The aborigines of this country are, if possible, still more barbarous and uncivilised than those of New Holland.  They subsist entirely by hunting, and have no knowledge whatever of the art of fishing.  Even the rude bark canoe which their neighbours possess, is quite unknown to them; and whenever they want to pass any sheet of water, they are compelled to construct a rude raft for the occasion.  Their arms and hunting implements also indicate an inferior degree of civilization.  The womera, or throwing stick, which enables the natives of Port Jackson to cast their spears with such amazing force and precision, is not used by them.  Their spears, too, instead of being made with the bulrush, and only pointed with hard wood, are composed entirely of it, and are consequently more ponderous.  In using them they grasp the center; but they neither throw them so far nor so dexterously as the natives of the parent colony.  This circumstance is the more fortunate, as they maintain the most rancorous and inflexible hatred and hostility towards the colonists.  This deep rooted enmity, however, does not arise so much from the ferocious nature of these savages, as from the inconsiderate and unpardonable conduct of our countrymen shortly after the foundation of the settlement on the river Derwent.  At first the natives evinced the most friendly disposition towards the new comers; and would probably have been actuated by the same amicable feeling to this day, had not the military officer entrusted with the command, directed a discharge of grape and canister shot to be made among a large body who were approaching, as he imagined, with hostile designs; but as it has since been believed with much greater probability, merely from motives of curiosity and friendship.  The havoc occasioned among them by this murderous discharge, was dreadful; and since then all communication with them has ceased, and the spirit of animosity and revenge, which this unmerited and atrocious act of barbarity has engendered, has been fostered and aggravated to the highest pitch by the incessant rencontres which have subsequently taken place between them and the settlers.  These, wherever and whenever an occasion offers, destroy as many of them as possible, and they in their turn never let slip an opportunity of retaliating on their blood-thirsty butchers.  Fortunately, however, for the colonists, they have seldom or never been known to act on the offensive, except when they have met some of their persecutors singly.  Two persons armed with muskets may traverse the island from one end to the other in the most perfect safety.

Van Diemen’s Land has not so discouraging and repulsive an appearance from the coast as New Holland.  Many fine tracts of land are found on the very borders of the sea, and the interior is almost invariably possessed of a soil admirably adapted to all the purposes of civilized man.  This island is upon the whole mountainous, and consequently abounds in streams.  On the summits of many of the mountains there are large lakes, some of which are the sources of considerable rivers.  Of these the Derwent, Huon, and Tamar, rank in the first class.