TREATMENT OF NATIVES.
Their destiny is accomplished. In obedience to a necessity--of man's creating certainly, but still a necessity--they have been expatriated for their own preservation; to restore them, would be but to ensure their speedier destruction; and all we can do is to soothe their declining years, to provide that they shall advance gently, surrounded by all the comforts of civilization, and by all the consolations of religion, to their inevitable doom; and to draw a great lesson from their melancholy history, namely, that we should not leave, until it is too late, the aborigines of the countries we colonize exposed to the dangers of an unregulated intercourse with the whites; that, without giving them any undue preference, without falling into the dangerous extreme of favouritism--an error of which the most high-minded and generous are susceptible in the case of a depressed race--we should consider, that in entering their country we incur a great responsibility, and that it behoves us at once to establish distinctly the relation in which they stand to the government, the colonists, and the soil!
COAST FROM THE TAMAR TO EMU BAY.
Mr. Fitzmaurice's examination of the coast to the westward extended to Dial Point, distant twenty-nine miles from the Tamar. In this space there are no less than five rivers, all with very short courses, and not navigable except by boats and small craft; and by these only, on account of the surf on their bars, in fine weather. The first empties itself into an estuary, called Port Sorel; but it is difficult to detect the mouths of the others in the low sandy shore, which is deceptive, as the hills rising immediately in the rear give the coast a bold striking appearance from the offing. These rivers, namely, the Sorel, the Mersey,* the Don, the Frith, and the Leven, are distant from the Tamar, eleven, eighteen, twenty, twenty-three and twenty-seven miles.
(*Footnote. A horse-shoe reef, extending nearly two miles from the shore, lies two miles to the eastward.)
A range of hills, nearly 2000 feet high, in which asbestos is found, lies midway between Port Sorel and the Tamar; and immediately over Dial Point rises a peaked range, of the same name; whilst Valentine Peak,* 4000 feet in height, is situated twenty-three miles South 40 degrees West from the above point. This peak is a bare mass of granite, and as it glistens in the first beams of the morning sun like an immense spire, forms the most remarkable hill-feature in the north side of Tasmania. High level ranges extend to the eastward of it for some distance.
(*Footnote. In latitude 41 degrees 17 minutes South and longitude 5 degrees 28 1/2 minutes West of Sydney, and when bearing South by West is a distant guide to Emu Bay.)
From Dial Point to Circular Head the coast trends North 72 degrees West, and as far as Rocky Point the shore is steep and woody. Emu Bay* lies at the end of the first ten miles; it is a confined anchorage, affording shelter in westerly winds. A river of the same name runs into it, and another called the Blyth joins the sea a mile and a half on the Tamar side of the east point, which has a remarkable round hill on it: nearly four and five and a half miles to the westward of this bay are other small streams. An islet lies at the mouth of the eastern one; and in its neighbourhood only the shore, which falls back a little, is sandy and faced with rocks.
(*Footnote. The North-West or Blackman's Point is low, and in latitude 41 degrees 2 minutes 45 seconds South, longitude 5 degrees 18 minutes 50 seconds West of Sydney.)
ROCKY CAPE.