was not quite civilized after all, for such conduct was
scarcely that generally adopted by our enlightened countrymen.
In the chapter on "Flinders," it is mentioned that, under the
auspices of the Rev. Mr. Dove and Mr. Robinson, the Superin-
tendent, a sort of newspaper was established by the Aborigines.
One of these papers, consisting of an Address to his fellow-
countrymen, was written by Thomas Brune, on Flinders Island,
February 19th, 1838. I find appended to the same these words,
"Thomas Brune, an aboriginal youth, Editor and Writer." It
is presented entire, with the exception of some correction of the
spelling, and the use of punctuation.
"And now, my friends, let us love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy
might, and with all thy mind. Love thy neighbour as thyself. And
now, my friends, we ought to keep these things, because these are
things that we must be to them that love God.
"And now, my friends, in again a place where he taught us when
we approach the throne of thy grace, when we pray, to say, ‘Our
Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,
thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily
bread, and forgive us our trespasses, and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power and
the glory for ever and ever.
"And now, my friends, this is the prayer of God Almighty, which
we pray. Pray to God with sincerity and truth.
"And now, my friends, you know that Mr. Dove, speaking to you
upon the subject about the prayer of God Almighty, and if you, my
friends, pray with sincerity and truth, then you will have that glory
which is in Jesus Christ the Son of the living God.
"And now, my friends, pray with sincerity and in truth. Pray
well-it is time. Now is the expected time. Now is the day of Sal-
vation. My friends, we must pray always, for it is appointed out that
men ought to pray, and our blessed Lord came upon earth to teach us
about the doctrines of God and himself. He came upon earth to do
My friends, don't you believe that
Yes, my friends, we must believe
the will of Him that sent Him.
He died for poor, guilty sinners?
that Jesus Christ came to save sinners.
AN ABORIGINAL DISCOURSE.
355
Oh, my friends, when we was lying at the brink of Hell's dark
door, Jesus Christ came to save that which was lost. Now, my friends,
don't you know that Mr. Dove, speaking to you about the prayer of
God, said we must pray with sincerity and truth. And, also, my
friends, Mr. Clark, speaking to you about the sower went to sow.
Some fell on stony rock, and it growed up, and then it withered away.
And some fell among the thorns, and they spring up, and the thorns
choked them. And some fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and
devoured them. And some fell on good ground, and they spring up,
and brought forth hundred fold, some sixty fold, and some seventy
fold. My friends, they that are on the rocks, they first hear the word
of God, and then in temptations fall away. And those that are on
the wayside they hear the word of God, and then cometh the devil,
taketh them out of their hearts. My friends, that is the way that the
devil takes the good words out of our hearts.
(6
My friends, who was it wrote the ten Commandments? I will
tell you, my friends. It was God that wrote these ten Commandments.
He wrote them with His fingers, and there is ten of them which we
must obey. It is certain that we must obey these laws.
These are
the laws which the Israelites obeyed, which they had obeyed in the
wilderness. They had manna to eat which rained from heaven, and
they tempted God in the desert. And they also worshipped two
calves, in the which God was displeased.
"THOMAS BRUNE,
Editor and Writer."
Further particulars of the editor and writer may be found in
the report of the examination on Flinders Island. His interest-
ing discourse unfolds the character of his mind, and displays his
theological acquirements. Perhaps the obscurity of his ideas on
dogmatic faith may not be more obvious than might be observed
in many village frequenters of church, were they to attempt to
put their conceptions of truth on paper, after the manner of
Thomas Brune.
The Hon. J. H. Wedge has given me a pleasing story of an
aboriginal youth brought under the influence of civilization.
While engaged in a survey on the west coast, to the south of
Cape Grim, he met with the following adventure :-" My
attention," said he, "was arrested by an object, which I at first
took to be the stump of a tree, being so perfectly motionless.
I was soon made aware of my mistake, for I had no sooner
stopped and directed my attention to it, as it struck me that it
A A 2
356
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
somewhat resembled the figure of a man, than the object walked
off, and disappeared behind the opposite rising ground. I called
out to put my men on their guard, and told them the Native
had taken the direction toward the beach. The men went,
accordingly, and in about a minute saw, as they said, for I did
not see them, about fifteen or sixteen Natives coming stealthily
towards them with their spears poised. One of them (Peter
Lennon, an old Bushranger) fired off his gun, as he said, over
their heads. The Natives at once disappeared, as though by
magic, and we saw no more of them. On going to the beach
we saw the boy I have alluded to swimming amidst surf that
was rolling and foaming in upon the beach. We in vain
beckoned him to come out. There he swam in a wonderful
manner amongst the breakers, floating over them like a sea-gull,
till he was exhausted, and washed ashore apparently dead. I
had him taken and laid before the fire, and continued rubbing
his body and limbs, which gradually restored him. When
sufficiently recovered, I gave him some warm tea and something
to eat. In about an hour he was able to accompany us. At
first, when I took hold of his hand to lead him, he evinced
great fear, fancying, as he afterwards told me, that we were
going to kill him. He made one, and only one, attempt to
escape. On ascending the steep, rocky northern side of Mount
Cameron, he slipped from the man who was leading him, when
nearly at the top of the mount, and bounded actively down over
the rocks. He was followed and overtaken when nearly at the
bottom by Peter Lennon. When brought to me, I caressed and
led him down the mount. During this, and the four or five
following days, we had a plentiful supply of kangaroo, of which
he partook to his heart's content. The quantity he consumed
during this time was surprising, and almost incredible-not less
than from eight to ten pounds daily. He acquired confidence
in, and attached himself to, me after the first 'heavy feed;'
and, of his own accord, would take hold of my hand, and walk
by my side, sit by me when we took our meals, or stopped to
rest, and roll himself in his blanket and lie next to me when we
camped at night. He remained with me for a little more than
two years, till he died of a pulmonary attack.
"I did not allow him to live with or associate with the
servants, but had him to live with me in my tent. He accom-
MR. WEDGE'S BLACK BOY.
357
panied me in all my surveying excursions, during which he
always met with the greatest kindness from the settlers, and
was allowed to sit at their table when I dined with them. His
conduct was always correct and well-behaved, and would com-
pare favourably with most European boys of the same age.
On one occasion, when in Hobart Town, he was present at a
mixed party of ladies and gentlemen. During the evening one
of the gentlemen tried to persuade him to kiss a young lady in
the room.
He hesitated, and said, 'No good-no good,' mean-
ing, 'not right.' But after being importuned for some time, he
watched his opportunity, went behind the lady, and gently
touched the neck, and then kissed his fingers. On another
occasion, when a party of young ladies were escorted by their
parents on their way home for the holidays, they called at the
residence of a gentleman near Campbell Town, near which my
tent was pitched. The family had shown great kindness to
May-day' (he was taken on the first of May), and he was
invited into the room. The lady of the house requested him
to hand refreshments to the ladies, pointing to the eldest lady
to be helped first. But one of the youngest had secured his
admiration, and, notwithstanding the remonstrance of the kind
lady of the house, he persisted in politely handing the viands
to the young lady of his choice, to the amusement of all
present.
(6
Having acquired our language tolerably well, I was on the
point of teaching him to read, &c., when the severe inflam-
matory attack of the lungs carried him off. He was faithful,
and became very attached to me; and I scarcely think, had his
life been spared, that he would ever have returned to lead the
uncivilized life from which he was rescued."
At Oyster Cove I witnessed the end of all this civilization.
With the exception of Walter and Maryann, the work had been
in vain. The others, nearly all old women, were ignorant,
almost to brutishness. They lived wretchedly in dirt and
neglect. Their food was cooked in a pot from which I saw
the dogs allowed to eat. They lay in their clothes, with a dirty
blanket in the cold season. They could not read, and they
were never read to. They cared not for prayer, and had no one
They bartered food and blankets with
disreputable neighbours to obtain drink. They sat about on
to pray with them.
358
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
the ground with their mangy dogs, smoking their filthy pipes,
and cackling over stories of their past.
So was it with Jemmy Button of Terra del Fuego. In 1830,
at the age of fifteen, he was bought for a button from his father,
and brought to England by Captain Fitzroy. There he was
petted and schooled. Great were the expectations of his use-
fulness among his benighted countrymen. Married to a girl
that had, also, been educated, and who spoke English and
Portuguese well, he was sent off with quite a cargo of good
things, even to toilet services. A garden was made and stocked,
and the Dandy Jemmy was left with his treasures. A year
after Captain Fitzroy returned. The garden was destroyed, the
treasures were scattered, and Jemmy was all but naked, with
matted, filthy hair. Captain Snow saw him in 1855, "a wild,
naked, and shaggy-looking savage.” "The man of many hopes,"
wrote Mr. Snow, "of much talk, and of great name in getting
an interest in the mission (while it brought large sums to the
account), yet none the less a nude savage like his brethren.” He
adds, "yet that same poor creature had been the petted idol of
his friends here and at home, had been presented to royalty, and
finally sent back to Fuego as a passably finished man."
Mr. Dandridge, who is at present in charge of the one Tas-
manian woman alive, gave me some intelligence of Mathinna, a
girl of singular beauty and mental capacity for an Aborigine.
Attracting the notice of the benevolent and literary Lady
Franklin, the child was removed to Government House, and
carefully and kindly trained by her ladyship. Mathinna pursued
her studies with diligence, and became almost accomplished.
Her good looks suffered no deterioration by her change of life,
but were refined by education and developed by art. The age of
early womanhood found her attractive in mind and body. But
for whom were these charms to bud? On whom could she
bestow her affections, and preserve her virtue? Could she, who
had been indulged in the drawing-room of the Governor, who
had become used to the luxuries of civilization, be content to be
the bride of ever so handsome a Black? Dare she hope to be
the mate of an Englishman whose tastes and education were
equal to her own. Her moral danger had been foreseen by her
kind friends, and many a lecture had she received upon duty.
Ladies had warned, and ministers had preached. But the wild
HOPELESS CIVILIZATION.
359
pulses of the girl were speaking too, and the very reading of her
tasks had quickened the growth of love. When Lady Franklin
went to England, Mathinna was sent among the Blacks, and had
the squalid children of the tribe as her companions. With her
developed nature, and her being cast down among the refuse of
a White population, the consequences may be understood. In
a short time she died at Oyster Cove, friendless and hopeless;
but affording another opportunity for some to deplore the de-
pravity of human nature, and to lament mistaken kindness to a
degraded race.
When, in 1841, Mr. Robert Clark brought to my house in
Hobart Town four Tasmanian youths, my feelings of the pro-
spective civilization and happiness of the race were of the most
buoyant character. The dear lads were so interesting and artless
as to gain my heart. They were clean, cheerful, and intelligent.
Dressed in comfortable, and even respectable, European attire,
with their fine open countenances, their languid smile, their
beautiful eyes, I could not recognise them as the sons of degraded
savages. Their replies to my questions were given in such cor-
rect English, they read the Testament so fluently, and conversed
so agreeably, that I was ready to proclaim their civilization
from the very housetop. But when, twenty years after, I saw a
company, consisting chiefly of dirty, ignorant, drunken, and ugly
old men and women, the last of the race, my sentiments changed
most uncomfortably. I sighed for the lads that went childless
to their graves. I thought of the dark-eyed maidens, all gone,
after a miserable and barren life. I felt, amidst the chill of the
present, a melancholy despondency seize me, and all hope of
civilization for Aboriginal races seemed to die within me.
The last story to be brought forward, though relating to
an Aborigine of New South Wales, is enough to depress the
most sanguine worker. I give it in the words of my friend the
Rev. G. Ridley:-
((
Bungaree, who, after taking prizes at the Sydney College,
speaking good Latin, and behaving as a gentleman in elegant
society, returned to the Bush, and then entered the Black police,
once said, in a melancholy tone, to Lieutenant Fulford (who
repeated the remark to me at Surat on the Condamine), I wish
I had never been taken out of the Bush, and educated as I have
been, for I cannot be a white man; they will never look upon me
360
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
as one of themselves; and I cannot be a black fellow, for I am
disgusted with their way of living.'
"""
Is this not enough to make one echo the language of Judge
Baron Field, of Sydney, in 1822?-
"Yet deem not this man useless,
But let him pass,- -a blessing on his head!
And while in that society, to which
The tide of things had led him, he appears
To breathe, and live but for himself alone,
Unblamed, uninjured, let him bear about
The good, which the benignant law of heaven
Has hung around him; and while life is his,
Still let him prompt the lib'ral colonist
To tender offices and pensive thoughts.
"Then let him pass,
-a blessing on his head!
And, long as he can wander, let him breathe
The freshness of his woods.
May never we pretend to civilize,
And make him only captive!
Let him be free of mountain solitudes;
And let him, where and when he will, sit down
Beneath the trees, and with his faithful dog
Share his chance-gather'd meal; and finally,
As in the eye of Nature he has lived,
So in the eye of Nature let him die.”
MISSIONS.
The apparent hopelessness of civilization with some races
strikes the most careless observer. Forty years ago, a Hobart
Town writer despairingly exclaimed of the Aborigines: "Had
they any affinity to the African negro we might entertain
some distant hope of the possibility of civilizing them." Count
Strzelecki, with all his chivalrous regard for the poor creatures,
admits the work no easy one, saying: "From what has been
observed of the two races, one may affirm, without dread of con-
tradiction, that it would be easier to bring down the Whites to
the level of the Blacks, than to raise the latter to the ideas and
habits of our race." He presents this apology for his dark
friends: "The Christianity which was offered to him was
stripped of its charity, and the civilization embraced no recogni-
tion of his rights of property. He, therefore, rejected both." The
Van Diemen's Land Courier, of August 1830, had a lingering
hope, after all the failures, that something yet might be done;
A TRUE MISSIONARY.
361
saying,—when noticing a project to introduce Chinese labourers
into the colony,-"but it is by no means improbable or hopeless
that we shall ultimately be enabled to tame or instruct these
poor people to habits of useful industry."
Had the editor an idea of converting them to habits of in-
dustry, as had the Spaniards of the Indians, from the expectancy
of getting good labourers out of them? The connexion of the
passage with the importation of Coolies would imply as much.
The Chinese were to be introduced in the failure of the other,
as African negroes were carried to America to do the work of the
non-labouring Indians. It is to be feared that much of the bene-
volent outcry of "civilization!" has an association with selfish-
ness. While many urged expeditions to the interior of Africa,
under the guise of rooting out slavery, and introducing a better
faith, not a few thought of increased Birmingham and Man-
chester trade. It was a bitter sarcasm of Bayle's: "It is good
to preach the Gospel to savages, because they ought to teach
them as much Christianity as to make them walk clothed, as
that would be a great benefit to English manufactures." The
advocacy of low, mercenary motives to support missions has
contributed not a little to this idea.
The noble army of missionaries have ever been the true and
best civilizers of men in all ages. These were they who plunged
into the marshes of Germany, to rescue the Goths from
heathendom. These were they who penetrated the oak-forests
of Britain, the bog-paths of Ireland, the sweet vales of Gaul, and
the wilds of Russia, that they might raise man. These are they
who go now to the desert, to the jungle, to the snows, to fever-
haunts, to storm-girt coasts, to dreary wastes-among men,
repulsive by their habits, disgusting in their persons, cruel in
their hearts-and all to do good to their fellows, to bless them
in the world, and lift their heads to God. All honour to these
self-sacrificing, earnest ones!
Mistrust of the Whites has ever been the marked feature
with the Papuan people everywhere. The only exception has
been in the pacific work of the missionary; and the most notable
one is seen in the method adopted by that extraordinary hero,
the Bishop of Melanesia. I have heard him describe it in
Melbourne. Approaching a wooded Papuan isle, he would put
off in a boat toward the shore. The Natives were there gesticu-
362
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS,
lating defiance, and brandishing their arms at the advancing
stranger. Standing up in the boat, he would throw open his
arms to show the absence of weapons upon his person. Then,
stripping off his outer dress, he leaped into the ocean, and swam
toward the astonished wild men. Rising from the water, he
singled out the most formidable-looking warrior, and, with a
smiling face, he held out the hand of friendship. It was not in
the nature of man to injure so confiding and courageous a being.
They would gaze at him as if he were from another world.
Then, stroking the head of a youngster, and admiring the beauty.
of a baby barbarian, he won the heart of the tribe. Though
ignorant of the many varied dialects of the Melanesians, he
would manage by signs, pointing to sun, ship, and a boy, to say:
"Let me have the lad for six months and I will bring him back
to you." Who that looked upon the noble, loving, and manly
countenance of the Bishop, could mistrust him? He got the
consent of the tribe, and gained the lad as well. Six months at
the Mission School in New Zealand would give the language to
an English missionary, and the lad returned improved to his isle,
accompanied by a Gospel messenger. So far the experiment has
been singularly successful.
That there was some hope at one time of something being
done for the spiritual development of the Tasmanians appears.
from a letter addressed by the Rev. Mr. Mansfield to the Wes-
leyan Missionary Society. That gentleman had called in at
Hobart Town, on his way to his own sphere of labour in New
South Wales, about 1824. Naturally excited by the degraded
condition of our Aborigines, he had endeavoured to interest
others, especially the Colonial Chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Bedford, in
the mission work. An extract from the letter is appended:
"A considerable interest for them was at that time excited
among the inhabitants at large, and in the mind of the Lieut.-
Governor in particular. The Rev. Mr. Bedford and myself were
appointed by his Honour to draw up a code of rules and regula-
tions for the government of a Native Institution, to be supported
partly by the Government, and partly by the public. This task
we speedily executed, and the result of our labours received the
approbation of the Lieut.-Governor, and of a large meeting held
in the church. But I am sorry to add, nothing further has been
done. I by no means think the interest has declined; but the
NO MISSIONS TO TASMANIANS.
363
agricultural and commercial distresses of the colony, together with
the formidable ravages of a banditti of convicts, who have ever
since been at large among the interior settlements, have com-
pletely absorbed the public attention. I am fully satisfied that
were a missionary sent out expressly for the Natives, he would
receive the most liberal encouragement from all classes of the
community." As to opposers, he says: "What has been done
to try the validity of these objections? The Natives have con-
fessedly fallen into a deep abyss; but what friendly arm has
been stretched forth to rescue them? Is it benevolent to leave
the sick to die, ere the power of medicine has been tried? It is
agreed with all that the attempt must be made with the young."
But the mere attempt was never made.
In December 1826, the Hobart Town paper, in proposing to
catch the contending Blacks, and send them to King's Island,
suggests that there might be sent with the soldiers "a Gospel
missionary or two;" and adds, "Volunteers for such a service,
we are convinced, even in this colony, would be readily found.”
There is another interesting extract from the Gazette of 1826,
of an earlier date (Feb. 4th). The editor writes: "We should
rejoice to see here, as at Sydney, a clergyman exclusively devoted
to promote their conversion; and we think, if no Missionary
Society has done it, the Government will be instrumental to
promote so laudable an object." Elsewhere he nobly says: “It
will be the brightest diadem in the crown of our future greatness
if we can civilize and perpetuate this singular people, so as to
render them an accession to the labour and strength of society.
With this view, we think a portion of productive land ought
to be preserved for their use."
This really Christian appeal met with no response from
Christian colonists and a Christian Government!
In 1829 we
have Mr. Widowson exclaiming, in his work on Van Diemen's
Land, "I have never heard, nor do I believe, that any teacher of
the Gospel ever went half a dozen miles from Hobart Town to
inquire into their condition."
But even at an earlier date, in the neighbouring colony of
New South Wales, the press had called attention to the religious
wants of the Blacks of both settlements. The chief chaplain of
all the English stations there, the Rev. S. Marsden, who had
inaugurated the mission to New Zealand, was entreated to do
364
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
something for a people nearer home. A writer in the Sydney
Gazette ventures to ask, in the paper of January 1817, why that
latter gentleman should be so eager for the conversion of Maories,
and so indifferent to the salvation of the New Hollanders and
Van Diemen Landers. A discussion ensued, and lasted for two
or three issues of the Gazette. But as that was the glorious
era of colonial slavery, and when a strict and more than Napo-
leonic surveillance of the press was maintained, with very heavy
impending penalties, a notice appeared that the subject was not
agreeable, and must be discontinued!
The first Wesleyan minister in Australia, the Rev. Samuel
Leigh, appealed earnestly on behalf of missions at Port Jackson,
and on the Derwent; but his voice was unheeded. A series of
letters appeared in the Sydney Gazette of 1819, enforcing the
claims of the Aborigines. Are they not," asks the writer,
“entitled to the first regards of Old England? And to a reflect-
ing mind must it not appear strange that no body of Christians
has yet commiserated their case? Ought we not to show piety
at home, in the first case? And then, if after a fair and reason-
able trial they should reject every entreaty, and despise all the
grace of the Gospel, turn to the islanders at a distance? Who
will undertake to send out a plain, zealous Christian missionary
for the Aborigines of New Holland?"
British Christians were too busy with savages removed from
the Whites, or with the more tractable and convertible negro
slaves, to heed the cry from Sydney and Hobart Town.
The last effort made to excite an interest in the spiritual state
of the Tasmanians, while they were free in the forests, was by
the earnest Archdeacon Broughton, subsequently the first Pro-
testant Bishop of Australia. The settlers of the south were
placed under the episcopal charge of the Bishop of Calcutta, and
once had a visit from the Archdeacon of Bombay, in 1835, under
pressure of ill health. To the Duke of Wellington is Australia
under obligations for affording the followers of the Church of
England a local head. Archdeacon Broughton came as a learned
and faithful minister of their Church. It was on the 1st of
April, 1830, that he delivered his primary charge to the clergy
of Van Diemen's Land, in St. David's Church, Hobart Town. One
object of the excellent man's concern was the condition of the
poor Native. This was his earnest language upon the subject:-

THE CORRA LINN OF NORTHERN TASMANIA.
FAILURE OF AUSTRALIAN MISSIONS.
365
"These hopeless human beings continue to this day in their
original benighted and degrading state. I may even proceed
further, so far as to express my fears that our settlement in their
country has even deteriorated a condition of existence, than
which, before our interference, nothing more miserable could
easily be conceived. While, as the contagion of European inter-
course has extended itself among them, they gradually lose the
better properties of their own character, they appear, in exchange,
to acquire none but the most objectionable and degrading of
ours. The most revolting spectacle which presents itself to a
stranger newly arriving on these shores is the sight of their
natural occupants reduced to a state of worse than barbarian
wildness, by that fondness for intoxicating liquors which they
imbibed from our example; and in a reckless addiction to which
they are encouraged by many whose superiority in knowledge
ought to have been directed to some less unchristian work."
But the war was raging in the island. Bloodthirsty deeds.
occupied the minds of both races. The day had passed for such
a mission. The hope of Christian men had gone.
The failure, however, of all the public efforts to convert the
Aborigines in these colonies is enough to dishearten further
enterprise. Missions had been organized in New South Wales
from 1826, and all had failed. The Lake Macquarie Mission
under Mr. Threlkeld lasted till 1841, and then expired. The
Church of England Mission at Wellington lived from 1832 to
1843, costing several thousands of pounds, and failed. The
Lutheran attempt seemed at first most hopeful, from the enter-
prise and self-denial of the German teachers; but it sunk in
despair. The Roman Catholic Mission, under able Italian monks,
on an island removed from settlers, failed as miserably. The
Wesleyan Mission flourished for a while, but suddenly collapsed
like the rest. Lately the Government Guardian of the Abori-
gines at Perth, Western Australia, is forced to acknowledge that
the Protestant schools have all failed, and that the once hopeful
school of the Sisters of Mercy now only contains six little girls.
The Committee of Council, Queensland, in their report to the
Legislature in 1861, reluctantly concludes:-"The evidence
taken by your Committee shows beyond doubt that all attempts
to Christianize or educate the Aborigines of Australia have
hitherto proved abortive." The simple-hearted German mis-
366
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS,
sionary there, the Rev. J. L. Zillman, acknowledges: "I have
found it very hard to make them understand divine things."
Such failures are not confined, however, to our gum forests.
Perhaps a few millions of practical heathens may be found in
Great Britain and Ireland, with all the array of preaching power.
"Did the missionaries of New France," asks the historian of
Labrador, "after 150 years of zeal and exertion, leave behin l
them a single Indian tribe whom they had actually converted to
Christianity?" While missionaries were jubilant of success, and
Père Lallemont wrote, "We have this year baptized more than
a thousand, most of them afflicted with small-pox, of whom a
large proportion have died, with every mark of having been
received among the elect, and of whom there are more than
three hundred and sixty infants-gathered by the angels as
flowers in Paradise". -we have Baron de la Houtan writing:
"Almost all the conquests gained to Christianity by the Jesuits,
are those infants who have received the rites of baptism, and
those old men who at the point of death find no inconvenience
in dying baptized."
The Austrian Mission at Gondokoro among the Blacks of
the Upper Nile, after continuing fruitless for thirteen years, was
abandoned in utter despair. The Protestant Mission to the
Fuegians, conducted by Captain Allan Gardiner, came to an
ignominious end in 1851.
But they who ground an argument, upon the failure of such
missions, that the tribes are wholly incompetent to receive
scriptural truth, are mistaken. Many are the instances to the
contrary. I have had personal experience in Australia of the
power of religion on the hearts and lives of Aborigines. There
is nothing to prove that the Australians and Tasmanians were
not human beings, and as such qualified to understand the good-
ness of God, and feel a love toward Him. There is a poetical
account of a dying Karen missionary, from the pen of the Rev.
Mr. Mason, which may be pleasing to the reader of this chapter,
as furnishing an illustration of the success of endeavours to
convert a black race kindred to the Tasmanians :—
"As soon as the sun sank beneath the linden-leaved "wood-
oil trees, Quala, with the other Karens, lifted up his couch, and
laid him down beneath their tall shadows. The mountains,
which he was first to cross with the message of salvation, loomed
CHRISTIAN TASMANIANS.
367
up before him as he reclined amid the fragrant koempferas, whose
large stemless purple and white flowers rise in crowds from the
bare earth without a leaf, typical of the resurrection; while the
stream, whose noisy, bubbling sources had been his pathway
through the gorges, resting at his feet in a quiet cove, and formed
a transparent baptistery, encircled by an amphitheatre of floating
water-lilies, where thirty-four of those for whose salvation he
had prayed and laboured were baptized in his presence. When
they looked to place him in that canoe that was waiting for him,
he was not, for God had taken him.'”
The first supposed Christian convert of Australia was a fine
lad, the particulars of whose death I read in the early Sydney
papers of 1804. In the very year of the foundation of the
colony, 1788, a little abandoned Native child was found by a
prisoner of the name of Watt, who kindly took charge of the
little thing, naming him James Bath. The Gazette, noticing his
death, December 15, 1804, adds that he "gave proof of Christian
piety, fervently repeating the Lord's prayer shortly before disso-
lution." At a missionary meeting held in Sydney, in September
1822, there were sitting on the platform two Christianized
Aborigines, the fruit of private religious exertion.
Not to multiply instances, but to show the adaptation of the
aboriginal mind to receive a higher faith, one more case may be
mentioned. It is that of Edward Warruban, brought to England
by Governor Eyre, and confided to the Christian care of that
distinguished philanthropist Dr. Hodgkin. He very soon died of
consumption. Of his character his excellent friend writes: "We
found him a peaceable and innocent character, and we do not
remember, at any period, his ever having intentionally done
wrong. In meetings for worship, Scripture readings, and other
serious opportunities, his deportment was thoughtful and suitable
for the occasion." About an hour before he expired, he ex-
claimed, "The white robe! oh! the white robe !"
Tasmania had its Christian monuments among the dark skins.
I was much affected with the story of one dying in Christian
hope at Oyster Cove; and the last Protector of the Aborigines,
Dr. Milligan, will forgive my saying that I learnt, to his honour
as a man, that he was not ashamed to kneel weeping beside
the dying Tasmanian, who was calling upon Jesus as his
friend.
368
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
Messrs. Backhouse and Walker, who paid the exiles a religious
visit at Flinders Island, were not indifferent to some exhibitions
of good feeling among them. Going to see them at their Sunday
exercises, they said, "There was something peculiarly moving in
seeing nearly all the remaining Aborigines of Van Diemen's
Land, now a mere handful of people, seated on the ground,
listening with much attention to the truths of the Gospel." Mr.
Walker, many years ago, gave me a narrative of what he, with
all the caution of a Quaker, regarded as a genuine conversion
there.
Father Clark, as that beloved friend was called by his abori-
ginal disciples, often spoke to me of his "dear black fellows,"
and their heartfelt reception of truths which their intellects
failed to comprehend. It is now seven-and-twenty years ago
since he related, with freely-flowing tears, some stories of his
success, the particulars of which have passed from my remem-
brance. In talking of the mission, he did not find fault with
schemes: he would not say, as the Rev. John Williams did of
the Australian efforts, "The means used were not, perhaps, well
adapted, and not followed up with sufficient energy:" but he
admitted the ordinary want of power in the Native mind to
understand the mysteries of religion, and their disinclination to
inquire. Yet, while he acknowledged this, he said that when-
ever he spoke simply, and with undisguised emotion, of the love
of God, he found willing auditors, and sometimes tearful sympa-
thisers. When he appealed to the affection of their own natures,
he observed no want of interest. "And if," said the worthy
man, "so few died joyfully blessing their God, are they singular
in that respect? Do we find so many of our own people in the
colony departing in lively hope?"
In a letter I received from Oyster Cove just twenty years ago,
Mr. Clark again referred to his work, and said:-
Several have given testimony, in their own simple manner,
that they knew for what purpose the Lord Jesus Christ came
into the world. One of the last persons who died before we left
Flinders, and one who for more than two years had been correct
and well-behaved, was in the habit of praying regularly; and,
when suffering from disease, which kept him awake at night,
spent three nights in prayer when dying, and conscious he was
His last words were, 'Lord Jesus Christ, come, and take me
So.
TASMANIANS COULD BE CHRISTIANS.
369
to thyself.' This was in the hearing of the greater portion of
the people who are yet alive. He was a good man.'
Though the civilization of the race proved a failure, the
death-bed story of the Tasmanians proves that they had an
inner nature, that they could live the life of Christians, and that
they could die their death. May we, with all our knowledge,
grope in no greater darkness than these at last!
BR
CHAPTER XIV.
DECLINE.
IN taking up this painful subject—the Decline of the Tasma-
nians-it would be impossible to dissociate that fact from
the advent of the Europeans. Though the Cacique spoke of
his people as melting like snow before the sun, when the
pale faces came; yet it was not in the gentle manner of the
disappearance of the snow, which passes onward at the solar
approach, but only to rise and greet him, to fold round his
bright orb, and add increasing beauty to his beams. The Abori-
gines have not been suffered simply to pass off and onward
before colonization, but have been hurried in their departure;
and this, not by the gifts from Egyptian impatience, but by the
poison of contact, and the sword of destruction.
It has been usual to associate the history of Indians and
Spaniards with that of Tasmanians and Englishmen. But if
there are some points of resemblance, there are, also, objects of
contrast. With the one, the conquest of the Aborigines was
necessary before the settlement of the country; with the other,
the paucity and feebleness of the population presented no such
barrier. Repeated efforts of an outraged but gentle race to ex-
tricate themselves from the grasp of those desecrators of their
altars, violators of their homes, and murderers of their kindred,
naturally led to their destruction. But the roamers of the gum
forests were exterminated, not because of their political hostility,
or for their insurrection against the Colonial Government, but
when, chiefly embittered by the brutality of convict stock-
keepers and shepherds, they drove off the flock to the scrub,
they applied the lighted bark to the hut of the wilderness, and
they hurled the spear at the solitary one.
A difference in the object should also be observed. In the
establishment of Australian colonies, the motive was either the
SPANISH AND ENGLISH TREATMENT.
371
convenience of Government in ridding England of a social curse
and incubus, or the cupidity of men of enterprise. The weal of
the Native was not contemplated in the arrangements of the one,
or the calculations of the other. With the organization of Spanish
empires in America it was otherwise. The idea was not one of
mere conquest and lust, but, strange to say, of assumed Chris-
tian feeling and benevolence. Alas! to carry out that principle,
the steel armour accompanied the linen cassock; the clanking
of swords mingled with the exhortation of preachers; the
smoke of ruined cities rose with the perfume of the censer; and
the shrieks of victims entered the portals of heaven, in company
with hymns to the gentle Jesus.
The crowns of England and Spain recognised to a certain ex-
tent the rights of the Aborigines to protection. The last-named
did more the object of invasion was declared to be the con-
version of the heathen. The expeditions departed with all the
solemnities of religious worship, and the sanction and blessing
of the Pope himself. The hearts of the faithful were excited by
pious enthusiasm, and tearful eyes indicated depth and purity of
emotion. Pizarro was required to convey in each vessel of his
warriors a certain number of ecclesiastics. That same man of
blood, in his celebrated contract with Almagro and Father
Lugue, was quite pathetic in, his expression of the Virgin's love
to Indian souls. Colonial functionaries had reiterated instruc-
tions that the conversion of the Natives was the primary object
of the Home Government; though the American historian is
forced to admit that "unfortunately in this laudable purpose
they were not often seconded by the colonists themselves."
Then, again, admitting, as we do with profound grief and
strong indignation, all that has been narrated of the atrocities
of the Spaniards, we have sets-off of a pleasing character, which
shine not upon the page of Australian story. If there was a
Cortez, there was a Las Casas. The evangelizing missionary issued
from the bosom of the same nation as gave birth to the deso-
lating conqueror. The garotte of Atahualpa, and the fiery bed
of Montezuma, are revolting objects of contemplation. But who
can imagine without satisfaction the Christian fane in the cactus
wilds, the grouping of Indian worshippers, and the red-skin
students of the schools? Even the eloquence of the Protestant
Prescott is aroused at the thought of the self-denying Spanish
BB 2
372
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
Padre, whom that historian describes as "at all times ready to
lift up his voice against the cruelty of the conqueror, and the no
less wasting cupidity of the colonist; and when his remon-
strances, as was too often the case, have proved unavailing, he
has still followed to bind up the broken-hearted, to teach the
poor Indian resignation under his lot, and light up his dark
intellect with the revelation of a holier and happier existence."
Who ever heard of the English missionary to the poor Tas-
manians? We threw him a crust, or sent him a bullet; we
laughed at his corrobory, or carried off the wife of his home;
but we never thought of his soul. It is true the church bells
toned in his ear; but they pealed not for him. The robed
teacher addressed the Deity; but the prayer was not for him.
Men wept for the votaries of Boodh, and sighed for erring
Israel; but no tear fell for him. Entrenched in the pride of
their spiritual citadel, Christians had no sympathy for the
dark, opossum-rug clad wanderer, over whose plains their flocks
browsed, and in whose rich vales their corn waved.
We have not the miserable satisfaction of feeling, in the
decline of the Tasmanians, that our motives in the occupation
of their country, and the consequent exile of their race, were
influenced by the elevating thoughts of the Spaniards of the
sixteenth century. They dealt with millions, we with straggling
hordes. Their desolations formed no part of their policy, but
were none the less terrible for the race. Las Casas declares that
from twelve to fifteen millions of American Aborigines disap-
peared before the Spaniards in forty years. Hayti had a million,
but became extinct of aboriginal life in 1729. When men felt
they were but the instruments of God, they knew no pity, they
had no remorse.
In
But we need be as much ashamed of our own countrymen in
the New World as of the Spaniards. Our colonists met with no
vast numbers in the field, but warred with what there were.
the "
History of Connecticut" it is said that 180,000 Indians
perished there. The historian shows further that the Puritans,
persecuted in England, forgot the instincts of mercy in their new
home. They carried their Old Testament proclivities thither,
and, regarding themselves as favoured Israelites in the Promised
Land, proceeded to exterminate a people whose "iniquity was
full," like so many Heaven-commissioned Joshuas. Even the
AMALGAMATION OF RACES.
373
pious Cotton Mather was so imbued with this fierce doctrine,
and so full of complacent regard for the Lord's people, as to
exult in a destructive sickness among the Indians, and could
quietly write: "By this prodigious pestilence the woods were
cleared of those pernicious creatures, to make room for a better
growth."
Mr. Merivale, in his "Colonies and Colonization," lays down
the principle that "Native races must in every instance either
perish, or be amalgamated with the general population of their
country."
The amalgamation with aboriginal people has never been a
favourite theory with the colonists from the British Isles. In a
certain circle, the presence of Indian blood, provided it be direct
from Pocahontas, or other historical princess, would be a pass-
port to respectability; otherwise, it need not be mentioned.
With the Spaniards and Portuguese it is otherwise. Alliance
with the coloured race, though not always a necessity, was
unobjectionable to taste, and was sanctioned by religion. The
spread of mixed populations over the Americas has preserved
the Indian element, not only by direct amalgamation, but by
the growth of sympathy with the dark man of the woods. The
Romish Church was eager to facilitate such unions, as they
extended its influence and secured its triumphs.
Though the gratification of mere lustful emotions brought the
opposing races occasionally together in our southern settlements,
it tended greatly to the further decline of the weaker people.
Marriages were scorned, and lengthened associations were only
maintained for the convenience of the stronger party, to be
broken at his will, and annulled without remorse. Concubinage
itself was abhorrent to many Bushmen, when with such a
debased and inferior race as the Tasmanians, especially in the
later times of their degradation and decay. But still, with the
lighter coloured, higher developed, and even graceful inhabitants
of New Zealand, the alliance could not reach beyond the
temporary and the selfish. Some remarks from a recent number
of the Taranaki Herald of New Zealand illustrate the difficulties
in the way:
"The great excess of males over females will of itself prevent
in a great measure intermarriage between white men and native
In addition to which it may be mentioned that, until
women.
374
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
lately at least, the missionaries encouraged marriages among the
Natives at an injuriously premature age of the females, to
prevent their being sold to white men for illicit purposes—a
practice not suppressed by the tone of society which exists in
the colony. Those early marriages have become habitual among
the Natives, and it is painful to witness its result upon the
diseased and feeble generation which is now growing up. An
educated European who marries a native woman must give up
all ideas of peace and comfort. A Maori will never marry a
white woman, because he feels her superiority, and he cannoţ
make a slave of her as a native woman. No white woman, not
even the most degraded, could be induced to unite herself to a
Maori-to herd, native-fashion, in a pa, amid dirt, vermin, and
discomfort."
The Government of Van Diemen's Land was not indifferent to
the amalgamation idea, as may be seen in this work. If not
offering a bonus for such unions, several instances are recorded
of grants of land to men who have been legally married to
Tasmanian females, but which property could not be sold during
the lifetime of the Native. Under the head of "Half-Castes,"
the subject receives further discussion.
Not able to amalgamate, the other unfortunate condition
followed-they perished.
The Puritans were not alone in the belief that the Aborigines.
were a sort of Canaanitish people, who were doomed to be exter-
minated by the peculiar people. Even the missionary to the
Blacks of New South Wales, Mr. Threlkeld, seems to find some
comfort, in his natural astonishment at the rapid diminution of
his charge, from feeling that it "is from the wrath of God, which
is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteous-
ness of men.” He utters this sentiment when standing in a
colony constructed out of the refuse crime of Britain, and rapidly
filling the land with their prosperous descendants! The Rev.
Dr. Lang, of Sydney, more mildly observes: "It seems, indeed,
to be a general appointment of Divine Providence that the
Indian wigwam of North America and the miserable Aborigines
of New Holland should be utterly swept away by the flood-tide of
European colonization." This is the common idea of many good
people, who call it " an inscrutable Providence." In olden times,
all pestilences arising from the neglect of organic laws,—all
DECLINE, A DECREE OF PROVIDENCE.
375
famines proceeding from the cruelty or ignorance of society,-
and all wars coming from the passions of men,-were esteemed
"appointments of Divine Providence." Professor Waitz properly
rebukes this impiety, or self-delusive blindness, in this manner :
"According to the teaching of the American school, the higher
races are destined to displace the lower. The extinction of the
lower is predestined by Nature; and it would thus appear that
we must not merely acknowledge the right of the white American
to destroy the Red man, but perhaps praise him that he has
constituted himself the instrument of Providence in carrying
out and promoting this law of destruction."
Not a few put away the paltry religious pretence, and take
up the broad doctrine of necessity. Mr. Squier, the distinguished
American traveller and ethnologist, asserts, in his "Central
America," that "short-sighted philanthropy may lament, and
sympathy drop a tear, as it looks forward to the total dis-
appearance of the lower forms of humenity, but the laws of
nature are irreversible-it is the will of God." But Captain
Burton, the enterprising explorer, takes up this bold ground:
"Maugre some evidence to the contrary, I still believe that the
North American Aborigine, like the Tasmanian and the Aus-
tralian, is but a temporary denizen of the world, who falls in the
first struggle with nature. He is like a wild animal, to be
broken, but not to be tamed, as the wolf can be taught to refrain
from worrying, but cannot be made to act as a dog. In his
wild state, the Indian falls before the white man. Settled and
civilized, he dies of acute disease."
As
That is, the Blacks go before the superior Caucasian race, as
the old, gigantic Saurians before other types of beings, and we
have but to shrug our shoulders, and cry, "Poor fellows!"
the Irish elk retired before the Celt, the reindeer before the
hunters of Gaul, so the Tasmanian before the Saxon. But while
the Native thus retires, the kangaroo does not, the opossum does
not. These very ancient animals suffer no diminution, but are
greater pests to the settlers than ever the Blacks were, destroy-
ing crops or monopolizing the choicest pastures. Battues of
thousands fail sensibly to thin the kangaroo army. The Native
dog, or dingo, is nearly poisoned off, and the emu is hunted
from the plains; but the fleet kangaroo conceals himself in the
scrub by day to feed on the squatter's grass by night, as if he
376
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
believed that he had a right to the land from which his dark-
skinned hunter had been driven.
The learned Bodichon expresses the sentiments of many poli-
tical economists and jurists in these words:"In the eyes of
theology they are lost men; in the eyes of morality, vicious
men; in the eyes of humanitary economy, they are non-pro-
ducers. From their origin they had not recognised, and they
still refuse to recognise, a supreme law imposed by the
Almighty, viz. the obligation of labour.” He advances, and
develops the extreme views of the question in these words of
ominous meaning to the few aboriginal races remaining :-"True
philosophy should not tolerate the existence of a race whose
nationality is opposed to progress, and who constantly struggle
against the general rights and interests of humanity."
The author of the work on "The Universal Destruction of
Aboriginal Nations," denies the position assumed by the Neces-
sitarians. "He who talks of a necessity," says he, "that uncivi-
lized man must perish away before civilized, proud though he
may be in his own fancied light, is, with respect to the nobler
qualities of man, barbarous and uncivilized himself. That
almost all historical experience is on the side of the extermi-
nating politician we are compelled, alas! to admit, to the shame
of our race and of our country; but, in the name of humanity,
we indignantly deny that the circumstances which impel the
civilized race to root out the uncivilized are inevitable."
The decline, however, has in some cases at least been observed
to have commenced before the advent of Englishmen. As Rome
had sensibly fallen before the walls were polluted by the tramp
of the barbarian, had declined in vigour, had decreased in popu-
lation, and was crumbling to decay by the operation of causes
within, so were the Natives in some places deteriorating in
numbers, and waning in social strength. Devastating pesti-
lences had swept over the forests, intestine wars had thinned the
tribes, and physical decadence of family had commenced. Mr.
Wohlers, of New Zealand, has these remarkable observations
upon the fall of the Maories, which may, perhaps, be applied
with justice to other people :-
<<
Studying the old New Zealand mythology, and other infor-
mation about the Aborigines in the South Seas, it is my indivi-
dual opinion that, at one time, long ago, they had obtained a far
ABORIGINES EVERYWHERE GOING.
377
higher degree of culture than they are in possession of at pre-
sent, or of later years, and that at that time they were both
healthy and flourishing; but that both their religious and civil
institutions having been decayed, and, particularly in New Zea-
land, almost annihilated, they were sunken into a very feeble and
degraded condition, and that that is the original cause of their
decrease. If, therefore, Christianity and civilization had never
been brought them by Europeans, they would gradually have
vanished by themselves."
But there is no evidence to show that Australians and Tas-
manians had a more consolidated and advanced state. The re-
mark of Mr. Wohlers applies only to races having, like the
Maories, a civilization of their own, and not to a migratory
people. At the same time there is much force in what Mr. J.
W. Jackson says, that "there is increasing evidence that these
ruder types once occupied a much wider area in the world than
they now do. It is also obvious that the day of their approach-
ing extinction is measurable, if not by decades, at least by cen-
turies. We are in many ways on the verge of an ethnic crisis.”
Certainly, when we hear the cry of America for the
Americans," and "Italy for the Italians,”—when we observe the
heaving of the various dislocated tribes of Sclaves for union, and
when we painfully witness the disappearance of races, we are
conscious of being on the verge of an ethnic crisis.
((
The death-struggle of ancient peoples is known on all sides
of us.
In some places they seem, as Humboldt so grandly
describes, "the fading remnants of a society sinking amidst
storms, overthrown and shattered by overwhelming catas-
trophes." At other times they appear, as Mr. Markham, the
naturalist, speaks of the present Peruvian Indians, "marching
slowly down the gloomy and dark road to extinction." A few
illustrations from other lands will prepare for the story of the
decline of the Tasmanians. Such will sadly demonstrate Mr.
Darwin's philosophy that "the varieties of man seem to act
upon each other in the same way as different species of
animals; the stronger always extirpates the weaker." The
coloured races are those which suffer, though there is evidently a
vitality in negroes which, to a great extent, defies our power of
destruction. Favoured with less sensibility, or endowed with.
stronger frame, they flourish where others fail, and they increase
378
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
with Hebrew facility under worse than Egyptian bondage. The
fact is recognised, though philosophy ventures upon no proper
solution of the enigma. The negro dwells in pestilential
swamps, in sultry valleys, on mountain tops, on arid plains, in
damp, and in cold. His merry, careless laugh is heard in every
clime. The language, therefore, of Poeppig, the student of
natural history, will not apply to him; for, said he of the dark
skin, “He cannot endure the spread of European civilization in
his neighbourhood; but perishes in its atmosphere, without suf-
fering from ardent spirits, epidemics, or wars, as if touched by a
poisonous breath."
When the two ministers forming the deputation from the
London Missionary Society came to King Pomare II. of Tahiti,
he saluted them with these mournful words: "You have come
to see me in a very bad time. Your ancestors came in the time
of men, when Tahiti was inhabited; you are come to behold
just the remnant of my people." A prophecy of Teearmoar, the
high priest of Paree, is often repeated by the islanders :-
E tupu te fau,
E torro te farero,
E mou te taata.
""
The palm tree (fau) shall grow,
The coral (farero) shall spread,
But man (mou) shall cease.
Captain Cook estimated the population of Tahiti in his day at
200,000. It is now but little more than one-tenth of it. Mr.
Herman Melville describes some of the causes of that decrease:
'To say nothing of the effects of drunkenness," said he, "the
occasional inroads of the small-pox, and other things that might
be mentioned, it is sufficient to allude to a virulent disease, which
now taints the blood of at least two-thirds of the common
people of the island; and, in some form or other, is transmitted
from father to son. Their first horror and consternation at the
earlier ravages of this scourge were pitiable in the extreme.
The very name bestowed upon it is a combination of all that is
horrid and unmentionable to a civilized being."
Hawaii is another frightful example of declension of
numbers. In 1823 the population was 140,000, though the
Natives declare it was once four times that amount. In 1838 it
had fallen to 108,000; in 1849, to 80,000; in 1853, to 71,000; in
1860, to 67,000; in 1863, to 62,000. There were one-fifth more
males than females-the effect of libertinism. Dr. Ruschen-
1
HAWAIIAN AND MAORI DECLINE.
379
berger, U.S. Navy, found 8,679 in the district of Rohalo in one
year, and but 6,175 four years after. In the district of Hana-
pepe there were eight deaths recorded to one birth. Of 1,154
men, selected from one portion of the island, twenty-five only
had a family of three children. Out of 637 elsewhere, ten only
had three. The official reports give an average of half a child to
each married couple on the whole island; of eighty married
women only thirty-nine ever had offspring. Well might Mr.
Wylie of the Foreign Office exclaim, "It is my frank belief
that unless Hawaiian females can be rendered more pure and
chaste, it is impossible to preserve the Hawaiian people in
being." And yet they are the most civilized of the Pacific
Islanders.
The same melancholy record is given of the interesting
Samoans and other civilized South Sea people. They are
accepting our religion, wearing our clothes, conforming to our
habits, and hastening to their extinction. In spite of their
former infanticides, murders, wars, cannibalism, the Fijians
were the most populous of the ocean races; now those crimes
have nearly ceased, and yet they are going the way of death.
:
It is with the Tasmanian's eastern neighbour, the Maori, that
the devastation is as disastrous. From the official statistics the
following facts are gleaned :-Of 222 wives in one district, 75
are reported barren; of 440 wives in another, 155 were barren.
There were only 24,000 females to 31,000 males in 1858. A
comparison of the two races is thus made with one death in
136 of the White population, it was oue in 33 of the Maori;
and with one birth in 25 of the White, it was one in 67 of the
other. These two causes must bring on ultimate extinction.
One-fifth of the population passed away during the fourteen
years previous to the census of 1858. That twenty per cent.
will be greatly increased during the next fourteen, as decrepitude
induces greater rapidity of extinction. In the district of Ngati-
karewa, the magistrate declared that among seventeen women
there was but one female child. "The present generation," writes
the Rev. Mr. Ellis, "deeply sensible of the depopulation that has
taken place, even within the recollection of those most advanced
in years, have felt acutely in prospect of the annihilation that
appeared inevitable." The Maories themselves have a poetical
and affecting way of picturing their future" As clover killed
380
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
the fern, and the European dog the Maori dog-as the Maori rat
was destroyed by the Pakeha rat-so our people, also, will be
gradually supplanted and exterminated by the Europeans."
A Buffalo paper was some time ago exulting in the thought
of the monopoly of the world by Americans, saying, "Sixty
years ago there were only six millions in America (U.S.); now
there are twenty-six millions. In another century they will be
sixty millions, and they will spread over the earth until the
globe be theirs!" It is this heartless egoism of our common
race of Britain and America that so shocks the benevolent mind,.
and chills the aspiration for a better policy toward the native
peoples. Major Warburton could tell the Buffalo editor that
with his Indian of the prairies, "no soothing voice of affection
fell upon his ear, no gentle kindness wooed him from his savage
isolation. The hand of irresistible power was stretched out,—
not to raise him from his low estate, and lead him into the
brotherhood of civilized man,—but to thrust him away with
cruel and unjust disdain." The Indian Bible which Elliott
translated can now be read by no one. With such indifference
and recklessness among the civilized, we are ready to believe
what Dr. Wilson, in his "Prehistoric Man," asserts: "Whole
tribes and nations have disappeared, without even a memorial
mound, or pictured grave post, to tell when the last of the race
is returning to the earth from whence he sprang." Dr. Gliddon
gives utterance to the same thought: "Who can count how
many races have already disappeared! What populations, of
which we ignore the history, the very existence, have quitted
the globe, without leaving on it their name, at least for a
trace."
man.
Strong drink has played an important part, as we have seen,
in the decline of aboriginal races. Sir Francis Head, in a
despatch to Lord Glenelg, said, "Wherever and whenever the
two races come in contact, it is sure to prove fatal to the red
If we stretch forth the hand of friendship, the liquid fire
it offers him to drink proves still more destructive than our wrath."
The King of Basutos, when converted to our faith, prohibited
the introduction of alcoholic liquors into his dominions. Other
chiefs of Native races have tried the same expedient, but while
traders and missionaries themselves use the drink, it is in vain.
to maintain such prohibitory laws, especially as a declining race
DRINK THE GREAT DESTROYER.
381
ever flee to it for solace in their sorrow. That true friend of the
coloured races, Bishop Selwyn, now Bishop of Lichfield, is
reported to have uttered these solemn words, at a missionary
meeting in Manchester :—
"He had spoken of the seeming failure of the work in New
Zealand. He had to tell them of one of its causes. The people
of the New Zealand race stood out for many years against the
temptation to intoxication, but if the native people of New
Zealand had given way to the sin of intoxication, from whom
would God require an account of their sin? It was not a sin
of native growth; it was an imported, an exotic, sin. They
stood against it for a time, but as their faith failed they gave
way to the temptations forced upon them by their English
brethren. They had heard it said, and they were fearful words,
that it was the law of nature that the coloured races should
melt away before the advance of civilization. He would tell
them where that law was registered, and who were its agents.
It was registered in hell, and its agents were those whom Satan
made twofold more the children of hell than himself. He from
the bottom of his heart urged them to do all they could to
discountenance the use of spirituous liquors."
In another work I have portrayed some mournful illustra-
tions of the effect of drink on the Aborigines of New Holland,
particularly on women. By it the latter were seduced into
abhorrent vices, by it they contracted a horrible disease, by it
they raised the anger and murderous blow of husbands and
brothers, by it they degrade and kill the tribe.
The Corio tribe, living in the Geelong neighbourhood, were, at
the time of my going to the south, a powerful body. A recent
number of the Geelong Register has this paragraph, which tells
of drink and decline: "The Corio tribe is nearly extinct, as
King Jerry and one male companion are all that are now known
to reside in the district. The last-named is far from well, and
both are evidently shortening their existence by their habits of
living." The physical and moral declension of the Aborigines
by drink has tended to disgust the decent colonist, who wishes
them out of his presence. The Adelaide Observer, like almost
all the Australian papers, has uniformly taken the side of virtue,
and maintained humane and generous principles, but could not
forbear giving up all hope from the increasing drunkenness of
382
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
the Natives, and added, "The miserable races composing the
Native tribes of this continent will soon melt away."
The Tasmanians suffered less from strong drink than the
Australians have done, because they were less social with the
Whites, and preferred. dwelling apart in the independence of
the wilderness. But every case I have examined into of,
so-called, partial civilization has been one of misery from
that cause. Whalers, stock-keepers, and sealers employed that
agency for the accomplishment of their purpose with the Black
women. The Tame Mob" that hung about Hobart Town in
early times, were dissolute and drunken. The unhappy remnant
at Oyster Cove deplored their exposure to that curse; and,
while declaring their passion for the excitement, spoke feelingly
of the cruelty of subjecting them to its temptation.
No story can be sadder, as illustrating both civilization and
decline, than that told me at Oyster Cove by the Superintendent
concerning a beautiful Tasmanian girl, who had been adopted by
Lady Franklin, and afterwards thrown into the herd of degraded
savages. She had dwelt in the Colonial palace, had been taught,
petted, and trained to higher hopes. She was then left to grope
her way to the grave along with the untutored of her own race,
the ignorant and vicious of ours. But a friend has sent me his
own sketch of the girl. It appeared in the Hobart Town
Mercury last June. He describes a visit of Lady Franklin's to
the Blacks' temporary station, where was a pretty baby.
<<
As there were no picaninnies," says he, "at Government
House at that time, it was in some way arranged that an addi-
tion should be made to the family at home; and so it was
ordered that the little wild girl should take her place as one of
the family. The king's daughter carried no dowry with her,
save, indeed, a single kangaroo-skin, a rush basket, a shell
necklace or two, a pet opossum, and her name-that was Ma-
thinna. This pretty sound means in the language of her fathers
'Beautiful Valley.' She grew to be a tall, graceful girl-and
here I am at a loss to describe perhaps one of the grandest
specimens of our kind that ever nature smiled upon. She stood,
when I saw her last, about five feet eight inches high, was very
erect, with a quick, thoughtless, or perhaps thinking, if you please,
toss about her head now and then. Her hair still curled short
as before, but seemed to struggle into length, and was blacker
STORY OF THE CIVILIZED MATHINNA.
383
than black, bright, glossy, and oh! so beautiful! Her features
were well chiselled, and singularly regular, while her voice was
light, quick, yet sighed like, and somewhat plaintive."
He goes on with his sad narrative. "When Sir John Franklin
was ordered home, the Tasmanian beauty did not go with her
ladyship. The medical men thought her unfit for the rough
English climate. She was left behind. But, strangely enough,
instead of her being placed with a household of respectability
and virtue, where at least her happiness would have been con-
sulted, she was thrust into the Convict Orphan School, where
some black children had been sent to be educated or to suffer
and to die."
"Poor Mathinna," adds my friend, "was transferred sobbing
and broken-hearted, from the tender care of one who had always
proved far more than a mother to her, and the luxury and
grandeur of Government House, to a cold stretcher in the
dormitory of the Queen's Asylum. She soon fell sick, and
took to her bed in the hospital. Poor girl! she had no
friends then, save one, who sleeps with her now. All those
fawners about Government House who used to say kind things,
and pretend to be proud to take her hand in the ball-room
because it pleased Lady Franklin, had all disappeared; and,
as her wan fingers beat upon the wall, she sighed and thought
of days gone by, and of that flock of summer friends who
revelled in the sunshine of the hour, but vanished with its
splendour."
When the Flinders Island establishment was removed to
Oyster Cove, she was ordered thither. The sequel is well told
in my friend's sad tale:
Too soon, alas! she fell into the habits of the rest; and, as
they were permitted to wander about in the Bush in all direc-
tions, amongst sawyers, splitters, and characters of the deepest
depravity, the reader may guess for himself what my pen
refuses to write. One night, however, Mathinna was missing; and,
although cooey after cooey resounded from mountain to mountain,
and from gully to gully, no tidings were heard of the lost girl.
In the morning the search was continued, till at length the
wanderer was found. The little wild girl with the shell neck-
lace, and the pet opossum-the scarlet-coated, bare-headed
beauty in the carriage-the protégé of the noblewoman-the
384
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
reclaimed daughter of the native chief, had died, abandoned by
every virtue, and-drunk-in the river!"
The decline has been attributed by many to the "breeding in
and in " practice, as the Tasmanians had been isolated for many
generations from contact with any other people. This doctrine
has been presented forcibly by Mr. George Combe in his "Con-
stitution of Man," and has been acted upon by the regulations
of savage tribes, as well as by the exhortations and enactments
of churches and states. The "degrees" have been insisted
upon. From not "marrying a grandmother," down to the
Chinese regulation of not marrying out of his own clan, the
man has been hedged in with his natural proclivities. The
decay of nations, the diseases of families, the imbecility and
unproductiveness of certain royal houses, have been ascribed to
this cousinly practice of close breeding. But of late, the argu-
ment for the other side has been taken up. Instances,-like that
given by Quatrefages of the fishing village of western France,
where a couple of thousand healthy, good-looking, and intel-
ligent people are found having no connexion out of their
borders-or like the brawny "Caller Herring" women of the
Forth-have been adduced to prove the contrary. Several
French and English physiologists have lately been opening up
the question, and have brought forward statistical evidence to
prove the contrary of what has generally been assumed as the
evil consequences of "cousin unions.”
Mr. Fenton is of the old belief, and writes: One other cause
of depopulation suggests itself to the mind of the writer-the
constant intermixture of blood during the twenty generations
that the Maories have occupied this country." But, according
to the Maori traditions, the settlement was made those twenty
generations ago by a few canoe-loads only. When first known
to Captain Cook, the islands were thronged with people. The
"intermixture" must have been closer at the formation of the
colony by the Maories. Mr. Heaphy, another New Zealand
authority, attempts similarly to account for the "run out" of
the race.
Has isolation been the cause?" says he. "I am
not aware that the fact of New Zealand being the populated
island most remote in the world from any other populated
country has attracted the attention of naturalists. May an
infusion of fresh blood not be necessary to restore prolificacy?
CONSUMPTION THE GREAT CAUSE.
385
Among the islands of Melanesia, where communication from
group to group is easy, the villages teem with children, and
young mothers with several young children hanging about them
are met continually, notwithstanding the effect of disease and
the insecurity of perpetual warfare."
But had not New Zealand declined most rapidly after their
bloody intestine wars had ceased, after cannibalism and infanti-
cide had disappeared, after the filth of pas had been removed,
after chastity and temperance had succeeded impurity and
drunkenness, after Christianity had supplanted heathenism?
'Intercourse with other tribes has, in fact, been promoted by
commerce, been cemented by missions.
The cases of Melanesia and New Zealand, or, more aptly, the
Papuans of Melanesia and the Papuans of Tasmania, are not
parallel. The islanders of those equatorial regions have not
been, except at rare intervals, even visited by Europeans.
Although communication be easy, it is not expedient, for each
island is a nation in itself, having its independent language, and
only coming in contact with others on terms of destructive
warfare. The "new blood" has more force when applied to
Tasmania.
The importation of diseases has, doubtless, accelerated the
departure of Natives. Hearne ventures so far as to affirm that
nine-tenths of the North American Indians perished from small-
pox. Scrofula is regarded as a most subtle and destructive
cause. Syphilis has been a fearful scourge, though something
of that character, perhaps, existed in the South Seas before the
visit of our navigators. Dr. Broca does not esteem it the prin-
cipal agent in their decline, remarking that it has never been so
horrible in modern times among savages as it was in Europe
three or four hundred years ago. Dr. Bourgard examined a
number of dead bodies at Tahiti, and found tubercles in all, or
nearly all. He thinks that we have imparted consumption,
which has raged as an epidemic among them. "It has thus,"
he says, "destroyed the families without noise, and as if by
stealth." He concludes by asking, "Is it become an epidemic,
while preserving its character of hereditary, and does it thus
constitute the most complete scourge that medicine can inscribe
upon its nosological list ?"
Dr. Jeanneret thus refers to the decline on Flinders Island :
CC
386
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS,
"This was, perhaps, unavoidable under so sudden a change,
from a life of hazard to one of comparative indolence, without
precautions which experience alone could indicate. Many of
them were aged. Several still suffered from the effects of their
wounds, and few were prepared to adopt the means of graduating
their exchanged position. The temporary necessity of resorting
to a diet of salt provisions might also possibly operate preju-
dicially." He speaks of a pseudo-civilization "increasing an
inherent tendency to pulmonary and inflammatory affections
and several were victims of intermutual violence and revenge.'
He told me that some had confessed to him that men had
received blows in the loins, which would, in their decaying
condition, produce the manifestations of consumption.
;
One prominent exponent of the Tasmanian decline, as with
that of others, was the absence of children. Mr. A. C. Gregory,
the celebrated explorer of Northern Australia, told me that
in Queensland the want of reproduction was being already
felt with the Blacks, even in the most recently settled
parts, and that decay would set in. Though, without doubt,
many Tasmanian aboriginal children disappeared during the
hardships and harassment of the "Black War," yet the absence
of births even more than the frequency of deaths completed the
destruction of the people. From inquiry of the nine women at
Oyster Cove, I learned that only two of them had ever had a
child. One of the two had one child, and the other two children;
all had died many years ago. Upon my expressing my surprise,
one said, with a burst of laughter, "What good hab him picca-
ninny?" Another, with better taste, remarked, "What por?
blackfellow, him all die.”
But some, struck with the non-fertility of Australian and Tas-
manian women, have supposed that some mysterious effect was
produced by their intercourse with white men. Count Strzelecki
advanced this theory respecting the dark-skinned female :
"She loses the powers of conception, on a renewal of inter-
course with a male of her own race, retaining only that of pro-
creating with the white man." Again, "Hundreds of instances
of this extraordinary fact are recorded in the writer's memoranda,
all occurring invariably under the same circumstances among
the Hurons, Seminoles, Red Indians, Yakies, Mendoza Indians,
Auracos, South Sea Islanders, and Natives of New Zealand,
COUNT STRZELECKI'S THEORY.
387
New South Wales, and Van Diemen's Land; and all tending to
prove that the sterility of the female is not accidental, but
follows laws as cogent, though as mysterious, as the rest of
those connected with generation."
The common opinion among colonists is that such sterility is
in consequence of their mode of life, as with the prostitutes of
Europe; and that, though very occasionally a half-caste has
appeared, the females became so rapidly diseased, or internally
enfeebled, as to be unable to produce. This is especially seen
in the Australian races, and those of New Zealand and the
Pacific Islands.
Whatever the exceptions, births with Blacks, after intercourse
with Whites, were, as a rule, unknown. While travelling
through the volcanic country of Mount Gambier, I heard of an
instance of a woman bearing a child to a young Black, after she
had been delivered of two half-castes. Other examples have
been mentioned to me. Addressing the Rev. Mr. Ridley upon
the question, as he had had great experience among the Natives
of New South Wales, he answers, "In all parts I have heard it
said that black children are never born of mothers who have
given birth to half-castes. I never heard of one instance in
which this occurred." Mr. A. Oldfield, of Western Australia,
says, "During twenty years' observation I have ever found the
Count's statement to be correct."
On the other hand, the German Gipps Land Missionary,
Mr. Hagenauer, writes thus to me:
"This is not true, for every
woman (at his mission) who had a half-caste child has had
black children afterwards, and is still getting them." The Rev.
George Taplin of Queensland Missions has this observation: "I
have known many instances of women bearing black children
after half-castes." Many are ready to declare the same of negro
nations. Though six Tahitians were with nine seamen of the
Bounty in association with thirteen Tahitian females, the
children were all half-castes.
As to our Tasmanians, Dr. Milligan has at least one exception.
Writing in 1851, he says: "There is now living at the Tasmanian
Aborigines' Establishment, at Oyster Cove, a native black woman
of Tasmania, who, when young, bore black children to her native
husband-then several half-castes, of whom two grown-up
women are now alive-and, finally, two or three black children
CC 2
388
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
(one of whom is now a fine boy about nine years old) by a black
countryman, to whom she was united upon being removed from
her European protector." Dr. Jeanneret of Flinders declares:
"I do not think Strzelecki was right in his estimate of their
fertility."
To my interrogative of "Why did they cease having children?"
I received the following reply from Dr. Story, a benevolent
member of the Society of Friends, who has lived at Swanport,
in Tasmania, for between forty and fifty years :-"I think it a
physiological question, that from want of sufficient data could
not be answered. I do not know if the medical men who have
attended the Natives ever ventilated the question. The deaths
at Flinders Island, and the attempts at civilizing the Natives,
were consequent on each other. If left to themselves, to roam
as they were wont, and undisturbed, they would have reared
more children, and there would have been less mortality. The
change to Flinders induced or developed an apathic condition of
the constitution, rendering them more susceptible of the heats
and chills attendant on their corrobories, inducing a peculiar
disease in the thoracic viscera." Elsewhere he writes:
"After
1823 the women along with the tribe seemed to have had no
children; but why I do not know. Their being at war with the
Whites may have caused the mothers to neglect their infants, or
frights caused continual abortions, until the uterine system was
habituated to it."
Among the opinions collected upon the theory of non-fertility,
a letter was sent me from Mr. Surveyor-General Calder, of Hobart
Town. "I believe," wrote he, "there is mighty humbug in
Count Strzelecki's theory, that where a savage woman has had
sexual intercourse with a white man, she is for ever after in-
capable of having children by a man of her own race. What
can colour signify? I should almost as soon think of asserting
that a black mare could not have a foal by a black horse after
having had one by a white one." But he was good enough to
enclose me a note from Mr. Solly, Assistant Colonial Secretary
of Tasmania; and to whom I take this opportunity of acknow-
ledging my gratitude for past literary assistance.
Mr. Solly
says:
"When I was a resident in South Australia, I knew a
woman, an aboriginal Native, the mother (at least I have no
doubt she was the mother) of a half-caste child, who had subse-
THE NATIVE UNPRODUCTIVE.
389
quently another child as dark as herself, and without question
the child of a black man." He then proceeds to philosophize
upon the subject, saying, "Many of these poor black women
used to prostitute themselves for clothes, tobacco, or 'white
money,' and, in such cases, I question whether they would bear
children any more than white prostitutes."
There is another side of this question. The female is not
alone in defective virility. A New Zealand writer says that a
"full quiver is the ordinary result of mixed marriages." There
never was a difficulty about children with Whites, even when
black children in Tasmania were almost unknown. A case in
Victoria may bear upon the subject. Seventeen years ago I
knew a native who was knocking about the settled districts,
having a wife, but being childless. Then he was often intoxi-
cated. About a year since I saw him healthy and happy. He
was under good influence, had kept away from town life, and
was then working quietly upon his little bit of ground. He had
regained his vigour, and with great glee held up a fine black
child, that he took from its black mother, and claimed for his own.
Although the destruction in Tasmania was not so awful in
magnitude as on the continent, where the Rev. L. E. Threlkeld
says, Of one large tribe in the interior four years since there
were 164 persons, now there are only three individuals alive,”-
yet the account of Flinders Island experience is a sad one of
decline. Surgeon Allen in 1837 wrote from Flinders: "It is
almost certain that these people will become extinct in a few
years." It is sickening to read such extracts as these from the
medical reports :—
(C
“20 Feb. 1837.-Died this day of chronic visceral inflamma-
tion, the native man Algernon.-J. Allen, Surgeon.
22 Feb. 1837.—Died this evening of acute visceral inflam-
mation, the native man Omega.-J. Allen, Surgeon.
"25 Feb. 1837.-Died this evening of chronic visceral inflam-
mation, the native man Matthew.-J. Allen, Surgeon.
"29 Feb. 1837.-Died this day of visceral chronic inflamma-
tion, the native woman Tinedeburrie.-J. Allen, Sur-
geon."
The decline of our Aborigines would be explained by Mr.
Brace, in his ethnological work, as proceeding "from the wear
390
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
and contact with a different and grasping race." He explains
further:-"This must not be understood to be a poetic or sen-
timental statement. It is a scientific consideration now, in
explaining the diminution of any barbarous or inferior race in
presence of a more powerful one-the effect on the spirits or
temperament which the contrast of a different and more for-
tunate people causes." This is especially the truth in relation
to the Tasmanians. The iron entered into the souls of these
sensitive men. They sank under the burden of the thought.
Our Tasmanians suffered from heart sickness and home sick-.
ness. Mr. R. H. Davis, in his interesting notice, refers to their
residence on Flinders, "where," says he, "they have been treated
with uniform kindness; nevertheless, the births have been few,
and the deaths numerous. This may have been in a great
measure owing to their change of living and food; but more so
to their banishment from the mainland of Van Diemen's Land,
which is visible from Flinders Island; and the Natives have
often pointed it out to me with expressions of the deepest sorrow
depicted on their countenances." Dr. Barnes was conscious of
the same antagonism to his medical treatment, saying, "They
pine away, not from any positive disease, but from a disease they
call home sickness.' They die from a disease of the stomach,
which comes on entirely from a desire to return to their own
country." The Ranz des Vaches appeals to the imagination, and
excites romantic impulses, though proceeding from the lips of
voluntary exiles from their Swiss mountain-home. Can it be
less affecting to witness the tear-dimmed glance of the Tasmanian
at the hills from which he was stolen, or listen to the deep sigh
of the dark captive as he dwells upon the forest haunts of his
youth, and the loved ones of his days there? When the poor
gin, with eager look and pointing finger, asked a gentleman if he
saw the white, snowy crest of the towering Ben Lomond, then
just looming in the distance, the tears rolled down her swarthy
cheeks, as she exclaimed, "That-me-country." Perhaps Governor
Bourke was justified in declaring, "They conceive that the God
of the English is removing the aboriginal inhabitants to make
room for them."
It was not to be expected that so mournful a fate could be a
matter of indifference to statesmen, and we hear again and
again expressions of sympathy from our British rulers. When
HOME SICKNESS.
391
Governor Arthur wrote home about the terrible decline of the
Tasmanians, even before the great conflict of the Line, and
subsequent battle strife, Sir George Murray thus replied in a
despatch, dated Nov. 5, 1830 :—
"The great decrease which has of late years taken place in
the amount of the aboriginal population, renders it not un-
reasonable to apprehend that the whole race of these people
may, at no distant period, become extinct. But with whatever
feelings such an event may be looked forward to by those of the
settlers who have been sufferers by the collisions which have
taken place, it is impossible not to contemplate such a result of
our occupation of the island, as one very difficult to be recon-
ciled with feelings of humanity, or even with feelings of justice
and sound policy; and the adoption of any line of conduct,
having for its avowed or secret object the extinction of the
native race, could not fail to leave an indelible stain upon the
British Government."
It was too late to attend to the benevolent cry of Lord Glenelg,
"Rescue the remnant!" It is noticed in the glens of Tasmania
that the beautiful Exocarpus, or native cherry-tree, flourishes
best beneath the shade of other forest forms. When the axe
lowers its tall and graceful companions, it begins to sicken, as
though bemoaning the loss of sympathy, and gradually decays.
Thus was it with the Natives. The departure of some let the
sun in too rudely upon the others, and they shrank in their sen-
sitive natures, hastening to the shade of the tomb.
When I was at Oyster Cove I could not avoid, when rambling
through the Bush with King Walter George Arthur, asking
a question bearing upon the departure of his people. I re-
pented of my curiosity. His face became suddenly clouded,
his eyes lost their lustre, his mouth twitched nervously at the
side, he sighed deeply, and his very body seemed to bend for-
ward. He slowly turned himself round, but said nothing.
looked like one oppressed with secret and consuming grief-
as one without hope. He had no child. All his dark friends
were childless, and were silently leaving him on the strand
alone.
He
Notice after notice appears in the Hobart Town papers of the
departure of the few I saw at Oyster Cove. Poor Patty died
early in 1867. Wabberty was then dying, leaving but two
392
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
others of the sisterhood alive. The last of the Straits Abori-
gines, known as Mrs. Julia Mansell, died in July 1867, on Sea
Lion Island. She was sixty years of age. Her large family of
half-castes were scattered through the group of islands. Her
sealer husband, now sixty-four, survives his aboriginal partner.
Walter has gone, and Maryann, his intelligent wife, has gone
also. Particulars of them may be gathered from the chapter on
"Oyster Cove."
One man remained, William Lanné. In October 1864, the
Hobart Town Mercury has this paragraph:—
At the last ball at Government House, Hobart Town, there
appeared the last male aboriginal inhabitant of Tasmania. We
had read much before of the Last Man, and heard much of the
last man of his race, but had never expected to have been
favoured with the sight of such a person. In this case, how-
ever, the person in question was accompanied by three aboriginal
females, the sole living representatives of the race beside himself,
but not of such an age, or such an appearance, as to justify the
expectation of any future addition to their numbers.”
This is the account given by the press of the Last of the
Botany Bay tribe. The poor fellow tells a gentleman his sad
tale. "Well, Mitter, all black fellow gone! All this my country!
Pretty place, Botany! Little piccaninny, I run about here.
Plenty black fellow then. Corrobory great fight. All canoe
about. Only me left now, Mitter. Poor Mini tumble down (die).
All gone! Bury her like a lady, Mitter. All put in coffin-
like English. I feel lump in throat when I talk about her; but
I bury her all very genteel, Mitter." The Rev. Mr. Threlkeld
wrote in 1855: "I saw last month the last man of the last tribe
of these districts" (near Sydney).
How expressive, as applied to such a man, is the language of
the talented and estimable Mr. Westgarth :-
"Behold him a wandering outcast; existing, apparently, with-
out motives and without object; a burden to himself, a useless
encumberer of the ground! Does he not seem pre-eminently a
special mystery in the designs of Providence, an excrescence, as
it were, upon the smooth face of nature, which is excused and
abated only by the resistless haste with which he disappears
from the land of his forefathers? Barbarous, unreflecting, and
superstitious, how strangely contrasted is an object so obnoxious

WILLIAM LANNÉ, THE LAST MAN.
· Photographed by MR. C. A. WOOLLEY, 1865. ·
WILLIAM LANNE, THE LAST MAN.
(Photographed by MR. C. A. Woolley, 1866.
به اخوند و

LANNÉ, THE LAST MAN.
393
and so useless with the brightness of a southern sky, and the
pastoral beauty of an Australian landscape."
When I went over to Hobart Town a couple of years ago,
William Lanney had just returned from a whaling voyage.
Truganina had mentioned his being a sailor, when talking to me
about "him such a fine young man." I, therefore, sought him.
Once I caught sight of him at a distance, but he was too drunk
to talk with. My young friend Mr. Woolley gave me one of his
excellent photographs of the poor fellow, a copy of which the
⚫ reader is enabled to inspect. As he was going to see the Queen,
as he said, I went several times to the ship in the hope of
catching him sober, and having a chat with him, but was obliged
to terminate my visit to the charming island unsuccessful in
that object.
William Lanney, Lanny, or Lanné, alias King Billy, the last
man of the Tasmanian Aborigines, was, singularly enough, the
last child of the last family brought from the island. The story
of their capture, near Cape Grim, is given elsewhere in the work.
Dr. Jeanneret is my authority for stating, that when the family
arrived at Flinders Island, they were unable to consort with
other Natives from their ignorance of language, and their own
speech being unknown to the rest. They were much attached
to each other. The mother, from privation and anxiety, wore
the aspect of extreme age and feebleness. The father was singu-
larly gentle in his manners. The children exhibited an affec-
tionate interest in each other, and were very fond of their little
Billy" brother. But having just received further particulars
from Dr. Milligan, the last Protector, concerning the last man,
I would give an extract from his interesting communication:-
<<
"Near the close of 1842," writes that gentleman, "being at
that time in charge of the then new Convict Department, I took
Launceston in the course of a tour of inspection of the convict
establishments in the colony. There I found placed for safe
custody, until transport to the aboriginal establishment at Flin-
ders Island could be provided, the family of Aborigines after-
wards known by the name of Lannie-consisting of a father and
mother, with a son and daughter, fourteen to eighteen years of
age, and two or three younger children, one of whom was after-
wards named 'Billy,' and who, from his being the last male
survivor of his race, together with the untoward circumstances
394
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
supervening on his decease, has acquired a posthumous notoriety,
which no condition of his life, or characteristics of his own, ever
entitled him to. As a boy and youth he was very docile, and
rather (as was very naturally to be expected) stupid and dull
of apprehension. He never attended any public school, but an
attempt was made by the catechist to teach him with the other
children, an attempt which proved him a signal failure. Lanny
or Lannie is, you will find, an aboriginal verb of the western
tribe of Tasmania, signifying to fight or strike. How it came to
be applied to the family I know not; it is certain they showed.
no fight when cleverly captured in the act of robbing in a shep-
herd's hut on the Cape Grim property of the Van Diemen's Land
Company, shortly before the date at which I first saw them in
H.M. gaol at Launceston. They were taken, I believe, between
Mount Cameron and the Arthur River, on the west coast.
The aboriginal race of Tasmania possessed, in common with wild
natives of other regions, great acuteness of vision at long dis-
tances; and to this faculty, rather than to any general fitness as
a sailor, must be attributed the employment of Billy, and of
many Polynesians of equally low development, on board whaling
ships, where a keen eye at the mast-head is often worth a mint
of money."
William Lanné afterwards sojourned with his own people at
Oyster Cove. He then contracted an acquaintance with boat-
men and sailors. Ultimately he became a whaler, and for years
sailed from Hobart Town in the Aladdin. Jolly in habits as
well as in appearance, he was always a favourite with his fellow-
seamen, and was received with enthusiasm by the old ladies of
the settlement whenever he paid them a visit. As the youngest
and handsomest of their tribes, they were loud in their praises
of him to me. Consorting with the Europeans, and having no
mate among his colour, it is not remarkable that he should have
found fault with the excellent photograph copied in this work,
and told Mr. Woolley, the artist, that it was "too black
for him.
>>
Lanné continued cruising about for years. I never heard that
her Gracious Majesty invited him to dine with her, although he
had supposed, should he ever visit England, that compliment
might have been paid to him as the last sovereign of his
ancient race. It was some consolation to receive her smiles
LANNE'S DEATH AND BURIAL.
395
indirectly, being warmly greeted by her son, the Duke of
Edinburgh, in January 1868. Clad in a blue suit, with a
gold-lace band round his cap, he walked proudly with the
Prince on the Hobart Town regatta ground, conscious that they
alone were in possession of royal blood.
A couple of months after Lanné went whaling again. He re-
turned in the Runnymede in February of the present year,
bloated and unhealthy. For several days he complained of
sickness. On the Friday he was suddenly seized with choleraic
diarrhoea, and his system was unable to bear up against the
attack. The following day he attempted to dress himself, with
a view of proceeding to the hospital for treatment, but the
exertion overcame him, and he fell dead on the bed. The
Hobart Town Mercury of March 5th, 1869, has this melancholy
record:
"He had an unfortunate propensity for beer and rum, and
was seldom sober when on shore. He was paid off on Saturday
last, when he received a balance of wages and lay amounting to
127. 13s. 5d. He took up his residence at the 'Dog and
Partridge' public-house, at the corner of Goulburn and Barrack
streets, and died from a severe attack of English cholera, as
described by us yesterday. His body was removed to the
Colonial Hospital on Wednesday night, March 3d, where it
awaits burial, and to-morrow the grave will close over the last
male aboriginal of Tasmania."
The circumstances attending this funeral were very remark-
able. From my friend Mr. J. W. Graves, barrister in Hobart
Town, I received letters relative to this extraordinary affair.
A true friend of the Tasmanians, he endeavoured to make the
occasion of national significance, and wished to see the Governor
with other officials pay the last mark of respect to the Last
Man of the Aborigines. But the Hobart Town Mercury, of
March 8th, gives the following particulars :-
THE BURIAL OF WILLIAM LANNÉ.
On Saturday afternoon the remains of "Billy Lanné," or, as he was
generally called, "King Billy," the last male Aboriginal of Tasmania,
were committed to the grave in presence of a very large concourse of
the citizens. On the announcement of the "death of the last man,"
it was generally supposed that the funeral would be made a public
396
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
affair, and that some part in the arrangements would be taken by the
Government; the first announcement made, however, was simply to
the effect that the funeral would move from the establishment of
Mr. Millington, undertaker, of Muriay Street, at 9 A.M. on Saturday,
and inviting friends of the deceased to attend. As previously stated
by us, the body had been removed from the Dog and Partridge Hotel,
where the man died, to the dead-house at the Hospital, and, on an
order being sought for its removal to the undertakers, it was declined,
on the ground that, as the body was of the greatest scientific value,
the authorities were determined to do all in their power to protect it.
An application to the Colonial Secretary met with the same reply, and
the Hon. Sir Richard Dry sent positive instructions to Dr. Stokell that
the body of "King Billy" should be protected from mutilation: on
this subject, however, we have more to communicate presently. On
its being ascertained that the authorities were taking no steps respect-
ing the obsequies, the matter was taken in hand by Mr. J. W. Graves,
and invitations were issued to a number of old colonists and natives,
requesting their attendance, the funeral being postponed until two
o'clock. At that hour between fifty and sixty gentlemen presented
themselves at the institution, and found all in readiness for the burial.
Rumours had, meanwhile, got afloat to the effect that the body had
been tampered with, and Captain McArthur, Mr. Colvin, and some
others interested in the deceased, from his connexion with the whaling
trade, requested that the coffin should be opened, in order to satisfy
their minds that the ceremony of burial was not altogether a
(6 vain
show." This was done by Mr. Graves, and the body was seen by
those who desired to see it, in the condition which will be hereafter
described. The lid was then again screwed down, and, at the sugges-
tion of some of those present, the coffin was sealed. In connexion
with this part of the proceedings a singular accident occurred. On a
seal being asked for, it was found that there was not such a thing in
the institution, but on a search being made in the dispensary an old
brass stamp was found, and on its being impressed upon the wax, it
left the simple word "world." What such an odd seal could have
been cut for is unknown, but its turning up under such circumstances,
and its accidental use to seal down the coffin of the last man of his
race, is a circumstance so singular as to be worth recording. Having
been duly sealed, the coffin was covered with a black opossum skin
rug, fit emblem of the now extinct race to which the deceased belonged;
and on this singular pall were laid a couple of native spears and
waddies, round which were twined the ample folds of a Union Jack,
specially provided by the shipmates of the deceased. It was then
mounted upon the shoulders of four white native lads, part of the
crew of the Runnymede, who volunteered to carry their aboriginal
!
MUTILATION OF THE BODY.
397
countryman to his grave. Their names were, John Silvester, John
Timms, James Davis, and George Attwell. The pall was borne by
Captain Hill, of the Runnymede, himself a native of Tasmania, and
by three coloured seamen, John Bull, a native of the Sandwich Islands,
Henry Whalley, a half-caste native of Kangaroo Island, S.A., and
Alexander Davidson, an American. The chief mourners were Captain
McArthur, of the whaling barque Aladdin, and Captain Bayley, owner
of the whaling barque Runnymede. Among the mourners were nearly
all the masters of vessels in port, and many gentlemen connected with
the whaling trade. There was also a large muster of old colonists and
native-born Tasmanians. As the procession moved along Liverpool
and Murray streets to St. David's Church it gathered strength, and
was followed by a large concourse of spectators. The Rev. F. H.
Cox read the service, and preceded the body to the grave, clothed in
his surplice. On leaving the church the procession numbered from a
hundred to a hundred and twenty mourners, and the event recalled to
the minds of the old colonists present many an interesting episode of
the early days of the colony, and of that race the last male represen-
tative of which was about to be consigned to his tomb. At the cemetery
the Rev. Mr. Cox read the second portion of the impressive Burial
Service of the English Church, and the grave closed over "King Billy,"
the breast-plate on whose coffin bore the simple inscription, "William
Lanné, died March 3d, 1869. Aged 34 years."
Mutilation of the body.
Notwithstanding the precautions above referred to, the body of poor
King Billy" has not been respected, nor does the grave around which
so many persons gathered on Saturday, contain a vestige of Tasmania's
"last man." It is a somewhat singular circumstance that, although it
has been known for years that the race was becoming extinct, no steps
have ever been taken in the interests of science to secure a perfect
skeleton of a male Tasmanian aboriginal. A female skeleton is now
in the Museum, but there is no male, consequently the death of "Billy
Lanné” put our surgeons on the alert. The Royal Society, anxious to
obtain the skeleton for the Museum, wrote specially to the Government
upon the subject, setting forth at length the reasons why, if possible,
the skeleton should be secured to them. The Government at once
admitted their right to it, in preference to any other institution, and
the Council expressed their willingness at any time to furnish casts,
photographs, and all other particulars to any scientific society requiring
them. Government, however, declined to sanction any interference
with the body, giving positive orders that it should be decently buried;
nor did they feel at liberty to give their sanction to any future action
which might be taken; although it is needless to say that so valuable
398
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
a skeleton would not have been permitted to remain in the grave, and
possibly no opposition would have been made to its removal, had it
been taken by those best entitled to hold it in the interests of the
public and of science, and without any violation of decency. Besides
the Royal Society, it seems that there were others who desired to
secure "Billy Lanné's" skeleton, and who were determined to have it
in spite of the positive orders of the Colonial Secretary. The dead-
house at the hospital was entered on Friday night, the head was
skinned and the skull carried away, and with a view to conceal this
proceeding, the head of a patient who had died in the hospital on the
same day, or the day previously, was similarly tampered with, and the
skull placed inside the scalp of the unfortunate native, the face being
drawn over so as to have the appearance of completeness. On this
mutilation being discovered, the members of the Council of the Royal
Society were greatly annoyed, and feeling assured that the object of
the party who had taken the skull was afterwards to take the body
from the grave, and so possess himself of the perfect skeleton, it was
resolved to take off the feet and hands and to lodge them in the
Museum, an operation which was carefully done. The funeral then
took place as above described. On the mutilation of the bodies in
the dead-house becoming known, a letter was addressed by the Colonial
Secretary to Dr. Stokell, requiring a report upon the case, and we have
it upon the very highest authority that Dr. Stokell reported the cir-
cumstances much as they are described above, informing the Colonial
Secretary that the only persons who had been present in the dead-
house during Friday night were a surgeon, who is one of the honorary
medical officers, his son, who is a student, and the barber of the insti-
tution, and neither of those persons were seen to remove anything
from the hospital. It is believed, however, that the skull was thrown
over the wall at the back of the dead-house with a string attached to
it, and that it was secured by a confederate stationed in the creek on
the other side. These reports occasioned a very painful impression
among those present at the funeral, and a deputation consisting of
Messrs. Colvin, McArthur, and Bayley, waited upon Sir Richard Dry
in the evening, and requested that steps should be taken to have the
grave watched during the night. Sir Richard at once acquiesced in
the proposal, and instructions were given to the police, but in some
way they miscarried, possibly owing to the fact that they were not
communicated through his Worship the Mayor, and the consequence
was that the grave was found disturbed yesterday morning, when
Constable Mahony reported that the earth had been removed, that a
skull had been found lying on the surface, that a part of the coffin
was visible, and that the ground surrounding the grave was saturated
with blood. During the morning this report spread through the city,
Um

LALLA ROCKH, OR TRUGANINA, THE LAST WOMAN.
(Photographed by MR. C. A. Woolley, 1866.)
LALLA ROOKH, THE ONLY WOMAN ALIVE.
(Photographed by MR. C. A. WOOLLEY, 1866.)

LALLA ROOKH, THE LAST TASMANIAN.
399
and several hundreds of persons visited the cemetery in the afternoon.
On the facts being communicated to Sir Richard Dry, he, in company
with the Hon. Attorney-General, visited the grave, where they were
met by Mr. J. W. Graves. The skull found on the surface was buried
in their presence, and a general examination of the ground was made.
Whether any other step will be taken respecting the violation of the
grave we are unable to say. The visit of ministers to the grave was,
we understand, consequent upon a report that the coffin had been re-
moved, and had this been the case a search warrant would have been
issued at their instance, as executors of "Billy Lanné," with instruc-
tions, in the event of any portions of the body being found in the
course of its execution, that they should be taken possession of.
Sir Richard and Mr. Dobson satisfied themselves, however, of the
presence of the coffin, and therefore no step was taken, as it is
doubtful whether any legal property in the body exists. Many
rumours are afloat as to what has become of the body, and the men
employed in the cemetery state that blood was traced from the grave
to the gate opposite the stores of the Anglo-Australian Guano Com-
pany in Salamanca Place, but that there the traces were lost. There
can be little doubt that the body has been secured by the individual
who made off with the head, and possibly the fact that it is minus
feet and hands may yet lead to the restoration of that important por-
tion, as the skeleton will be comparatively valueless unless perfect.
We have been informed by the Hon. Sir Richard Dry that Dr. Crowther
waited upon him on Saturday morning prior to the mutilation being
reported, and made a request that the body should be granted to him,
in order that he might secure the skeleton for the Royal College of
Surgeons, England. Sir Richard Dry informed the Doctor of the prior
claim of the Royal Society, and expressed his opinion that if the
skeleton was to be preserved at all, it should be in the Hobart Town
Museum, where all scientific inquiries respecting the aboriginal race
would most probably be made.
It is sufficient to add that Dr. Crowther was suspended as
honorary surgeon of the hospital, that the skeleton was in
possession of the Royal Society of Tasmania, and that, accord-
ing to the Launceston Examiner, "it is expected that one of the
first orders on the assembling of Parliament will be a return of
King Billy's head!'"
The "Last Man" has gone. The Last Woman is no less
a person than the historical Truganina, or Lalla Rookh!
The woolly-haired Tasmanian no longer sings blithely on the
Stringy-bark Tiers, or twines the snowy clematis blossom for
400
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
his bride's garland. The concern awakened for his condition
comes too late. The bell but tolls his knell, and the Æolian
music of the she-oak is his hymn and requiem. We cover
our faces while the deep and solemn voice of our common
Father echoes through the soul, "Where is thy brother?
""
Oh! if he were here, how kindly would we speak to him!
Would we not smile upon that dark sister of the forest, and
joy in the prattle of that piccaninny boy? And would not the
Christian cheek, once pale with reproaches and tearful with
penitence, glow with delight to tell of a found Saviour to the
lost savage? But now the burthen of each saddened spirit is,
Would I had loved him more !
JUN 16 1916
THE END.
LONDON: R. CLAY SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS,
In the Press,
And shortly to be published by MESSRS. SAMPSON LOW, SON, AND MARSTON,
DAILY LIFE AND ORIGIN
OF THE
TASMANIAN NATIVES.
THIS Work will be got up in similar style and type to "THE LAST OF
THE TASMANIANS," and will be well illustrated.
follow :-
INTELLECT OF THE TASMANIANS.
CHARACTER.
Food.
DRESS AND ORNAMENT.
ARTS AND MANUFACTURES.
WOMEN AND CHILDREN.
AMUSEMENTS.
The several chapters are as
GOVERNMENT AND NUMBERS.
PHYSICAL CONDITION.
DISEASES.
DEATH AND BURIAL.
LANGUAGE.
SUPERSTITIONS.
ORIGIN.
In order to elucidate these subjects, and add to their interest, occasional
references are made to the habits and customs of the Australian Aborigines.
Considerable space is devoted to the details of female life in the forests of
Tasmania. Songs of the Southern tribes will be found set to music. The An-
thropological student will observe especial consideration paid to the question of
the physical structure of the Natives. Among the valuable contributions assisting
in such description, may be gratefully mentioned those forwarded by the learned
Dr. Paul Topinhard of Paris. The comparative philology of the Tasmanians and
their neighbours on the Continent has not been neglected. To those appreciating
the One Origin doctrine, the chapter on "Superstitions" will have some attrac-
tions. The subject of the Origin of the Tasmanians will be seen to be treated
from a philological, a geological, and a more strictly ethnological point of view.
While their association with other nations is acknowledged by the writer, the
high antiquity of their existence as an independent people is maintained.
By travel, by reading, by observation, and by inquiry, the Author has been col-
lecting his material during a course of nearly thirty years. In the publication o
the first work, "The Last of the Tasmanians," he sought to tell the sad story of
their struggles, their sufferings, their decline, that the hearts of the civilized in
Europe and America might be moved in tenderness toward existing aboriginal
races. In the succeeding volume he places together such stray facts as he could
gather about their daily life, and describes the looks, the ways, the views, of
tribes now passed away for ever.
As but a limited number of copies of this work will be printed, orders for the
same can be received by the Publishers, at an early date, through the local
booksellers.
REVIEWS OF MR. BONWICK'S COLONIAL WORKS.
Geography of Australia and New Zealand.
"Mr. Bonwick has been for many years resident in these colonies; he has access to the best
sources of information; he has been indefatigable in his efforts to produce a book which might
be a standard one on the subject he treats; and he has succeeded."-Melbourne Argus.
"The book does not contain a superfluous word; it is what a book for schools should be,
compact and simple."-London Athenæum.
"Considerable industry of research."-Hobart Town Courier.
"One of the most valuable handbooks."-Launceston Examiner.
Discovery and Settlement of Port Phillip.
"Future historians will turn to it as a repertory of valuable facts lucidly, systematically,
and chronologically stated; for the most part well authenticated, and all of them of the deepest
interest, because bearing upon the infancy and rapidly maturing youth of a country whose
splendid destinies have yet to be revealed, and whose future greatness may transcend both our
hopes and our belief."-Melbourne Argus.
"Mr. Bonwick has had the advantage of sitting by the fireside of many of the Old Chums
who first penetrated the Victorian Wilds."-Miner's Right.
The Wild White Man and the Blacks of Victoria.
"Mr. James Bonwick, late Inspector of Schools in Victoria, and whose name will be familiar
to very inany of our readers, has just published a second edition of his very interesting book,
'The Wild White Man and the Blacks of Victoria.' Mr. Bonwick is too highly respected in this
colony to need further aid from us now than the statement that he has issued this new edition."
-Melbourne Argus.
"The style is always terse and pointed, and it has uniformly the most resistless charm of
playful ease and the utmost simplicity. Australian scenery is painted with the pencil of an
enthusiast, and the imaginative portions of the work are treated with rare descriptive power.
-Age.
"
"Mr. Bonwick is thoroughly in earnest, and tells his story with an air of generous enthusiasm,
which alone invests what he has to say with an uncommon amount of interest."-Ballarat
Star.
"Several times have we had to express a deep sympathy with him in his endeavours to make
this portion of the hemisphere much better known."-Hobart Town Times.
'The stories are very well told.”—Mount Alexander Mail.
The Bushrangers; illustrating the Early Days of Van Diemen's Land.
"Those who desire to form a correct judgment upon the question of convict treatment may
find much valuable information in this history."-Geelong Advertiser.
"In spite of its name, and the numerous deeds of blood that it suggests to the memory,
the book is by no means a mere Newgate Calendar, but something infinitely better."-The
Tasmanian.
"It illustrates a remarkable period in the history of the colony of Van Diemen's Land, and
appears thoroughly reliable.”—Athenceum.
Astronomy for Young Australians.
"This is written in a thoroughly popular style."- Argus.
"As a preceptor and Government Inspector of Schools in Victoria he has acquired a deserved
reputation. Whatever, therefore, comes from his pen in connexion with the instruction of the
young must merit notice."-Sydney Morning Herald.
"Mr. Bonwick has crowded an immense amount of information, which he has succeeded in
presenting in a most attractive style."-Wesleyan Chronicle of Victoria.
"The book is written in a most captivating style. It makes the story of our brilliant southern
skies almost as interesting as a fairy tale."-Weekly Review.
John Batman, the Founder of Victoria.
"Mr. Bonwick has at last, to all appearance, arrived at the real truth respecting the incidents
of the first settlement on the shores of Port Phillip. By the most overwhelming evidence the
fair fame of Mr. Batman and his friends is completely vindicated."-Melbourne Economist.
"Is an account of the settlement of our colony, written in Mr. Bonwick's best style. The
story of the difficulties surrounding the early settlers, of the courage and perseverance brought
in overcoming these, and of the varying incidents attendant upon the efforts to establish the
colony, is told so as to give it all the interest of a romance, while the authorities quoted put
the correctness of the statements beyond question."-Victorian Christian Review.
A Sketch of Boroondara.
"One thing we notice in all his works,—they are Australian. Everything Australian is tinted
with the colours of Paradise by the brush of this patriotic painter."-Southern Spectator.
Geography for Young Australians. (Thirtieth Thousand.)
Western Victoria; an Educational Tour.
"We have a most charming, readable book, full of information of every kind, and interspersed
with gossiping anecdotes, and glowing description of scenery."-Portland Guardian.
"He has always something to tell us, does it in easy, graceful, purpose-like style, that is
charming to us; a man who knows his work and does it. But it is in contact with his fellow-
men, of every type or rank, that we like best to see Mr. Bonwick, who has a very warm sympathy
with humanity in its every phase."-Melbourne Christian Times.

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