not to increase in number,
and that they sold their female children. At a later period, it is said,
that to suckle puppies they abandoned their offspring. Such facts are
not incredible, when they relate to individuals, but are scarcely
characteristic of a race: all nations have perpetrated infanticide, from
necessity, or pride, or barbarism. Infant life is little valued among
savages, and female children least: they run the gauntlet of a thousand
perils. Fewer were born than among settled people, and more died in
infancy.

Uncivilised man is ever harsh in his treatment of woman. The natives of
this country were less imperious than those of Port Jackson, where the
blows of the waddy solemnised matrimony. Beside the burden of travel,
they chiefly hunted the opossum, and mounted the lofty trees of the
Tasmanian forest. When the man condescended to give part of his spoil,
he handed over his shoulder the least delectable pieces to his wife, who
sat at his back. Often, however, this indulgence was refused. Mr. Horton
records an instance of unkindness, perhaps not general, nor very
uncommon: it was noon; the mother, her infant, and little boy, had been
without food all day: the father refused any part of that he had
provided. Another of the tribe, however, was more generous: when he
handed the woman a portion, at Mr. Horton's request, before she tasted
any herself, she fed her child.

They were often misunderstood; but they were sensible of domestic
affections: the tribes were scattered by the last war--some were
captives, others fugitives: eleven were already lodged at Richmond, when
Mr. Gilbert Robertson brought up two others, a man and woman: they were
recognised from afar by the party first taken; these raised the cry of
welcome; it was a family meeting, and deeply moved the spectators. The
parents embraced their children with rapture, and many tears.

Under an engraving of a Van Diemen's Land woman and child, from a
painting by J. Webber, the _Journal of Civilisation_ ventures the
following:--"Contemplate the appalling picture! see her, in fact,
without maternal affection! To such a mother, it would matter little to
see her babe fall from her back and perish!" The woman of Van Diemen's
Land, by the French artist, is most lively and maternal: her child is
leaning over her head, its feet resting on her shoulders: she looks up
towards it, with a strong expression of affection. Labillardiere
repeatedly remarks the tendern