THE GENEALOGY OF MAN. 233 



CIVILIZED OUT OF EXISTENCE. 



Descent TYhen Tasmania was first colonized the na- 



of Man, tives were roughly estimated by some at seven 

 thousand and by others at twenty thousand. 

 Their number was soon greatly reduced, chiefly by fight- 

 ing with the English and with each other. After the 

 famous hunt by all the colonists, when the remaining 

 natives delivered themselves up to the government, they 

 consisted only of one hundred and twenty individuals, 

 who were in 1832 transported to Flinders Island. This 

 island, situated between Tasmania and Australia, is forty 

 miles long, and from twelve to eighteen miles broad : it 

 seems healthy, and the natives were well treated. Never- 

 theless, they suffered greatly in health. In 1834 they 

 consisted (Bonwick, p. 250) of forty-seven adult males, 

 forty-eight adult females, and sixteen children, or in all 

 of one hundred and eleven souls. In 1835 only one hun- 

 dred were left As they continued rapidly to decrease, 

 and as they themselves thought that they should not 

 perish so quickly elsewhere, they were removed in 1847 

 to Oyster Cove in the southern part of Tasmania. They 

 then consisted (December 20, 1847) of fourteen men, 

 twenty-two women, and ten children. But the change of 

 site did no good. Disease and death still pursued them, 

 and in 1864 one man (who died in 1869) and three 

 elderly women alone survived. The infertility of the 

 women is even a more remarkable fact than the liability 

 of all to ill-health and death. At the time when only 

 nine women were left at Oyster Cove, they told Mr. Bon- 

 wick (p. 386), that only two had ever borne children : 

 and these two had together produced only three children ! 

 With respect to the cause of this extraordinary state 

 of things, Dr. Story remarks that death followed the at- 



