110 



AIJOIXD THE WOULD VIA INDIA. 



dreds of thousands when the white man took posses- 

 sion of the country, as the result of a war of extermi- 

 nation, and acute and chronic infectious diseases intro- 

 duced by fche whites, have been reduced to a very small 

 number. The census taken in 1902 shows that the 

 present native population consists of 52,157 blacks and 

 7,128 half-castes. The Tasmanians fared even worse 

 than this. Tn 1808 the island had at least 5,000 in- 

 habitants. The whites began a war of extermination 

 which lasted thirty years. The crude implement- of 



Fit 



-Australian aborigines. 



native warfare proved powerless against the firearms of 

 the invaders, and when resistance' ceased there were few 

 left to relate the story of the heroic struggle made in 

 the defense of their beloved island, and the whites 

 could ease their conscience by asserting: 



'It is the right of war for conquerors to treat 

 those whom they have conquered according to 

 their pleasure." — C?esar. 



The race became extinct with the death of the last 

 Tasmnnian in 1870. Such is the cruel fate of the 



