So little is known of these children of nature, and still less has
been done to gain any knowledge of them, that not much can be offered
as to their present numbers or condition. From what I have seen and
read, the natives of Van Dieman's Land are unlike any other Indians,
either in features, their mode of living, hunting, &c. There are many
hundreds of people who have lived for years in the colony, and yet
have never seen a native. ... The features of these people are any
thing but pleasing: a large flat nose, with immense nostrils; lips
particularly thick; a wide mouth, with a tolerably good set of teeth;
the hair long and woolly, which, as if to confer additional beauty, is
besmeared with red clay (similar to our red ochre) and grease. Their
limbs are badly proportioned; the women appear to be generally better
formed than the men. Their only covering is a few kangaroo skins,
rudely stitched, and thrown over the shoulders; but more frequently
they appear in a state of nudity; indeed, so little knowledge have
they of decency or comfort, that they never avail themselves of the
purposes for which apparel is given to them. Lieut. Collins, in his
account of the natives of New South Wales, describes their marriage
ceremonies as being most barbarous and brutal; and I have also heard
from individuals who have visited New South Wales, that it is not
uncommon to see a poor woman almost beaten to death by her lover,
previous to his marrying her. From the shyness of the natives of Van
Dieman's Land, and the constant warfare that has been carried on
between them and the remote stock-keepers, (which is not likely to
render them more familiar,) I have never been able to ascertain
whether there is any trace of religion among them, or if they have
the slightest idea of a Supreme Being. I believe, and it is generally
supposed, they have not. It is but fair to remark, however, that
nothing has been done for them; the few that can speak a little
English, only curse and swear, and this they catch up very readily
from the different convicts they meet with.
* * * * *
There are but few instances of any native having entirely forsaken his
tribe, however young he may have been taken away; they appear to
dislike any thing in the shape of labour, although, if they take to
cattle, they are, beyond any thing, quick in tracing and finding those
lost. So acute is their power of discrimination, that they have been
known to trace the footsteps of bush-rangers over mountains and rocks;
and, although the individual they have been in pursuit of has walked
into the sides of the river as if to cross it, to elude the vigilance
of his pursuers, and has swam some distance down and crossed when
convenient, yet nothing can deceive them. Indeed, so remarkable is
their discernment, that if but the slightest piece of moss on a rock
has been disturbed by footsteps, they will instantly detect it. The
aborigines of this island have no appointed place or situation to live
in; they roam about at will, followed by a pack of dogs, of different
sorts and sizes, but which are used principally for hunting the
kangaroo, oppossum, bandicoot, &c. They are passionately fond of their
dogs; so much so, that the females are frequently known to suckle a
favourite puppy instead of the child. They rarely ever move at night,
but encircle themselves round a large fire, and sleep in a sitting
posture, with their heads between their knees. So careless are they of
their children, that it is not uncommon to see boys grown up with feet
exhibiting the loss of a toe or two, having, when infants, been
dropped into the fire by the mother. The children are generally
carried (by the women) astride across the shoulders, in a careless
manner. They live entirely by hunting, and do not fish so much, or use
the canoe, as in New South Wales, although the women are tolerably
expert divers; the craw-fish and oyster, if immediately on the coast,
are their principal food. Oppossums and kangaroos may be said to be
their chief support; the latter is as delicious a treat to an epicure,
as the former is the reverse. The manner of cooking their victuals is
by throwing it on the fire, merely to singe off the hair; they eat
voraciously, and are very little removed from the brute creation as to
choice of food; entrails, &c. sharing the same chance as the choicest
parts. They are extremely expert in climbing, and can reach the top of
the largest forest-trees without the aid of branches; they effect this
by means of a small sharp flint, which they clasp tightly in the ball
of their four fingers, and having cut a notch out of the bark, they
easily ascend, with the large toe of each foot in one notch, and their
curiously manufactured hatchet in the other. Their weapons of defence
are the spear and waddie; the former is about twelve feet long, and as
thick as the little finger of a man; the tea-tree supplies them with
this matchless weapon; they harden one end, which is very sharply
pointed, by burning and filing it with a flint prepared for the
purpose. In throwing the spear they are very expert; indeed, of late,
their audacious atrocities have been lamentably great, although, at
the same time, I have little hesitation in saying, they have arisen
from the cruel treatment experienced by some of their women from the
hands of the distant stock-keepers. Indeed, these poor mortals, I
know, have been shot at merely to gratify a most barbarous cruelty....
After killing a white man, the natives have a sort of dance and
rejoicing, jumping, and singing, and sending forth the strangest
noises ever heard. They do not molest the body when dead, nor have I
ever heard of their stripping or robbing the deceased. Among
themselves they have no funeral rites; and those who are aged or
diseased are left in hollow trees, or under the ledges of rocks, to
pine and die. These people are subject to a disease, which causes the
most loathsome ulcerated sores; two or three whom I saw were
wretched-looking objects. I remember a very old man, who was thus
affected, being tried and hung, for spearing one of Mr. Hart's men;
the culprit was so ill and infirm as to be obliged to be carried to
the place of execution. I think the colonial surgeons call the disease
the "bush scab;" and that it is occasioned by a filthy mode of life.
The population of natives is very small in proportion to the extent of
the island: several causes may be alleged for their smallness of
numbers; the principal one is their having been driven about from
place to place, by settlers taking new locations; another cause is the
great destruction of the kangaroo, which obliges the natives to labour
hard to procure food sufficient for their sustenance: this, and their
having no means of procuring vegetables, besides being constantly
exposed to the weather, together with their offensive habits of
living, produce the disease above mentioned, with its fatal
consequences. _Widdowson's Van Dieman's Land_.
Retrospective Gleanings.