460 CAPTURE OF NATIVES. 



such is a very common sentiment. — As an instance, 

 I may mention that a friend of mine, who was once 

 travelling in Tasmania, with two natives of Aus- 

 tralia, was .asked, by almost every one, *' where he 

 had caught them?" This expression will enable 

 the reader better to appreciate the true state of the 

 case than many instances of ferocity I could enu- 

 merate. It shows that the natives occupy a wrong 

 position in the minds of the whites ; and that a 

 radical defect exists in their original conception of 

 their character, and of the mode in which they ought 

 to be treated. 



Soon after I returned to the ship at Port Dalrym- 

 ple, a party of natives was sent on board, with a 

 request that I would allow the Vansittart to take 

 them to Flinders Island ; it consisted of an elderly 

 woman and man, two young men, and a little boy. 

 These were the remainder of the small tribe to 

 which belonged the woman who received, as I have 

 related, such cruel treatment from her keeper. I 

 should here state, that when she was removed to 

 Flinders Island, none of the natives there could 

 understand her — a fact somewhat hostile to the 

 theorv of those who hold that there is little or no 

 variety in the aboriginal languages of Australasia. 



The party of natives in question were taken by 

 some sealers on the western coast, near Arthur's 

 River, and not far from the Van Diemen's Land Agri- 

 cultural Company's station at Point Woolnorth, to 

 which place they were first brought. A reward of 



