OF VAN PIEMEN'S LAND. 163 



and beneficent Being who rules the world. They have 

 some indistinct ideas of an evil spirit, whom they style 

 " the devil," especially when talking with Europeans, 

 but of whom there is reason to believe they have had 

 original notions, and for whom they have an appropriate 

 name in their own language. All diseases and casualties 

 are attributed to the agency of this malevolent power, 

 who is also thought to preside over the elements, espe- 

 cially in the phenomena of thunder and lightning, of 

 which they are accordingly much afraid. When one of 

 A. Cottrell's party was asked what had caused the death 

 of one of his comrades at the Hunter's Islands, he 

 answered " The devil ! " One of them imitated the 

 symptoms that usually attend consumption in its last 

 stages. There is no doubt that they entertained the 

 notion before their intercourse with Europeans. An 

 idea is becoming prevalent among them which looks 

 like the recognition of a state of being after death. It 

 is professed to be believed by some of them that they 

 are transformed after death into white men, and that 

 they return under this renewed form to an island in the 

 Straits, where there is abundance of game, and where 

 they have the pleasure of again hunting, and subsisting 

 upon such animals as they killed in the chase during 

 their lifetime ; but I am disposed to believe that this 

 has not originated with themselves, particularly as they 

 connect it with some vague idea respecting the deceased 

 visiting England, or at least coming from beyond seas 

 ere he inhabit the island in question. The want of 

 knowledge of their language renders the information 

 that can be gathered on these interesting subjects very 

 vague. 



With regard to form of government, very little 

 seems to have existed among the aborigines. A sort of 

 patriarchal authority under certain limitations has been 

 exercised by the chiefs of the respective tribes ; but 

 they have been far from exacting an implicit obedience 

 to their commands, and in many respects their authority 

 appears to have been little more than nominal ; few of 

 the mob consisting of more persons than might be in- 

 cluded in one large family, the influence of the chief, 

 who is generally in years, has probably been of the 

 parental kind. The people at the settlement call their 

 chiefs by the appellation of Father, and speak of the 



