e hastened away, to deposit
the proselytes in safety.

This tribe continued at large until 1834. They had determined never to
be taken--to subsist upon the _quoib_ (badger), and to perish rather
than yield. Finding Mr. Robinson in pursuit, they endeavoured to elude
his search by false direction sticks. The blacks in his company dreaded
an ambush, and declared that they should all be slain, if they proceeded
further, now that their pursuit was known to the hostile tribe. Mr.
Robinson, however, resolved to persevere, and soothed their fears. The
march was long and harassing, the natives having divided into three
parties, the better to escape. They were captured: eight in February,
three in March, and in April, nine; and were embarked at Circular Head
for Launceston, and thence to Flinders' Island.

The Governor warmly congratulated the colony on its deliverance, but the
numbers that remained were greater than he imagined. The abolition of
martial law was deemed by some to be premature. Twenty were captured in
1834, and seventeen in 1835. Mr. Robinson, after nine months pursuit,
came up with the small relics which were known to be still at large, in
Middlesex Plains, and found one man, four women, and two children: they
had travelled as far as the head of the Derwent. Two men, sent by
Robinson with despatches from the place of their capture, were lost in
the bush, and perished. It was now announced, that no more aborigines
were at large: in this, both Mr. Robinson and the government were
mistaken. Rumours, for several years, were continually stirring, of
blacks fleeing in the distance; of the thin smoke, the native cry, and
other indications of their presence. At length it was proved, that these
were not the ghosts of the departed tribes. In December, 1842, at
Circular Head, seven persons were captured, and rejoined their long
banished countrymen. This remnant consisted of a single family: the
parents about fifty years; the rest of ages from childhood to thirty
years. They were taken by a sealer, whose boat they had pilfered, and
conveyed to Flinders'. They were more than usually intelligent in their
appearance: they did not understand one word of English, and they had
probably retained to the last the primitive manners of their race.

Mr. Robinson was a builder at Hobart Town, his family was large, and
depended on his trade. It detracts nothing from his merit, while it is
honorable to the government, that he was a gaine