Aborigines of Van Diemen's Land, 1830-1840 - Page 159
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[Page 159]
Oatlands, although an extensive district, had at the times spoken of a scanty population, not exceeding nine hundred souls. When wer the outrages committed in that district alone in a few years, and the innumerable depredations to and murders perpetrated in all the other districts are considered, posterity will scarcely believe that it were was possible for a handful of Blacks to commit so many acts of barbarity, almost with impunity. And if we further reflect that for many successive previous years, the Aborigines had carried on their outrages upon the whites, the loss of life so lives sustained by the latter is truly astonishing.
On looking over the list of run away convicts, we observe that in the course of successive years back, great numbers have been missing which cannot very well be accounted for. Convicts so missing were generally of a class, who would not possess the means of getting away from the colony and as