in with their tracks." These he followed. "We proceeded," he continues, "in the same direction until we saw some smoke at a distance. I immediately ordered the men to lie down, and could hear the natives conversing distinctly. We then crept into a thick scrub, and remained there until after sunset. . . . Made towards them with the greatest caution. At 11 o'clock p.m. we arrived within 21 paces of them. The men were drawn up on the right by my orders, intending to rush upon them before they could rise from the ground; hoping I should not be under the necessity of firing upon them; but unfortunately, as the last man was coming up, he struck his musket against that of another, which immediately alarmed their dogs, about 40. They came at us directly. The natives arose from the ground, and were in the act of running away into a thick scrub when I ordered the men to fire upon them, which was done, and a rush by the party immediately followed. We only captured that night one woman and a male child, about two years old. The party were in search of them the remainder of the night, but without success. Next morning we found one man very badly wounded in the ankles and knees. Shortly after we found another; ten buck shot had entered his body—the man was alive, but very bad. There were a great number of traces of blood in various directions, and I learnt from them we took that 10 men were wounded in the body, who they gave us to understand were dead or would die, and two women in the same state had crawled away, besides a number that were shot in the legs. . . . On Friday morning we left the place for my farm, with the two men, woman and child, but found it quite impossible that the two former could walk, and after trying them by every means in my power for some time found I could not get them on; I was obliged therefore to shoot them." The number of buck shot that he poured in amongst the sleeping tribe, he says, was 328.
He proceeds to say that he took the unfortunate mother's child from her directly he reached home, sending the mother, herself, to Campbell Town Gaol, of the infant, he says, "I have kept the child, if His Excellency has no objections, I intend to rear it;" and coolly adds in reference to the assault on the tribe, "the whole of the men behaved exceeding well on this occasion." (Report, 7th September, 1829.)
At a distance of little more than a dozen miles from Hobart Town is a huge island called Bruny, containing much about one hundred thousand acres, which was formerly inhabited by a considerable tribe of natives. In past years, these people had often committed the usual outrages of the Tasmanian savage on his white neighbour. But this ill-feeling had partly died out through
