an advantage of the highest order to the community.
The black associates of Robinson received a considerable reward at his instance. I do not know its amount, but it was no trifle, and they were to have it in anything they liked, and Robinson was directed to ascertain in what way they would like it paid them and strangely enough, they, every one of them, chose sheep, and a flock, I think, of 500, but am not quite sure (for I write of their numbers from memory only) was placed on Flinders Island for them. He himself received a gift of £300, additional to £100 already paid him. (Colonel Arthur's order, 14th February, 1832.)
ROBINSON AT THE ARTHUR RIVER.
The five years that he pursued them were years of real toil of painful anxiety and bitter privation to him; but he never intermitted pursuit, so long as he thought one of them remained at large; and though in the end he brought all in but the trifling remnant I have named, he never shed one drop of blood. He visited the encampments of even the most hostile of the tribes without arms of any kind, and in seeming confidence, but doubtlessly not without fear, which he must often have felt most keenly, as on many occasions he was in great danger of their spears; but speaking their language, he successfully negotiated with every tribe for its surrender, and brought all in, either to Launceston or Hobart Town. His services were amongst the greatest benefactions the colony has ever received from anyone; and though like all public men who have disdained to bid for popular applause, he had a host of detractors, still no one who remembers the ever recurring incursions of the aborigines into the settled districts, their well devised onslaughts, their murderings and burnings, which he put an end to, will ever underrate his merits, or assign him any other than a very high place amongst those who have done good service to the country.
I have spoken above of the manifold risks he ran in his missions to the encampments of the blacks. But from the following extracts from a letter of Robinson's, that has been kindly presented me by his most intimate friend, Mr. G. Whitcombe, it appears he considered one of the greatest dangers he ever encountered from the natives, was at the Arthur River in the North Western districts, from a horde of blacks, headed by a chief named Wyn, all the details of which are contained in the reports he made to the Government, of this assault upon him, which I shall presently quote from.
West Hunter Island,
October the 4th, 1832.
My Dear Sir,—Little did I imagine when I last addressed
