opportunity to escape of wreaking their vengeance upon all persons of the same colour with the lawless wanderers, without discrimination."
Here we are introduced to a new chapter of colonial history, into which the author proposes to go more fully in a subsequent work, treating especially upon the early times and social aspects of the two older colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. Under the heading of "Cruelties to the Blacks," there will, however, be found some reference to the acts of these Dick Turpin heroes. It was on the 26th of June, 1813, that the Government issued a Proclamation against those disturbers of the peace of both Whites and Blacks. It came upon the occasion of an attack upon a herd of cattle at the Coal River. The Governor proceeded to point out the cause: "The resentment of these poor uncultivated beings has been justly provoked by a most barbarous and inhuman mode of proceeding acted toward them, viz. the robbing of their children." The Governor then expresses his horror at such shameful behaviour, and exclaims in quite unofficial language, "Let any man put his hand to his heart and ask which is the savage—the white man who robs the parent of his children, or the black man who boldly steps forward to resent the injury, and recover his stolen offspring; the conclusion, alas! is too obvious." The end of the proclamation pledges the Government to punish all so offending to the utmost rigour of the law.
To pass on in the order of time, quotations can now be given from the newly-born Hobart Town Gazette, which—though established by a private individual, the son of the founder of the Australian Press, at once the editor, printer, pressman, and proprietor of the Sydney Gazette—was an official organ of Government.
An interesting account is given in the paper of August 20, 1814, of a visit of some Natives to Hobart Town, and the valuable service of a courageous and benevolent convict, the forerunner of George Augustus Robinson, the Conciliator. The circumstance exemplifies the feet that our Natives were different from the continental ones, in their indisposition to approach the Whites. Here we have a record of an important tribe living on the North Arm—a peninsula at the junction of the Derwent and the Storm Bay, and only a few miles from
