The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-02-19
THE LAST oFTHE TAsMANIANs.

| There was an interesting description
of the last days Of the aboriginal, be
fore he became improved away" b.
the English settlers In lecture givel
by the Agent General for Tasmania
Sir Phillip Fysh, at the Whitehall
Rooms the other night. For the Soutl
Sea Islanders, he said, nature had pro
/ vided planting, cultivating and ripening
4 their food, so that they toll not, Meth.
! er do they spin nor gather into barns.
How different it was in Tasmania! II
| could not in it's primitive state sup
port large popula ton. A fungus
known as the bread fruit Of the natives
and the kangaroo, wallaby and the
wombat were there, and fish,---all to be
/ had by the spear, trap and the practice
of amphibious habits; but the race was
poor in physique, negectful and re-
morseless of infant female life. Each
tribe was in perpetual war with the
| next, between whom river or noun
tain was the only line of demarcation.
They were exposed to the inclemency
of the weather an animal skin being
their only, if any, clothing; attacked by
catarrh and pneumonia, the mortality
must have been abnormally high, and
Judging by the paucty of numbers
found there by us, they were a doomed
race.
Great efforts for their protection We're
put forth. Proclamations of His Majes-
ty We're made by rudely painted pic
lures fastened upon trees intended to ex-
plain that II white shot black the form
err would be hanged, and if black spear
Many We're docile, but the vallanies of
bushrangers drew upon the settlers a
vengeance without discrimination, caus-
ing an effort so early as 1880 to collect
all the tribes. The Government spent
G30, 900 and engaged three thousand
persone in Gordon stretched across the
island, called the black line, or Black
War, but it was a complete failure, one
man and one boy being the only cap
tives and they BY accident Among
very many settlers who We're true
friends of the black, one man stands
out with a history which is a memorl-
al of good deeds, The black mans
friend was G. A. Robinson, a bricklayer
by trade, and a noble souled philan-
thropist; he trusted Them he and his
wife lived with them for time, and by
moral suasion he brought them through
many hairbreadth escape himself, TO
camp around his home, in Hobart
Their counsellor and protector, his as
tendency became complete.
Truganini, native woman, was COM
panion to Robinson in his journeys
among the blacks. She had lived long
enough at peace with white people to
respect their purposes. Mr. Bonwick
writes of her: Her mind was of no or
binary kind. Fertile in expedlent, sa
gacious in council, courageous in diff
Guilty, che had the wisdom and fascina-
tons of the serpent, the intrepidity and
nobility of the royal ruler of the desert"
When collected they were fed, clothed
and protected in native quarters and
coinforted under the care of
an Imperial superintendent. The rem
nant of their number in 1886 was only
203 souls From mortality point such
paternal care appears to have been a
failure, as their number in 1S47 was re-
duced to forty-seven. The last male
native, called King Billy, became a
hand among sailors, adopted
their vices and succumbed to eXcesses
In 1862 Truganini, or Trucanini, lived |
to the fairly ripe old age for an aborigi- |
nal Of stXty-fve; she was constant !
visitor to my fruit garden and delighted |
IN and INDUCED in the freedom of many |
other gardens, until she ended by her
Heath the last chapter of her race in the
year 1G6.-Birmingham Post.