New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-02-11
THE LAST OF THE rASMANIAHs.
INTELLECTUAL EFFORTS OF THE ENGLISH TO
PROTECT THE RACE
From The birmingham Post.

From The birmingham Post.
There an interesting description Of the
last days of the aboriginal before he became
improved away by the English settlers, in a
lecture given by the Agent-General for Tasma-
MA, Sir Philip Fysh at the Whitehall Rooms the
other night. For the South Sea Islanders. ne
said, nature had provided planting. cultivating
and ripening their food that they toll not,
neither do they spin nor gather into barns
How different it was in Tasmania. 1t could not
in its primitive state support large population
fungus known the bread fruit Of the ma
uVeS and the kangaroo, wallaby and WomDdI
We're there, and ish-aH to be had by the spear,
trap and the practice of amphibIOuS habits; Dut
the race was poor IN physique, neglectfuI ana
remorseleSs of infant female life Each tribe
in perpetual war with the next, between
whom a river or a mountain was the only me
of demarcation. They were exposed TO the IN
clemency of the weather an animal skin oelhg
their only. if any, clothing attacked by catarrh
and pneumonia, the mortality must nave peeh
abnOrmally high and judging by the pauclty OF
numbers found there by US, they were doomed
race.
Great efforts for their protection were put
forth. ProclamatiOns of His Majesty were mace
by rudely painted pictures fastened upon trees
intended to explain that if white shot black the
former would be hanged, and If black speareo
white the black would be hanged Many were
dOcie, but the vallanies of bushrangers drew
upon the settlers vengeance without dlscrlnh-
nation, causing effort early as 1871 to col
lect all the tribes The Government spent
100000 and engaged three thousand persons IN
a Gordon stretched across. the island, called the
DldCk line, or Black w ar, out IL NStS q COLpICt7
failure, man and boy being the only
CaptiveS, and they by accident Among very
many settlers who were true friends OF the
black one man stands out with a history which
is a memorial of good deeds. The black mans
friend was G. A. Robinson, a brickayer by
trade, and a noble sOuled philanthrOpist; he
trusted them, he and his wife lived with them
for a time. and by moral suasion he brought
them, through many hairbreadth escape HIM
self to camp around his home, in Hobart Their
counsellor and protector his ascendancy became
complete.
Truganni native woman, was companion 10
Robinson in his journeys among the blacks she
had lived long enough at peace with white
people to respect their purposes. MIR. BonWlck
writes of her: Her mind of no ordinary
kind. Fertile in expedent sagaciOus in council,
courageous in difficulty. she had the wisdom and
destinations of the serpent, the intrepidlty ana
nobility of the royal ruler Of the desert When
collected they were fed. clothed and protected IN
native quarters and medically comforted under
the care of an Imperial superintendent The
remnant of their number in 1880 was only ZO5
souls. From a mortality point such paternal
care appears to have been failure, as their
number in 1917 reduced to forty-seven Inc
last male native, called King Billy. became
whaling hand among sailors, adopted their vices
and succumbed to excuses in 1869 Truganln4
or Trucanini, lived to the fairly ripe old age tor
an aboriginal of Sixty-fve; she was constant
visitor to my fruit garden and delighted IN ana
INDUCED much in the freedom of many other
gardens. until she ended by her death the last
chapter of her race in the year 1876.