CBRAM. 
117 
of Wassoa, Marihoenoe, of tlie country inland of Sepa 
and Tamil an J also inland of Haja, and in the district 
Sllan Binauwer ; and also inland of Cattarocwa, and in 
other places wbicli are not accurately known ; — a people 
so wild that they will not hold communication with any- 
body; residing chiefly in high waringin and other trees j 
living separately, from a want of mutual confidencej each 
in his own tree ; and not ouly killing one another, but 
eating each other up."* 
Some allowance must he made for the exaggeration in 
which the brown tribes always indulge when speaking of 
this degraded race, apparently with the view of furnishing 
an apology for the cruel manner in which they bunt 
them down whenever an opportunity oifers ; hut of the 
general correctness of the above details, there can be 
little doubt. The case of a people so situated must be 
almost hopeless* This ia probably the last stage in 
which the race has existed in many of the islands, large 
and small, from which it has now totally disappeared; and 
the circumstance brings forcibly to mind the condition in 
w^hich a remnant of a native tribe of Van Diemen's Land 
was discovered, some years after the main body had 
been hunted down and transferred to an island in Bass's 
Strait, Many of the smaller islands lying between the 
Moluccas and New Guinea, are now altogether uninha- 
bited, but the former occupants may have removed them- 
selves to one of the larger islands in their vicinity, where 
they conld find a retreat in the mountain fastnesses on 
the approach of danger. 
♦ Valentyn, "Bescbryvinge vaa Amboma," p. 76. 
