Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/146

Sir Thomas Mitchell, in Australia, was followed (within the author's knowledge from information in after years from the tribe) by an agile band whom he never saw, but who did not return to their families till he had quitted their domain.

The huts of the races were of the same temporary character, but it was observed that on the stormy west coast of Tasmania they were more substantial than elsewhere. On the south and west coasts, the island tribes used a catamaran of logs, or a bundle of buoyant bark bound together, but narrowing at the end. Cannibalism was rejected by them with horror. It is affirmed that in no instance did the Tasmanians perpetrate outrages upon women during the war of extermination. Funeral ceremonies varied. Sometimes there was burial; sometimes burning; sometimes the remains were placed in a hollow tree. Grief for a distinguished or beloved friend was, as on the continent, attended with the cutting of the face with flints and the melancholy wail of mourners. White was also the suit of woe for both races.

Mr. J. E. Calder, who had seen the Tasmanians in their degradation, and who compiled his account of them after reference to published and MS. authorities, thus described them:—"It has been customary to rank the Tasmanian savages with the most degraded of the human family, and possessed of inferior intelligence only. But facts quite disprove this idea, and show that they were naturally very intellectual, highly-susceptible of culture, and, above all, most desirous of receiving instruction, which is fatal to the dogma of their incapacity for civilization."^[1] To a question from Mr. Bonwick—whether they were capable of true civilization—Mr. Calder answered:—

"Yes, undoubtedly and I give as an example (one, Arthur) whom I knew well, who was captured when a mere infant, and brought up and educated at the Queen's Orphan School at Hobart Town. His ideas were perfectly English, and there was not the smallest dash of savage in him. He was a very conversable man, fond of reading, and spoke and wrote English quite grammatically. One of his neighbours was a grasping and unprincipled fellow, who mistook Arthur for a person with whom