46 INTERMIXTURE OP CERTAIN RACES 



nineteenth century, execrable atrocities a hundred times less 

 excusable than the hitherto unrivalled crimes of which the 

 Spaniards were guilty in the fifteenth century in the Antilles. 



These atrocities have terminated in a regular extermina- 

 tion/ caused, say the optimists, by the absolute unsociability 

 of the Tasmanians. 2 This is not, in our opinion, a mitigatory 

 circumstance, but from all these facts there results evidently, 

 that, of all human beings, the Tasmanians are, or rather were, 

 with the Australians, nearest to the brutal condition. 



The investigation of the results obtained from the inter- 

 mixture of Anglo-Saxons with these inferior races, may give 

 us an idea what the crossing between the two most disparate 

 branches of the human family may produce. 



M. Omalius d'Halloy, President of the Belgian Senate, a 

 venerable scholar, as well known for his geological as for his 

 anthropological works, thus concludes the seventh chapter of 

 his Treatise on the Races of Man : " It is remarkable that, 

 though a considerable number of Europeans now inhabit the 

 same countries as the Andamenes, no mention is made of the 

 existence of hybrids resulting from their union. " 3 Under the 



1 In 1835, the English of Van Diemen's Land undertook to get rid alto- 

 gether of the natives. A regular battue was organised in the whole island, 

 and in a short time all Tasmanians, without distinction of age or sex, were 

 exterminated, with the exception of two hundred and ten individxials, who 

 were transported to the little isle, Flinders (or, Fourneaux), in Bass's Straits. 

 This was all the remnant of a race which, before the arrival of the English, 

 had occupied a territory nearly as large as Ireland. This dreadful massacre 

 produced a profound horror in the English Parliament, but it was not thought 

 of to send these unfortunates back again to their native soil. Measures 

 were, however, taken to treat them humanely in the isle of Flinders, and to 

 provide them abundantly with victuals ; they were also instructed in religion. 

 The island is about thirteen leagues in length by seven in breadth ; the re- 

 fugees had thus no want of space. Nevertheless, of these two hundred and 

 ten individuals, most of them adults, perished rapidly, and Count Strzelecki, 

 who visited them in 1842, found only fifty -four. Within seven years and a few 

 months, only fourteen children were born. (Strzelecki, Physical Description of 

 New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, pp. 353-357, London, 1845. 



2 A few months before the extermination of the Tasmanians, an inhabitant 

 of Hobart Town wrote a letter to Eienzi, copied by him in Gceanie, p. 558. 

 The author foresaw that a conflict was inevitable. He observes, " Several 

 of the children have been sent to the schools of Hobart Town. When once 

 arrived at the age of puberty, an irresistible instinct compels them to return 

 to their solitudes." We know of no other particulars regarding the attempts 

 made- by the English to civilise the natives. This fact, similar to those of 

 Australia, comes from a source which cannot be suspected, since the writer 

 of the letter, as well as M. Eienzi, are well disposed towards the natives. 



3 D' Omalius d'Halloy, Des Races Humaines on Elements d' Ethnographic, p. 

 108, Paris, 1859. 



