Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/589

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CAPTURE AND DEATH OF JVIUSQUITO, 1825. 561 could have refused the application for the writ. Arthur, finding the knot " too intrinse to unloose," cut it, and sent the prisoner to England to be tried. Arthur sought to carry out great works — great, that is to say, relatively. In the youth of the colony a substantial wharf; the Bridgewater Causeway ; the roads to Richmond and elsewhere ; — were of momentous importance. The Go- vernor did not escape the imputation that some of his works were undertaken to benefit the property of himself or his friends, but it seems to have been utterly unmerited. The wild cruelties practised against the natives under his prede- cessors have been alluded to. Retreat was impossible for the natives. They turned upon their persecutors. Mus- quito, the adopted warrior, and a native known as Tom, led them in their reprisals. They watched till firearms had been discharged, and then rushed upon their victims before the arms could be reloaded. They inspired such terror that houses were abandoned to their mercy. Arthur by pro- clamation warned the whites (1824) against ill-treating the natives who were " under British government and protec- tion." He would cause infringers of his proclamations to be prosecuted. He warned in vain. Irrespective of the government and its orders, the work of killing went on at private charge. The special historian of Tasmania, West,^ thus summarizes it : " The smoke of a fire was the signal for a black hunt. The sportsmen would discharge their guns, then rush towards the fires and sweep away the whole party. The wounded were brained ; the infant cast into the flames, the musket was driven into the quivering flesh." In revenge the blacks attacked and burned homesteads. A woman rushed from a burning house at the Big River, and threw herself on her knees to ask pity while her clothes were on flame. One of the blacks quenched the fire, and told her to go safely away. But such instances of pity were rare. Words could not paint the horror of the time. Even Arthur, while deprecating cruelty, joined the general de- mand! for obtaining quiet which could only be obtained by annihilation. The popular demand found vent in a news- '^»" The History of Tasmania," By Rev. J. West. Launceston (Taa- mania), 1852. KK