I INTRODUCTION 33 



and the only art which the savages learnt from 

 the English was a superior cunning in planning 

 and carrying out their murders. If the English 

 who chiefly came into contact with them had been 

 ordinarily humane, affairs might have taken a 

 better turn, but they were, for the most part, 

 escaped criminals and bushrangers, who shot down 

 the natives as if they were mere animals, while the 

 sealers in the islands of Bass's Straits, the utter 

 scum of the earth, were in the habit of making 

 regular raids upon the north coast of Tasmania, 

 killing the men and carrying off their gins. It 

 was small wonder that the natives came to look 

 upon every white man as a natural enemy. 



The aboriginals became so cunning and pertina- 

 cious in their conduct of the ' war ' that Governor 

 Arthur determined in 1830 to try to put a stop to 

 it by forming a cordon across the centre of the 

 island, and driving the natives on to Forrestier's 

 Peninsula. About three thousand whites took 

 part in this singular drive, which is supposed to 

 have cost £60,000. The line converged upon the 

 peninsula, and it was discovered that one black 

 boy had been captured, all the rest having escaped, 

 as it was natural they should do, in the thick scrub 

 which thev understood both to traverse and hide 

 in so much better than their pursuers. 



But in the meantime a more effective weapon 

 for ridding the country of its aboriginals was found 

 in the remarkable personality of George Robinson, 

 a bricklayer of Hobart. At a time when the 



SMITH: N.T. Q 



