stice was guarded with drawn swords.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 22: Achilles, Ajax, Buonaparte, King George, Hannibal, Peter
Pindar, Neptune, Tippoo Saib, Washington. A few only bore the names of
ordinary mortals.]

SECTION IX.

The advances towards the final extinction of the natives, have been more
rapid than was expected; but the certainty of that event was never the
subject of doubt. Sir George Murray, on the 5th November, 1830,
anticipated, and wrote down their fate; and inferred, from their
decrease, that at no distant period the whole race would become extinct:
but he declared that the adoption of any course of conduct, with this
design, either avowed or secret, would leave an indelible stain upon the
government of Great Britain! It will be seen, however, that the progress
of decay was never arrested for a moment. The mortality at Brune and
Swan Islands was not less than at Flinders'; but from 1832, a regular
account has been preserved.[23]

Of the forty-five landed at Oyster Cove, in 1847, thirteen
were men, twenty-two women, and ten children. Such has been the progress
of their decline, and with numbers so inconsiderable, the problem of
their fate is solved.

The original amount of the natives has been a question much debated:
like a procession in a circle, a population in motion, when not
personally distinguished, will appear more numerous than the actual
census. Mr. Kelly, who often had passed the coasts, calculated them at,
originally, 7,000, but he guessed their number to be 5,000 in 1830: the
obvious error of the last estimate, would naturally suggest a doubt with
reference to the former. Several hundreds were, however, seen in one
assembly, within the last thirty years. At Hobart Town and Launceston,
from one to two hundred have appeared together. It was their custom to
distribute themselves in parties, of from forty to fifty each. Their
fires, kindled on the sea shore, were often left burning, when they had
moved on to the next stage; and those who saw the flames from
ship-board, concluded that aborigines were lying around them, and thus
telling their numbers by the fires, they were often greatly deceived.
The rapidity of their movements led to the same mistake: they appeared
at places sufficient to establish an _alibi_, according to the current
measures of distance. They had innumerable paths which shorten a
journey, then unknown to the English: it was thus, that they were twice
reckoned, even w