6. Happily the firm government and wise measures adopted in each settlement kept the wolf from the door until fresh supplies came from England. Governor Phillip having shared the privations of his men, and borne the heavy strain of his responsible post for nearly five years, returned home in December, 1792. Few men have been placed in a more difficult position for such a length of time, and none have brought to the fulfilment of such a thankless task as his more courage, devotion, and humanity. "The consideration alone," he says, "of doing a good work for my country could make amends for being surrounded by the most infamous of mankind." The name of Arthur Phillip deserves an honoured place on the roll of the founders of the British Empire. 7. Another convict settlement was soon afterwards made in Tasmania, or Van Diemen's Land, as it was then called. And here the worst characters were sent. As early as 1804 a batch of criminals was sent there from England, and a settlement made where Hobart now stands. Through mismanagement the young colony was brought to the verge of starvation. Luckily there were large herds of kangaroo in the island. The governor, being unable to feed his prisoners, permitted them to hunt the kangaroo for their food. In fact, at one time, there was little to eat but kangaroo flesh, and little to wear but kangaroo skins. Many of the convicts became fond of this hunter's life, and preferred the wild freedom of the "bush" to the restraints of convict life under the eye of the governor. 8. Fortunately, before many years had passed, free emigrants came "to try their luck," some to Australia, others to Tasmania, being tempted by the offer of free gifts of land, and the services of well-behaved convicts to help in farm-labour. The free colonists of Tasmania soon found themselves in evil plight. Many of the convicts assigned to them fled into the "bush," where they lived in gangs, as "bushrangers," on violence and robbery. The evil grew to such an extent that, at last, every homestead became the scene of terror and dismay. Nor was "bushranging" the only evil from which Tasmania's early colonists suffered. The native blacks were naturally cruel and crafty, and they had been goaded on to take revenge on the white strangers by the barbarous way in which they had been treated by the runaway convicts.