They looked up to him with the same filial regard which his own children felt for him.
Appointed to his position of schoolmaster and catechist in 1834, he, for a little time, gave place to the Rev. T. Dove, Presbyterian clergyman, and assumed a secular office, without diminishing his efforts for the moral good of his dark-coloured friends. He was obliged to resign, from the adoption of schemes he considered opposed to the welfare of the Aborigines. On his coming to Hobart Town I became intimately acquainted with him, and attached to his person. After a year or two, to the joy of his old friends, he was restored to his situation as catechist, which he retained until his departure for a better world, in 1850. Often have I listened with deep emotion to his sad stories of the sufferings of his charge, while his tremulous voice and moistened eyes declared the depth and sincerity of his sympathy.
He gained the confidence of all. He would sit down on the ground with the men, and smoke his pipe with them, while listening to their yarns of hunting and war, when he would appeal to them, in their own soft tones, about Him who loved the dark-skinned race, and yearned over them for good. With the gins he was ever a favourite; having the ready kind word and smile for each, with a bit of ribbon for one, a piece of tobacco for another, a joke for a third, and good counsel for all. Mrs. Clark was a helpmate to her husband, and their children were schoolmates and playmates with the Natives.
Mr. Robinson appreciated his help. When, in April 1838, the Rev. T. Dove was appointed catechist—a regular clergyman being supposed essential to the importance of the establishment—Mr. Clark acknowledged the kindness of Government in bestowing on him the position of storekeeper, and thus expresses his sentiments to the Colonial Secretary: "Its value is doubly enhanced by our continuance among our dear black friends, in whose welfare and instruction we are so deeply interested, and for whose moral and physical improvement our energies will continue, with God's blessing, to be exercised."
It was of him that Mr. Robinson wrote on the 2d of May: "I have found him a faithful, zealous, and efficient officer, amply qualified for the duties he had to perform, and one willing to render services that had for their object the amelioration and
