< Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu
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CHAPTER I

ON THE ORIGIN OF THE ABORIGINES OF TASMANIA AND AUSTRALIA

Literature relating to the subject—No evidence that the Tasmanians reached the Island by water—They must have gone when there was land communication with the Australian coast—Literature relating to the Australian coast—The Australian ancestors must also have arrived by land communication—Probably they came from lands lying to the north or north-west of the continent—Physical geography of the northern coasts—Probable route of migration by New Guinea—Evidence of antiquity of man in Australia—Legends of volcanic era in Australia—Evidence of period of subsidence in Victoria—Coastal soundings—The Tasmanians the autochthonous inhabitants of Australia—Mr. Mathew's Malayan hypothesis—Australians belong to Caucasian stock—The connection between the Australians and Dravidians considered—Tasmanians placed among the Oceanic Negritos—The evidence points to vast antiquity of both races in their latest surroundings.

The question of the origin of the Australian and Tasmanian aborigines has engaged the attention of many writers, who have attempted its solution by inferences drawn from language, from custom, from the physical character of those savages, and, while direct evidence is not existent, from what some writers apparently assume to be fact.

Before entering upon the conclusions to which I have been led in this inquiry, it will be well to note in chronological order the views of various authorities, in doing which I have found it necessary to include those dealing with the Tasmanians.

Mr. R. H. Davis[1] considered the Tasmanians to be scions of the Australians, and that their ancestors, being

  1. ↑ Davis, R. H., "The Aborigines of Van Diemen's Land," Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science. Tasmania and London, 1846.

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