The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-28 00:00:00

,s/

The Last Man.

At the last ball at Government-house, Hobart
Town, there appeared:the last male aboriginal in-
habitant of Tasmania. He was accompanied by
three aboriginal women, the sole living representa-

Lives of the race beside himself, but not of such an
age or such an appearance as to justify the expece
.tation of any future addition to their number. We
may, therefore, look upon this individual not only
as the last man of his race in esse, but also in posse.
In this there is something very serious, if not very
affecting. What was to have exalted them has
tended to their debasement. What was to have
been a source of prolonged life to them as a people
has led to their speedier extinction. From their
first contact with the whites until their final sepa•
ration the tendency was downwards, and it was then
too late to arrest the progress in that direction. It
is not in human nature to be recuperative beyond a
certain point. The number of the aborigines in the
first decade of the present century has been vari-
ously estimated—by some 7,000, by others at 4,000
to 5,000 only. In the judgment of charity, and in
consideration of the fact that we are now in the pre-
sence of the last men, let us take them at the smaller
of these two numbers. The gulf to be bridged over
is still wide enough. At first the aboriginal inhabi-
tants of Tasmania are said to have been harmless,
but this did not protect them from maltreatment
by the whites. So early as 1810, Governor Collins
had to complain of this, and issued an order to the
effect that any person detected in firing wantonly
on the natives, or murdering them in cold blood,
should suffer the extreme penalties of the law. And
yet lesser offences against them were very leniently
dealt with during Governor Collins's time. One
man, for instance, was merely flogged for exposing
the ears of a boy he had mutilated, and another for
cutting off the little finger of a native and using it
as a tobacco-stopper. Colonel Davey and Colonel
Sorell, Governor Collins's successors, after a brief
interval, the former from 1813 to 1817, and the
latter from 1817 to 1824, seem to have had the
same ground of complaint against the whites for
their maltreatment of the natives, and during their
governorships we meet with many a sad and mourn•
ful tale, In Governor Davoy's time the practice of
firing on the natives was common, and in Governor
Sorell's the children of the natives were stolen
with impunity, and their women treated most
shamefully. One ruffian boasted of having cap-
tured a native woman, whose husband he had
killed, and of having strung the bleeding head to
her neck, and driven her before him as his prize.
On Colonel Arthur's assumption of the office of Gom
vernor in 1824, things were not much better. They
were, in fact, if anything, rather worse, and so
they continued for a time. We do not wish to
conceal the fact that the natives had for some
years past been the perpetrators of the most
astounding atrocities. That is admitted on all
hands. But most of these atrocities were

to be traced to a spirit of retaliation and
revenge. The natives were goaded to madness
by the treatment they met with. And though we
sometimes speak of savage life with feelings bor•
dering on contempt, it is quite possible for born
bred savages to be made worse than savages by
ttose who boast of an advanced civilisation. In

their attempts to exorcise the demon of savage
life, they may make the savage twofold more a
child of hell than he was before. Things had
come to such a pass on both sides as to render
it necessary that some decided step should be
taken ou the part of the Government and the
settlers; and this lands us in that portion of the
history of the decadence of this unfortunate race
which partakes almost of the character of the

ludicrous. Governor Arthur conceived the bold
design of making it a sine qua non that his inten•
tion should be carefully concealed from them.
This is not in accordance with the usages of
modern warfare. But then they were savages;
and were to be captured, and not slain, if the
latter could be avoided. The plea for this war
was that all attempts to "tame,' not civilize
them, had failed, and that there was no safety for
life or property so long as they were allowed to be
at large. Ail the settlers were rt quired to turn out
on the Ist of October, 1830, and every part of
the island was invested. The force on our side
consisted of nearly 5,000 men, well armed, and
that of the n hives of not more than 1,500 to
2,000 including their women and children, with no
other arms that' their spears end waddles. To so
small a number had the natives now been reduced.
Governor Arthur put on a face of becoming gravity
for the campaign, and the parties engaged in it
dignified it with the name of the " black war."
The natives were, if possible, to have been driven
into Tasman's Peninsula en masse. But the thing
turned out a complete failure. Hundreds of recruits
crawled home before the campaign was half over,
although it did not last much more than a month,
and the Governor himself was " lost three days in
Paradise" when his services were most needed. At
length it has to be given up, with two natives cap,.
tuned and one soldier wounded as its only results.
Nothing dismayed,however, it was now determined
to effect by strategy what could not be done in the
open field, and a very fitting agent for this was
found in the person of Mr Robinson,who was after-
ward appointed to the office of Protector of Abori-
gime. There are various opinions as to the fitness
of this gentleman for his office, but there can be no
doubt whatever as to his having been a man of great
daring, or as to his success in carrying out the
views of the Government of the day. He was ap.
pointed in 1829 to take charge of some natives in
Bruni Island, then captured, and from them he ac-
quired a partial knowledge of the native language.
His business after the black war was over was to take
them by guile—to capture them, as he expressed
it, "by the withdrawal of intimidation and the
employment of persuasion only ;" and, whether he
acted up to this system or not throughout, he car.
tainly suczeeded to admiration At this work he
continued for a number of years, and the last batch
were captured, after he had left the colony, at Cir-
cular Head, and were conveyed to Flinders' Island
the place that had been determined upon in the in-
terim for the reception of the rest, and where they
were already provided for by the Government. As
to the policy of their being cooped in a small island
serious doubts were entertained from the first, and
it was confidently asserted by many, as the event
has proved, that that island would shortly be their
grave. But it is no part of our object on the pre-
sent occasion to discuss the policy of the conduct of
the Government. As we started, so we desire to
close, with a bare reference ,J the fact that the
Tasmanian natives, as a race, are now virtually ex-
tinct. There is only one man left. With whom
does the blame of this rest ? Most assuredly, not
altogether with the natives themselves. No one can
say with truth that they were not as much sinned
against as sinning in the disasters that befell them,
But they are gone, and their extinction, as a race,
was probab!y as inevitable as it is inscrutable. As
savages they were found, as savages they lived, and
as savages they perished ! Such an event is de•
serving of some notice.—Hobart Town Zlercury.

-17 T

The Schleswig-Holstein Que!--eltion,-
,k 1
KIEL, Dce: 24.
An address has been drawn up by an iefluential
party in the Duchies and forwarded to Heir v...)n
Bismarck and Count Mensdorff-Poulliv, with the
request that those Ministers will be pleased to lay
it before the King of Prussia and the Enapetcr of
Austria respectively, and support it with their in-
fluence. The document is as follows
"To his Majesty the Emperor of Austria Francis
Joseph I. To his Mai the King of Prussia
William I.
"Most Gracicui Emperor,—Most Gracious K ng,
—After the peace of the 30111 October last was con-
cluded and ra!ifi,d by all conc4tned, the underbgried
inhabit tits of the Duchies of cliltswig-llolse;n
agreed to represent to your M :jeties meat respect-
fully the expression of their wishes with regard to
the future form of tho public relations of the said
Duchies. we have bailed w.ith joy the arrival
of the long-desired moment in which it has pleased
your Majesties to permit the unity of the adminis-
tration of the Duchies of Schleswig-Holstein to come
into existence under your most gracious dominion,
we hope for the lasting grant of such unity by the
reception of Schleswig into the Germanic Cenfedera.
tion. We surrender ourselves further, v.ith the
most implicit confidence, to the hope that your
Majesties will make arrangements calculated per-
manently to secure the governmental unity of the
Duchies, and to afford them the best pledge for the
blessings of external peace.
" For this purp6se we consider essential-1. That
an impartial legal examination of the question, who
is entitled to the succession in the sovereignty over
the Duchies of SchleswipHolsteie, should be en-
tered upon ; and 2. That the result of such exami-
nation shall be communicated in a convincing
manner to a Schleswig-Holatein Assembly of
Estates, called together according to legal precedent.
"Should tae examination lead to the result that
a certain prince has an incontrovertible right to the
succession in both Duchies, and in all parts of the
same, we may expect, from your Majesty's love of
justice, that you will graciously make over to this
prince the Government of the Duchies. We rely
also upon the wise care of your Majesties in case it
should appear that an application of the principles
of hereditary right would lead to a severance of the
Duchies. Claims to parts can constitute no right
to the indivisible whole. Such claims must give
place to considerations for the prosperity of the
country. These require the utmost possible security
by sufficient conditions of strength, which ycur
Majesties will not be disposed to withhold from the
Duchies. It is, however, our most profound con-
viction that they cannot be better guaranteed than
by the closest connection with one of the great Ger-
man Powers, and with the Prussian monarchy in
especial, as the nearest in position. In expressing
this view we proceed with full assurance, from the
expectation that the Duchies will, under all circurn.
stances, receive an independence with regard to in-
ternal affairs corresponding to their peculiar re.
quirements.

" We request your Majesties to allow yourselves,
in your most gracious resolutions for the welfare of
the Duchies, to be guided by these considerations,
and in such case to forward a communication to the
united Assembly of Estates of the Duchies of
Schleswig-Holstein. Your Majesties will thereby
place the crown upon the work of peace, and bind
to everlasting gratitude the Duchies thus perma-
nently secured in their united existence.
" Schleswig-Holstein, Dec, 1864."
The signatures follow.