602 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 
“This is not true, for every woman (at his mission) who had a 
half-caste child has had black children afterwards, and is still 
getting them.” He also cites the testimony of the Rev. George 
Taplin, of Queensland mission: ‘I have known many instances 
of women bearing black children after half-castes.” Other 
evidence to the same effect has been furnished me by a gentleman 
of considerable experience as a squatter and landholder, both in 
New South Wales and Queensland, conclusively proving 
Strzelecki’s theory to be untenable. 
West justly remarks, in his “‘ History of Tasmania,” that a natural 
law by which the extinction of a race is predicted will not admit 
of such serious deviations. The condition of an aboriginal wife 
was abject in the extreme, having to labour unceasingly. She 
had to provide food for her master, to keep his fire ready for 
cooking, and to cook his food, and, when marching, whatever was 
deemed necessary for the new encampment. With one or two 
children, and a heavy load of weapons and utensils, her progress 
was painful. In fact, while the men hunted and amused them- 
selves, their wives did all the drudgery. 
THE TRIBE. 
When Tasmania was first occupied by Europeans, its aboriginal 
population spread in tribes, sub-tribes, and families over the 
length and breadth of the island, from Cape Portland to Port 
Davey, and from Oyster Bay to Macquarie Harbour. Assuming 
that these groups were then about 20, and that each consisted, in 
men, women and children, of from 50 to 250 individuals, and 
allowing to them numbers proportional to the means of subsistence 
within the limits of their respective hunting-grounds, it does not 
appear probable that the aggregate aboriginal population exceeded 
2000. These tribes were distinct, and were known as the Oyster 
Bay, the Big River, the Stony Creek, and the Western ; but 
there was a sub-division of these into smaller communities, besides 
separation from each other by dialects and _ well-established 
boundaries. 
The open grassy plains, and thinly-timbered forest ground along 
the eastern and central portions of the island were the most 
attractive to the early settlers, and were consequently the first 
occupied ; but these were the districts chiefly frequented by the 
aborigines at that time. It is to be regretted that the pioneers 
of civilisation, enjoying such facilities for studying the habits and 
customs of the people with whom they enjoyed familiar inter- 
course, have left no record of the simple race whose position, 
rights and very existence they had come to usurp and supersede. 
Every tribe was sub-divided into families, and each family was 
regulated by the elders. Again, in these tribes there existed 
three distinct classes, or social gradations, which were attained 
