VES.

On one island reside seldom more than two families. The latter word will
at once satisfy the reader that these people were not deprived of the
pleasures of female companionship: man was never born to be satisfied
with his own society; and the Straitsmen of course found beauties
suitable to their taste in the natives of the shores* of Bass Strait. It
appears that a party of them were sealing St. George's Rocks when a tribe
came down on the main opposite and made a signal for them to approach.
They went, taking with them the carcasses of two or three seals, for
which the natives gave as many women. These, perhaps, were glad of the
change, as the aborigines of Tasmania often treat them shamefully. The
sealers took their new-bought sweethearts to an island in Banks Strait,
and there left them to go on another sealing excursion. Returning one
day, they were surprised to find their huts well supplied with wallaby by
the native women. Interest cemented a love that might otherwise have been
but temporary. Visions of fortunes accumulated by the sale of wallaby
skins flashed across the minds of the sealers; who, however, to their
credit be it spoken, generally treated their savage spouses with anything
but unkindness; though in some instances the contrary was the case. It
must be confessed, at the same time, that having once discovered the
utility of the native women, they did not confine themselves to obtaining
them by the lawful way of barter; making excursions, principally to the
shores of Australia, for the express purpose of obtaining by violence or
stealth such valuable partners.

(*Footnote. The islands were never inhabited by the aborigines until the
remnant of the original population of Tasmania was sent by government to
Flinders.)

HALF-CASTE CHILDREN.

Thus commenced a population likely to be of great service to shipping,
particularly as they make excellent sailors, and excel as headsmen in
whalers, where the keenness of their half-savage eyes, and their
dexterity in throwing the spear, render them most formidable harpooners.
The young half-castes I saw were very interesting, having a ruddy dark
complexion, with fine eyes and teeth. On Preservation, and the islands in
the neighbourhood, there were twenty-five children; among whom were some
fine-looking boys. Had the survey just been commenced I should have taken
one of them in the Beagle. Their fathers, I am happy to say, give them
all the instruction in thei