Page:Some account of the wars, extirpation, habits.djvu/99

Rh Such of the sealers, however, who had families, of whom Duncan was one, were not married to the women to whom they had united themselves. Their women were of the savage races of Australia or Tasmania, either purchased or stolen from the mainland tribes, but chiefly from those of this island, from which connexions the half-caste race now found on the islands has sprung.

Captains Kelly and Hobbs, who visited the Islands, very many years ago, and who saw a good deal of the old race of sealers, say that these poor women were mostly purchased of their parents, either for the carcasses of the seal, or for hunting dogs. But quarrels springing up between the two races, in which several of each side were killed, the natives grew chary of intercourse with the whites, and this species of barter was so much interrupted, that at last women could only be obtained by force.

Many skirmishes took place, particularly on our own coasts, for the women, the sealers making free use of their firearms, and the others spearing their opponents whenever they got a chance. The sealers had the best of the fight, and the north coast is the only part of the colony where for a while the whites really beat the blacks, many idle stories to the contrary, notwithstanding.

Captain Kelly, who was employed in 1815 and '16 on the pacific mission of making the circuit of this island, was himself nearly cut off by the blacks on several occasions. They were then very numerous, and he could scarcely ever go ashore without being attacked by them.

Having just mentioned Duncan's party at the outset, I found it necessary before proceeding to describe its movements, to say the little I have done about the principal actor of this tale, and also to describe in as few words as I could use, the cause that led to the long misunderstanding between sealer and black, I must now return to Guncarriage Island, where Duncan's people had their head quarters.

Of the four persons of whom Duncan's party consisted namely, himself, Tucker, and two young men of Sydney, the three last named were all single men, and they now sailed for the mainland of Tasmania, to secure, either by purchase or surprise, as many native girls as they wanted.

This is the first act of aggression on the liberty of the blacks, in which Tucker is known to have taken any part; but not so the others, and dearly did the natives make the pay for disturbing them in their hunting grounds.

The boat sailed accordingly for Cape Portland, carrying beside the party above named, Duncan's wife, as his woman was styled, and her half-caste son, an infant 2 or 3 years old. They