The History of Tasmania, Volume II | Page 3

an appearance less wild than is common to
savages. He considered them devoid of activity, genius, and
intelligence; their countenance, he delineates as plump and pleasing.
[1792.] But though later on the spot, assisted by the remarks of
previous observers, Labillardière, of all, was the most assiduous and
exact. The naturalist of D'Entrecasteaux's expedition, he saw mankind
with the eye of a philosopher. He was pleased to examine the passions
of a race, least of all indebted to art; yet the prevailing notions of
Citizen Frenchmen, perhaps, gave him a bias, when estimating an
uncivilised people. He left Europe when the dreams of Rousseau were
the toys of the speculative, and before they became the phantoms of the
populace. His observations were, doubtlessly, correct; but his grouping
is artistic, and not without illusion. In his work, the Tasmanian blacks
appear in the most charming simplicity, harmless and content; an
extraordinary remnant of primitive innocence. At first they fled from
the French: an old woman they chased, took a leap which, if credible,
was terrific; she dashed over a precipice forty feet high, and was lost
among the rocks!
Labillardière having landed, with several companions, proceeded
towards a lake; hearing human voices, they followed the direction of
the sound; the sudden cry of the natives induced them to return for their
arms. Then proceeding towards the woods, they met the tribe--the men
and boys in a semicircle, with the women and children behind.
Labillardière offered a piece of biscuit, and held out his hand, which a
savage chief accepted, and smiling drew back one foot, and bowed with
admirable grace. He gave to the French a necklace, which he called
cantaride, formed of wilk shells, in exchange for articles of dress, a
poll-axe, and knives.
The proportions are worth remarking: in a party of forty, there were
eight men and seven women; of forty-eight, there were ten men and
fourteen women. Thus the females were most numerous, and the rising
generation nearly one-third more than the adults. They were generally
healthy; one only suffered from cutaneous disease, one from a defect of
vision, and several from slight wounds. It will be told, that a sad

reverse was afterwards their fate. The French, supposing they subsisted
on fish, expected to find leprosy, and concluded, not that other food
was procured, but that the doctors were mistaken. The women and girls
were the fishers: they plunged amidst sea weed, and raised the shell fish
from rocks by the spatula. They killed the cray fish before landing.
They could endure the water twice as long as Europeans. In the
intervals of diving they roasted their spoil, and warmed themselves
between two fires; sometimes feeding their children, or themselves.
Thus they continued alternately fishing and cooking, until all were
satisfied.
The men seemed indolent; nothing could persuade them to dive: they
sauntered about, with the right hand passed behind, and holding the left
fore-arm in its grasp. As the elders moved with gravity on the beach,
the girls romped and raced with the seamen--repelling, without
resenting, their rudeness. They were sprightly and voluble, and chatted
on without intermission. On one occasion they were missed, when,
turning to a tree, they were seen perched naked in the branches, about
nine feet from the ground: an interesting group, remarks the naturalist.
In the incidents of their social life, he saw their character. The children
cried! their mothers soothed them with those maternal caresses, which
art has not improved. They held them to be decorated by the French,
and placed them in their arms. A father corrected a little boy for the
ancient diversion of throwing stones at another, and the culprit wept! A
lad concealed a basket from a seaman, to amuse by his perplexity and
its dexterous replacement! The clothes given by the French they hung
on the bushes, but they valued the tin ware, the axes and saws. The
liberality of their visitors induced them to take more than was given;
but they seemed unconscious of offence, and whatever was required
they restored without reluctance. A girl, refusing the French a skin they
desired to possess, retreated to the woods: her friends were distressed at
her ill-nature. She, at last, complied. A pair of trousers were given in
exchange; she stood between two Frenchmen, leaning on the shoulder
of each, while they guided her errant legs into these novelties of
Europe.

Their refusal of food, for themselves and children, was from distaste
rather than distrust; and they only discovered suspicion, when the
French penetrated the country. They posted a guard, to give notice of
any movement, and when an attempt was made, it was interrupted by
the loud screams of the women, and the entreaties of the men. They
resisted the intrusion with displeasure, and even menace.