THE ABORIGINES AND THEIR TREATMENT 223 



and plaster with thatched roofs, not sufficiently extensive to accom- 

 modate the mission family and the twelve native youths who were 

 under tuition. He says : " The parents of the children come to see 

 them at pleasure, and when they wish it, take them out to hunt ; 

 but for this the children do not seem much inclined, preferring to 

 be fed on easier terms at the Institution. The parents are not 

 encouraged to make long visits ; they are furnished with but a few 

 meals gratuitously, and if they choose to make longer stops, they 

 have to earn their victuals at the rate of two hours' work for eight 

 ounces of meat and twelve ounces of flour." 



This handicap was too great a strain upon the ties of family 

 affection, and the wily natives generally succeeded in satisfying 

 their paternal yearnings before the inevitable working day came 

 round. As for the youthful disciples, not even the abundant food 

 of the mission, nor the kindly intentioned efforts of Mr. Langhorne 

 and his wife, could overcome the inborn nomadic habit, or reconcile 

 the restless savage to the confinement of walls and the dull routine 

 of prescribed hours of toil or lessons. The mission struggled on 

 spasmodically for a couple of years longer, but it never justified the 

 expectations of its founders, and flickered out in 1839 without 

 having done any good. 



In August, 1837, Sir John Franklin, then Governor of Van 

 Diemen's Land, had transmitted to Lord Glenelg a voluminous 

 report, which had been furnished to him by Mr. G. A. Eobinson, 

 Commandant of the Aboriginal Settlement on Flinders Island, deal- 

 ing with the position and prospects of the natives under his charge. 

 It was a verbose and tedious document, garnished with many appen- 

 dices in support of its statements. In it the writer took much credit 

 to himself for having gathered together, as into a haven of safety, 

 the remnant of the Tasmanian race, though certainly, if Mr. Eobin- 

 son's success was to be measured by results, he was not entitled to 

 much congratulation. But the report was so permeated with the 

 mellifluous language of the Christian philanthropist, and so full of 

 the most optimistic visions of the precocity of intellect and moral 

 capacity of Mr. Eobinson's charges, that Lord Glenelg was caught 

 by the prevalent glamour, and, believing he had discovered another 

 Las Casas, accepted the writer's assurance that humanity, religion 



