The Governor warmly congratulated the colony on its deliverance, but the
numbers that remained were greater than he imagined. The abolition of
martial law was deemed by some to be premature. Twenty were captured in
1834, and seventeen in 1835. Mr. Robinson, after nine months pursuit,
came up with the small relics which were known to be still at large, in
Middlesex Plains, and found one man, four women, and two children: they
had travelled as far as the head of the Derwent. Two men, sent by
Robinson with despatches from the place of their capture, were lost in
the bush, and perished. It was now announced, that no more aborigines
were at large: in this, both Mr. Robinson and the government were
mistaken. Rumours, for several years, were continually stirring, of
blacks fleeing in the distance; of the thin smoke, the native cry, and
other indications of their presence. At length it was proved, that these
were not the ghosts of the departed tribes. In December, 1842, at
Circular Head, seven persons were captured, and rejoined their long
banished countrymen. This remnant consisted of a single family: the
parents about fifty years; the rest of ages from childhood to thirty
years. They were taken by a sealer, whose boat they had pilfered, and
conveyed to Flinders'. They were more than usually intelligent in their
appearance: they did not understand one word of English, and they had
probably retained to the last the primitive manners of their race.
Mr. Robinson was a builder at Hobart Town, his family was large, and
depended on his trade. It detracts nothing from his merit, while it is
honorable to the government, that he was a gainer by successful
humanity. The munificence of the crown, alone prevented a larger
subscription by the people; he had, however, the warm and unanimous
expression of public gratitude.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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