Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/594

---

tiaeraeiit (March 1829) £50 a year to ** a steady man of p;ootl cliaracter/* Robin son offered to take the post, hut pointed out that i50 would not support hin family, and Arthur ^^jave him £100, His great difficulty ^Yas to contend against the dehauchery of the whites, who interfered wdth his black prisoners of war. But he revolved greater tliingsj within hia mind than the mere custody of the unhappy few! saved from slaughter. In 1829 he volunteered to go iin-l armed into the bush, to win the fellow-creatures of whose lannruage be had learnt something. '* I considered/' he said afterwards, ^'that they were rational, and although tlvey might in their savage J notioiiH oppose violent iiieaanrea, yet if I could but get them to listen tol reciaoD, autl petsuade thern that the Enropeaiia wished ouJy to Injtler theirl .condition, they miglit become civilized, and rendered useful members ofl I society, instead of the bloodthirsty, ferocious beings they were represented j to be. Thia was the principle upon which I formed my plan." The government tactics ill-paved the way for EobinRan*8;1 but Arthur permitted the experiment to be tried. With some of the Brtmi Island blacks and others, recentljj captured, to act as guides, Robinson sought Port Davey, The boat provided for him had been wreekech and be walked] overland. lie met some blacks and appointed a meeting j f for the following day, '*They were very suspi^uons, having been fired at by Europeans ; and tbough I carried tin tire- arms, nothing in fact but bread, and endeavoured to ex[datn j my pacitic intentions, they left me without any sign ofl desire to repose trust in me/' Arthur wrote to Englamlf l27th Aug. 1880), *'AI1 Mi Robinsons efforts to hf>ld a conference liave hitherto failed/' Htj traversed tlu^ wesbj coast to Cape Grim. Early in 1831 he was on the north-] east coast, and though iinsoccessftil on the maiidandi released eighteen black W'Omen who had been trepanned by white men, who, engaged in seal-lumting, carried these women by force to island prisoiia and kej)t them there. By such acts he established his reputation for trnthfiilneas; and these rescued women and others, with their hnshands, were bis chief guides to success. i Meanwliile the Governor resorted to other advisers.' lAvailing Inmself of a visit from Archdeacon Brougliton (of Sydney) he appointed a Committee of Inquiry of eight persons, three of wliom v^ev^ mlmstera of religion. la