Robinson and his little party had a difficult undertaking upon their hands.  They could not ride off, horseback, comfortably into the woods and call Leonidas and his 300 together for a talk and a treaty the following day; for the wild men were not in a body; they were scattered, immense distances apart, over regions so desolate that even the birds could not make a living with the chances offered—­scattered in groups of twenty, a dozen, half a dozen, even in groups of three.  And the mission must go on foot.  Mr. Bonwick furnishes a description of those horrible regions, whereby it will be seen that even fugitive gangs of the hardiest and choicest human devils the world has seen—­the convicts set apart to people the “Hell of Macquarrie Harbor Station”—­were never able, but once, to survive the horrors of a march through them, but starving and struggling, and fainting and failing, ate each other, and died: 

“Onward, still onward, was the order of the indomitable Robinson.  No one ignorant of the western country of Tasmania can form a correct idea of the traveling difficulties.  While I was resident in Hobart Town, the Governor, Sir John Franklin, and his lady, undertook the western journey to Macquarrie Harbor, and suffered terribly.  One man who assisted to carry her ladyship through the swamps, gave me his bitter experience of its miseries.  Several were disabled for life.  No wonder that but one party, escaping from Macquarrie Harbor convict settlement, arrived at the civilized region in safety.  Men perished in the scrub, were lost in snow, or were devoured by their companions.  This was the territory traversed by Mr. Robinson and his Black guides.  All honor to his intrepidity, and their wonderful fidelity!  When they had, in the depth of winter, to cross deep and rapid rivers, pass among mountains six thousand feet high, pierce dangerous thickets, and find food in a country forsaken even by birds, we can realize their hardships.

“After a frightful journey by Cradle Mountain, and over the lofty plateau of Middlesex Plains, the travelers experienced unwonted misery, and the circumstances called forth the best qualities of the noble little band.  Mr. Robinson wrote afterwards to Mr. Secretary Burnett some details of this passage of horrors.  In that letter, of Oct 2, 1834, he states that his Natives were very reluctant to go over the dreadful mountain passes; that ’for seven successive days we continued traveling over one solid body of snow;’ that ‘the snows were of incredible depth;’ that ’the Natives were frequently up to their middle in snow.’  But still the ill-clad, ill-fed, diseased, and way-worn men and women were sustained by the cheerful voice of their unconquerable friend, and responded most nobly to his call.”