THE AUSTRALIANS. 175 



with the few resources of the country it was 

 impossible for savages to rise, it follows that 

 with those same resources it would be 

 impossible for a half-civilized race not to 

 fall. And as in this case again, unless we 

 are to suppose a separate Adam and Eve 

 for Van Diemen's Land, its natives must 

 originally have come from one or other of 

 the great continents where both corn and 

 cattle were to be had, it follows that the 

 low condition of these natives is much more 

 likely to have been the result of degradation 

 than of primeval barbarism. Man as an 

 animal does not belong to the Fauna of 

 Australia. The scientific evidence, therefore, 

 is conclusive that he came to it from other 

 lands. But it is highly improbable that the 



