416 
EFFECTS OF CONTACT 
In Van Diemen’s Land the same result has been 
produced as at Sydney, but in a more extended and 
exterminating manner.* There, instead of a few 
districts, the whole [island is depopulated of its 
original inhabitants, and only thirty or forty indi- 
viduals, the banished remnant of a once numerous 
people, are now existing as exiles at Flinders 
Island, to tell the tale of their expatriation.f In 
* ‘‘That the Aboriginal Tasmanian was naturally mild and 
inoffensive in disposition, appears to be beyond doubt. A worm, 
however, will turn, and the atrocities which were perpetrated 
against these unoffending creatures may well palliate the in- 
discriminate, though heart-rending slaughter they entailed. 
Such was the character of the Tasmanian native before roused by 
oppression, and ere a continued and systematic hostility had 
arisen between the races — ere ‘their hand was against every 
man, and every man’s hand against them.’ ” — Martyn's Colonial 
Magazine , May , 1840. 
f “At the epoch of their deportation, in 1835, the number of 
the natives amounted to 210. Visited by mein 1842, that is, 
after the interval of seven years, they mustered only fifty-four 
individuals.” — Strzelecki's New South Wales , p. 352 
Respecting the Aborigines of Van Diemen’s Land, who were 
thus forcibly removed, Mr. Chief Protector Robinson (who re- 
moved them) observes (Parliamentary Report, p. 198), “ When 
the natives were all assembled at Flinders Island, in 1835, I took 
charge of them, and have continued to do so ever since. I did 
not find them retaining that ferocious character which they dis- 
played in their own country ; they shewed no hostility, nor even 
hostile recollection towards the whites. Unquestionably these 
natives assembled on the island were the same who had been 
engaged in the outrages I have spoken of ; many of them, before 
they were removed, pointed out to me the spots where murders 
and other acts of violence had been committed; they made no 
