EXTINCTION OF THE RACE. 59 



The men of the offending tribe were shot down by the 

 score, and the women were handed over by the worthy 

 official to his " boys " for a fate worse than that which 

 had befallen their husbands, their sons, and their 

 brothers. When the bloody and wicked campaign, 

 which could not last very long, was over, the inspector 

 simply reported that the tribe had been " dispersed." 



What the rifle failed to do, intoxicants and diseases, 

 some of them of the most loathsome kind, all unknown 

 previously to the blacks, have done destroyed these 

 poor creatures by thousands. With these destructive 

 forces at work for the last half century or more, the 

 native population has been in all the settled portions 

 of Victoria, New South Wales, and South Australia, 

 largely swept off. With the mere fraction which re- 

 mains, the Government and people of the present day 

 are dealing more kindly. A part of the remnant are 

 gathered upon " reservations." They have schools and 

 churches, and domestic comforts, of which their fathers 

 knew not. 



All this, however, does not atone for the wicked 

 treatment which has been shown multitudes of their 

 race, by a people who should have had more honor and 

 humanity. 



Little good can come, perhaps, from berating those 

 on whom now devolve the responsibilities of govern- 



