462 CHARACTERISTICS AND REMOVAL 



field for conjecture and speculation. What was the 

 character of his thoughts, what importance he at- 

 tached to the prolongation of his life, cut off as he 

 was from the world, a solitary being, with no future 

 prospect of the enjoyment of society, with no hope 

 of seeing his race continued, we cannot tell. But 

 his fate, at least, must force upon us the questions, — 

 have we dealt justly by these wild people? have w^e 

 nothing to answer for, now that we have driven 

 them from their native land, leaving no remnant, 

 save one single individual, whose existence even is 

 problematical ? Without wishing to press too hard 

 on any body of my countrymen, I must say I regret 

 that that page of history which records our coloniza- 

 tion of Australia must reach the eyes of posterity. 



The woman, whose capture I have more than 

 once alluded to, was, doubtless, the wife of one of 

 the young men taken by the sealers, and mother of 

 the boy who accompanied him. The prospect of 

 meeting her probably lightened the hours of his 

 captivity. But what a tale of suiFering she had to 

 relate ! What had she not undergone as the penalty 

 of an attempt to procure food for her family. With 

 the narrative of her sorrows fresh in my memory, I 

 could not but sympathize deeply with the last five 

 of the aboriginal Tasmanians that now stood before 

 me. 



These natives diflfered even more than others I 

 had seen as the wives of sealers, from the inhabi- 

 tants of the Australian continent, possessing quite 



