these deeds of
barbarity were not left to the vengeance of the law. The colonists, of
higher grades, preserved the distinction between the guilty and the
innocent, which it is the object of public trials to establish; but the
lower orders, and especially the dissolute and the worthless, justified
hatred to the race, and finally, systematic massacre by the individual
acts of such men as Musquito.

It is instructive, if not amusing, to observe how nicely the theory of
some philosophers and the sentiments of the lowest European robbers,
meet together; how, what one predicts, the other executes. The supposed
eternal laws of nature are accomplished by the wild license of an
English savage. It became the serious conviction of stockmen, that
blacks are brutes, only of a more cunning and dangerous order--an
impression which has long ceased in this colony, but which still
flourishes in Australia Felix.

Bent, the proprietor of the only newspaper published at that time,
referring to the outrages of the hostile blacks, seemed to dread these
doctrines. With great consideration he detaches Musquito's guilt from
the tribes in general: a distinction by no means trite or universally
recognised. "Until corrupted by the Sydney natives they were," he
asserts, "the most peaceable race in existence." These suggestions
deserve more praise than the highest literary skill.

The disposition to conciliate the blacks eventually contributed to the
same disastrous consequences. A tribe, of sixty, appeared in Hobart
Town, November, 1824: they came in a peaceable manner, their visit was
unexpected, and its cause unknown. On the first notice of their
approach, the Governor went forth to meet them: he assigned three places
for their fires, supplied them with food and blankets, and appointed
constables to protect them. They departed suddenly, and on their journey
attempted to spear a white man. Whether the abrupt retreat resulted
from caprice or distrust, it did not prevent a similar visit to
Launceston in the following December. There were 200 in this party. When
crossing Patterson's Plains they were wantonly fired on by the whites,
and in their return some of their women were treated with indescribable
brutality.[7] When they reached the Lake River, two sawyers, who had
never before suffered molestation, were wounded by their spears. The
recent cruelty they had experienced fully accounted for their rage.

It was the anxious desire of the Governor