I INTRODUCTION 19 



also made the first systematic observations on 

 the natural productions of the country and its 

 native inhabitants. It is impossible not to notice 

 the glamour and romance which La Billardiere 

 and, later, Peron love to throw round the dubious 

 figures of the aborigines ; but it is also clear 

 that their intense predisposition to believe in 

 primitive man helped them a long way towards 

 gaining the confidence and arousing the interested 

 curiosity of the natives. It is also of importance 

 to note that not only La Billardiere and Peron, 

 but also the less sentimental testimony of Cook, 

 aU bear witness to the mild characteristics of the 

 Tasmanians before they had come into contact 

 with the fatal influence of civilization. La Billar- 

 diere ^ gives the following picturesque account of 

 the native women obtaining food : — 



They each took a basket, and were followed 

 by their daughters, who did the same. Getting 

 on the rocks that projected into the sea they 

 plunged from them to the bottom in search of 

 shell-fish. When they had been down some time 

 we became very uneasy on their account ; for 

 where they had dived were sea-weeds of great 

 length, among which we observed the Fucus 

 pyriferus, and we feared they might have been 

 entangled in these so as to be unable to regain 

 the surface again. At length, however, they 

 appeared, and convinced us that they were capable 

 of remaining under water twice as long as our 

 ablest divers. An instant was sufficient for them 

 to take breath, and then they dived again. This 

 they did repeatedly until their baskets were nearly 



^ Quoted from Fenton's History of Tasmania, 



b2 



