that their royal charter from King George IV made the Aboriginal people of North West Tasmania trespassers on company land. In August 1830, while building a footbridge over the River Wey, his camp at Weybridge was visited by George Augustus Robinson and the "friendly mission" whose intent was to investigate claims of killings, including the Cape Grim massacre by VDL Co employees, and to remove all Aboriginal people from their land and relocate them to an offshore island. The party that visited Hellyer's camp included Truganini and her husband Woorady. Hellyer told Robinson of a stock-keeper who claimed to have killed 19 Aboriginal people with a swivel-gun and later wrote to his sister-in-law about Robinson's visit, saying, "I hope he will do some good, for at present a man's life is not safe if he stirs out without arms, but I have hitherto been lucky enough to escape." This probably refers to an incident on 25 January 1829 which he described in a report as "...a narrow escape, the natives having set fire to a thicket which we were struggling to get through. We rushed through the flames... We saw the natives with fire and tried to shoot them, but although not ten yards off they all escaped..." In 1831 he became the first European to reach the summit of Cradle Mountain. In the same year, he began the design of the residence, Highfield House, for the Chief Agent of the VDL Co, but he did not live to see it built. He committed suicide on the night of 1/2 September 1832, leaving a note which is held in the Tasmanian Archives. Hellyer travelled extensively along the north of the island. Parts of his journey have been recorded by Brian J Rollins, who followed precisely parts of this journey. His article, "Henry Hellyer, esquire, 1790/1832: Van Diemen's Land Company surveyor: in his footsteps." was published in 1988 by Australian Surveyor. Suicide Hellyer suicided on 9 September 1832, his incoherent suicide note ending with the following line: Alas my mother, in agony I fly to my saviour. His suicide was the inspiration for a 1998 play. Most theories about the suicide are speculation, except for a thorough investigation involving the well-validated technique of LIWC (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count). An analysis of his diaries from the day he left England, suggests he was suffering from ever-increasing depression. An alternative view has