Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/145

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I I On the whole, it may be more easily credited that the race of the island once occupied the mainland and va«  driven soiithwaids by more warlike or skilful tiibea than that it separately invented similar traditions and obser- vances- To rtoat across Bass's Straits in a canoe might sometimes be hazardous, but in calm weather was easy. Many recorded instances of drifting canoes exceed by far the width of Jiass's Straits. The so-called catamaran of Southern Tasmania, moreover, could not be filled with water nor upset. To ascribe the habits of thtj islanders to chance when they conform to those of the continent would be a wild abandonment of reason, wheii the similarities are found to be abundant. To account for the dissimilarities is difticult; bnt on the supposition that frequently in the lapse of ages families would land on the northern coast of the continent, it is highly credible that the intermingling of fresh blood would produce pbysieal differences, and thus the race on the continent might diverge m appearance from thai which was isolated in the aouthevn island. Thus also any inven- tion, such as that of the boomerang or the wommerah, would remain unknown m the island, although it would be communicated gradtially on the continent. The number of the islanders at the date of British occupation lias been computed at 7000,*'^ divided into about a score of tribes, estranged by warfare, and speaking foin* differing dialects. They roved from place to place within their tribal limits. Like tbeir neighbours on the continent, when they sent out a war- party they composed it of men only. If they apprehended an attack, they sent tbeir women and children to mountain recesses, and watched the object of dread. Thus for days an exploring party led by <* Mr, J, K. CaMer published (Tasmania, 1875) iinaeoount of the natives, in compiling which he consnlfcetl official docuinents in Hobatt Town. The decrease in the trilies puzzled Mi% Calder. '* It was, he saidj "assignable t-o very different causes tlmii the hostility t>f the whites, to which it has been so luuch the faahioii to iirSeribe it, for up to the time of theix' voliitiUnry Biirreiider to the government they not only nuiint^iined their ffronnd every whei^ (the towns excepted) » bnt had by far the beat of the tight; ... in this unequal contest the tnu^kct of the Englishman was far leaa deadly tluiii the spear of the savage, at least Hv© of the former dying to one of the latter."