THE RACKS OF MAtf. 209 



tnnl ill-health, especially among the children, arising from 

 changed conditions of life, notwithstanding that the new 

 conditions may not be injurious in themselves. I am much 

 indebted to Mr. H. H. Howorth for having called my 

 attention to this subject and for having given me informa- 

 tion respecting it. I have collected the following cases: 



When Tasmania was first colonized the natives were 

 roughly estimated by some at 7,000, and by others at 20,000. 

 Their number was soon greatly reduced, chiefly by fighting 

 with the English and with each other. After the famous 

 hunt by all the colonists, when the remaining natives deliv- 

 ered themselves up to the government, they consisted only of 

 120 individuals,* who were in 1832 transported to Flinders 

 Island. This island, situated between Tasmania and Aus- 

 tralia, is forty miles long, and from twelve to eighteen miles 

 broad; it seems healthy, and the natives were well treated. 

 Nevertheless, 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 hundred 

 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 con- 

 sisted (Dec. 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. Bonwick (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 attempts 

 to civilize the natives. " If left to themselves to roam as 

 they were wont and undisturbed they would have reared 

 more children and there would have been less mortality." 



* All the statements here given are taken from " The Last of the 

 Tasmanians," by J. Bonwick, 1870. 



f This is the statement of the Governor of Tasmania, Sir W. Deni 

 Bon, " Varieties of Vice-Regal Life," 1870, vol. i, p. 67. 



