Aborigines of Van Diemen's Land, 1830-1840 - Page 166
Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 166]
exposed to plunder and murders from the Natives, without possessing the means of repelling such aggressions,
Fortunately the The wages of free shepherds, stock keepers and other servants rose in proportion to the danger they incurred. Whole families quitted the country for the towns. Fortunately the Lieutenant Governor did not accede to Mr Robinson's suggestion, and the Colonists did not hope for the slightest benefit from his peaceful mission.
It was now seen that the measures hitherto pursued were not calculated to abate the dreadful nuisance which kept the colonists in constant alarm.
A new plan was therefore formed, and as a preliminary step, all the Police Magistrates of the Colony were requested to examine competent persons, and such as had been longest in the Colony for many years in the island, to extract such information as would in some measure account for the sanguinary disposition of the Blacks. In the early period of the colony, a very numerous tribe, armed with spears and waddies came down to [indecipherable] and a young