Page:Some account of the wars, extirpation, habits.djvu/54

46 did not believe Colonel Arthur to be in earnest with them; for even after the deaths of the two who were first disposed of, they still came to the settlers' homes, and departed peacefully from them as before. But when they saw two more of their number put to death for murder, while no kind of punishment overtook those who inflicted similar violence on them, they sullenly withdrew to the woods, and never more entered the settled districts, except as the deadly enemies of our people.

But in contrast with these and other acts of violence; said to have been indulged in against the blacks, a solitary exception has to be made in favour of one of a most degraded class of men: namely, Michael Howe, the bushranger, of whom it is recorded by the historian of Tasmania, West, that he inflicted severe corporal chastisement on a companion, for wantonly assaulting a native—an instance of commendable feeling, from which his betters might have taken a lesson. The long career of outrage of this outcast, presents too dark a picture to allow us to dispense with one illuminating ray; and I therefore introduce the following extract, from which the above statement is derived, from the History of Tasmania, vol. ii. page 17:—"Whether from policy or humanity, Michael Howe formed an exception," (that is to wanton cruelty), "he would not allow them to be molested, 'except in battle,' and he flogged with the cat one of his comrades who had 'broken the articles,' by wantonly wounding a native."—Stated by a companion.

That the above account of their separation from the colonists is the correct one, is proved by the report of a number of gentlemen styled the Aboriginal Committee, who were appointed by Colonel Arthur, in 1830, "to inquire into the origin of the hostility displayed by the black natives of the island, and to consider the means expedient to be adopted, with the view of checking the devastation of property and the destruction of human lives, occasioned by the state of warfare which has so extensively prevailed," who state, "that after these executions, the natives came no more to the usual place of resort," meaning Kangaroo Point, where the two last who died were taken.

Those four men were hanged at different times; two of them, known to the whites as Musquito and Black Jack, on the 25th of February, 1825: and the others, called Jack and Dick, on the 13th September of the next year.

In writing of the origin of the strife that now commenced in earnest, I shall have little to say of these victims, except of the two who died first; for very few particulars have reached us that relate to the others.

The black named Musquito was a native of New South Wales;