OF tax diemen's land. 153 



The Commandant found the greatest difficulty in 

 inducing them to save the wallaby skins, it being the 

 custom to throw the wallaby on the fire and singe off the 

 fur. He explained to them the value of the skins, and 

 the articles they could get in exchange. He gave 

 presents to those who brought in skins ; but it seemed 

 impossible to teach them any idea of barter, or indeed to 

 get them to look beyond the immediate moment. 



In January, 1834, Messrs. Backhouse and Walker 

 again visited Flinders Island at the request of Governor 

 Arthur. They found the blacks removed to a place 

 called by the sealers Pea Jacket Point, then rechristened 

 " Civilisation Point," about fifteen miles north of their 

 old location. The village was named " Wybalenna," 

 signifying, in the language of the Ben Lomond tribe, 

 " Blackmail's Houses." There were at this time 1 1 1 

 aborigines on the island — 55 males and 56 females. Of 

 the whole number only 16 were children. Wybalenna 

 was a much better location than The Lagoons. There 

 was sufficient water, good pasturage, and land fit for 

 cultivation as gardens. The officers of the establishment 

 had weatherboard houses, and about twenty thatched 

 wattle and plaster huts had been built for the blacks. 



The visitors found that in two years the aborigines 

 showed progress in at least the outward appearance of 

 civilisation. They now had a regular instructor or 

 catechist, who tried to instil into their minds some ideas 

 of religion. To aid in this work he had attempted a 

 translation of the first three chapters of Genesis into the 

 language of the Ben Lomond tribe ! The worthy cate- 

 chist's version is obviously worthless from a linguistic 

 point of view, whatever effect it may have had on the 

 native mind in other ways. 



The catechist made most persevering efforts to in- 

 struct the blacks, and even succeeded in teaching some 

 of the boys and younger men to read a little.* 



* In 1834 five or six of the boys were removed from Flinders Island 

 and placed in the Government Orphan School at New Town, near Hobart. 

 It is stated that some of them showed very fair intelligence. Mr. Walker 

 mentions that two lads (Arthur and Friday) who in 1832 were sunk in the 

 barbarous habits of their race, showed considerable improvement after 

 two years' instruction at the Orphan School. One of them — George 

 Walter Arthur — had not only learnt to read fairly well, but also wrote a 

 hand which would not have disgraced a European youth of the same a^e. 

 The master of the school informed Mr. Walker that, with some exceptions, 

 the aboriginal children were not inferior in capacity to the European 

 children in his charsre. 



