party of the 48th
regiment, and seventeen were slain. He maintains very strenuously the
opinion of his predecessors, that the aborigines were not often the
aggressors, and that the injuries they inflicted were committed under
the impulse of recent provocation.

Sorell provided for the native children, except those committed to
private hands by their parents, or retained with the express sanction
of himself. There is no reason to doubt, that several of these were
orphans, and adopted and reared with the utmost humanity. Among the
expenses of the times, it is gratifying to observe one item, in the
rental of a house for the entertainment of the aborigines. The
sentiments of Governor Sorell are honorable to his character, and cannot
be doubted; but we are startled to find, that when charges, so solemnly
imputed, must have been founded upon particular facts, no equal
punishment seems to have overtaken the crimes proclaimed. The government
disapproved of oppression, but it was either too weak, or too indolent,
to visit the guilty.

Mr. Commissioner Bigge, who came to the colony 1820, in his voluminous
reports, rarely alludes to the natives of these seas. Those of Van
Diemen's Land engaged a very small share of his attention, and in two
brief paragraphs he describes their character, and disposes of their
claims. He remarks, that an act of unjustifiable hostility had awakened
their resentment, passes over an interval of sixteen years, and
expresses his conviction that no obstacle they could oppose to
colonisation, need excite alarm. It is probable, that his instructions
would but briefly touch on questions relating to these children of the
soil; but considering that the notices and orders of government must
have apprised him of their sufferings, he dismisses their case with
astonishing indifference.[6]

Several Wesleyan missionaries visited this island during the years 1821
and 1822. The natives attracted their notice: they described, with
brevity, their moral and social state; but they did not intimate the
smallest apprehension of their malice.

For several years reference to the aborigines is of rare occurrence. The
year preceding the first series of outrages, furnished no incident worth
contemporary record. We are reminded, however, that they survived, by an
act of equestrian audacity. Mr. Risely, looking down Allan Vale, saw a
naked girl dashing off at full speed, on a valuable horse, which she
bridled by the tether--