4o0 NATIVE WIVES. 



course found beauties suitable to their taste in the 

 natives of the shores* of Bass Strait. It appears 

 that a party of them were sealing St. George's Rocks 

 when a tribe came down on the main opposite and 

 made a signal for them to approach. They went, 

 taking with them the carcases of two or three seals, 

 for which the natives gave as many women. These, 

 perhaps, were glad of the change, as the aborigines 

 of Tasmania often treat them shamefully. The 

 sealers took their new bought sweethearts to an 

 island in Banks Strait, and there left them to go on 

 another sealing- excursion. Returnino- one dav, 

 they were surprised to find their huts well supplied 

 with wallaby by the native women. Interest ce- 

 mented a love that might otherwise have been 

 but temporary. Visions of fortunes accumulated by 

 the sale of wallaby skins flashed across the minds of 

 the sealers ; who, however, to their credit be it 

 spoken, generally treated their savage spouses with 

 anything but unkindness ; though in some instances 

 the contrary was the case. It must be confessed, at 

 the same time, that having once discovered the 

 utility of the native women, they did not confine 

 themselves to obtaining them by the lawful way of 

 barter ; making excursions, principally to the shores 

 of Australia, for the express purpose of obtaining 

 by violence or stealth such valuable partners. Thus 

 commenced a population likely to be of great 



* The islands were never inhabited by the aborigines until the 

 remnant of the original population of Tasmania was sent by 

 government to Flinders. 



