OF NATIVES. 463 



the negro cast of countenance, and hair precisely of 

 their woolly character. These characteristics are 

 nowhere to be found on the continent, natives from 

 every part of which have come under my observa- 

 tion. The difference existing is so great, that I feel 

 warranted in pronouncing them to be a distinct race. 

 Excellent likenesses of Tasmanian natives will be 

 found in Strzelecki's work on New South Wales, 

 where the truth of these remarks will be perceived 

 at a glance. 



Having thus been engaged in the removal of the 

 last of the natives to Flinders Island, I feel that it 

 is incumbent on me to give a short account of the 

 causes which led to it. In the first place, history 

 teaches us that whenever civilized man comes in 

 contact with a savage race, the latter almost in- 

 evitably begins to decrease, and to approach by 

 more or less gradual steps towards extinction. 

 Whether this catastrophe is the result of political, 

 moral, or physical causes, the ablest writers have 

 not been able to decide ; and most men seem willing 

 to content themselves with the belief that the event 

 is in accordance with some mysterious dispensation 

 of Providence ; and the purest philanthropy can only 

 teach us to alleviate their present condition, and to 

 smooth, as it were, the pillow of an expiring people. 

 For my own part I am not willing to believe, that 

 in this conflict of races, there is an absence of moral 

 responsibility on the part of the whites ; I must 

 denv that it is in obedience to some all-powerful 



