BY JAMES BARNARD, V. P. 63 



The superintendeut at Oyster Cove, under date 4th 

 November, 1857, reports to the Colonial Secretary the dea.th 

 of Adam, aged 20 years, the youngest of the aboriginals ; 

 and states that during his illness he was waited upon by his 

 mother, sister, and the latter's husband; these beino- 

 respectively Sarah, Fanny, and William Smith. 



TJp to this point my researches have been eminently 

 satisfactory, and have tended to confirm the theory of Fanny 

 being an aboriginal ; but another document has been 

 brought under my notice which, unexplained, certainly 

 discountenances that theory. It is the report of certain 

 proceedings taken before Dr. Jeanneret, the superintendent 

 at Flinders Island, on the occasion of certain allegations 

 made against an officer of the establishment, and in which is 

 a deposition made by Fanny, dated. March 25th, 1847, 

 commencing with these words,' — "I am a half-caste of Yan 

 Diemen's Land- My mother is a native. I am about 13 

 years of age," etc., with her signature attached at the foot. 

 At first sight this admission would appear to be conclusive 

 and unanswerable ; but, upon reflection, I am led to believe 

 that there must be a mistake somewhere. In the first place 

 a child of her age, with imperfectly developed intelligence, 

 would scarcely be likely to volunteer that statement, or do 

 more than give a mechanical assent to the question when 

 asked, without, perhaps, at all understanding its import. 

 Again, possibly the clerk writing the deposition may have 

 understood that Fanny was sister to Mary Ann instead of 

 Jialf-sisier, and naturally assumed them to be the offsj)ring of 

 the same parents. Besides, it conflicts with all the official 

 correspondence in which she is referred to with Dr. Milligan, 

 the medical superintendent, and Mr. Clark, the catechist, in 

 all of which the term " half-caste " never once appears, and 

 she is invariably designated an aboriginal gii'l, and 

 distinguished from Mary Ann, her half - sister, and an 

 undisputed half-caste. I may add, also, that Fanny wholly 

 repudiates all knowledge or recollection of the evidence 

 referred to. The paper of Lieut. Friend, which I have 

 quoted, in which he refers to Sarah, the mother of Fanny, 

 in support of his hypothesis, as well as the official statement 

 given of Eugene being her father and Adam being her 

 brother, should remove all doubt as to Fanny being a true 

 aboriginal. Wliile it is not to be denied that differences of 

 •opinion exist on the point, I think it must be allowed, 

 from the facts brought forward, that the weight of testimony 

 is in its favour. 



The characteristics of the complexion and of the hair have 

 been cited as favouring the opinion that Fanny must be 

 deposed from the pedestal claimed for her as a pure aboriginal 



