Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/27

 CHAPTER I

ON THE ORIGIN OF THE ABORIGINES OF TASMANIA AND AUSTRALIA

The question of the origin of the Australian and Tasmanian aborigines has engaged the attention of many writers, who have attempted its solution by inferences drawn from language, from custom, from the physical character of those savages, and, while direct evidence is not existent, from what some writers apparently assume to be fact.

Before entering upon the conclusions to which I have been led in this inquiry, it will be well to note in chronological order the views of various authorities, in doing which I have found it necessary to include those dealing with the Tasmanians.

Mr. R. H. Davis considered the Tasmanians to be scions of the Australians, and that their ancestors, being