INHUMAN CONDUCT. 459 



(quite by accident) among a herd he was driving 

 through the West of England. He had spent the 

 early part of his servitude at Circular Head, where 

 he was for some time in charge of the native woman 

 caught stealing flour at a shepherd's hut, belongings 

 to the Van Diemen's Land Agricultural Company, 

 — a fact mentioned in a former chapter.* I was 

 curious to know how he managed to procure 

 the obedience of this aboriginal victim ; and the 

 inhuman wretch confessed, without a blush, — which 

 mustrise instead to the cheeks of my readers, when 

 they hear of what barbarities their countrymen have 

 been guilty, — that he kept the poor creature chained 

 up like a wild beast ; and whenever he wanted her 

 to do anything, applied a burning stick, a fire-brand 

 snatched from the hearth, to her skin ! — This was 

 enoufjh — I could listen to no more — and hurried 

 from the spot, leaving my brutal informant to guess 

 at the cause of my abrupt departure. It is possible 

 that the emotion I allowed to appear may have 

 introduced some glimmering of the truth into his 

 mind, that he may have faintly perceived how 

 disgusted I was with his narrative ; but such is 

 the perversion of feeling among a portion of the 

 colonists, that they cannot conceive how any 

 one can sympathize with the black race as their 

 fellow men. In theory and practice they regard 

 them as wild beasts whom it is lawful to extirpate. 

 There are of course honourable exceptions, although 

 * See Vol. i. p. 2/8. 



