STRAITSMEN. 449 



astonishing what a charm such a wild mode of 

 existence possesses for these men, whom no con- 

 sideration could induce to abandon their free, though 

 laborious and somewhat lawless state. 



The term sealers is no longer so appropriate as it 

 was formerly ; none of them confining themselves to 

 sealing, in consequence of the increasing scarcity of 

 the object of their original pursuit. Straitsmen is the 

 name by which those who inhabit the eastern and 

 western entrance of Bass Strait are known; they class 

 themselves into Eastern and Western Straitsmen, and 

 give the following account of their origin: — Between 

 the years 1800 and 1805, the islands in Bass Strait 

 and those fronting the south coast of Australia, as 

 far westward as the Gulfs of St. Vincent and 

 Spencer were frequented by sealing vessels from the 

 old and the new country, if 1 may use this expres- 

 sion for England and Australia. Many of their 

 crews became so attached to the islands they were 

 in the habit of visiting, that when their vessels were 

 about to leave the neighbourhood, they preferred 

 to remain, taking with them a boat and other stores 

 as payment for their work. There can be no doubt, 

 however, that their numbers were afterwards re- 

 cruited by runaway convicts. 



On one island reside seldom more than two families. 

 The latter word will at once satisfy the reader that 

 these people were not deprived of the pleasures of 

 female companionship: man was never born to be 

 satisfied with his own society ; and the Straitsmen of 



VOL. II. 2 G 



