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, conflagration, 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 kindness, 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.
