As may be supposed, the partners soon quarrelled. Mr. Robinson got little aid from the sealers, except where a handsome cash return could be obtained for labour done. One cause of disagreement was the female question again. The rough sealers went beyond the bond. Not content with the liberal terms they had secured as to women, they dared lay claim to some agreeable young captured gin. Mr. Robinson demanded her of them, and they, as partners, refused to yield her. An open rupture followed, the sealers gained the day, and the leader saw his mistake.
Again we plunge into his ready-letter writing. The "peculiar people" are now "decided enemies to the cause of humanity." He has rediscovered "the impolicy of employing them in the present important work." He will have no more of them. They are traitors to the Government, and to himself. He uses rough language in his anger, and is vehement in his desire to deprive them of their mates. Thus he says:—
"I trust that the circumstances of these ruffians perambulating the main with their deadly weapons, and associating an important public duty with the consummation of their unwarrantable designs, will at once convince the Government not only of the utter worthlessness of such characters, but of the staunch necessity which exists of immediately depriving them of those unhappy females whom they have succeeded in obtaining from the Government."
The Quakers must now appear in evidence. They relate what they saw and heard, though, perhaps, they saw and heard with some slight though unconscious bias. Intimately acquainted with the late excellent George Washington Walker, I recently received a copy of his journal, left in the hands of his pious widow. This work of friendship and literary aid was performed by one of his sons. It will please the numerous friends of those two estimable missionaries to know, that the children of the late Mr. Walker, so well trained by the father and mother, are all following in the footsteps of their honoured parents, being diligent in all benevolent offices in Hobart Town. From this journal, I make an extract:—
"From conversation with several sealers in the Straits, twelve of whom we have seen, and from the testimony of other persons, confirmed by that of native women who once lived with the
