Aborigines of Van Diemen's Land, 1830-1840 - Page 265
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[Page 205]
now a fine girl about eleven years old, and the first child by a native woman to a white man in Van Diemen's Land. She is called Miss Dalrymple and, like all the other children between the natives and the Europeans, is remarkably handsome, of a light coloured copper colour, with rosy cheeks, large dark eyes, the whites of which are tinged with blue, and long well-formed eye-lashes, with the teeth uncommonly fine, and the limbs admirably formed. Her poor mother, by the adventure just related, suffered greatly, as well from fatigue, and from the fire through which she had rushed to save her infant, and the child itself was so much burnt, that, an inflammation having taken place, it very shortly afterward departed this life.
On perusing the above melancholy tale my readers will no doubt feel as I do at this moment, the poor unfortunate females of aboriginal females of Van Diemen's Land were on the one hand exposed to the brutal desires of a lawless gangs, who were [indecipherable] on the coast or on some of the adjacent lands, and compelled to perform all sorts of drudgery, and on the other hand they were continually in danger from the sanguinary resentment of their sable neighbours masters. In whichever light we view the subject, humanity must regret the forlorn condition of the poor forlorn condition of the wretched native women of Van Diemen's Land, who are now from one vexatious cause and another, departed the earth: and I hope for a better place.