beef, and
refused to go away when she ordered them to do so. Without another
word she took down her stockwhip, went to the stable, and saddled her
horse. Then she rounded up the blackfellows like a mob of cattle and
started them. If they tried to break away, or to hide themselves
among the scrub, or behind tussocks, she cut pieces out of their
hides with her whip. Then she headed them for the Ninety-mile Beach,
and landed them in the Pacific without the loss of a man. In that
way she settled the native difficulty. The Neills, with a bullock
team, the Buckleys and Moores, with horse teams, followed the track
of the leading lady. The station-owners stayed at home and watched
their fat stock, which soon became valuable, and was no longer boiled.

[Footnote] *Mrs. Buntine; died 1896.

On December 31st, 1851, there were in Tasmania twenty thousand and
sixty-nine convicts. Six months afterwards more than ten thousand
had left the island, and in three years forty-five thousand eight
hundred and eighty-four persons, principally men, had left for the
diggings. It was evident that Sir Wm. Denison would soon have nobody
to govern but old women and children, a circumstance derogatory to
his dignity, so he wrote to England for more convicts and immigrants,
and he pathetically exclaimed, "To whom but convicts could
colonists look to cultivate their lands, to tend their flocks, to
reap their harvests?" In the month of May, 1853, Sir William wrote
that "the discovery of gold had turned him topsy-turvy altogether,"
and he rejoiced that no gold had been discovered in his island. Then
the Legislature perversely offered a reward of five thousand pounds
to any man who would discover a gold field in Tasmania, but, as a
high-toned historian observes, "for many years they were so fortunate
as not to find it."

The convicts stole boats at Launceston, and landed at various places
about Corner Inlet. Some were arrested by the police and sent back
to Tasmania. Many called at Yanakie Station for free rations. Mr.
Bennison applied for police protection, and Old Joe, armed with a
carbine, was sent from Alberton as a garrison. Soon afterwards a
cutter of about fifteen tons burden arrived at Corner Inlet manned by
four convicts, who took the mainsail ashore and used it as a tent.
They then allowed the cutter to drift on the rocks under Mount
Singapore, and she went to pieces directly. While trying to find a
road to Melbourne, they