11 
the lioyal Institution on the 31st of May, 1878, and published in 
the eighth volume of the ‘Proceedings of the Koyal Institution.’ 
Tasmania lies about one hundred and fifty miles from the southern 
extremity of Australia, and was discovered by Abel Jansen Tasman, 
in 1G42, but altliough visited several times by Europeans, it was not 
till 1803 that the island was taken possession of by the English, 
and colonization from Xew South Wales commenced. All seems to 
have gone on peaceably till May, 1804, when, near the convict 
settlement of Hobart Town an unfortunate misunderstanding 
occurred, which led to the most disastrous results. 
“ .A party of several hundred blacks, men, women, and children, 
engaged, as it subseipiently appeared, in a kangaroo chase, were 
suddenly seen running down the side of a hill towards the infant 
colony. The alarmed settlers, thinking they were about to be 
attacked by a strong force, without any parley, fired volleys among 
the harmless and unhappy natives, killing, it is said, as many as 
fifty before the rest could make their escape. After this, of course, 
it w’as long before amicable relations could bo re-established. In 
fact, the black wars thus bcginr ended only with the departure of 
the last natives from the island in 1835.” 
The effect of this unfortunate affair was heightened by the 
character of the first settlers, who consisted of the most degraded 
class of criminals, who escaping from the settlements and taking to 
bush-ranging, were often tlie til’s! Europeans that came in contact 
with the natives, ami from them unfortunately they derived their 
first impressions of civilized man, impressions which no acts of the 
better class of colonists could remove. Thus the feud once estab- 
lished wont on from bad to worse, till in April, 1828, an attempt 
was made by the government to divide the two races by a line of 
demarcation. This attempt, as there was no means of communicating 
it to the natives, of course proved unsuccessful, and in October, 
1830, it was determined to drive the natives into Tasman’s 
Peninsula, which being connected with the mainland of the island 
only by a narrow neck of land, scarcely a mile in width, it was 
thought could be easily guarded. When the cordon, however, closed 
on the neck of the peninsula, after many months labour and a 
