ess of the women to their children, as
"very engaging." He also had a theory: but why suppose a black woman
below a tigress, in the scale of maternity. The law of nature, deadened
by circumstances, but which is even strong in the brute, was not
inactive in their hearts. In every country, it is individually variable.

There is a grave in a garden at Ben Lomond: Mr. Batman, the morning
after its little tenant was deposited, walked up to the spot; but
although he went at sunrise, one person was earlier: a Tasmanian woman;
who sat by the grave, and wept. It was the mother.

_Half-caste._--The half-caste children were oftener destroyed. A woman,
who had immolated an infant of mixed origin, excused herself by saying
it was not a _pretty_ baby; this was, however, far from universal, and
more commonly the act of the tribe than of the mother. A native woman,
who had an infant of this class, fell accidentally into the hands of her
tribe: they tore the child from her arms, and threw it into the flames.
The mother instantly snatched it from death, and quick as lightning
dashed into the bush; where she concealed herself, until she made her
escape. The injuries she received were, however, fatal. An elder
daughter, called Miss Dalrymple, was the first half-caste child born in
the colony: she was remarkably prepossessing: her eyes black, her skin
copper-colored, her cheeks rosy, and her limbs admirably modelled: she
was adopted by a settler.

A considerable number of such children grew up in the island; but they
were neglected by their parents, and often inherited the vices or
barbarism of both. The females were early debased, and presented
spectacles of nakedness and misery. When the Orphan School was formed, a
few children were admitted at the government charge; of these, a
fragment survive.

A half-caste couple were married recently at Launceston: the expression
of their countenances was extremely pleasing. They had been sent up from
the Straits to obtain a legal sanction to their union, and they went
through the ceremony with much sensibility. There is a register in St.
John's Church, Launceston, of the marriage of an aboriginal pair in
1829; the first ever celebrated in the face of the church.

_Tribes._--Their tribes were distinct: they were known as the Oyster
Bay, the Big River, the Stony Creek, and the Western. There were smaller
sub-divisions; but those enumerated were divided by dialects, and
well-established boundaries