Page:Some account of the wars, extirpation, habits.djvu/24

16 preferred the treatment he describes, to what they underwent from their own husbands, their condition at all times must have been a truly unhappy one.

I learned from Archdeacon Reibey, who visited the straits about eight years ago, that there were then five of these women living on the islands, all very old; but I have since heard that all are dead.

These sealers were never numerous. The protector of the aborigines, in one of his reports, gives the names of all of them living, 29 persons. Their descendants at this day, who are called "the half-castes of the straits" (being the blood of the two races), do not exceed 100 persons.

To put down such an enemy as the aboriginal of Tasmania, who, I have shown, was neither to be easily met with in fight nor overtaken in pursuit, in both of which he so often proved himself the superior man, was obviously a most difficult task; and either his never-ceasing surprises of the settlers must be quietly borne with, or his race must be removed. For a long time the Government retaliated with idle proclamations only, published in the official Gazette with as much seriousness as if it really believed this captivating journal reached the hands of these barbarians, and were of course only so many contributions to the waste-paper basket of the colony. One of these silly advertisements defined the limits of the districts they were to live in, and directed them in mandatory terms never more to pass the lines described in this terrible order which could not be conveyed to them, nor understood if it were. Abandoning at last this absurd mode of procedure which lasted much too long, while the blacks were devastating the homes of the colonists, almost with impunity, Colonel Arthur took more active measures for the protection of the people, and equipped several "roving parties," as they were called, to beat up the natives' encampments, and if possible to convey to the enemy a message of peace; and as these parties were mostly accompanied by captive blacks, half tamed into subordination, partial intercourse with some of the tribes took place, and beyond doubt it somehow became known to them that the wish of the Governor was to protect equally both races, for when Robinson afterwards got a footing amongst them, he not only found that they were well aware that the desire of the whites was for peace, but that the expiring tribes, who were then dying off almost as fast as they could lie down, wore not unwilling to "come in," as he calls it, i.e., to surrender. The dissemination of this desire, in whatever way it reached them, was the principal good done by the roving parties—that is, if it were effected by them, as it is said to have been; though con-