Page:Some account of the wars, extirpation, habits.djvu/14

6 soldiers, civil officers, and convicts, all under the command of Capt. Bowen, of the Royal Navy. They hutted themselves at Risdon, and remained in undisturbed possession of their encampment till the 3rd of May, 1803, when it was that the first rencontre took place between the soldiers and the blacks.

A few months before this last-named date, the first Governor of Tasmania (Colonel Collins) arrived here from Port Phillip, and fixed himself at Hobart Town, but without removing Bowen's little party from Risdon, which remained there under the independent command of that officer, who was superseded by the Governor five days after the skirmish, but not in consequence of it, as he had nothing to do with it.

At 11 o'clock of the morning of the 3rd of May the shouts of the natives were heard on the Risdon hills, as they drove a herd of kangaroos before them. They were armed with waddies only (short thick hunting clubs), and were accompanied by their women and children—a certain proof that they had no hostile intentions against anyone at the time, as it was their constant rule to leave them behind when they went out to fight. An eyewitness of the events of this deplorable day, of the name of White, who gave evidence on the 16th March, 1830, to a number of gentlemen, styled the Aboriginal Committee, thus describes the approach of the natives. He says;—"I was hoeing new ground near the creek. Saw 800 of the natives come down in a circular form, and a flock of kangaroos hemmed in between them. There were men, women, and children. They looked at me with all their eyes. I went down to the creek and reported them to some soldiers." It would seem that these savages were at this time unacquainted of the occupation of their country by Europeans, this witness saying, "Is sure they did not know there was a white man in the country when they came down to Risdon." A quarrel soon took place but it is not quite certain who began it; though, in balancing the evidence, the blacks seem to have been the aggressors. Captain Bowen was just then absent, on a visit to Slopen Island, and the troops were, at the moment, under the command of Lieutenant Moore.

The testimony of several witnesses was taken by the committee touching this unhappy event, which was generally confirmatory of White's, except that he—who was the only one actually present at the moment—declared, in opposition to all the rest, that the soldiers began the fight that took place, and not the blacks.

The following extract from the committee's report of the 19th March, 1830, thus sums up the evidence they took on this head:—"The committee have some difficulty in deciding whether it is to be considered as originating in an aggression by the