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Assessing Magnitude: Tasmanian Aboriginal Population, Resistance and the Significance of Musquito in the Black War
Author(s) -
Powell Michael
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
history compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.121
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1478-0542
DOI - 10.1111/hic3.12248
Subject(s) - charisma , battle , resistance (ecology) , population , tribe , history , spanish civil war , greatness , alliance , ancient history , ethnology , geography , genealogy , law , sociology , archaeology , political science , demography , art , literature , ecology , biology
In August 1824, there was a fierce attack by 200 Tasmanian Aboriginal men[Note 1. Hobart Town Gazette, 6 August, 1824. See Johnson & ...] on James Hobbs's property at Eastern Marshes, near Oatlands in Van Diemen's Land. Hobbs's stockmen fired to deter the approaching Aborigines, but having discharged their weapons, they were overwhelmed before they could reload, and one man, James Doyle, was beaten to a pulp.[Note 2. Hobart Town Gazette, 29 October, 1824, 2. ...] The rest fled in terror to Hobart, refusing to return. The influence of Musquito, the renegade Sydney Aborigine was suspected. His campaign of terror that began about 1824 alarmed the colony, but what was more frightening was the fact “that no Natives [were]…observed on any part of the coast” having moved into the interior and “lately formed themselves into one formidable body.” [Note 3. Hobart Town Gazette, 6 August 1824. The paper is ...] It appeared the coastal Oyster Bay tribe had formed an alliance with the interior Big River mob. There was strong suspicion that “Musquito and other blacks”[Note 4. Hobart Town Gazette, 6 August, 1824. ...] brought up among Europeans were behind these new attacks, but it was difficult to pin responsibility on Musquito. Aborigines came from a considerable “distance to place themselves under [his] command”,[Note 5. Bonwick, The Last of the Tasmanians, 94. ...] but he tended to manipulate forces obliquely. Musquito “kept the tethers”: “He would lurk about, gain information, lay his plans in a skilful manner and then from his retreat, dispatch his band to carry on the warfare.”[Note 6. Bonwick, The Last of the Tasmanians, 95. ...] He was by all accounts a formidable, charismatic figure who “had high notions of his own worth.” He would “stalk into the cottages of the settlers” and “seat himself with great dignity,” while his followers, upwards of several hundreds, would patiently await “his signal to approach.” According to John West, as his influence “enlarged, it became more pernicious” and influenced not only his immediate followers “but propagated his spirit” and deeds “of great enormity were committed at his direction; several by his own hand.”[Note 7. West, History of Tasmania, 267‐8. ...]