In reporting this ultimate success of his party, he pledges himself to the Government that the entire native race are removed "with the exception of one individual, who was very old, and in a precarious and sickly state. The entire aboriginal population," he continues, "are now removed, and so firmly convinced am I of this fact that I pledge myself to pay the reward heretofore offered by the Government for all the aboriginals that may hereafter be brought in. The final tranquility of the colony, as regards the aborigines, is firmly established." (Report, 3rd Feb., 1835,) But he was not quite correct, for about nine or ten years afterwards four more were taken, who, there can be no doubt, were the last of them, for the smoke of the savage has been no more seen in Tasmania since.
Whatever the future historian of Tasmania may have to say of this ancient people, he will do them an injustice if he fails to record that, as a body, they held their ground bravely for 30 years against the invaders of their beautiful domains.
Robinson was never the popular man he might have been had he been a little more sociable than he was. There was nothing rude or repulsive about him, but still his manner was not assuasive, and as he cared but little for society, he had few friends. He was moreover an enthusiast in everything that his natural tastes permitted him to indulge in, particularly in religious observances, and was an occasional visitor at the hospital, goal, etc., and sometimes read, and at others gave the best advice he could to the unfortunate occupants of these establishments. But the times were not favourable for such devotional practices as these, nor was the small class of devotees to whom he belonged, treated with much reverence then, and though he was never known to take a part in any dishonourable act, still the current of popular dislike ran so strongly against him, on both sides of the island, that he was almost universally denounced as an impostor, and no terms, however vulgar, were too vulgar if only applied to him. The Government, too, while it affected to applaud him in print, and even to reward his services, was not a sincere encourager of his, and its petty subordinates, with many of whom he had necessary transactions, taking their cue from above, seemed to vie with each other to impede, distress, and annoy him, from no other motives, as I believe, than those that sprang from an illaudable sentiment of jealousy—he and those under him having achieved, single-handed, so to speak, what the Governor and his subordinates, backed by four thousand armed men, had failed to accomplish.
This pitiful feeling, I have read, was once exhibited towards him in a manner that he must have felt keenly enough. It was just
