hen carefully counted. No reliance, however, will be
placed by persons of experience on the rumour of numbers. Nearly all who
report an assembly, judge by imagination rather than minute inspection;
thus, mobs are spoken of as tens or hundreds of thousands, without any
intention to mislead. It will be the hope of the humane, that the lowest
estimate is the true one: it can hardly be doubted, however, that they
were originally from 4,000 to 5,000: they were estimated by Mr. Robinson
at 700, when he commenced his mission; 203 were captured--many, in the
mean time, fell by unknown violence and perpetual persecution: a
thousand muskets were charged for their destruction.

The causes of their diminution in Tasmania have been already stated; but
some of these continued their operation even after the capture: their
natural consequences followed. Towards the last days of their savage
life, the sexes were disproportionate, although the balance was partly
restored by associating the women who had been longer in captivity, with
the men whose wives had died; but many of these women had become
licentious, and by an extraordinary oversight the government permitted
unmarried convicts and others to have them in charge, or to assist in
the preliminary labor of their establishment: the result need not be
told. The infant children had perished, by the misery or contrivance of
their parents: thus in 1838, of eighty-two there were only fourteen
children, and of the remainder, eight had attained the usual term of
human life: many who surrendered, were exhausted by sickness, fatigue,
and decripitude. They were the worn out relics of their nation, and they
came in to lie down and die.

The assumption of clothing occasioned many deaths: they were sometimes
drenched with rain--perspiration was repressed, and inflammatory
diseases followed: the licentiousness, and occasional want of the few
last years, generated disorders, which a cold brought to a crisis. Among
savages, the blanket has sometimes slain more than the sword: it
destroyed the Indian of North America, and even threatened the New
Zealander with a similar fate.[24] The abundant supply of food, and
which followed destitution, tended to the same result: it was a
different diet. The habits of the chase were superseded, and perhaps
discouraged: the violent action to which they had been accustomed; the
dancing, shouting, hurling the waddy and the spear--climbing for the
opossum--diving, and