THE EXTINCTION OP RACES. 179 



Bagehot has remarked, that savages did not formerly waste away 

 before the classical nations, as they now do before modern civil- 

 ized nations; had they done so, the old moralists would have 

 mused over the event; but there is no lament in any writer of 

 that period over the perishing barbarians."" The most potent of 

 all the causes of extinction, appears in many cases to be lessened 

 fertility and ill-health, especially amongst the children, arising 

 from changed conditions of life, notwithstanding that the new 

 conditions may not be injurious in themselves. I am much in- 

 debted to Mr. H. H. Howorth for having called my attention to 

 this subject, and for having given me information respecting it. 

 I have collected the following cases. 



When Tasmania was first colonized the natives were roughly 

 estimated by some at 7000 and by others at 20,000. Their number 

 was soon greatly reduced, chiefly by fighting with the English 

 and with each other. After the famous hunt by all the colonists, 

 when the remaining natives delivered themselves up to the gov- 

 ernment, they consisted only of 120 individuals,'' who were In 1832 

 transported to Flinders Island. This island, situated between 

 Tasmania and Australia, is forty miles long, and from twelve to 

 eighteen miles broad: it seems healthy, and the natives were 

 well treated. Nevertheless, they suffered greatly in health. In 

 1834 they consisted (Bonwick, p. 250) of forty-seven adult males, 

 forty-eight adult females, and sixteen children, or in all of 111 

 souls. In 1835 only one hundred were left. As they oontinued 

 rapidly to decrease, and as they themselves thought that they 

 should not perish so luickly elsewhere, they were removed in 

 1847 to Oyster Cove in the southern part of Tasmania. They then 

 consisted (Dec. 20th, 1847) of fourteen men, twenty-two women 

 and ten children."' But the change of site did no good. Disease 

 and death still pursued them, and in 1864 one man (who died in 

 1869), and three elderly women alone survived. The infertility 

 of the women is even a more remarkable fact than the liability 

 of all to ill-health and death. At the time when only nine women 

 were left at Oyster Cove, they told Mr. Bonwick (p. 386), that only 

 two had ever borne children: and these two had together pro- 

 duced only three children! 



With respect to the cause of this extraordinary state of things. 

 Dr. Story remarks that death followed the attempts to civilize 

 the natives. "If left to themselves to roam as .they were wont 

 "and undisturbed, they would have reared more children, and 



^' Bagehot, 'Physics and Politics,' 'Fortnightly Review,' April 1, 1868, 

 p. 455. 



" All the statements here given are taken from 'The last of the Tas- 

 manlans,' by J. Bonwick, 1870. 



^ This Is the statement of the Governor of Tasmania, Sir W. Deni- 

 son, 'Varieties of Vice-Regal Life,' 1870, vol. i. p. 67. 



