y, that the raised beaches found on
the western side of Flinders, are evidences of an upheaval having
recently taken place.)

(**Footnote. This is the only animal the Tasmanian sheep-farmer is
annoyed with; and from its paucity, they have not, as in New South Wales,
the trouble of securing their flocks in yards or folds every night.)

(***Footnote. See Volume 1.)

INHUMAN CONDUCT.

I was curious to know how he managed to procure the obedience of this
aboriginal victim; and the inhuman wretch confessed, without a
blush--which must rise instead to the cheeks of my readers, when they
hear of what barbarities their countrymen have been guilty--that he kept
the poor creature chained up like a wild beast; and whenever he wanted
her to do anything, applied a burning stick, a fire-brand snatched from
the hearth, to her skin! This was enough. I could listen to no more, and
hurried from the spot, leaving my brutal informant to guess at the cause
of my abrupt departure. It is possible that the emotion I allowed to
appear may have introduced some glimmering of the truth into his mind,
that he may have faintly perceived how disgusted I was with his
narrative; but such is the perversion of feeling among a portion of the
colonists, that they cannot conceive how anyone can sympathize with the
black race as their fellow men. In theory and practice they regard them
as wild beasts whom it is lawful to extirpate. There are of course
honourable exceptions, although such is a very common sentiment. As an
instance, I may mention that a friend of mine, who was once travelling in
Tasmania, with two natives of Australia, was asked, by almost everyone,
where he had CAUGHT them? This expression will enable the reader better
to appreciate the true state of the case than many instances of ferocity
I could enumerate. It shows that the natives occupy a wrong position in
the minds of the whites; and that a radical defect exists in their
original conception of their character, and of the mode in which they
ought to be treated.

CAPTURE OF NATIVES.

Soon after I returned to the ship at Port Dalrymple, a party of natives
was sent on board, with a request that I would allow the Vansittart to
take them to Flinders Island; it consisted of an elderly woman and man,
two young men, and a little boy. These were the remainder of the small
tribe to which belonged the woman who received, as I have related, such
cruel treatment from her keeper. I should here