t of the whites; I must deny that it is in
obedience to some all-powerful law, the inevitable operation of which
exempts us from blame, that the depopulation of the countries we colonize
goes on.

WAR OF EXTERMINATION.

There appear to me to be the means of tracing this national crime to the
individuals who perpetrate it; and it is with the deepest sorrow that I
am obliged to confess that my countrymen have not, in Tasmania, exhibited
that magnanimity which has often been the prominent feature in their
character. They have sternly and systematically trampled on the fallen. I
have before remarked that they started with an erroneous theory, which
they found to tally with their interests, and to relieve them from the
burden of benevolence and charity. That the aborigines were not men, but
brutes, was their avowed opinion; and what cruelties flowed from such a
doctrine! It is not my purpose to enter into details; I will only add
that the treatment of the poor captive native by her inhuman keeper was
in accordance with the sentiments prevailing, at one time, in the colony,
and would not have received the condemnation of public opinion.

The natural consequence of such conduct by the whites, commenced in the
very infancy of the colony, was a system of frightful retaliation on the
part of the natives. These led to counter-reprisals, every year
accumulating the debt of crime and vengeance on either hand, until the
memory of the first provocation was lost, and a war of extermination, the
success of which was, in the end, complete, began to be carried on.

ATTEMPTED CAPTURE OF NATIVES.

It was not until exasperation, on either side, rose to its highest, that
measures were taken to prevent the complete destruction of the
aborigines. The first method selected was not characterized by prudence;
being the result of the passionate counsels of the great body of
colonists, who were smarting under evils entailed upon them by their own
violent conduct. As is natural in all these cases, they looked only to
the necessity of protecting their property and their lives; and did not
take into account the massacres, the cruelties of every description,
which had been at one time encouraged, or at least not condemned by the
general voice. The casuistry of the human heart, in most instances,
concealed the true state of the case, and many, if not the majority, felt
the virtuous indignation which some only affected. At any rate, they set
about th