The aborigines of Tasmania / by H. Ling Roth ; assisted by Marion E. Butler and Jas. Backhouse Walker ; with a chapter on the osteology by J.G. Garson.

  • Henry Ling Roth
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The aborigines of Tasmania / by H. Ling Roth ; assisted by Marion E. Butler and Jas. Backhouse Walker ; with a chapter on the osteology by J.G. Garson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    117): “They have seldom or never been known to a<ft 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 perfeift safety.” Perhaps the following account by Calder, compiled from the sources already mentioned, gives the best conception of the methods and tactics adopted by the aborigines in their final struggle with the Europeans. This account appears in the Journ. Anth. Inst. 1873, pp. 7-11, and we supplement it by important extradls from other sources. “ Tribal dissensions, causing mutual destruction (for such were their jealousies and hatreds, that they fought one another all the time they were thrashing the whites), contributed to their decrease in some degree. . . . Beyond all doubt, they [the settlers] were no match for the blacks in bush-fighting, either in defensive or offensive operations. ... If it had been possible to bring the savage into fair and open fight, with something like equal numbers, this would have been reversed. But the black assailant was far too acute and crafty an enemy to be betrayed into this style of contest, and never fought till he knew he had his opponents at a disadvantage to themselves. He waited and watched for his opportunity for hours, and often for days, and when the proper moment arrived, he attacked the solitary hut of the stock-keeper, or the hapless traveller whom he met in the bush, with irresistible numbers, taking life generally singly, but often ; the largest number I read of his destroying on one occasion being four persons. In these assaults on the dwellings of his enemy he contrived his attacks so cleverly as to insure success at least five times in six, and if forced to abandon his enterprise, his retreat, with few exceptions, was a bloodless one. The natives so managed their advance on the point of attack as not to be seen until they were almost close to the dwelling of their victim. They distinguished between a house and a hut, and seldom approached the former. . . . They never attacked except in parties of twenty, fifty, a hundred, or even greater numbers. Their mode of assaulting a dwelling when there were several inmates at home, which they knew by previous watching, was to divide into small gangs of five, ten. or more, each concealing itself, . . . their approach being so quiet as to create no suspicion of their presence, to which the woody and uneven nature of the country is eminently favourable. Then one of these parties, which was prepared for instant retreat, made its presence known, either by setting fire to some shed or bush fence, or by sending a flight of spears in at the window, shouting their well-known war-whoop at the same time. This never failed of bringing out the occupants, who, seeing the authors of the outrage, now at a safe distance, but in an attitude of defiance, incautiously pursued them. . . . The blacks then retreated just as quickly as the others advanced, keeping out of gunshot, and defying them, generally in good English, to come on. . . Having decoyed their pursuers to a safe distance into the woods, and generally with rising ground between them and the hut, the 'others sprang from their cover, and rushing into the place, plundered it of its contents, often finishing their work by burning it to its foundations; first, however, killing or leaving for dead, any unfortunate persons—
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