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158 vexatious difficulties of the route, and the Governor smiling and saying, "Cheer up my lads." Such was his attention to duty that, though a devoted and an anxious husband, he refrained from running up to town at a season of conjugal solicitude; and when the news of a birth came to him, he repelled the natural impulse to return, and stayed at his post. During one of his excursions along the Line, he got lost three days in Paradise! This celebrated region of impracticable travelling, lying between Sorell and the coast, received its appellation from a Bushman disgusted with its wretched country.

Rumours about the Blacks were circulated with celerity, as they were invented with facility. The extreme solicitude of the Governor for news, and the desire of commanders to humour his passion, originated some remarkable and not very reliable stories. There was one that became the subject of the subjoined Government notice:—

" October 18, 1830.

The attention of the Colony, at present, being so much alive to every circumstance connected with the aboriginal Natives, the Lieutenant-Governor has directed the following narrative to be made public, which His Excellency feels satisfied will be received with much interest.

By His Excellency's command,

October 16, 1880.

"On the afternoon of Friday, the 15th inst., about half-past 4 o'clock, as Thomas Savage, an overseer in the service of Mr. Bisdee, of the White Hills, was at work splitting timber with another man, he heard a noise which attracted his attention, and he proceeded in the direction from whence it came, supposing the Lieutenant-Governor, whose arrival was expected, was approaching, and who, in fact, did arrive just about that time—from that moment Savage's companion saw no more of him. On Saturday morning. Savage had not returned. Mr. Edward Bisdee thought it probable that he had gone to Mr. Jones's to enquire after a cow, which had strayed away, and therefore he was not particularly anxious; but as, up to the middle of the day, Savage was still missing, some search was made on foot, and about 2 o'clock a vague report was brought in that Savage had been taken