On one island reside seldom more than two families.  The latter word will at once satisfy the reader that these people were not deprived of the pleasures of female companionship:  man was never born to be satisfied with his own society; and the Straitsmen of course found beauties suitable to their taste in the natives of the shores* of Bass Strait.  It appears that a party of them were sealing St. George’s Rocks when a tribe came down on the main opposite and made a signal for them to approach.  They went, taking with them the carcasses of two or three seals, for which the natives gave as many women.  These, perhaps, were glad of the change, as the aborigines of Tasmania often treat them shamefully.  The sealers took their new-bought sweethearts to an island in Banks Strait, and there left them to go on another sealing excursion.  Returning one day, they were surprised to find their huts well supplied with wallaby by the native women.  Interest cemented a love that might otherwise have been but temporary.  Visions of fortunes accumulated by the sale of wallaby skins flashed across the minds of the sealers; who, however, to their credit be it spoken, generally treated their savage spouses with anything but unkindness; though in some instances the contrary was the case.  It must be confessed, at the same time, that having once discovered the utility of the native women, they did not confine themselves to obtaining them by the lawful way of barter; making excursions, principally to the shores of Australia, for the express purpose of obtaining by violence or stealth such valuable partners.

(Footnote.  The islands were never inhabited by the aborigines until the remnant of the original population of Tasmania was sent by government to Flinders.)

HALF-CASTE CHILDREN.

Thus commenced a population likely to be of great service to shipping, particularly as they make excellent sailors, and excel as headsmen in whalers, where the keenness of their half-savage eyes, and their dexterity in throwing the spear, render them most formidable harpooners.  The young half-castes I saw were very interesting, having a ruddy dark complexion, with fine eyes and teeth.  On Preservation, and the islands in the neighbourhood, there were twenty-five children; among whom were some fine-looking boys.  Had the survey just been commenced I should have taken one of them in the Beagle.  Their fathers, I am happy to say, give them all the instruction in their power:  many can read the Bible, and a few write.

The common native belief in the transmigration of souls did not extend, I was glad to find, beyond the mothers, whom nothing could induce to think otherwise.  When we were at Preservation Island, there was a young woman on her way, in company with her father, to Port Dalrymple, to be married to a European; and I afterwards learned from the clergyman there, that he had not for some time seen a young person who appeared to be so well aware of the solemn vow she was making.