en them from
their native land, leaving no remnant, save one single individual, whose
existence even is problematical? Without wishing to press too hard on any
body of my countrymen, I must say I regret that that page of history
which records our colonization of Australia must reach the eyes of
posterity.

The woman, whose capture I have more than once alluded to, was,
doubtless, the wife of one of the young men taken by the sealers, and
mother of the boy who accompanied him. The prospect of meeting her
probably lightened the hours of his captivity. But what a tale of
suffering she had to relate! What had she not undergone as the penalty of
an attempt to procure food for her family. With the narrative of her
sorrows fresh in my memory, I could not but sympathize deeply with the
last five of the aboriginal Tasmanians that now stood before me.

CHARACTERISTICS AND REMOVAL OF NATIVES.

These natives differed even more than others I had seen as the wives of
sealers, from the inhabitants of the Australian continent, possessing
quite the negro cast of countenance, and hair precisely of their woolly
character. These characteristics are nowhere to be found on the
continent, natives from every part of which have come under my
observation. The difference existing is so great, that I feel warranted
in pronouncing them to be a distinct race. Excellent likenesses of
Tasmanian natives will be found in Strzelecki's work on New South Wales,
where the truth of these remarks will be perceived at a glance.

Having thus been engaged in the removal of the last of the natives to
Flinders Island, I feel that it is incumbent on me to give a short
account of the causes which led to it. In the first place, history
teaches us that whenever civilized man comes in contact with a savage
race, the latter almost inevitably begins to decrease, and to approach by
more or less gradual steps towards extinction. Whether this catastrophe
is the result of political, moral, or physical causes, the ablest writers
have not been able to decide; and most men seem willing to content
themselves with the belief that the event is in accordance with some
mysterious dispensation of Providence; and the purest philanthropy can
only teach us to alleviate their present condition, and to smooth, as it
were, the pillow of an expiring people. For my own part I am not willing
to believe, that in this conflict of races, there is an absence of moral
responsibility on the par