Page:Last of the tasmanians.djvu/336

Rh young one, she attacked the rude craft, bit a hole in it, and obliged the terrified man to swim for his life. An old sealer told me of a mate of his who had been landed on a rock with a cave in it. The little vessel could not return in time, and the man perished with thirst. His body was discovered in the cave, encrusted with salt from the droppings of water from the roof.

The life of the sealer at home has been variously estimated. That the animal nature was gratified thereby cannot be denied. Most of the sealers continued such a life to the end of their days. Unable to secure their own civilized countrywomen, they were compelled to adopt the society of savages. Occasionally their women were procured by special treaty and judicious purchase. The presentation of European luxuries would obtain the transfer of a partner, whose consent was neither solicited nor expected. In most cases, however, it cost less, and saved troublesome negotiation, to steal the matron or the maid. This might be done after the approved classical mode of inviting the tribe to a festival, And then proceeding to the abduction of the moveable property of their guests; or a stealthy march inland would lead to the discovery and capture of a black charmer.

The poor creatures were literally the slaves of the sealers. They were no "Lights of the Harem," reposing on soft cushions of happy indolence, beguiling the leisure hours of their guardian lords. They were removed to the rocky islets of the Straits, and made to till the land, collect sea-birds and feathers, hunt after and preserve the skins of the wallaby, pick up the nautilus shell driven on the sands by the storm, and take their turn at the oar.

That the connexion was not absolute misery may be believed, and that the course of existence was relieved by some sunny scenes, if shaded by darker memories. The men had doubtless a rough humour of their own, which would be expressed in the peculiar gibberish of the pair; and few men, however abandoned, are continually cruel. It is hard to credit that they would habitually ill-treat their paramours, or subject the mothers of their children to continued neglect. The treatment of the women was doubtless subject to the moral status of their masters, and alleviated by their possession of offspring. These pledges of union, if not of affection, would tend to bridge over, so to speak, the social chasm between the parents. As the question of