her to do anything, applied a burning stick, a firebrand from the hearth, to her skin."
Lieut. Darling gives them no good character, saying, "As to the sealers themselves, they are, with very few exceptions, a drunken, lying, lazy, and lawless lot." As to the effect of their intercourse with the women, he assured the Governor that these poor Natives, "instead of being in any degree civilized or enlightened by the sealers, rather became corrupted and depraved. They were made to dance naked, and encouraged in many of their savage propensities; and, by being united to them by marriage, they would be left entirely in the power of these men, and be for ever shut out from the chance of civilization." In his official letter, May 20th, 1882, dated "Flinders Island," he says: "I regret to say that I have every reason to believe that the reports respecting the sealers are, in most cases, but too true. There are several women here who have lived with them for years, and yet there is not one, though I have frequently questioned them upon the subject, who wishes to go back again. On the contrary, they express abhorrence at the thought, and have frequently told me that the sealers are in the habit of beating them severely, and otherwise ill-treating them." He gave an account of a man named Wolley, who was married to a half-caste, but who cohabited with a Black called Boatswain. Upon Mr. Darling's visit to the island, the Aborigine left and went off to Flinders. She had once been the wife of a chief, and had great force of character. She told him the reason of the hesitancy of some women to leave the sealers, and he wrote to Colonel Arthur: "I learned from her that many other women were anxious to join their friends and relations (at Flinders), but that the sealers were constantly telling them that if they came here they would starve, they would get no tobacco, no biscuit; in fact, they would be miserable." Curiously enough, however, old Sergeant Whyte wrote from Flinders: "I had no reason to believe that these women had received any ill-treatment from the sealers, on account of their being so anxious to return."
When the Government craft, belonging to Flinders Island, was lying off Circular Head, on the northern side of the island, a sealer's boat came off to it. In the stern was seated a young Aborigine of an interesting appearance, of mild features, but with a brow clouded by sadness. Neatly dressed, she was evidently
