1830, relative to an earlier period, which reveals some colonial practices, and shows the grave obstacles presented in the way of the civilization of the Natives, and the preservation of peace. He deposes: "About forty years ago, a mob of twenty men, women, and children, remained a month, or nearly so, in the Marsh, about a quarter of a mile from Mr. Anstey's house. They had bread given them frequently. McGregor, a sawyer, had frequent intercourse with the gins. He was accused by my fellow-servant of stealing their sugar to bribe the black men to allow their gins to return with him. Frank Allen, one of Mr. Anstey's convict servants, was also suspected, and accused of doing the same I believe no complaints were ever made to Mr. Anstey of their doings. This was the dirtiest, and most diseased body of Natives I ever saw. They followed a party of Mr. Anstey's men, and two or three of the Road-men, to the Bush about five miles off, and robbed the huts of all the blankets and the things therein belonging to Government and to Mr. Anstey. There had been no quarrel between these Blacks and the white men."
A characteristic tale of the times has recently been sent to me by Dr. G. F. Story, of Swanport, an excellent member of the Society of Friends in Tasmania, whose friendship I formed twenty-eight years ago in Hobart Town. He had been giving me an account of some ancient wrongs of the settlers, and appended this narrative to his letter, obtaining his information from the daughter of the gentleman who suffered from the marauding violence of Mosquito's gang, just fifty years ago.
"Having seen to-day," he proceeds, "one of Thomas Buxton's daughters, she has given me a rather different account of the attack by the Natives at Mayfield. The Natives encamped in the morning on the other side of the river, and opposite to Thomas Buxton's hut, built of sods. Some of them came across to the hut and said that all the party were tame Blacks, not wild ones, meaning they were all peaceable. At this time the Natives had learnt to speak English. They asked the Buxtons to come over to their camp, and have 'a yarn.' After dinner two of the daughters took the cows to a marsh a quarter of a mile distant, and from thence saw the Natives showing signs of warfare. Balawinna, the head of the tribe, a tall, strong man, nearly six feet high, was marked with the red ochre. They ran to tell their mother, who immediately called her husband and
