Page:Last of the tasmanians.djvu/240

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ROBINSON'S TRAINING FOR HIS WORK.
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large and broad, his forehead was expansive, his lips were full, and his hair was of a light red colour. He walked with a firm, decided step, indicative of self-reliance and conscious dignity. His resolute look showed, as a friend expressed to me, "that he would knock down St. Paul's to carry his object." But it was his moral character that gave strength to his will, and led to his achievements. A member of the Wesleyan Society, his ardent temperament brought him into action under the auspices of a religious organization celebrated for the zeal of its converts, and the energetic policy of its ministers. George Robinson helped in the Sabbath School, and distributed tracts. Extending his efforts to the shipping, he became the Secretary of the Bethel Mission. Through the patronage of the Colonial Chaplain, the Rev. William Bedford, he obtained access on the Sunday to the convicts at the prisoners' barracks. To these unhappy men he gave tracts and religious counsel. In his own plain way he occasionally indulged in preaching. It was in the pursuit of such works of usefulness that he was being prepared for a more honourable position, demanding all his natural and acquired resources, and bringing into exercise his love of danger, his desire of applause, his sterling benevolence, and his faith in God.

The condition of the poor Natives engaged his sympathies at a very early date. The working bricklayer sought out the dark wanderers straying about the settlement, and brought them to his house. There he gave them "plenty tucker," as they called it, and sought to bring light to their ignorance. He investigated their habits, and acquired their language. His influence over them was extraordinary. Such a man could not fail having a deep interest in the struggle then going on between his own people and the coloured race. He thoroughly believed in the wrong-doing of the settlers, and heartily denounced their injustice and cruelty. At an early period he was persuaded that it was his mission to rescue the unhappy creatures from destruction, and that he could get them in. Lieutenant Gunn, for many years the superintendent of the prisoners' barracks, Hobart Town, and now Police Magistrate of Launceston, told me that Mr. Robinson had several times laid his scheme before him, and that he felt confident of its success if tried. When, therefore, the first opportunity presented itself, by which his services for