Now dost thou learn how vain to weep,
When death means, “God”?
THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.
Tasmania, a large, beautiful island to the southeast of Australia, when discovered by Van Dieman, was peopled with a magnificent race of savages, resembling somewhat the American Indian. Civilization, with its attendant advantages and evils, proved too much for the primitive child of the forest. The last Tasmanian, a woman, died in 1885, and the once splendid race is now extinct.
Prologue.
Alone she sits, nor marks the dying day.
Alone on earth, she bows her weary head,
And dusky spirits bear her soul away;