to establish a native
institution, deriving its funds partly from the public purse and partly
from private benevolence. A code was prepared by the Rev. Messrs.
Bedford and Mansfield; and a public meeting held in the church of St.
David, the Governor presiding, approved the regulations; but at that
time the colony was distracted by the ravages of robbers, and its
financial resources were depressed: and the prevailing opinion that
civilisation was impossible, still further embarrassed the project, and
confined the hopes of the most sanguine to the rising generation. Mr.
Mansfield rested his expectation rather on the power of God than upon
human probabilities.

The civilisation of a barbarous people is, perhaps, impossible, in the
presence of organised communities of white men. The contrast is too
great, and the points of contact too numerous and irritating. Never have
colonists civilised aborigines; but the failure is easily explained,
without recourse to egotistical superstition, that the white man's
shadow is, to men of every other hue, by law of Heaven, the shadow of
death.

The children of aborigines, adopted by the whites, when they grew to
maturity, were drawn to the woods, and resumed the habits of their
kindred. A black girl, trained in Launceston, thus allured, laid aside
her clothing, which she had worn nearly from infancy. It was thus with
many: a sense of inferiority to the youth about them, united with the
mysterious interest which every heart feels in kindred sympathies, is
sufficient to account for these relapses. Examples will crowd upon the
memory of the reader, in which the polish and caresses of the British
capital did not disqualify the savage to re-enter with zest on the
barbarous pursuits of his forefathers.

The desire for sugar, bread, and blankets, could only be regularly
gratified by an abandonment of migratory habits.

When remote from the government stores, the natives still coveted what
they could not obtain, but as spoil. They had learned to prefer articles
of steel to the crystal, and they acquired an imperfect mastery of
fire-arms. Some were, however, exceedingly expert; a chief, conciliated
by Robinson, brought down an eagle hawk, with all the airs of a
practised sportsman. Thus their untutored nature could not resist the
temptation created by new wants: they watched the hut of the
stock-keeper, which they stripped during his absence; till, growing more
daring, they disregarded his pr