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DISCOVERY OF BUCKLEY. *

THE WILD WHITE MAtf

• AND THE

BLACKS OF YICTORIA.

JAMES BONWICK,

LATE INSPECTOB OF SCHOOLS, VICTORIA,

AND AUTHOR OP " GEOGRAPHY OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND," 'DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT OF PORT PHILLIP," "WESTERN VICTORIA," &C. &C.

SECOND EDITION.

jttelbottnie: PRINTED & PUBLISHED BY FBRQUSSON & MOORE, FLINDERS LANE EAST. 1863. MELBOURNE:

FEROUSSON AND MOORE, PRIKTERS,

FLINDERS LANE EAST. V. *

CONTENTS.

PAOE. LIFE OF BUCKLEY 1 JAMES MORRILL «. ' . 16 BLACKS #F VICTORIA 18 EARLY STORIES OF THE BLACKS 19 PHYSICAL APPEARANCE £0 INTELLIGENCE . Tft CHARACTER 32 CLOTHING AND ORNAMENTS 34 HOMES AND FOOD 35 HUNTING " . 36 o^ SONGS AND DANCES . . . . " . . . 37 WOMEN AND CHILDREN 41 c . MARRIAGES 43 ^ INFANTICIDE AND CANNIBALISM 48 -*-*> WEAPONS 50 X RELIGION AND SUPERSTITION 52 « MISSIONS ' . 59 C DISEASES . 64 DEATH AND BURIAL 66 LANGUAGE 67 ORIGIN OF OUR NATIVES 70 CONFLICTS OF WHITES AND BJLACKS .' ^3 NATIVE RIGHT8 AND BRITISH RULE . . . . 77 PROTECTORS AND NATIVE POLICE 78 GOVERNMENT OF TRIBES AND NUMBERS 79 CIVILISATION 81 DECLINE % 84 APPENDIX fifi

293540 BUCKLEY, THE WED WHITE MAN;

AND THE BLACKS OF VICTOEIA.

THERB is, at times, a temptation to the Times, in 1857 :—"Here is another of that narrator of a wonderful story to add the series of volumes, or rather tractates, upon charms of fictidnt o the details of facts, when the colonies and their early history, which the material for the construction of the tale Mr. Bonwick has planned with much is inadequate to the interest of the event. sagacity, and is executing with every title That a white man should be recovered by to respectful consideration. The volume his countrymen, after a residence of more before us is a very interesting one. It is a than thirty years among savages, appears so critical investigation of the life of Buckley, romantic an incident, as to excite a general published some time since in Hobart Town, and an eager desire to become fully ac­ which, with some truth, has a great ad­ quainted with such a life in the wilds. mixture of falsehood. Mr. Bonwick elimi­ As the first duty of the historian is to nates the latter," &c, &c. elicit the truth with singleness of aim and As evidence that we are not mistaken as ardour of pursuit, we prefer bringing together to the character of Buckley, the testimony the few reliable facts for the story, than of others is presented here. When Governor indulging in agreeable fancies. Instead of Bourke saw him in 1837, he could make giving a connected life of WILLIAM BUCKLEY, nothing of him. A few monosyllabic replies THE WILD WHITE MAN, we shall bring for­ only could be obtained, according to our own ward various statements about this extraor­ informants, Captain Fyans and Dr. Thomson, dinary character, in the very language of of Geelong. Captain Lonsdale, to whose the authorities, at the risk of seeming some­ regiment he was formerly attached, vainly what dry in detail and irregular in descrip­ sought some knowledge of his career. Mr. tion. Fawkner styled him, in 1837, " a lump of This decision appears the more necessary, matter, too mindless to yield any very useful because of the course taken by a gentleman information." Mr. George Arden, the earliest who, several years ago, published what he writer in Port Phillip, says :—" His extreme called an " Autobiography of William reserve renders it almost impossible to learn Buckley," to the authenticity of which anything from him of his past life, or of there are many grave objections; while, at his acquaintance with the aborigines." Mr. the same time, the' statements respecting the Westgarth, the colonial historian, remarked Port Phillip Blacks are very incorrect, as many years ago of him, "He was always this gentleman was personally unacquainted extremely reserved and incommunicable in with them. All whom we have consulted, his manners." A Van Diemen's Land news­ and who knew Buckley both in Port Phillip paper, of July, 1836, referring to the man, and in Hobart Town, agree in saying that says, •' He never kept any account as to how the man was so dull and reserved that it time passed away." Mr. Thomas, the Pro­ was impossible to get any connected or tector, who is better acquainted with the reliable information from him. Port Phillip Blacks and their history than ^ With the view of correcting some impres­ any other man, had a contemptible opinion sions upon this subject, we were induced of the Wild White Man's capacity, as he to publish an account in 1857. The says, " Buckley was more ignorant than the estimate formed of its intention and execu­ blacks, and perfectly useless to them." tion may be seen from the following extract Captain Stokes, the Australian voyager, from a review of the first edition of the work, observes of him:—" His intellect* if he in the columns of the Hobart Town Colonial ever possessed any such, had almost entirely • A 2 BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAN; deserted him, and nothing of any value Own Regiment. So tall a grenadier would could he procured from him respecting the have charmed old Frederick William, who history and manners of the tribe with whom would have rejoiced in such a recruit for his he had so long dwelt." Mr. Bnnce, the Potsdam Guard. botanist, went to him in company with the The rougher characteristics of his nature late Dr. Boss, editor of the Hobart Town now appeared so prominently, that the army Courier. " Our visit," said he, "was not lost the benefit of his services, and the absolutely void of self-interest, as we had country of his presence. At this distance of contemplated the probability, or rather time it is difficult to know the crime with possibility, of obtaining from the great which he was charged; larceny, say some ; semi-barbarian materials of his long resi­ while he spoke of a blow given to his officer. dence among the aborigines of Port Phillip Some fourteen years before this, the British. for an interesting shred of autobiography. Government had established a penal settle­ Our visit, however, proved a failure, as ment thousands of miles from the residence we could obtain no information from the of any white men of any nation, quite at the party whose memoirs we were desirous of antipodes, on the shores of New Holland, perpetuating and whose conversation con­ more popularly, but incorrectly, known as sisted merely of a few monosyllabic words." Botany Bay. Our ex-bricklayer and ex- Referring afterwards to the soi-distant soldier was sentenced to that distant kangaroo autobiography which appeared, Mr. Bunce retreat. says :—"We know not which most to But about that time another resolution admire—the extreme facility of acquiring of the Government altered the destiny of information from a, to us, dumb man, or Buckley. Captain Flinders had sailed into his remarkable powers of imagination." a harbour on the southern coast of New- A man who lived with Buckley for nearly Holland, opposite the shores of Tasman'a six months, in 1836, assured us that a Van Diemen's Land, and was so charmed more stupid fellow he never knew, and that with the delicious climate, lovely scenery, and during the whole of that period he scarcely luxuriant vegetation of this Port Phillip, as ever spoke to him, and never gave the least to recommend it very warmly to the Home information about his thirty years' bush life. Authorities, as a suitable locality for a new We ourselves lived for eight years in the penal establishment, similar to that at Port same town with Buckley, almost daily Jackson. Adopting the suggestion, the seeing his gigantic figureslowl y pacing along British Ministry directed a prison fleet to the middle of the road, with his eyes land its burden of crime upon this Utopia of vacantly fixed upon some object before him, the South. William Buckley was to be one of never turning his head to either side or these first unsuccessful settlers of the golden saluting a passer by. He seemed as one not land of Victoria. belonging to our world. Not being divested We may form some judgment of the wis­ of curiosity, we often endeavoured to gain dom of our ancestors in the work of colonisa­ from some one of his acquaintances a little tion, by glancing at the materials they sent narrative of that savage life, but utterly to form a colony at Port Phillip. There were failed in doing so. Some folks tried the three hundred male prisoners, fifty marines effect of the steaming vapour of the punch­ to maintain order, besides officers in command, bowl with no better success, for though his and but seventeen women, chiefly wives of eye might glisten a little, his tongue was some soldiers. silent. He had no tale to tell. The Calcutta, a man-of-war, and the We proceed now to say what is known Ocean, a transport, conveyed the company, about the history of this remarkable charac­ and reached there on the 10th of October, ter, and to detail some incidents connected 1803. Captain Collins, the Lieutenant- with the period of his career, as contained Governor, landed the people on a sandy, in the chronicles of the colonies. sterile part of the beach, a few miles inside William Buckley was born about 1780, in of the Heads, not far from Point Nepean, Macclesfield, Cheshire. He was early ap­ where no river or fresh lake existed, and prenticed to a bricklayer. After approaching where the soil forbade hope of profitable manhood he forsook the trowel, and never cultivation. Had they gone on the opposite resumed it but once, when, in 1837, he put side of the Bay, or ascended to the head of up a rough chimney to the hut of his friend the Bay where the Yarra reaches the sea, a Batman, on the site of Melbourne. A tolerable successful settlement might have been formed, specimen of physical humanity, being six A pretended search for a better locality was f tet six inches in height, with no native love afterwards made with no result but failure; of hard work, he soon enlisted for a bounty and so, after a sojourn of three months on into the Cheshire Militia, from which he was what they deemed an inhospitable soil, though eventually draftejj into the 4th, or King's in a delightful climate, the expedition moved AND THE BLACKS OF VICTORIA. 3 off to the Derwent of Van Diemen's Land, him in an alcove retreat, on the flowery banks and established the city of Hobart Town. of a murmuring stream, gliding through the A natural love of freedom induced many to rosy hours in companionship with a swarthy seek an opportunity of escape, even though Delilah of the forest, with no domestic an­ it were to the savage wilds of a savage race. noyances, no cares of household, and no Several attempted, and failed. One convict trouble for the means of living. Dwelling was shot by a sentinel, who could not induce under the smiling skies of Australia, undis­ him to return. A few succeeded. Among turbed in his serenity by the storms of life, the latter was William Buckley. honoured by the sable chiefs, and courted Some conflicting stories are told of the fate by the ebon daughters, how enviable his of Buckley's companions. It is clear that lot! they sought at first to get as far as possible How he might have signalised himself in from the settlement, to avoid capture. To the councils of the tribe, and astonished their the south lay the ocean, and to the west the savage minds with the prowess of civilisation! Bay. The east, from a recent expedition to How he could have gathered a throng of lis­ Western Port, was known to be a wilderness, teners beneath the gum-tree shade, and re­ with little water, and without any apparent hearsed the deeds of the great Caesar, the means of subsistence. There was but one Macedonian hero, or the young Bonaparte, resource left to them,—to proceed northward, who had just then crossed the Alps and head the Bay, and, perhaps, round it, so as mounted the Pyramids; or, he might have to reach the opposite shore. Marmon and referred to the struggles of his countrymen Pye are said to be the names of the two who for freedom, and pictured before them the fled with Buckley. When subsequently in­ vale of Eunnymeade, the field of Naseby, terrogated as to their fate, nothing satisfac­ and the fleet at Torquay. Again, he could tory was ever elicited from Buckley. He have told them, too, other wonders of his made it appear, however, that they left him native land,—the farm, the mine, thejmiH, with the intention of returning to the settle­ the palace; and then have spoken of gor­ ment. One who lived in the bush with him geous cathedrals, and more humble fanes; told us that he often tried to worm out' the and 'sought to bring their savage natures not secret, but without success. When pressed alone to practise works of art, but bow before with questions Buckley would get angry, and one God, as children to a father. walk away, or else begin to jabber to him­ The Peruvians tell of the white-faced self in the native language. Mr. John Pascoe stranger who raised them from barbarism; Pawkner, a boy with Buckley in the fleet of and who has not sometimes wished to play 1803, afterwards the originator of the Press the heroic part of a Howard-Alfred in some of Port Phillip in 1836, and now an honoured sunny, distant isle ? legislator of Victoria, never liked the man, Thirty years with a tribe 1 What length­ and has this version of his story:—" He re­ ened opportunity for usefulness ! But, as, fused, or was unable to account for the fate after the lapse of decaying centuries, memo­ of the two men that left the camp with him rials still attest the ancient march of progress, in 1803 ; indeed, some persons entertained so may we reasonably expect to witness some notions on this head that rendered his ap­ illustration of the elevating influence of the pearance amongst the white population not thirty years' residence of an Englishman among savages J But alas 1 we see nothing very agreeable." This implied charge of w cannibalism, through dire necessity, is hardly of the kind. likely to be true ; his stolid indifference and Not a thought of civilisation seems ever to frigid silence, when questioned, must not be have entered the head of the man. He taken as an admission of guilt. knew that just across the Bay were deserted He was thus soon left alone, and became gardens of European vegetables, whose separated from his countrymen for a period growth would furnish a change of food for of thirty-two years ! He must have early his dark friends; but he took no heed of attracted the notice of the aborigines, among them. The clay about him might have led his whom he subsequently lived, aud to whose ingenuity and benevolence to teach the people habits he wholly conformed his being. Their to construct more comfortable winter dwel­ uniform kindness to the stranger exhibits lings, and to store their shelves with crockery: their character in an amiable light, and led but the bricklayer sank rapidly into the Mr. Thomas, the aborigines' protector, to say, savage. Skins could have been easily '• The preservation of Buckley for thirty-two changed into more suitable clothing, and years, without in the whole period ever ill- fabrics of utility and beauty made from using him, ought ever indelibly to mark native products; but he preferred the dirty, them as a humane race." lazy life of the barbarian. His Christian Fain would we picture the home life of birth and education became no incentives to this "man of the woods." Fancy draws the preservation of his own ideas of religion 4 BUCKLE?, THE WILD WHITE MAN; and awoke no missionary zeal for his forest I the day on which he joined the party left by brethren. Mr. Batman. Moodily silent as he was for the last " His memory fails him as to dates ; but twenty years of his life, we can readily he supposes his falling in with the natives to believe that the preceding thirty years were have occurred about twelve months after as unproductive of mental activity. He ! his leaving the establishment. The natives spent a dreamy, solitary life. Wives he had, received him with great kindness ; 1M like the rest; but, from all that can be soon attached himself to the chief, named learned, he lived much apart from the Nullaboin, and accompanied him in all hii tribe, impelled, perhaps, from a regard to wanderings. From the time of his being his personal safety as much as from a love of abandoned by his companions till his final retirement. He thought only of passing his return to the establishment, a period d time unmolested and unmolesting, impression - thirty-three years, he had not seen a whit* less and unimpressing,—a mere vegetable man. For the first few years his mind ad existence. time were fully occupied in guarding againsl the treachery of strange Indians, and ii To three persons only was he in any way procuring food ; he, however, soon acquired communicative, and that within a year of knowledge of the language, adopted th of his being discovered; those were Mr. John native habits, and became quite as one o Batman, the first settler of Port Phillip, Mr. the community. The natives gave him i John Helder Wedge, the surveyor of the wife, but, discovering that she had a pre association settling the country, and Mr. ference for another, he relinquished her Gellibrand, the leading spirit of that colonis­ though the woman and her paramour for ing movement. feited their lives, having violated the custon The first has left no record of the man. which prevails among them ; for when j Thet second wrote a brief account, which woman is promised as a wife, which general]; was sent by Governor Arthur, in 1836, happens as soon as she is born, it is coi to the " Geographical Society's Journal;" he sidered a most binding engagement—to has also favoured the writer with other forfeiture is visited with the most summai| memoranda, which will appear in this work. vengeance." The third, formerly Attorney-General of Mr. Wedge elsewhere proceeds :—*' 0 Van Diemen's Land, left a brief journal of one occasion Buckley accompanied me a his tour through the country in company an excursion for a week, during which vi with Buckley. These are the only reliable fell in with the family he had lived witl sources of information respecting his forest If I had any doubts as to his never havic life. seen a white man during his residence wil Having been personally acquainted with the natives (and I confess, knowing that tl several of Mr. Batman's daughters, and with sailors were in the habit of sometimes visitii the second husband of Mrs. Batman, we got this part of the coast, I was not withoi some particulars of this strange being from them at first)the y were now entirely remove* them. Miss Batman was much struck with Nullaboin and his family had never seen the ungainly figureo f the white giant, when white *jan, with the exception of Buckle] he visited the schooner which had brought till he saw me. He received and examine t^e family across to the Yarra, and with the me with great curiosity, opening my waistco^ enormous foot that descended the companion- and shirt to see whether the whole of m ladder. She had the honour of making his body was white." first shirt. Although informed by her of From the assumed autobiography of tl the exact number of yards or ells of cloth man it would appear that he saw whit* consumed in this pile of needle-work, we several times. Subsequently, even, Buckl^ regret our inability to transfer such intelli­ j gave Mr. Wedge another version of U gence to our fair readers, from the usual life. We subjoin that gentleman's stati masculine incapacity to retain impressions of ment:— I domestic economy. "During a ride with Buckley on 4 Mr. Wedge has this statement, in 1836:— second visit to Port Phillip, he corrected h 11 Buckley alone continued his wanderings former statement of never having seenj along the beach, and completed the circuit white man during his residence with ti of the Port; at last became weary of such a natives. He stated that on one occasion precarious existence, and determined upon small craft was in the port, not far from i returning. Soon after he had reached, on entrance. He was on a peninsula, on tl his return back, the neighbourhood of eastern side of Swan Bay, on Indent* Indented Head (towards Geelong), he fell Head, when a boat from the craft with thrl in with the family of natives, with whom he or four men in it put on shore, I think continued to live till the 12th of July, 1835, I understood him, for the purpose of huryii

• AND THR BLACKS OF VICTORIA. one of their companions. He watched them refrain Am giving one of them to Buckley, unobserved for some time till they were in t>rder that he might give it to his friends, about returning to their vessel, when he with an assurance that he should have fur­ made his appearance, and intimated his wish, ther clothing after our return. by repeating the few words of Bnglish he "The men seemed much surprised at the could remember at the moment, to accom­ horses. I, however, after some little per­ pany them. They probably mistook him suasion, induced the youngest man to put his for a native, as they might do from his long foot in the stirrups and mount my grey mare; beard, hair, spear, &c., and being habited and I led the horse round a few paces, to the in his opossum rug, and took no heed of great delight of the whole party. I then him. On the following morning they came coaxed the mare, put my face to hers, to shew again on shore, and coo-eyed (i. e. called that they need not be afraid, and then pre­ out) as he supposes for the purpose of his vailed upon a young girl, about thirteen again making his appearance. But he had years of age, also to have a ride. As soon cbanged his mind, suspecting them of trea­ as the horse began to move, she seemed very chery, and remained concealed among the much alarmed, and her countenance bespoke trees and shrubs in the peninsula." her fears, but she continued silent. We Mr. Gellibrand, a romantic admirer of gave them a few presents, and then left them the natives, and a warm friend to Buckley, to proceed on our journey. I may here gives us, in 1837, a most interesting account mention that, as soon as Buckley crossed the of the family among whom our hero had Saltwater River, and obtained a view of his lived. It exhibits him as of a harmless and own country, his countenance was much gentle nature, if unblessed with force of changed; and when we reached Geelong, he mental character. Even the absence of took the lead and kept us upon a trot. He intensity of passion, and vigour of will, seemed much delighted and proud of his exposed him less to the resentment of the horse. When we quitted the natives, we strong, and rendered him an object of the directed our course to the head of the Barwon sympathy of the weak. He had, at least,' Biver." endeared himself to the few who knew him "Feb. 6. We started this morning about best. We quote from Mr. Gellibrand's seven o'clock, and when we reached the journal. marsh we saw Geelong harbour, and ascer­ " February 5th. We started very early taining the distance of the harbour at the in the morning under the expectation that neck was not more than four miles, we con­ we should see the natives; and in order tinued our course upon some high land, that they should not be frightened, I directed until we reached the junction of the Tallack Buckley to advance, and we would follow and Barwon Rivers. We then descended into him at the distance of a quarter of a mile. a marsh on the Tallack, left our horses there, Buckley made towards a native well, and crossed the Yallack by a native track, over a after he had ridden about eight miles, we large tree, and went across the Barwon, to a heard a coo-ey, and when we arrived at the spot called Buckley's Falls. We found a spot, I witnessed one of the most pleasing large basin, and the river somewhat resem­ and affecting sights. There were three men, bled the cataract and basin at Launceston, five women, and about a dozen children. but upon a smaller scale. Buckley showed Buckley had dismounted, and they were all us the hollow tree in which he used to live, clinging around him, and tears of joy and and the places where they used to catch the delight running down their oheeks. It was fish in the winter season." truly an affecting sight, and proved the In another place we shall have again to affection which this people entertained for refer to Mr. Gellibrand and his lamented Buckley. I was much affected at the sight death in the bush. myself, and considered it a convincing proof Buckley evidently wished it to be under­ of the happy results which would follow our stood by his early white friends that, in leav­ exertions if properly directed. ing the forest for civilised life, he left no ties " Among the number was a little old behind him. One thing is certain, that he man and an old woman, one of his wives. never afterwards seemed to sympathise with, Buckley told me that this was his old friend, or even recognise, either wife or child. He with whom he had lived and associated thirty might never have owned one, so far as his years. I was much surprised to findthi s old manner before Europeans was concerned. man had not a blanket; and I inquired the Whether ashamed, then, of his former connec­ cause, and was much concerned to learn that tions, or whether his indifference arose from no blanket had been given him, because he his natural reserve and even timidity of dis­ did not leave that part of the country and position, we know not. It is singular, how­ proceed to Doutagtifa for it I could ill ever, that though Mr. Wedge should ta^so spare my blankets for him, but I could not informed on his firstintervie w with BucEey 6 BUCKLEY, THE WILD VTWE MAN as to write that he "has no childre^ either history, we leave the readers to form their legitimate or illegitimate," he should subse­ own conclusions as to his domestic life in the quently be obliged to say, "He has since bush. We have, however, the admission pointed out to me a woman that he says is of the overlander, Mr. McEillop, another his daughter." acquaintance of Buckley's, in a letter dated An interesting tradition of this Wild White 15th July, 1836, that "he was particularly Man's forest career is preserved in the colony. cautious not to give the least occasion to A cave, situated near Queenscliffe, towards create the slightest feeling of jealousy with the Heads of Port Phillip Bay, is pointed out the males as to his conduct with the females." as Buckley's Cave, in which he long resided with at least one lubra of his choice. Several Having now closed the account of hia of the primitive settlers have informed us residence with the natives, we proceed to that they knew one, two, or more of his state how he came to forsake his dark friends, wives. and once more to associate with his country­ As to his progeny, there are more tales men. among the whites of the period. A retired The south-eastern shore of New Holland miltary captain gave us a long and interest­ was first observed by Mr. Flinders, when, as ing account of one Mrs. Scarborough, so- a midshipman, in company with a young called—a tall, handsome woman, universally surgeon, Mr. Bass, he rounded Cape Howe regarded as a daughter of Buckley's. Mr. in a small whale-boat, in 1797. Western Sutherland assured us he knew of two fine- Port was entered on 4th January, 1798, by looking youngwomen, also reputed daughters. the enterprising sailors. Capt. Grant, in Dr. Ross, in 1836, refers to at least one the Lady Nelson, firstsaile d along the whole daughter living in Port Phillip. Some have extent of the Port Phillip shore in December, spoken of sons. Mr. Batman's eldest 1800. Lieut. Murray, in the same little daughter told us that the man had several craft, first entered the beautiful bay of Port children. Phillip, in February, 1802. Capt. Flinders, From poor Simon, belonging to a-tribe accompanied by the renowned Franklin as a on the Yarra Yarra,—a son, too, of one of midshipman, visited the same place in April, the celebrated friends of Batman, Jagga 1802, and'wrote the first full description of Jagga,—we learned the aboriginal story that lovely country, which subsequently, from of Buckley. Asking him if he knew any its wonderful beauty and fertility, received children of the Wild White Man, we ascer­ from Major Mitchell the appellation of AUS­ tained that he had been acquainted with TRALIA FELIX. his son "long time ago." Wishing to know For a number of years nothing was known the age of the person then, we got this reply, of the interior, and none but the adventurous "plenty one big beard, all the same me." Sealer visited its shores. But, in spite of Mr. Gardiner, a highly respectable authority, the ill-success attending its attempted colo­ saw a tall, handsome girl, in 1837, evidently nisation in 1803, and another attempt at a half-caste, whom he with others concluded Western Port in 1826, the fancy of colonists to be a daughter of the stranger. Mr. in Van Diemen's Land pictured a land of Fawkner, in a letter to the Chronicle, in pasture across the Straits for their increasing 1836, without referring to children, has a flocks. Stray tidings came from time to time notice of his wives :—"He loved his ease, of sailors who had gone inland, and who had had travelled but little, and was cheerfully there seen grass as tall as themselves, with supported by his two gins, or, in other words, downs of surpassing richness, and soft, by two of the female aborigines." voluptuous airs, like gentle zephyrs wafted An old bushman, whom we met tending from the fabled " Isles of the Blest." sheep under the shade of Mount Sturgeon, The land, too, belonged to no one. The , of the Australian Grampians, Who declared ocean separated it from Tasmania, and New that he knew "all about that rum fellow," South Wales was far enough away from it. wished to make it appear to us that he had It was open to occupation. Nomadic chiefs, at one time five lubras and a lot of children. like Abraham of old, might go and take up Then, we have a published letter of the for their flocks and herds a country, where founder of Melbourne, Mr. John Pascoe by inheritance they had not so much as to Fawkner, jun., dated May, 1837, in which set their foot on. it is stated that Buckley has " several wives Yet some difficulties existed. They had among the natives, and a great number of but recently in the little island suffered from children;" Buckley himself, when in Van a furious, bloody warfare with the aborigines, ' Diemen's Land, denied the family. and the lonely squatter would naturally Having thus brought forward his declara­ hesitate at plunging into another country tion^ with the assertions and opinions of without protection, and his flocksexpose d to others, upon this interesting point of private the predatory attacks of barbarians, while AND THE BLACK*S OF VICTOBIA. 7 the lives of his servants and himself would so important as to forward them to the Lon­ be in constant jeopardy. don Home Office. This is an extract from But a few were determined to try a settle­ that document, which takes the very ment there. They were chiefly men of kindest views of the hero of our tale. position and character, and their leaders " He (Buckley) describes the natives as were as chivalrously interested in the fate of cannibals, rude and barbarous in their cus­ the unknown aborigines as desirous of mere toms, but well disposed towards the white -worldly gain. They would, they said, he no man. He was unable to introduce among rude invaders of the soil, bat would rather, them any essential improvements, feeling by honest treaty and payment, obtain occu­ that his safety depended on his conforming pation of the land. To this end, the Asso­ exactly to all their habits and customs. ciation sent over John Batman to report upon Although he was always anxious to return to the El Dorado, and to negotiate, if possible, civilised life, he had for > many years aban­ some satisfactory arrangement with the doned all hopes of so doing. The following tribes. circumstance, however, eventually restored John Batman, always a friend to the dark him to his countrymen. Two natives, race, was a bold and dashing hunter, an residing at the establishment left by Mr. experienced and enterprising bushman, and Batman, had stolen an axe, and having by a- shrewd intelligent colonist. Accompanied others been assured that the theft would be by three white men and seven Sydney blacks, severely punished, they absconded, and be anchored in Port Phillip Bay, on Friday, eventually fell in with Buckley, communicated May 29th, 1835. He met with the natives, to him the fact of white men living in the frankly, fearlessly, kindly made known to neighbourhood, and their reason for running them by signs more than words his intention away ; also saying that they would procure to settle among them : and then he formed other natives, and return and spear the white his celebrated treaty with them ; which, men. Buckley succeeded in dissuading them though disallowed by the British Government, from this outrage, and proceeded in search will ever stand as a memorial of the honest of Mr. Batman's party, and in two days dealings of Tasmanian colonists with the succeeded in joining them. The Europeans natives of Port Phillip. For particulars of were living in a miserable hut, with several this remarkable transaction we must refer the native families encamped around them. On reader to the author's " Discovery and being observed, Buckley caused great surprise, Settlement of Port Phillip." and indeed some alarm ; his gigantic stature, Having accomplished his mission, he left his height being nearly six feet six inches, some men behind upon Indented Head, to enveloped in a kangaroo skin rug; his long hold possession and to cultivate some ground, beard and hair of thirty-three years' growth, while he went back to report to Governor together with his spears, shields, and clubs, Arthur and arrange for the transfer of flocks it may readily be supposed presenting a most across Bass's Strait. extraordinary appearance. It was to these men thus left in charge "The Europeans believed him to be some that Buckley made himself known, on the great chief, and weie in no little trepidation 12th July, 1835. One of these parties at as to his intentions being friendly or not. least was well known to us. But oral testi­ Buckley proceeded at once to the encamp* mony, especially from the uneducated, is at ments, and seated himself among the natives, the best but uncertain guidance for the his­ taking no notice of the white men, who, torian ; and desiring, as we honestly do, to however, quickly detected, to their great give as clear an account to the public as we astonishment the features of an European; can of this interesting portion of Colonial and after considerable difficulty, succeeded Chronicles, we shall sacrifice the pleasure of in learning who he was. He could not In continuity of story, to the less satisfactory the least express himself in English; but coarse of irregular and fragmentary state­ after the lapse of ten or twelve days, he was ments. able to speak with tolerable fluency, though We shall first bring forward, the most he frequently inadvertently used the language authentic account, as well as the earliest one. of the natives. The family with whom This, the only official one, is that by Mr. Buckley so long resided were greatly attached "Wedge, formerly an officer of the Van Diemen's to him, and bitterly lamented his leaving land Government, and now a highly esteemed them." Legislator of the colony. As he arrived in For some time, according to Mr. Wedge, Port Phillip in July, 1835, he saw Buckley he was at least peculiar in intellect; for "on a few day* after he had appeared to the being asked questions, he only repeated Englishmen, got the story fresh from all them." parties, and wrote off particulars to the That gentleman supplementing bis account Governor at HobartTown, who thought them by other old documents which he UmUy 8 BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAN; forwarded to us for reference, we found I the world." He had amused himself by- among these a statement relative to the writing an autobiography, and permitted us assumed contemplated attack upon the not only to read the same, but to copy some whites, which runs thus: "Buckley dis- parts, reserving the saving clause, of "not Buaded them from making the attempt, stat­ to take too much of it." Fearful of detract­ ing that there were a great many white men ing from the interest of the old warrior's where they came from, and that if any of statement, we prefer giving it after his own the white men were killed, numbers would fashion. It may be stated that when between come and kill every black man they could fifty and sixty years of age he had the mis­ find. Thus intimidated they abandoned fortune to attract the notice of some home their intentions." court, which occasioned his removal to a If, in the course of our investigations, we certain island in the Southern Ocean, then detect inconsistencies in the various accounts abounding in institutions of a supposed re­ given by Buckley of himself, we must impute formatory character. After awhile, being them less to dishonesty .than stupidity. emancipated from the first stage of confine­ "Whatever he may have been originally, ment, he was allowed to go over to Port in point of intelligence, his abode for thirty Phillip at the end of 1835, in charge of some years amongst savages was not calculated to sheep belonging to some Van Diemen's Land strengthen his mental powers. gentlemen. While there he became acquainted But it is odd that some of his tribe should with Buckley, concerning whom he has the have been quite domesticated with the whites following remarkable, and we believe truthful on Indented Head, and for weeks he be un­ record :— conscious of their presence. It might be "Mr. Batman's men looked at him, and supposed that so extraordinary a visit would thought he resembled a white man. One of be very early noted to their white brother, them went up to him to examine him, found especially when the silent man so seldom two letters on his arm, and saying, * W for strayed from home. The opportunity for William, and B for Burges,' but never hit on conveying such intelligence extended over a William Buckley. He never spoke; but at period of about two months. He gave the last, hearing the English tongue pronounced Europeans to understand that he came merely so often, he burst out, and said, 'W for to give that intelligence which should save William, and B for Buckley.' Then they them from destruction. Mr. Thomson, and knew that he was an Englishman ; then Mr. other early settlers, doubt the truth of this Batman had him taken from thence, and assertion. Then it seems, instead of trying clothed him, and had him shaved and cleaned; to make himself known to them, he was first he could scarce walk in shoes for awhile; he interrogated by the men, who recognised his was asked what became of the other two, colour and features as differing from the he would never tell, but said they whent others. away, and suposed they got killed. He was The next description, in order of time, is asked how he had lived with the blacks so that of Mr. Fawkner's, sent over to a colonial many years, but would scarse say anything ; paper in 1836. As Buckley and he were never if any one would ask him any qoestions con­ friends, the information here presented was cerning himself and the blacks, you must have obtained from some of Mr. Batman's men, question and answer both one time. He and is certainly the same as we obtained did say that he was ten years that he did from one of the same parties. It runs J not know one day from another ; that they thus:— 1 would not kill him ; some was for killing "He stood six feet five inches in his him and some not for killing him, but he stockings, was not very bulky, nor over­ said the oldist blacks saved him." burdened with nous. He fell to the level of Twenty years after the event Mr. Morgan the blacks ; he did not by any means elevate gave the following version of the story, pro­ or raise them, or instruct them in any manner. fessing to obtain the facts from Buckley When Buckley first joined the whites at In­ himself just before his decease. After stating dented Head, he had totally forgotten his that the natives met Buckley, and told him mother tongue ; and the first word he spoke "they were in search of another tribe, to in it was in reply to a desire of one J. Green, enable those left behind to murder the white whether he would not have some bread to people more easily, and by so doing to get eat, he struggled some time, and then pro­ possession of their property," he informs us nounced the word ' bread.' " that the bloody project was stayed by his Some years ago, in the course of our pur­ telling them to wait a little longer, when a suit of colonial traditions, while seeking after I much larger and finer collection of goods oldest inhabitants, we fell in with a most 1 would arrive to divide among them. How interesting octogenarian; one who, as he he got them to believe that tale when, as told us, "had helped Wellington to conquer | yet, he had never seen the strangers, does. AND THE BLACKS OP VICTORIA. 9 not so easily appear. He walked, it is said, it is idle to criticise a document prepared fifteen miles to warn his conntrymen, though with the best intention* by its kind-hearted several days after he had got the tidings author. of the conspiracy. The rest is then told in The last version of this oft-repeateo> tale the language of the assumed autobiography, we obtained from our worthy friend, Simon and certainly approximates to tlie truth. Jagga Jagga. He was but a picaninny "Whilst sitting in deep thought, musing when Buckley left Port Phillip, but he had over these matters, I saw one of the white heard his father and others speak of him. men take a bucket and go with it to a well His tribe, living about Melbourne quarter, some way off, and when he had left it with had no connection with that about Geelong, his load I went there also, in order gradually with whom the white mail sojourned. He to recover my senses, and act upon my ulti­ had got hold of the idea that Buckley was mate determination, whatever it might be. one day found sleeping at the foot of a tree— " Prom the well I had a good view of all that the natives could not induce him to eat around me, and observed that the natives for a long while—that when he began to tiad pitched their tents near those of the speak he talked in black-fellows' language— white men; the former being seated round that in this way they knew he was one of their fires, evidently in great excitement. their lost friends returned from death to Presently some of the natives saw me, and forest life—and that the?, from that time, turning round, pointed me out to one of the protected him, and gave him some wives. white people, and seeing they had done so, I Soon after he had become associated with walked away from the well, up to their Europeans, Buckley began to betray some place, and seated "myself there, having my uneasiness about his civil condition. He was spears and other war and hunting implements still, in the eyes of the law, a prisoner, and, between my legs. The white men could not what was worse, a runaway prisoner. He make me out; my half-caste colour, and extra­ opened his mind upon the subject to his ordinary height and figure, dressed or rattier friends. Mr. Wedge, never expecting any undressed as I was, completely confounded difficulty to arise, endeavoured to allay his them as to my real character. At length apprehensions. But the quiet, timid man one of them came up and asked me some was not to be convinced, and urged the pre­ questions which I could not understand ; but sentation of a petition to his Excellency the when he offered me bread, calling it by its Governor of Van Diemen's Land, though it name, a cloud appeared to pass from over my was not then decided under whom the new brain, and I soon repeated that and other territory of Port Phillip was to be placed, English words after him. Somehow or other whether under that officer or the Governor I soon made myself understood to them as at Sydney. not being a native born, and so the white We now lay before the reader a copy of men took me to their tents, and clothed me, the petition prepared by Mr. Wedge, with giving me biscuit, tea, and meat; and they other documents connected with the event, were indeed all very kind in every way. My and interesting, from thus illustrating, not sensations I cannot describe; and as I could only the life of Buckley, but the early days not describe them in my mother tongue, I of the magnificent colony of Victoria. showed the initials " W. B." on one of my " The Humble Petition of William Buckley, arms, by which they began readily to sym­ to His Excellency Colonel George Arthur, pathise and look upon me as a long-lost cast­ Lieutenant-Goyernor of Van Diemen's Land, away seaman, and treated me accordingly, sheweth— by giving me well-cooked meat, shelter, and " That your Petitioner was a private in the raiment. Word by word I began to compre­ hend what they said, and soon understood Cheshire Supplementary Militia about two as if by instinct, that they intended to remain years, when he volunteered into the 4th in the country; that they had seen several Regiment of Foot, or King's Own, of which of the native chiefs, with whom, as they said, regiment he was attached to the third Bat- they had exchanged all sorts of things for land." tallion, and continued therein between two and three years, during which time he accom­ This account is, on the whole, pretty cor­ panied that regiment in the expedition to rect, according to tradition, although Buckley Holland. is made to commit the slight blunder of say­ " That your Petitioner was afterwards con­ ing that the natives pitched their tents, when victed of receiving stolen property, and was his thirty years' experience should have transported for life. taught bim leafy gunyahs were not canvas " That your Petitioner arrived at Port homes. He speaks just as incorrectly about Phillip, New Holland, about thirty years ago, the Unit of the Englishmen. Mr. Wedge, and on the breaking up of the establishment there at the very time Buckley was with your Petitioner with two others (the name them, says they were living in a hut. But of one of whom was William Marmon) ab- 10 BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAN; sconded and subsisted on the sea coast for event there is no calculating on the mischief about twelve months, when he fell in that might ensue by the hostile feelings that with a family of natives, with whom he he would have it in his power to instil into has continued up to the present time. That the breasts of the natives. I doubt not, as your Petitioner has, at various times, suffered an act of humanity toward those who may great privations from the want of food. come to sojourn in this settlement, the above "That your Petitioner, previously to his circumstance will have weight in the con­ joining the natives, returned to Port Phillip, sideration his Excellency will bestow on the with the intention of surrendering himself to prayer of the petition. If I might be allowed, the authorities, out was prevented from doing I would respectfully suggest that it should at so by the departure of the establishment. once be conceded to him, and his free pardon " That your Petitioner has never seen a sent by the next vessel that will be despatched white man since that period, until he came to this place. Buckley is a most interesting to the establishment formed by Mr. Batman, character ; from his long residence amongst Mr. Wedge, and other gentlemen, on the — the natives, he has acquired a great influence July, 1835. over them as well as all their habits and •' That your Petitioner, two days previously language; in fact, he had nearly forgotten his to joining the establishment, learnt from two native tongue, and it was some days before natives that white »en were in the neigh­ he could express himself in it. The two bourhood, and that they with others intended men who absconded with him left him before to spear them, for the sake of the plunder he joined the natives ; and he has never they would get. heard of them since ; he supposes they "That your Petitioner remonstrated with were killed by them. Buckley is gigantic them, and dissuaded them from their inten­ in size, measuring six feet five inches and tions ; that your Petitioner has ever since seven-eighths without shoes, and of good exerted himself and has succeeded in con­ proportions ; and I have no doubt he is indebted for his life to his ferocious appear­ vincing them of the friendly disposition of4the white men towards the natives. ance. From the circumstance of his having " That your Petitioner will continue to do been obliged to direct the whole of his atten­ all in his power to render permanent the good tion to self-preservation and to procuring understanding that has been established, for food for subsistence, his memory has almost which services your Petitioner humbly prays altogether failed him as to time and events for the indulgence of a Free Pardon, and your which occurred previous to his leaving Eng­ land. He forgets the name of the vessel he Petitioner will ever pray." came in, as well as that of the captain and Letter from Mr. Wedge, at Port Phillip, the commandant of the settlement. From to the Colonial Secretary, accompanying the his information, the natives are in the lowest petition:— grade of ignorance, having no idea of a " Sir,—In reference to the petition of Supreme Being; and although I have had William Buckley for a free pardon, which I but a short intercourse with them,'I am have the honour to transmit herewith, I beg inclined to give credence to his statement, to bear testimony to the essential service he and I have acquired sufficient confidence in has rendered in becoming the means of com­ them to trust myself amongst them in excur­ munication with the natives, and I have no sions into the interior. I went about twelve hesitation in saying that through him there miles with them yesterday. I have, &c. is every probability of making permanent the "JOHN H. WEDGB. friendly intercourse that was commenced by Mr. Batman in his recent excursion (already "To Captain Montagu, Colonial Secretary." detailed by that gentleman to the Government) Then follows the usual prison description with the aborigines ; and from the fact of of his person. his having saved the lives of the eight men " Description of WilliamjBuckley:—Height, who were left here by Mr. Batman, together without shoes, six feet five inches and seven- with the circumstance of his having made a eights ; age, fifty-three ; trade, bricklayer; voluntary offer of becoming in future the complexion, brown ; head round; hair, dark medium of communication with the abori­ brown; visage, round, and marked with gines. I beg most earnestly to recommend smallpox ; forehead, low; eyebrows, bushy; his petition to the favourable consideration of. eyes, hazel; nose, pointed and turned up ; His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor; and native place, Marton, near Macclesfield, in doing so, I feel that I scarcely need Cheshire. advert to the danger that would ensue to the "REMARKS.—Well proportioned, with an lives of those who may in future reside here, erect military gait; mermaid on upper part by his being driven to despair by the refusal of right arm; sun, half-moon, seven stars, of his petition, which would probably induce monkey: W. B. on lower part of right arm. him to join the natives again; and in which "JOHKH.W." AND THE BLACKS OF VICTOBIA. 11 To this appeal from Fort Phillip there letter, accompanied with the free pardon for came a prompt and favourable reply from William Buckley, which was forwarded to Governor Arthur. me at Port Phillip. "Van Diemen's Land, " In acknowledging the receipt of them, I "Colonial Secretary's Office. beg to express the obligations I am under for "Sir, — Having submitted to the Lieu­ the humane and prompt attention paid by tenant-Governor your letter of the 9th July the Lieutenant-Governor to my representa­ last, enclosing a petition from William tion of Buckley's case ; and I am especially Buckley, a runaway convict recently dis­ directed by him to convey his thanks to his covered at Port Phillip, after having been Excellency for his free, pardon, and also his for some years domesticated with the natives assurance that he will do all in his power to of that part of the coast of New Holland; perpetuate the friendly understanding with and, his Excellency having considered the the natives that was so fortunately estab­ subject of your representation of this man's lished through the treaty effected by Mr. conduct, and the services he has rendered in Batman in June last; and it is with much, promoting a friendly disposition between the satisfaction that I can state, from the obser­ aborigines with whom he has been so long vations I had an opportunity of making, time associated, and the whites who have whilst residing among them, that there is recently visited the coast of New Holland, every chance of the continuance of the good I am directed to acquaint you that the understanding, provided a proper system be Lieutenant-Governor is doubtful how far he observed in our future intercourse.—I have is authorised to grant a free pardon to the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant, William Buckley, as he is not within the "JOHN H. WEDGE." jurisdiction of this Government; but his There appears to have been some honest, Excellency has, notwithstanding, acquiesced good-tempered jealousy between the real in the preparation of the usual instrument, friends of the Wild White Man and his in the hope that, from considerations of policy, black friends, Messrs. Batman and Wedge, the indulgence will be acceded to by his respecting the part each took in procuring Majesty's Government. this indulgence. In a letter of Mr. Wedge's " I am further desired to inform you that to Mr. Batman, dated October 14tb, 1835, the Lieytenant-Governor's compliance with a gentle complaint issues in these words :— your request in this case is founded upon a "I could not shut my eyes or be deaf to the desire to prevent bloodshed, and with a view remark you made respecting Buckley's ob­ to remove any inducement on Buckley's taining his pardon through your influence part to make common cause with the natives with the Lieutenant-Governor. A very few in the commission of any outrages upon the minutes after your brother had perused your white immigrants, which might lay the letter, he remarked to Buckley that it was foundation of a war of extermination; and very fortunate that you happened to be in his Excellency also entertains the sanguine Hobart Town at the time the memorial expectation that, if this man's energies and arrived there, that you had waited on the influence be well directed, the aborigines Governor, and obtained his free pardon, and may be so thoroughly conciliated as to insure giving him to understand that it was through, a lasting amity between them and the pre­ your influence alone that Colonel Arthur sent or any future immigrants to that part conceded to the prayer of the petitioner; and of the coast of New Holland. as your words the other afternoon were " I am further to signify the desire of his almost the echo of his (your brother's), I Excellency that it may be distinctly under­ cannot do otherwise than suppose that what stood that the reasons stated in this letter he stated was from your instructions. If form'the only grounds for the present con­ the pardon was through your influence every cession, which must not be construed into credit is due to you for it, and no one would the admission of any claim made by the feel under greater obligations to you than, gentlemen associated with Mr. Batman to myself. If, on the other hand, you assume the territory at Port Phillip, or any part that which I consider emanated entirely from thereof. I have the honour to be, Sir, your the correct and humane view which the very obedient servant, Lieutenant-Governor took of the representa­ tion that was made by me, I do not thiak "JOHN MONTAGU. it fair toward others of the proprietors who "25th August, 1835." may reside at Dutagalla, for it certainly Mr. Wedge, as in duty bound, acknow­ looks as though you intended to get the whole ledged this favour, although he did not do credit to yourself, and by which to obtain an 80 until his return to his Tasmanian home, undue influence over the mind of Buckley, at Leighland, near Boss :— and through him over the minds of the "Leighland, 15th October, 1835. natives." " Sir,—I had the honour of receiving your 12 BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAN; We think the good man's fears unduly I even to attempt to please his friends. Know­ excited. Without doubt Mr. Wedge's letter ing really little of the country, he was unable was the official means of favour to poor to indicate sites for good runs. Timid and Buckley, while it is equally evident that the nnenergetic, he was of no use with the kind offices of Mr. Batman were not wanting natives. Mr. Fawkner's idea was that the at the private ear of the Governor. The pet Associationists of Port Phi Hip, with whose pardon came from Colonel Arthur, August interests Colonel Arthur was supposed to be 25th, 1835. identified, and who certainly were Buckley's In a official report from Mr. Wedge, earliest and best of friends, hoped through addressed to the Governor, and dated Feb., his advocacy to secure great ends with the 1836, we read this passage about Buckley :— aborigines. The original Melbourne settler "He resides at present at the settlement thus expresses his mind: "The Governor formed by the gentlemen who have associated Arthur party, when news arrived that this to form a new colony, through the means of runaway had been found, showered favours the friendly interest which has been here innumerable upon him ; first, in order to established. He expresses his intention of obtain all the information that he possessed; remaining at present, for the purpose of being and also to prevail upon him not to give the medium of communication with the any part of his local knowledge to those natives. On his receiving the conditional persons not belonging to the co-partners. pardon which his Excellency the Governor Alas ! the lump of matter was too mindless most humanely and promptly forwarded to to yield any very useful information." him, on his case being made known, and Mr. Gellibrand, particularly, took much hearing of the meritorious assistance he had pains to make what use he could of him. afforded the settlers, he was most deeply He did hope to learn something of good affected; and nothing could exceed the joy pastures ; he did hope to keep the natives he evinced at once more feeling himself a quiet through him; he did hope to raise free man, received again within the pale of them to some civilised condition through his civilised society." instrumentality : he was deceived in all his This gentleman, in fact, was for some expectations. He clothed him comfortably, time the friend and apologist of Buckley, and got him a horse to ride on, besides until convinced, like others, that no use securing him a salary. Goslyn tells us: could be made of him. He even framed "Then, what few settlers there were sub­ some excuse for his utter negligence of civili­ scribed and bought a horse, saddle, and sation, or contempt for its observance. " For bridle—cost sixty guineas—and going to give an individual," says he, " situated as was him sixty pounds a year, for to ride amongst Buckley, to conciliate the natives, he must the blacks and tell them what the white conform to their customs; if they hunt, he people would do for them if they would be must hunt with them, and he must partici­ quiet." Another " Old Hand" told us that pate in all their pastimes. If their condition . Buckley, when so nominally employed, lived is to be ameliorated, it must be accomplished in his hut on the Werribee River. He evi­ by numbers, and by the force of example ; dently regarded him as a lazy and ungrateful becoming acquainted with the comforts of man, for he assured us that though by agree­ civilisation ma^be likely to lead them to ment Buckley was bound to ride from station be desirous of partaking thereof." Mr. to station for three or four days a week, yet Protector Thomas took no such charitable he rarely went away but one day in a week, view when he wrote:—"Buckley was more lounging idly about the rest of the time. ignorant than the blacks, and perfectly useless But let us hear Mr. Gellibrand himself, to them, quite a different man to Rutherford, by giving another extract from his interesting who lived many years with the New little Port Phillip Journal:— Zealanders, and who] was a shrewd, active "Feb. 1. I have this morning had a long fellow." conversation with Buckley, and explained to At first Buckley hung about the settle­ him very fully the desire of the Association ments with no idea of making himself gene­ in every respect to meet his views, and to rally useful, or caring to enter into any of make him superintendent over the native the trading views of the times. Every idea tribes, for the purposes of protecting them of the commercial was for ever driven from •from aggressions; and also acting as an in­ his mind. The only use made of him, terpreter, in imparting to them not only the according to Nathaniel Goslyn, was that Mr. habits of civilisation, but also of communi- Batman put up " a place for him at the end j eating religious knowledge. It appears from of a small store that he might keep the I his statement that the tribes are most peace­ blacks from robbing him." ably disposed ; that they fully understand Great things were expected from him, the nature of the grants issued by them; and without doubt, though he miserably failed I that they are looking forward to the time V

AND THE BLACK \ OF VICTORIA. 13 when the blankets, tomahawks, and flour | There was another question more likely to will be distributed. cause disturbance than the robbing of flocks; "Buckley appears to be of a nervous and and that was, the treatment of the native irritable disposition, and that a little thing women. The men of the bush were mostly will annoy him. very much; but this may rough fellows, who had, from certain peculiar arise from the peculiar situation in which antecedents, "been compelled to serve the he has been placed for so many years. I am State in a neighbouring island for a certain quite satisfied that he can be only acted upon term. The country was too fresh and by kindness and conciliation, and that by unsettled for European women to enter, and those means he will be an instrument, in the it was to be feared that where bribes did not hands of Providence, in working a great moral avail to ensure obedience to men's wild change upon the aborigines. He is not at desires, force would be employed with lubras. all desirous of occupying land and having How, then, it might be said, was Buckley sheep, but is highly pleased with the idea of to act ? To show that this might have been being appointed superintendent of the natives, expected, we give an extract from the Hobart with a fixedstipen d ; so that, to use his own Town Colonial Times of March, 1836, a few expression, ' he may know what he has to I months only after the first sheep were landed depend upon, and be enabled to make a few in the country:— presents to his native friends.'" 4'Some Barkers, it is reported, after Armed with this authority from the Asso­ having committed the grossest outrage upon ciation, and sworn in, as he had previously some native women, killed two of them, and been, a constable, by Captain Lonsdale, the wounded several others, whom, with the police magistrate of Melbourne and only murdered bodies, the natives having assembled representative of government in those infant in great numbers were (when the latest days, Buckley might have been calculated accounts came away) proceeding to the head­ upon by some as the means of preventing quarters of the company to demand satis­ some evil, if not effecting much good. But faction. The natives are said to be of a even before this, from the period of the determined and resolute charafter, and were arrival of successive streams of flocks and not reconciled at all to the mere glossing over, shepherds, he had been placed in circum­ on the part of the squatters, of a diabolical stances of great difficulty. Although, to the outrage, committed a short time previous to regret and even displeasure of the natives, the last occurrence by three stockkeepers on he had attached himself to the whites and a native woman." The same paper, in April, ceased to roam with the tribes, he could be explains a portion of this story :—" About no unobservant spectator, taciturn andjindiffe- two months ago a report was brought to the rent as he seemed, of the effects of the occu­ settlement of Fort Phillip by some men pation of this new country by a new and employed by Mr. Griffiths in collecting bark; arrogant race. and about the middle of last month the He knew the laws of the dark race, the parties so wounded were brought to the distinctness of boundaries, and the jealousy I settlement, not for the purpose of demanding of intrusion upon hunting grounds. He was satisfaction, but for protection." equally conscious of the overbearing character The kind-hearted Mr. Gellibrand was of Europeans towards aborigines—their con­ much affected at a case of the kind that came tempt of their persons—their disregard of under his own notice. As the offender was assumed rights—their conviction that what- I a servant of the company of which he was ever they could seize of a savage land was I the recognised head, the fellow was imme­ their own, and their feeling that everywhere I diately discharged and sent back to Van the blacks must retire before them, though I Diemen's Land. He then employed Buckley it was to a speedy grave. However bound «| to explain the circumstances to the indignant by blood, and interest, too, to the whites, the I tribe, and to assure them that attention should influence of thirty long years could not but at all times be given to their complaints. bring his sympathies to his forest friends. This is the worthy gentleman's tale:— He naturally expectejl that the antagonism of "Feb. 15. Upon my arrival at the settle­ position between such opposite parties must ment I found about one hundred and fifty quickly and inevitably produce dispute and natives, and I learned with much concern bloodshed. If a native took a woolly kan­ that an aggression had been committed upon garoo feeding upon his pastures, the owner of I one of the women, which required my imme­ that sheep would soon retaliate. Should I diate attention. Without waiting to refresh threatening words only come at first, the gun myself, or refit, I proceeded to the native would quickly furnish another argument. I huts, and ordered the person. . . . (an Blood for blood would be the cry from the I omission in the manuscript) a violent contu­ hut of the shepherd and the wiilie of the sion upon the back part of her head, and aborigine. I which I understood had been inflicted upon 14 BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE HAS \ her by her husband. It appears that the night. I think some other persons did the tribe had lately been to the Saltwater Biver, deed, and now wish to lay it on the blacks and near the shepherd's hut, No. 10; that that live with me, so that they may attach, av this woman was proceeding toward the set­ share of the blame to me. I am too inde­ tlement to see her mother, and fell in with pendent a spirit for some of the squatters. one of the shepherds, who laid hold of her, I love too much to see fair play between all brought her to the hot, tied her hands behind persons to please any time-servers. I muck her, and kept her there all night. The fear that the company will have a great deal satires are particularly jealous respecting of trouble to keep off intruders, but much of their women, and they consider any inter­ this will depend upon whom they entrust aa course of this kind as a contamination, and managers here." in every case punish the women fearfully, The reader will detect in the foregoing the even to death. The natives—men, women, symptoms of the opposition existing between and children—assembled around me. I ex­ the company and the writer of that narrative; plained to them, through Buckley, our deter­ as well as a deeply rooted prejudice against mination in every instance to punish the Buckley as the servant of the Association. white man, and to protect the natives to the A more serious event disturbed the settle­ utmost of our power. I then explained to the ment soon after. A Mr. Franks, a settler men the wickedness of their conduct, and how from the little island opposite, and whose justly they would be punished if the natives family there were known to us, was mur­ had inflicted an injury upon them." dered, together with his shepherd, by the The uneasy feeling of the aborigines at the natives. The bodies were found the following singular and rapid absorption of their hunting day by chance-callers at the station. Mr. grounds increased, tfll outrages of a painful Franks had received a blow on the right character disturbed the lonely and peaceful temple with the back part of a tomahawk, vales of Australia Felix. We must direct the with two severe cuts on the side of his head, reader to another part of the work for more which must have caused instant death. The particulars mi these conflicts. A notice of excitement for revenge may be judged when two incidents of early colonial history is the Launceston Cornwall Chronicle pub­ necessary here, as Buckley's good name suf­ lished this horrible passage :—" The annihi­ fered in connection with them. lation of the whole body of Port Phillip natives, The particulars of the first we prefer giving in our opinion, would afford an immffi^jent in the words of the venerable founder of revenge for the murder of such a man." Melbourne. In his letter contained in the The pursuit after the supposed tribe took Eobart Town Colonist, dated from Fascoe place. The Blacks of the Tarra, delighted Vale, Fawkner's Biver, April 10th, 1836, at the opportunity of so bloody a raid against Mr. Fawkner says:— their ancient foes, when helped by the mus­ "The natives are not warlike, but are kets of the English, "solicited," says an •ery treacherous. We fear they have killed authority of the time, "permission from the three white men: one a runaway, who came company to destroy the miscreants." here from George Town as a free man, and The sequel may be briefly given from the absconded to the woods; and two of Captain News, of 6th August :—" The avenging Swanston's men, who were bringing pro­ party fell upon the, guilty tribe, about day­ visions to their station from Indented Head. light in the morning, having watched them It is thought that the natives mistook this from the previous night, and putting into provision to be that which had been promised effect a preconcerted plan of attack, succeeded to them and unjustly withheld ; for it in annihilating them." The Hobart Town appears that a promise had been made to Colonial Times, a faithful friend of the them that provisions should be sent to In-a oppressed, thus expressed its indignation dented Head, and there issued, which, up upon this slaughter :—"Men who stand up to this, has not been done. The blacks so pertinaciously for their own liberty of the suspected of this murder have absconded subject, most barbarously annihilated a whole from their usual haunts; since this, the tribe, because three qf its number were sus­ other night, one of the blacks has been shot pected of having destroyed two of their foreign in the back. Buckley, the Crown prisoner intruders." tbat absconded from the Calcutta in 1803, With what feelings but of uneasy displeasure says that a native black, by name Baitbianger, could Buckley have heard of these frightful was the man that fired this shot. Now this scenes ! He could not but sympathise with' man and another, a chief from whom with the unhappy victims. But he acted un­ others I bought my land, live with me, and worthily in displaying such unconcern at the frequently go out and shoot kangaroos, funeral of the poor settler. We were assured snakes, &c., for me, but I do not think they by one present on that occasion, that, as the could have had any piece from me on that procession passed by, Buckley, who was AND THE BLACKS OP VICTORIA. 15 standing near Mr. Batman's smithy, laughed Mr. Gellibrand viewed his character. This aloud. Others saw the same indecorum, and is the allusion in the journal: " He said he a universal sentiment of disgust toward him would sooner go back to them. He said it took possession of the public mind. A Port was the white people's fault. This latter part Phillip correspondent of the Cornwall I heard Mr. Gellibrand say myself—they Chronicle places his conduct in the strongest thought he might go back to them; then, what light, and betrays the animus of a partisan :— mischief he could do." " I must take upon myself here to observe An old shepherd told us that he heard Mr. the disgraceful conduct of the monster Gellibrand in high words with him, and Buckley; when the bodies of Mr. Franks and desiring him never to come near his station his men were brftight to the settlement, he again. A paper of the day remarks: "It is objected to their being placed in his hut; to be lamented that the progress of civilisa­ he did not attend the funeral, and was ob­ tion in so fine a country, one so well adapted served, as it passed, laughing at the truly for sheep and sheep-grazing, should be checked melancholy procession. He did not assist in its growth by the conduct of one man, the parties who immediately had gone out in who is more savage than the aborigines with search of the murderers ; and it is generally whom he has lived and associated for thirty believed by his best friends, namely, * The years." Company/ that he is at the bottom of all the There were not wanting, however, a few mischief that has taken place in the new who were not carried away by this absurd colony, and unless he be speedily removed, I rumour. The News of 30th July, says very much dread the results, he having that Mr. M'Killop, a much esteemed colonist, already threatened to join the natives." "has letters from Port Phillip to the 15th This idea of desertion and return to the inst., in which no mention is made about tribes appears to have caused considerable Buckley taking to the bush. Indeed, this anxiety among the alarmists. That so quiet gentleman states, that Buckley is so strongly an individual should all at once display the impressed with the treachery of the natives, energy and tact necessary to bring the natives and being a very timid man, having had into armed combination against his country­ frequent communications with him, that it is men seems so absurd, that we should doubt not likely he will ever again join the natives, the fact of such an idea abroad did we not unless it be for the express purpose to effect find it authenticated in several quarters. We a conciliation." fancy, however, that we can trace through The Launceston Examiner of August the various reports the same spirit of party thus contradicts the assertion:—"The report contest, which so often gives shape to airy that Buckley, the Anglo-aboriginal of Port nothings. Phillip, had taken to the bush, and had been A Van Diemen's Land newspaper of July, concerned with the natives in the late mur­ 1836, ventures upon the following: " The ders, is without foundation. Buckley has much-talked of Buckley has probably by this all along continued to reside with Batman." time, in accordance with his expressed inten­ More than this, we have a paper of the same tions, taken to the bush, where he possesses date, saying:—"Buckley is spoken of by absolute control over the natives, and will of our informant in rather favourable terms. course teach them to revenge his wrongs. He He cautioned the settlers upon their first has threatened the lives of several of the intercourse with the natives against making principals of the establishment, and, savage­ too much of them; stating that they would, like, will be as good as his word." if opportunity offered, murder any of the Again, on 30th July, we read : " Letters whites for the sake of the articles of food, have been received by the Vansittart, which or of any other description, they might Bpeak in the most contemptible terms of possess." Buckley, whose conduct is such as to induce Ignorance of native manners inclined the most persons, to wish him away from the early colonists to believe that, because settlement." Buckley was seen on good terms with some Buckley's old enemy Mr. Fawkner, writing natives near Indented Head, he would be about this time, says : "He soon displayed equally familiar with those on the Melbourne a spirit of antagonism to the whites; and, in side, fifty or sixty miles distant. But he, fact, stated one day, when hard pressed, that knowing the natural jealousy and enmity of he should rejoice if the whites could be driven tribes, saw himself at once an object of sus­ away, he did not care how, so that the picion among the Yarra race, and with all aborigines could have the country to them­ others not of his own friendly people. A selves again." Even honest old Goslyn, in man even less timid and reserved would have his autobiography, bears witness to the spread felt the pressure of such circumstances. But of this prejudice against him, and reports when Buckley was so situated, with pre­ the dissatisfaction with which the benevolent judices and interests so conflicting, no action 16 BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAN J could have been expected from him ; he seeing that lofty head lowered to address the fancied he ran the risk of a spear from the little body,*who could just hang her fingers blacks, or a broken head from the whites. on his arm. Gentle and harmless in charac­ Prom the first he urged the settlers not to ter, he would, doubtless, in spite of his interfere with the habits of his black acquaint­ timidity, incapacity, and reserve, be an ob­ ances. Once, when some prying eyes detected ject of tender regard and care to the kind in the native bag of a lubra the remains of heart of a woman. cooked flesh of a human being, and a fever Time rolled on. Twenty years passed as of indignation arose, he rebuked the curious, unheeded by him among his fellow country­ and wished them to mind their own business men, as thirty previously with the sable and not put their heads in other people's foresters. A pension of twelve pounds was baskets. granted by the Tasmanian Government, and That which brought the popular indigna­ a petition procured him forty more from the tion against Buckley to a climax was his Council of Victoria. He went on the even apparent indifference to the fate of his early tenor of his way amidst the convulsions of friend, Mr. Gellibrand. colonial society. The commercial tempest of This gentleman, with a companion, Mr. 1842-3 swept over Australia ; the Anti- Hesse, had gone into the interior, during the Transportation League stirred the social first year of colonial settlement, with the elements; the trumpet-tongued gold discovery view of gaining a knowledge of the country. brought the eyes of the world to his old Port Fears about their prolonged absence induced Phillip home ; but Buckley seemed to know many of the colonists to organise themselves nothing of all, feel nothing, care for nothing. in parties, for the purpose of searching for He was not of us, though with us. What the unfortunate gentlemen; or, at least, to the man really thought in his quiet hours discover their remains. Nearly thirty years will ever remain a mystery. It may be that have passed, and to this hour no satisfactory the few aspirations he possessed still rested tale has been told of their fate. It was beneath the green trees of Indented Head, naturally expected that Buckley would have and that he inwardly sighed for the tranquil been the most eager to interest himself in days he spent by the lulling falls of the forest- the tracking work. But, alas! for poor human sheltered Barwon. There, clad in his opos­ nature, and Buckley's nature especially, sum skin, his food provided by the woods, he could only, after many solicitations, be his nectar in the gurgling stream, he could induced to accompany an expedition to the recline at ease, and dream his idle dreams in Barwon a few miles, when he slunk back in unmolested solitude. fear, saying it was no use going further. An accident, when driven out in a gig, Mr. Lonsdale, the magistrate of the settle­ early in 1856, was the immediate cause of ment (for Melbourne was not then christened), his decease. He was buried on the 2nd of saw the necessity of removing the ex-abori­ February. His age was seventy-six years. ginal constable from the scene, and sent him, at Christmas, 1837, with a letter to the Government of Van Diemen's Land. There The story of James Morrill, who was with he was honoured with a sort of constable the blacks of North Australia for seventeen porter's place, in which he was at least sure years, is a fitting sequel to the tale of William of his rations of provisions, with some small Buckley. pay, and very little work to do. In 1846, the ship Peruvian was wrecked When we arrived in Hobart Town, in 1841, on her way to China. A raft conducted we found him gatekeeper at the Female seven of the survivors to the shore near Cape Factory in Liverpool-street. Just before this Cleveland. Three died before they had been he had taken to himself, for the first time, landed a fortnight. The others were then and at the ripe age of sixty, a wife of his discovered by the blacks. "When both sides own colour and nation. She was the widow had recovered their mutual astonishment and of an emigrant, left with two children. alarm, they made each other's acquaintance. We deeply regret our inability to give the The natives appea* to have treated them reader any satisfactory account of the court­ with kindness and consideration. They ex­ ship of our hero. As a man of few words, pressed by looks their sympathy at their the bargain would be soon concluded. For distress, and hastened to place food before the same reason, we do not question that the them. Indicating their wish to conduct the union was more serene and unclouded than party inland, they led the way forward, with natures more sensitive and tongues more carrying a sickly sailor boy with gentleness voluble. Although we often saw the pair and good nature. At the camp our country . wending their way in the middle of the road­ people were the objects of curiosity and way, rather than the path, just taking their attention, and were paraded before the won­ evening stroll, we do not remember ever dering eyes of friendly neighbours after the AND T^E BLA( } OF VICTORIA. 17 Barnum showman fashion, though without a He went to a waterhole, and removed some fee of admission. of the accumulations of preceding years, that Separated afterwards in the wandering he might shadow forth a resemblance to his life of the bush, the boy died near Port former white self. Coming to the, fence of Denison, and the captain and his wife fol­ the sheep-yard, and calling to mind the bit lowed him to the grave some months after. of English he could command, he sang out, Morrill was not present at the end of either, " What cheer, shipmate ?" Alarmed at this but was persuaded of the uniform kindness unaccountable salute, one looked out and of the • blacks attending them to the last. exclaimed, **Come out and bring the guns, The exposure to the varying climate, without Wilson. Here's a naked man on the fence, proper shelter or clothing, produced attacks that's white or yellow, but not black." of rheumatism which hastened their de­ Fearing a shot, Morrill found words to say parture. The men, with no change of that he was only a shipwrecked seaman. dress, had been soon compelled to go Received in the hut, he accepted food, naked as the blacks; but the English woman but declined clothing, as he intended to re- • maintained some regard to civilised propriety turn to the tribe. Words so stuck in his in appearance, so far as the poor creature throat, as he said, that he could not easily could obtain the means. Whatever her carry on a conversation. It was not without Bufferings in her isolation from European suspicion that the settlers saw him retire society and comforts, she was spared any in­ from the hut, aud a threat of vengeance was dignity or cruelty from the so-called savages. uttered in the fear of his proving false. Within three years from the date of sbip- He returned to his old friends to bid them wreck, Morrill was left alone with the abori­ farewell. They besought him to remain with gines. them, if only to shield them from the The very year in which he was thrown upon violence of the new white neighbours. Ear­ this north-eastern shore, Leichhardt passed nestly did they tell him to beg of them not to with his gallant company, not a great dis­ shoot any more ; and if they would take the tance from his retreat, when on his way good land, at least to leave them the swamps across the continent to Port Essington. In a and saltwater creeks. He promised them to few years the flocks of the settlers spread devote his life to their interests. themselves northward from Moreton Bay, till like Buckley, he was not over-communica­ they reached the confines of the country in tive to his countrymen. The Rockhampton which Morrill sojourned with the blacks. Bulletin refers to his interview with the At the beginning of the present year he Police Magistrate of that northern settlement, resolved to make himself known to his coun­ and adds :—"Mr. Gardiner, with unwearied trymen, who had established sheep stations patience, and an exemplary'desire to confine as far as the tropics. Why he did not seek his examination to matters of public interest, them before appears singular to us. He had put a series of questionsj intended to draw heard of their approach ; and many a tale forth a connected narrative of Morrill's ex­ had been told of conflicts between the gun of periences ; but the latter, with that reticence the stockman and the spear of the black customary to those who have long, and, we man. He had evidently the same reluctance may add, hopelessly endured suffering, con­ to give up his free life in the wilds that had tented himself with monosyllabic replies, and kept Buckley so long apart from the white augmented rather than satisfied the thirst of intruders. his audience for information." A kangaroo hunt having been got up by Morrill hoped for the authority of Govern­ the men, Morrill was placed with the women ment to act as a mediator between the whites of the tribe on the look-out for the whites, and blacks, as Mr. Gellibrand intended to give warning should any come toward the Buckley to do. He trusted he should be.able warriors. The female watchers separated to restrain the cupidity of his old friends, into chattering groups, and the sailor found and the reckless violence of the settlers. By himself, with one woman only, near a hut of the last accounts he has failed in his mission. the shepherds. He then disclosed his in­ The blacks mistrust the deserter of their tention to make himself known to his people. camp fires; and the whites threaten him The poor creature, alarmed for his safety already with deadly hostility for supposed from the dreaded bushmen, tried in vain to confederation with the natives, to the injury thwart his intention. of the flocks.

* B 18 BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAN;

THE. BLACKS OF YICTORIA.

INTRODUCTION.

SEVERAL years ago we visited a small party This commenced an attack of so active a of aborigines camping near our house. There nature that we were compelled to interfere, were four of them; old Jemmy, his lubra and forcibly hold the avenging arm, while Mary, an adopted child, and their friend the screaming woman fledi n the darkness. Simon. They had just returned from Mel­ Such was the exhibition of native domestic bourne, laden vrith'packets of sugar, and tea, life, and such the march of improvement loaves of bread, meat, sardines, &c. The from a contact with the civilised white man ! men were clad in European fashion, though In the meantime, Simon sat silently and without boots and hats. The woman had stoically by the fire. He was one who had some under garments, but the dirty blanket seen Batman at his firstcelebrate d conference enveloped all. The little girl had only the with the aborigines. His father Jagga Jagga piece of a blanket. Simon was preparing was an influential and faithful friend to the his supper at the fire. Jemmy was drunk then humble, weak, and smiling whites. As and quarrelling with his wife. The child the last of his family, he now wandered a was crying on tlfe damp ground. The poor stranger in the land of his forefathers. He young half-caste was motherless; her reck­ was ill, melancholy, and without hope. He less father might, for ought we know, be told us that there was not a black child in still tending sheep on the plains, or standing his tribe ; adding in a sad tone, "All black- behind a counter in Melbourne. fellow go away." The dispute which had lulled at our We desired to gather a few records of their entrance was soon resumed in angry earnest­ history, especially as they were when the ness. We found out it was a family quarrel. friends of Buckley, the Wild White Man; and Oaths and opprobrious epithets, wanting in tell the tale to those who show the title deed his own language, the old man borrowed of lands, for which no adequate return has from the classic tongue of the English. been given to the right owner, in the faint Taking us privately aside, he recounted to us hope that some justice and kindness will be a narrative of wrongs, such as few husbands meeted out to the few natives that remain. are called upon to endure. The lady utterly There is no shadow of hope of perpetuating denied everything, and charged her spouse the race, or of inducing them to adopt our | with conjugal improprieties; these he frankly civilised pursuits. But we may supply their acknowledged, but alleged that such could wants, provide them with shelter and attend­ be no excuse for her own faults. After ance when sick, shield them from the further talk, as she evidently had the best licentiousness of their white neighbours, and of the argument, a fire stick was applied to preserve them from their arch enemy,— her head to 'induce sounder convictions. strong drink. AND THE BLACKS OF VICTORIA.

EARLY STORIES OF THE BLACKS.

THE FIRST SETTLEMENT. LIEUTENANT TUCKEY'S NARRATIVE, Buckley, the Wild White Man, ran away This officer informs the reader, that Col. from the English Penal Settlement of Port Collins, the Governor, Captain Woodriff, Phillip at the end of December, 1803 ; that and himself, had an interview with some establishment being removed to the banks of natives, who "came unarmed to the boats, the Derwent, in Van Diemen's Land, a few without the smallest symptom of apprehen­ weeks after his flight. The tribe with whom sion." Having to proceed toward the head lie found favour, and dwelt for so many years, of the Port in boats, the lieutenant on duty lived on that coast of the Bay opposite to the found himself surrounded by about two hun­ prisoners' establishment, and had no associa­ dred armed natives. While the attention of tion with th« whites ; from the hostility of the whites was distracted by the throng, the native communities, the Geelong men were some clever fellows contrived to steal from not likely even TO hear of the arrival of these the boat a tomahawk, an axe, and a saw. curious strangers. It was otherwise with those In the melee one of the natives was said to Port Phillip Bay blacks, whose hunting-grounds have seized the master's mate in his arms. extended eastward as well as northward of If disposed to be quarrelsome, we imagine the Port, and who could not avoid knowledge the spear or boomerang would have been of their wonderful neighbours. We have two thrown, and not the baby-carrying process sources of information respecting this inter­ adopted. If they desired a choice morsel for course : the journal of the Rev. Robert Knop- supper they would hardly have fondled their wood, Chaplain to the Settlement, and after­ victim in that style, as they never take pri­ wards the first Chaplain of Hobart Town; soners alive and torture them like the Amer­ and the published work of Lieutenant J. H. ican Indians. Tuckey, of the Calcutta, the vessel that At any rate these "obviously hostile brought Governor Collins out to this colony, intentions made the application of fire-arms in 1803. absolutely necessary to repel them, by which The notices of our black friends by the one native was killed and two or three clergyman are these :—"October 10. Three wounded.'7 This was the baptism of blood. natives came to us, and were very friendly." It provoked revenge. The aborigines rallied October 22. On that day is entered the intel­ their forces on the hill. A fine-looking man, ligence of Gammon and Harris being beset as chief, came down alone in a most heroic by blacks, and calling upon Lieut. Tuckey to manner to the tent, talking vehemently, and fire. Upon firing over their heads, they all holding a very large war spear in a position dispersed. But the chief returned, orna­ for throwing. The British officer was struck mented with a turban crown. Fresh provo­ with this gallant fellow, and determined to cations being received, a charge was made. meet him frankly and kindly. He had con­ We quote the journal: " Mr. Tuckey fired over fidence in the man because of his courage, them a second time, at which they again and therefore laid down his gun and went to retired a short distance. They were in great meet the savage. The noble-minded abori­ n timbers, and all armed. Finding that none gine appreciated the white man's trustfulness, of their party were wounded by the firing, and immediately relinquished the spear. But thfy again advanced ; but when one of them the tribe kept on their vociferations and their was about to throw his spear at Mr. Tuckey; warlike demonstrations, and were advancing he gave orders to shoot him as an example. down the hill. Mr. Tuckey motioned the Our people fired, and killed him, and another chief to keep them back. He issued his • was wounded; on which they all fled. Had command for them to retire. But not com­ not Mr. Tuckey fortunately come up with his prehending his language in the tumult, or Imat, there is no doubt but that they would disregarding his entreaties if heard, they have killed Mr. Gammon and Mr. Harris and tarried not in their progress; they wanted their two men, and perhaps have eaten them, blood for blood. Not a moment was to be for there is great reason to believe they are lost. The foremost in the throng was selested, cannibals." and laid low by a musket ball. At the 20 BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAN; dreadful sound the chief turned and *fled embouchure through Lake Victoria into •with his retreating countrymen. Encounter Bay, South Australia. First Mr. Tuckey gives a sketch of our sable tracing our northern boundary, he was the acquaintances. ' * Th e men were gaily adorned earliest European visitant of those distant with pipeclay-painted faces, a head dress of tribes. It will be seen that though these 8wans' feathers, a necklace of reeds, and a had not before seen a white man, they had bone or reed thrust fancifully through the to a fearful extent experienced in an indirect septum of their nostrils." The only notice manner the curse of contact. New and of the ladies is this—" One woman only was loathsome diseases appeared among them, seen, who retired by desire of the men on our for the suffering of which they had no means approach." The men were seen not to have of alleviation. Both in going down the their front tooth out like their neighbours at stream and in returning, Mr. Sturt came in Sydney. The straw baskets were praised sight of thousands of natives. His courage more than their spears or their intelligence; prompted him to undertake so adventurous for says our writer, •' I should imagine the a journey, and his benevolence occasioned kangaroos out of the reach of their weapons that perilous expedition to be unattended or their ingenuity." As to their vanity, he with bloodshed. For further particulars of tells us, "The Parisian beau cannot take that voyage we refer the reader to the greater pains in adjusting his hair, ancTper- " Discovery and Settlement of Port Phillip;" fuming himself with the odours of the East, we have now to confine our remarks to the than the savage does in bedaubing his face Captain's intercourse with Buckley's Black with clays, or anointing his skin with the Friends. He thus introduces his first visit blubber of a whale.' from the Murray tribes. " Some natives were observed running by the river-side behind us, but on turning the THE FRENCH AND THE BLACKS IN 1803. j. boat's head toward the shore, they ran away. It was evident they had no idea what we Peron, the naturalist on board Admiral were, and, from their timidity, feeling Baudin's French discovery ship, Geographe, assured that it would be impossbile to bring gives about the earliest notice of our abori­ them to a parley, we continued onwards till gines. Entering Flinders' Western Port in our usual hour of stopping, when we pitched 1803, the Frenchmen named an island our tents on the left bank for the night, it Frenchman, now French. It was there that being the one opposite to that on which the Peron had his first interview with our natives, natives had appeared. We conjectured that most probably the firsto f the kind, excepting their curiosity would lead them to follow us, the glance with which Flinders had been which they very shortly did ; for we had favoured some weeks before in Port Phillip scarcely made ourselves comfortable, when Bay. Though short the description, it is we heard their wild notes through the woods important. as they advanced towards the river ; and "Such of the natives they saw seemed their breaking into view with their spears mistrustful and perfidious. In their features, and shields, and painted and prepared as the shape of the head, the smoothness and they were for battle, was extremely fine. great length of the hair, the inhabitants They stood threatening us, and making a differ from D'Entrecasteaux Channel (Tas­ great noise, for a considerable time, but mania). They paint their body and face finding that we took no notice of them, they with stripes, crosses, white and red circles; at length became quiet. 1 then walked to and pierce the nostrils, through which they some distance from the party, and taking a thrust a small stick six or seven inches long, branch in my hand, as a sign of peace, like the aborigines of Port Jackson. They beckoned them to swim to our side of the wear collar fashion a sort of necklace, formed river, which, after some time, two or three of a number of short tubes of coarse straw. of them did. But they approached me with They blacken the body and face with pow­ great caution, hesitating at every step. They dered charcoal. Of thirteen individuals soon, however, gained confidence, and were seen, one only was clothed with a black skin, ultimately joined by all the males of their the other twelve being wholly naked." tribe. I gave the first who swam the river a tomahawk (making this a rule in order to encourage them), with which he was highly STURT AND THE MURRAY BUCKS IN 1830. delighted. I shortly afterwards placed them all in a row, and fired a gun before them: Captain Charles Sturt, the devoted and they were quite unprepared for such an ex­ successful Australian^explorer, set out from plosion, and after standing stupefied and •Sydney in November* 1829, and succeeded motionless for a moment or two, they simul­ in following down the Murray river to its' taneously took to their heels, to our great AND THE BLACKSS OP VIOTOKIA. 21 amusement I succeeded, however, in calling these desperadoes in the best way we could them back, and they regained their confidence across the water—a measure to which my so much, that sixteen of them remained with men showed great reluctance, declaring that us all night, but the greater number retired if during our absence the natives approached at sunset. On the following morning they them, they would undoubtedly fire upon accompanied us down the river, where we them. I assured them it was not my inten­ fell in with their tribe, who were stationed tion to go out of their sight. We took our on an elevated bank, a short distance below, guns with us, but determined not to use to the number of eighty-three men, women, them until the last extremity, both from a and children. Their appearance was ex­ reluctance to shed blood, and with a view to tremely picturesque and singular. They our future security. I held a long panto- wanted us to land, but time was too precious mimical dialogue with them across the for such delays. Some of the boldest of the water, and held out the olive branch in token natives swam round and round the boat, so of amity. They at length laid aside their as to impede the use of the oars, and the spears, and a long consultation took place women on the bank evinced their astonish­ among them, which ended in two or three ment by mingled yells and cries. They wading into the river, contrary, as it entreated us, by signs, to remain with them; appeared*, to the Earnest remonstrance of the but as I foresaw a compliance on this occasion majority, who, finding that their entreaties would hereafter be attended, with incon­ had no effect, wept aloud, and followed them, venience, I thought it better to proceed on with a determination, I am sure, of sharing our journey; and the natives soon ceased their fate, whatever it might have been. As their importunities, and, indeed, did not soon as they landed, McLeay and I retired follow or molest us. to a little distance from the bank and sat ***** down, that being the usual way among the " On the 19th, as we were about to con­ natives of the interior to invite to an inter­ clude our journey for the day, we saw a view. When they saw us act thus, they large body of natives before us. On ap­ approached and sat down with us, but without proaching them they showed every disposition looking up, from a kind of diffidence peculiar for combat, and ran along the banks with to them, and which exists even amongst the spears in rests, as if only waiting for an nearest relatives, as I have already had opportunity to throw them at us. They were occasion to observe. As they gained confi­ upon the right, and as the river was broad dence, however, they showed an excessive enough to enable me to steer wide of them, curiosity, and stared at us in the most earnest I did not care much for their threats; but manner. We now led them to the camp, upon another party appearing on the left and I gave, as was my custom, the first who bank, I thought it high time to disperse approached, a tomahawk, and to the others one or other of them, as the channel was some pieces of iron hoop. Those who had not wide enough to enable me to keep clear crossed the river amounted to about thirty- of danger, if assailed by both, as I might be five in number. At sunset the majority of while keeping amid the channel. I found them left us ; but three old men remained however, they did not know how to use at the fireside all night. I observed that few the advantage they possessed, as the two of them had either lost their front teeth; or •divisions formed a junction ; those on lacerated their bodies, as the more westerly the left swimming over to the stronger tribes do. The most loathsome diseases pre­ body upon the right bank. This fortu­ vailed among them. Several were disabled nately prevented the necessity of any hostile by leprosy, or some similar disorder, and two measure on my part, and we were suf­ or three had entirely lost their sight. They fered to proceed unmolested for the present. are, undoubtedly, a brave and confiding The whole then followed us, without any people, and are by no means wanting in symptom of fear, but making a dreadful natural affection. In person they resemble shouting, and beating their spears and the mountain tribes. They have the thick shields together, by way of intimidation. It lips, the sunken eye, the extended nostril, is but justice to my men to say that, in all and long beards; and both smooth and curly this critical situation, they evinced the hair are common among them. The lower greatest coolness, though it was impossible extremities appear to bear no proportion to for any one to witness such a scene with their bust in point of muscular strength, indifference. As I did not intend to fatigue but the facility with which they ascend#trees the men by continuing to pull farther than of the largest growth, and the activity with we were in the habit of doing, we landed at which they move upon all occasions, together our usual time on the left bank, and while with their singular erect stature, argue that the people were pitching the tents, I walked such appearance is entirely deceptive. Thi down the bank with McLeay, to treat with old men slept very soundly by the fire, and 22 BUCKLEY, THE WILJ) W^ITE MAN; were the last to get up in the morning. • McLeay's extreme good humour had made a read in Captain Start's journal such pas­ most favourable impression upon them, and sages as follow: "The most loathsome of' I can picture him even now, joining in their diseases prevailed among the tribes, nor were wild cry. Whether it was from his entering the youngest infanta exempt from them. In­ so readily into their mirth, or from anything deed, so young were some whose condition peculiar that struck them, the impression was truly disgusting, that I cannot but upon the whole of us was, that they took suppose that they have been born in a state him to have been originally a black, in con­ of disease." "Syphilis prevails amongst sequence of which they gave him the name them with fearful violence. I distributed of Rundi. Certain it is, they pressed him some Turner's cereate to the women, but to show his side, and asked if he had not left Fraser to superintend its application. It received a wound there—evidently as if the would do no good, of course, but it convinced original Rundi had met with a violent death the natives we intended well towards them, from a spear wound in that place. The and on that account it was politic to give it, whole tribe, amounting in number to up­ setting aside any humane feeling." His wards of 150, assembled to see us take our prudence showed itself in his discipline ; departure. Four of them accompanied us, thus he says, "I was particularly careful among whom there was one remarkable for not to do anything that would alarm them, personal strength and stature." or to permit any liberty to be taken with It was the next day after this interview their women. Our reserve in this respect that our countrymen nearly fared the fate of seemed to excite their surprise, for they Mungo Park in Africa. Turning an angle asked sundry questions, by signs and ex­ in the river, they saw a vast concourse of pressions, as to whether we had any women, some five or six hundred natives, armed and and where they were. The whole tribe wrathful, prepared to take vengeance unon generally assembled to receive us, and all, the white strangers for this invasion of their without exception, were in a complete state- country. A projecting sandband afforded of nudity; and really the loathsome condi­ better approach to their victims; on this the tion and hideous countenances of the women leaders in brutal glee awaited the drifting of would, I should imagine, have been a com­ the boat. The danger was imminent. The plete antidote to the sensual passion." He guns were ready, the very finger was on the furthermore tells us, •' with every new tribe trigger, when Mr. McLeay called out that we were obliged to submit to an examina­ another party was approaching on the oppo­ tion, and to be pulled about, and fingered ail site bank. In a moment after, a man threw over." himself off a lofty cliff into the water, swam up to a big savage on the shore, seized him MAJOR MITCHELL AKD THE BLACKS, IN by his throat, and forcibly pushed him back I183G. from the river. "At one moment," says Sturt, "pointing to the boat, at another This distinguished discoverer of what he shaking his clenched fist in the faces of the called Australia Felix arrived at Lake Be- most forward, and stamping with passion on nanee, by the Murray, July 27, 1836. To the sand." This was their gigantic friend, his surprise he fell in with a tribe with who arrived in time to save them. The whom he had a brush some two hundred leader closes the story in these words : '' We miles off, upon the Darling. They called were so wholly lost in interest at the scene out, " Goway, goway, goway ;" which, being that was passing, that the boat was allowed interpreted, means, *4 Come here." Piper, to drift at pleasure. For my own part I was the Sydney aboriginal guide, did not admire overwhelmed with astonishment, and in their contiguity, and seriously asked his truth stunned and confused, so singular, so leader, what the Governor said to him about unexpected, and so strikingly providential killing the "Wild Blackfellow;" giving a had been our escape." significant idea of the estimation of their Upon another occasion they were relieved value. Though at first the tribe assumed from a difficulty by the same noble hearted friendly appearances, there was not wanting man. The boat had got fast, and a large proof of their hostile spirit. An old fellow tribe came unexpectedly upon them. But approached the Major quite confidently and the well known voice of their tall, dark smilingly, with a bundle of spears concealed brother was heard ; Sturt shouted in reply, beneath his kangaroo rug. But they were and "signalized distress. Plenty of bark prepared. It was noticed that the rascals, canoes were launched immediately; using with the cunning of foxes, understood the their spears for poles and paddles, the natives business of getting guns ready. A few shots pushed off tho boat, and set the Europeans procured "permanent deliverance of the afloat again. We are distressed, however, to party from imminent danger." It was. AND THE BLACKS OF VICTORIA. 23 among these people that the explorer saw an THE ASSOCIATION AND THE BLACKS. Australian beauty. "The youngest/' says he, " was the handsomest female I had ever We must refer the reader to the "Dis­ seen among the natives. She was so far covery and Settlement of Port Phillip " for from black, that the red colour was very ap­ particulars of the Association of certain parent in her cheek. She sat before me in a respectable Tasmanian colonists in 1835, corner of the group, nearly in the attitude of under the management of Mr. John Batman, Mr. Bailey's fine statue of Eve at the Foun­ whose object was the settlement of this tain ; and apparently equally unconscious colony. Their intention is thus set forth by that she was naked." An old man civilly Major Mercer, one of the company: "The offered to barter her for a tomahawk to the formation of a nucleus of a free and useful evidently admiring soldier. His refusal was colony, founded upon principles of concilia­ doubtless regarded as more foolish than scru­ tion and civilisation, of philanthropy, morality pulous. and temperance, without danger of its ever The English were amused with the Painted becoming onerous to the mother country, and Tribe, the men of which accurately marked calculated to insure the well-being and com­ out the muscles of their bodies with the fort of the natives." If not settled by a con­ help of the pipe-clay. Speaking of an Aus­ federation of humane and intelligent persons, tralian Barrington, the traveller writes:— he predicted that " The country would be, if * * His hands were ready to seize any living ever, occupied hereafter by the extermination thing ; his step, light and noiseless as that of the aboriginal inhabitants alone." of a shadow, gave no intention of his ap­ For this purpose, Mr. Batman was sent proach." Sonte of these folks believed that over to conciliate the good feelings of the the clothes of the Europeans made them aborigines by presents and fair treaty ; as he proof against attack by the spear. When stated in his letter from Launceston to Go­ near Mount William, our countrymen were vernor Arthur : "By obtaining from them a agreeably surprised to meet with a black- grant of a portion of that territory, on equit­ fellow who could say the word " milk," and able principles, not only might the sources had been in whitefellows' company before. of this colony be considerably extended, but Upon the banks of the Glenelg, Mitchell fell the object of civilisation be established; and in with a lubra and her child. The little which in process of time would lead to the fellow was being carried on her back between civilisation of a large portion of the abori­ a kangaroo rug and a circular mat covering. gines." Additional evidence of this worthy He is thus described : " His pleasant and spirit is seen in the following document. youthful face, he being a very fine specimen " Memorandum for Mr. Batman's Guidance of the native race, presented a striking bon- about the Natives. trast to the miserable looks of his whining "The first point to be attended to, is to mother." The manner in which the ex­ keep up a friendly feeling on their part to plorers warded of! an impending attack was the establishment, and to insure on their as effectual as novel. The natives had been part a feeling of confidence, and the next is thronging them for some time ; and, with all to make them as useful to the Association as their assumed candour and indifference, Piper possible. Much may be done by the force discovered that they contemplated a night of example through the Sydney natives. It onslaught upon the trespassers on their will be desirable to have two scales of rations: hunting grounds. Their thirst for blood was one for them who will make themselves use­ allayed by a capital manoeuvre of the old ful, and a less scale for those who will not. Peninsular warrior. When quite dark, " at That civilisation will best proceed by dividing a given signal, Burnett suddenly sallied forth, the natives into families, and employing six wearing a gilt mask, and holding in his hand or eight at each of the stations, if they can a blue light, with which he fired a rocket be induced voluntarily to do so ; but it must Two men, concealed behind the boat carriage, not be done by compulsion. Habits of labour bellowed hideously through speaking trumpets, will only be acquired by degrees; and if each while all the others shouted and discharged party were allowed to have a small piece of their carbines in the air. Burnett marched ground to cultivate for themselves, it would solemnly toward the astonished natives, who materially assist. were seen through the gloom but for an "It will be very expedient to appoint instant, as they made their escape and dis­ Buckley superintendent of the native*, for appeared for ever." he will be enabled under Mr. Batman'* directions to keep thetn in proper order, and to make them understand the ad vantage* they will receive in pursuing thin plan, and so soon as this is acconipliNhed they wilt become useful servants of the institution. 24 BUC&LEY, TIIE WILD WHITE MAN; "Some regard onght to be had to the his family, there were always many amount of tribute payable, and that for the natives to be seen lounging about Batman's excess some equivalent in labour given, but Hill. The visitors by the Rattlesnake, in it will not be desirable in the first instance to June, 1836, were much amused by the Soyer coerce the natives to labour. demonstration which the kind-hearted Bat­ "It may be questionable whether it will man had prepared for his black friends. be prudent to give the natives mutton, other­ There was a large boiler outside, full of rice, wise the flocks may and most probably will and into which dark masses of sugar were hereafter suffer ; if they required animal tumbled with the stirring. Then came a man food it will be better to supply them with with a shovel, and scooped up a ration for salt pork. each expectant one. Loud laughter accom­ "Signed—J. T. Gellibrand, for G. Swan- panied the process, and gratified merriment ston, J. T. Gellibrand, Jno. H. Wedge, W. aided digestion. It so happened, at one of G. Sams, Anthy. Cottrell, M. Connelly. these reunions, that something was missing, " October 22, 1835." —a most unusual circumstance. Sending In a letter of Batman's to Governor Artnur, for his telescope, Mr. Batman slowly walked dated October 23, 1835, we have the follow­ round the group, looking to discover the ing reference to the natives :—"I have the offender. The excitement and perturbation honour of reporting the progress made by the of the thief at this novel and certain mode Association since July last with the native of detection revealed his guilt. tribes. From that period tip to the com­ Our Founder first came in contact with the mencement of this month, when Mr. Wedge Port Phillip blacks on Sunday, 31st May, left Port Phillip, the intercourse has been 1835, on the western shore of the Bay. kept up upon the most friendly terms, and Having' with him some civilised Sydney from eighty to one hundred natives have been natives, he sent them onward, a-head, to a clothed and supplied with daily rations at camp of twenty women and twenty-four the expense of the Association. The natives children, who were comforting themselves have been partially occupied in habits of over fires in the absence of their hunting industry, and I have not the least hesitation lords. Mr. Batman has the following notices in affirming, that if no unforeseen obstacles of them in his journal:—"They seemed quite occur, a gradual system of civilisation will pleased with my natives, who could partially obtain." understand them ; they sang and danced for The Association provided suitable married them." "Every woman had a child at her and well conducted servants for their stations back but one, who was quite young, and very in Port Phillip, organised a system of protec­ good looking." Each of these ladies had a tion for the natives, and appointed a gentle­ burtlen to carry of some sixty pounds weight man, Dr. Thomson, of Geelong, as surgeon and in their nets, consisting of roots, bones, nuts, catechist. But after contesting with Govern­ tomahawks, &c. One had a part of a wheel- ment for some time, the authorities would spoke, and another an iron hoop. The ac­ not sanction their purchase from the abori­ count is thus continued:—"They came back gines, and the company ceased to exist. Yet with us, where I had some blankets, looking- the influence of their judicious and Christian glasses, beads, handkerchiefs, and apples. policy remained long afterwards, and gave a I gave them eight pairs of blankets, thirty tone to the treatment ot the inhabitants. handkerchiefs, eighteen necklaces of beads, These never suffered like thejpoor Tasmanians. six pounds of sugar, twelve looking-glasses, Whatever they endured from certain brutal and a quantity of apples, which they seemed stockkeepers, the squatters, as a class, had much pleased with." Then follows a notice respect to their claims, and treated them with of the fair one :—*' The young woman whom humanity and kindness. I have spoken of before, gave me a very handsome basket of her own make." A notice of the younger folks follows :—"The children were very good looking, and of a MR. BATMAN AND THE BLACKS. healthy appearance." One week after, he fell in with a friendly This interesting Founder of the Colony of chief and his family near the Merri Creek, Port Phillip was a devoted friend to the dark- who introduced him

words: " They certainly appear to me to he wh<» on every occasion evinced the greatest t of a superior race of natives which I have desire to be of use, whenever he had it in ever seen." his power to do so, and who gave me a general outline of the character of the different natives as they arrived, one of MR. WEDGE AND THE BLACKS IN 1835. whom (Murradonnanuke) he pointed out as being more to be dreaded on account of his We have been favoured with a manuscript treachery, than any of the other chiefs; as notice of our Port Phillip natives from John one of the main objects I had in view, Helder Wedge, Esq., M.P., of Tasmania, and besides examining the country, was to make once one of the Port Phillip Association. myself acquainted with the habits and dis­ This is the record of his visit to the black positions of the natives, I devoted the first friends of the Wild White Man, a couple of few days after my arrival to studying their months before Mr. Fawkner came to this characters, For this purpose I went out country:— # hunting with them daily, and spent the "On landing at Port Phillip on the 7th greater part of my time among them. I soon August, 1835, at the encampment of the satisfied myself 'that by a little tact and party, three white men and some Sydney management there was no danger to be natives left for the purpose of maintaining apprehended from them, although I learnt the friendly intercourse which had been from Buckley that in the treatment of each established with the aborigines of that part other they were treacherous. To command of New Holland, I found seven families of their respect, I found it was necessary to the natives residing in their huts around the make them fully understand that it was in encampment. The greater part of them were our power, not only to minister to their absent at the time on a hunting excursion, wants and comforts, but amply to avenge but a boy came down with the white men to any outrage, [n impressing them with this -welcome us on our arrival. An old man idea Buckley was of great use to me, by (Pewitt) and his two wives were at the huts, making known to them the ample means we together with some young girls who had been had of furnishing them with food, blankets, promised in marriage to the Sydney natives &c. ; and explaining the object which we left by Mr. Batman. I soon learnt that the had in view in settling amongst them, and most friendly understanding existed with our desire to be on friendly terms with them, the natives ; indeed, I scarcely needed this which was mainly compassed by evincing a information, for it was evident from the confidence devoid of fear in our deportment light-hearted playfulness of the boy, the towards them, and by abstaining from any cheerfulness of the old man, and the viva* act which might lead them to doubt the sin- • cious loquacity of the females, who came and cerity of our intentions. I learnt from shook hands with me on my arrival. They Buckley that they were cannibals. His were evidently anxious to inform me by signs statement on this head was confirmed by the that the families who inhabited the several two youths who attached themselves to me huts were out hunting and that they would during my stay in New Holland, and who come in the evening. On the return of the accompanied me on several excursions I various families with the game which they made into the interior; but they do nqt had obtained during the day, the members seem to indulge in this horrible propensity severally welcomed me by a shake of the except when the tribes are at war with each hand. The only married female of our other, when the bodies of those who are party (Mrs. H. Batman) and her four little killed are roasted, and their bones are infal- daughters, with whom the natives were much libly.picked by the teeth of their enemy. Of delighted, particularly attracted their atten­ this custom they make no secret, and on tion. Although they brought home with being questioned speak of it as a matter of them plenty of provisions, consisting of course, and describe the mode of preparing various edible roots, kangaroo-rats, and cal- their victim for the repast. Disgusting as kiel (the young ants in a fly state taken from is this practice (the process of which is too decayed hollow trees), they soon began to revolting to commit to paper), a still more importune us for bread and other things, not horrible one, if possible, prevails—that of excepting the cutlery. From this I inferred destroying their infant at its birth. The at once that, to satisfy their newly-acquired cause by which they appear to be influenced, appetite for our food and other things which is the custom they have of nursing their ^ we brought with us, such as knives, toma­ children till they are three or four years hawks, and blankets, was a sur.e way of old. To get rid, therefore, of the trouble conciliating them. and inconvenience of finding sustenance for "In this conclusion at which I thus two, should the second be born before the arrived, 1 was fully confirmed by Buckley, eldest is weaned, they destroy the youngest 26 BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAN; immediately after it is born. Although»this times happens that these promises are broken explanation was given me by Buckley, and I by the parents, es^pcially when the man who have no doubt this is in most instances the has received the promise belongs to another cause, yet some women perpetrate the murder and distant tribe. When this occurs, it of their infants from mere wantonness, and creates a feeling of enmity, and it is not un­ as it would seem to us, a total absence of frequently taken up by the whole tribe, who that maternal feeling which is found even in make common cause with the aggrieved the brute creation. One woman in particular party. If they once determine on being (the wife, I think, of Mullamboid) was revenged, they never lose sight of their pointed out to me, who,had destroyed ten object till they have satisfied themselves out of eleven of her children, one of whom by a general conflict with the tribe to she killed a few days previous to my arrival whom the offending party belongs, or it at the Port. Notwithstanding the increase sometimes happens that the poor girl and of the tribes is thus kept down, polygamy is her husband are singled out, and in the dead common amongst them; few of the men of the night the spear gives both a passport have less than two wives, and some of them to the land whose inhabitants live without four or five. The women, as is the case hunting. The men are prohibited from with most savages, are quite subservient to looking at the mother of the girls promised the men, and are kept in excellent discipline; them in marriage. This singular custom is chastisement quickly follows the least offence, observed with the strictest caution. On and a fire-stick is not unfrequently the in­ passing the hut of the mother-in-law, or strument of correction. The wealth of the any place where they suppose her to be, they men may be said to consist in the number of carefully turn their head away, and evince their wives, for their chief employment is in great concern if by any chance they should procuring food for their lords. On one occa­ see her, although I am not aware of sion I was witness to a scene that afforded any penalty being attached to the offence me some amusement, although it was no fun save that of displeasing the parents. On to the poor women concerned. My attention meeting with Nuilaboin and his family, I was attracted by the outcry of the women took notice that a young girl just married who were receiving chastisement from their carefully avoided looking at a particular man, husband (Murradonnanuke) who was punish­ for what reason I cannot divine, unless it was ing them by throwing fire-sticks at them in that the old man had been promised her first the most furious manner. On inquiry, I daughter. learnt that the cause of offence arose from 44 From inquiries which I made on the sub­ the poor creatures not having brought home ject, I am induced to believe that a feeling of that evening a quantity of provisions suffi­ enmity does not permanently exist among cient to satisfy his insatiable appetite. -In the tribes, as it is terminated by a general the regulations which prevail respecting their battle royal, something after the style of an wives they have one which seems to have Irish fair. A short time previous to my some connection with, or similar to, the departure a few men with their wives, from Mosaic law. On the death of the husband an adjoining tribe, came to that amongst his wives became the property of the eldest whom I was living, with an invitation to of his brothers, or his next of kin. The men join them in a conflict which they meditated are jealous of their wives, and should any with an adjoining tribe. They sent two or intrigue be discovered it would probably lead three young men to a tribe to the westward, to the death of one or both of the offending inviting them also to join them on this occa­ parties; although, if the husband receives sion. I learnt that this -hostile feeling had what he considers to be an adequate com­ been created by a man having lost one of his pensation, he is accommodating to his friend. eyes in a scuffle with a man belonging to the I do not believe infidelity is frequent among Western Port tribe. This accident happened the women, unless sanctioned by the husband. about eight months" previously, and although During the whole time I was among them I the party who now sought to avenge himself never observed any advances or levity of con­ WPS the aggressor, having wounded his an­ duct on their part, although it is not at all tagonist with a spear, he nevertheless deter­ improbable that they are restrained by fear mined on having satisfaction, and had suc­ of consequences should they be detected. In ceeded in inducing his own tribe and that bestowing daughters for wives, they are fre­ with which I was living, and probably would quently promised as soon as they are born, influence the other also, to whom an embassy and on these occasions the parents receive of young men had been despatched to the presents of food, opossum and kangaroo rugs, westward, to espouse the cause of his odd clubs, spears, &c, from the person to whom eye. They also gave an invitation to the she is betrothed, and this arrangement is seven Sydney natives to join them with their considered to be binding, although it some­ guns. This of course I discouraged, and I AND THE SLACKS OF VICTORIA. 27 was not without hopes that they might be acquainted with us, and is an evidence that induced through the influence of Buckley to the friendly intercourse we have established forego their intention of taking their revenge, with them will, by degrees, operate upon although from what he said, I concluded their minds, and gradually work an ameli­ there was not much chance of such a result. oration of their condition. Of this being Buckley said that the time of their meeting ultimately affected I entertain very sanguine was very Uncertain, that it might happen expectations, and I think I am warranted in in a week or two, or it might be put off doing so, by the result of the experiments I some months, but that the collision was made to induce them to habits of industry almost certain to take place sooner or later. whilst residing amongst them. The men on In those conflicts it does not often happen several occasions rendered assistance in carry- that many lives are lost, seldom more than ing sod for the erection of our huts, and •one or two; frequently all return from the place many of the women were almost constantly alive and no other mischief done than an eye employed in making baskets, during the last less, a head broken, or an impression made week or ten days previous to my departure. upon their coatless backs by a club or^pear; In re-payment for these and other services, so expert are they in avoiding the missiles «£ bread was given them on the completion of their opponents. All feeling of hostility their tasks, with which they were well satis­ ceases with the battle, and cordiality again fied, and I have little doubt if proper prevails, till it is interrupted by the impulse arrangement* were made, and attention of their feeling, which is extremely sensitive; paid, that great progress might be made in in fact, they are nearly as pugnacious as a short time towards establishing more though their birth-place had been the Green. civilised habits. Their whole time may be Island. Like all others—uncivilised and in said to be devoted to procuring food d«R*g a state of nature—they are astonishingly the day. All their thoughts seem to be dexterous in the use of their weapons, em­ directed towards, miniscering to their appe­ ployed by tbem in the defence of their persons tites. The women are the drudges of their and in procuring food; and in tracking each husbands, and are seldom idle during the other, as well aa kangaroos and other animals • day, being for the most part employed either they are very expert. The most trifling dis­ in getting the various edible roots with which arrangement of the grass, a broken twig, or the country abounds, or in making baskets the slightest thing which indicates the direc­ and nets, and any other occupations directed tion of the object of pursuit is at once per­ by their husband. Their habitations are of ceived by them, and they follow the track the most rude and simple construction, the with ease at a brisk pace. On several occa­ materials of which they are made being the sions I witnessed their adroitness in this branches of trees laid with tolerable com­ respect. In fact, their perceptions in seeing, pactness, and pitched at an angle of about hearing and smelling are surprisingly acute, 45 degrees. In shape they form a segment and in the pursuit of their game they evince of a circle, and their size is in proportion to the patient perseverance so peculiar to man the number of inmates of which the family living in a state of nature. Their food con­ is composed." sists principally of kangaroo and other ani­ mals, fish, and roots of various sorts; black swans, ducks, and many other birds; in fact there is scarcely any animal or bird which THE FIRST OYEKLANDER AND THE BLACKS. comes amiss to them, and many reptiles : amongst others a species of snake comes Mr. John Gardiner came overland from within their bill of fare. In their appetites Sydney to Melbourne at the latter end of they are quite ravenous, and the quantity 1835. In giving us the narrative of that they devour at one meal would astonish even cattle-driving trip, he said that only upon a London alderman, although they are not one occasion did he fall in with any natives, quite so fastidious in the quality of their and that was upon the Dividing Range, viands. somewhere in the Kilmore district. He was then saluted by a black with the cry of " I could not learn that they have any reli­ " Batman !" accompanied with the usual gious observances, and indeed from the in­ glucking sound of astonishment. His lubra formation gathered from Buckley, I am led was a tall, noble looking woman, with very to believe they have no idea whatever of a handsome features, and an olive complexion. Supreme Being, although it is somewhat The travellers immediately Bet her down for difficult to reconcile the fact of their believing a daughter of the gigantic wild white man, in a future state, for they certainly entertain Buckley. Their native stock-keeper from the idea that, after death, they again exist, Sydney fell desperately in love with the lady, being transformed into white men. This is and would have her on any terms. He very obviously a new idea since they have been seriously deliberated upon the best means of 28 BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAN; Tendering her a widow, that he might become circles, and the infringement of which her protector. perilled the social position of the offender. The Quaker missionary, James Backhouse, It was contrary to aboriginal etiquette to ask tells the following singular story respecting for water. The guide then began gnawing this Overlander, which he heard from that at a stick, all the while casting side-long, gentleman, on the Yarra, in 1837. "In wistful glances at the pool; the look was one of J. Gardiner's journeys from Sydney, sufficiently suggestive, and a calabash of one of his men was bitten by a venomous water was generously brought to them. serpent. The wound was sucked, but the They now prepared for sleep. When the man showed symptoms of faintness of alarm­ gentlemen at home witnessed these final camp­ ing character. The party had received ing' preparations, they sent an old man to intimation from a native woman, that some confer with our party. The guide met him. of her countrymen intended to attack them A long yabber ensued. Questions were asked, in the night; and at the juncture, when the about the white men,—why they came, and poison seemed to be taking effect, the lights where they were going. The envoy returned of the natives were seen approaching. The to his tribe, and was heard in shrill accents party were thrown into a state of alarm; loudly repeating the nature of the conference. they watched a favourable opportunity, Silence followed this communication; after seized the blacks at unawares, and expos­ which the tribe came to a decision. The old tulated with them against making such an man appeared with the ultimatum. The attack upon persons in no way disposed to white men were instantly to depart. Know­ injure them. The chief was detained as a ing that appeal would be useless, they hostage, and placed under the charge of one gathered up their knapsacks and went on of the party, who, being overcome by fatigue, their way. Trespassers were not allowed; fell asleep, and his captive escaped, but but instead of steel traps and spring-guns, returned no more to annoy them. These they were first tendered the rights of hospi­ circumstances diverted the attention of the tality, and suffered to recruit their physical company from the envenomed man, and his system, before ordered to withdraw. It has case was forgotten until the next morning, not been quite in that courteous style that when he was inquired of respecting his wel­ we have driven the owners of the soil from fare. He also had forgotten his malady ; our homesteads. • fear seems to have suspended the effect of the poison, and he said he felt no more of it from the time the lights of the blacks MR MCMILLAN AND THE GIPPS LAND appeared." NATIVES. Though Count Strzelecki was the firstwh o COUNT STRZELECKI AND THE GIPPS LAND traversed the Snowy Alpine country between ULACKS. Sydney and Melbourne, ascended Mount Kosciusko, and named a province after This kind-hearted, scientific Polish noble Governor Gipps, yet to Mr. McMillan is un­ wrote an interesting work upon Australia some doubtedly due the priority of discovery of twenty years ago. When descending from our that very interesting locality. Having been Alps into the country he called Gipps Land, specially furnished by that gentleman with his party came upon a large encampment of an account of his expedition in 1840, we the wild natives. Having been for several extract such portions for the present work days on short allowance for water, the Euro­ as relate to the aborigines. We have intro­ peans rushed hastily toward a pool; they duced to us an account of his Maneroo were instantly withheld by their own aborigi­ native guide Jemmy, and his fears of the nal guide, who represented their conduct as formidable Gippslanders. indecorous, impolitic, and dangerous: they "Jemmy Gibber was getting fearfully were on the lands of strangers, and had no alarmed of meeting with a wild tribe of legal right to fire or water. At his direction, blacks, called Warrigals, inhabiting that part therefore, they sat down quietly upon the of the country, and consequently refused to grass. A quarter of" an hour had elapsed, proceed any farther with me, making an when one of the Gippslanders came across, attempt to get away from me. I was then and politely handed them a piece of burning in a wild mountainous country, covered wood; with this a fire was kindled, and an principally with scrub, and my companion opossum cooked for supper. But it was gave me to understand that he was ignorant drink they were so anxious to obtain. Yet of our whereabouts, and that I must trust among these wild children of nature there to my tinder-box (a name he gave to my were set conventional forms of society as pocket-compass). I got him to go on with binding and exactive as those of refined me until the evening, when we camped and AND THE BLACKS OF VICTORIA. ' 29 lighted our fire ; and, after taking refresh-* I was formed at Fort Albert, it was long before meat, laid ddwn to rest. I nearly paid one could stir a mile from the Fort without dearly this night for my confidence in my I being, well armed. companion. After being some time asleep, Mr. Mclntyre gave us a description of the I awoke suddenly, and to my consternation wild Gippslanders' visit to the out station found Jemmy Gibber standing over me with of Mr. Jamieson, Western Fort. When they his upraised waddy or club, one blow of 1 burst in upon the whites, they were evidently which would have settled me. I at once not up in a knowledge of our domestic life. presented my pistol at him, when he at once They broke open the store for acquisitive cried out, begging me not to shoot him : that reasons. The sugar and tea were emptied he had been dreaming that another black - upon the earth as useless. The dairy afforded fellow had been taking away his wife, and rare fun. They knew not what to make of that he did not want to kill me. But it was the milk ; so they poured that away. But evident to me his intention was to take my the bright milk dishes took their fancy life, that he might then return home." I amazingly. Throwing them up in the air, He then shows us these ugly strangers :— they laughed immoderately at the brilliant " This was the first day on which I met glitter in the sunshine. The blankets only any of the black tribes, or wild blacks. On were appropriated and taken. No harm was meeting us they approached close up to us, done to any one. The wild men then retired and stood looking at us until I dismounted, to their mountain home. -when they commenced yelling, and instantly took to their heels. It is my belief they took the horse and rider to be one until I dismounted, having never seen a white man THE WILD BUCKS OF LAKE HINDMARSIL or a horse before." I Again we read: "About three morasses Mr. Frotector Robinson, in 1845, first to the north-east of the River Latrbbe, we came in contact with these strange black- saw some hundreds of the natives, who, on fellows, whom he thus describes:—"The our approach, burned their camp and betook aborigines were at the lake, and a frail themselves to the scrub; we, however, canoe, for the purpose I presume of floating managed to overtake an old man that could over the soft, and, in some places, deep mud, not walk fast; to him I gave a knife and a was on shore. pair of trowsers, and endeavoured by all " The natives as we approached fled and means in my power to open a communication hid themselves among the reeds or behind with the blacks through him, but they would the trees. My native interpreter told them not come near us. It was amusing to see who I was, when they timidly came forth, the old man after shaking hands with all the and trembling stood before us. They wero party, walking up to the horses and shaking informed that white men would occupy their each of them by the bridle, thinking the country and treat them kindly. They ap­ same form necessary to be gone through with peared greatly alarmed at the horses, and them as with us. The only ornaments he (except a young female adorned with emu had about him were human hands, either feathers) were naked. I understood we were men's or women's, beautifully preserved, sus­ the first whites they had personal communi­ pended from his neck." cation with. Their dietary consisted of frogs, " On my way back from the station, I was shrimps, grubs and roots ; the latter, cooked informed that my party had been driven out | on heated stones and hot ashes. A fruit of the New Country by the wild blacks, with an orbicular rough stone was observed. which I found to be true. Mr. McAlister A large and well constructed native habita­ whom I had left in charge of the party had tion, shaped in the form of a span roof, a very narrow escape, six of the blacks at­ thatched with reeds, pleasantly situated on tacked him at once and deprived him of his the verge of a pond, was quite unique and gun. They were obliged to give way to the highly creditable to the skill and industry of blacks, who pursued them for twenty-five the native artizans. On the Murray they miles." The sequel of the story is, that, exhume their dead. A tumulus on elevated accompanied by six others, he had a despe­ ground, encircled by a neat parterre, bad rate skirmish with the natives in November, been recently formed, indicated by the em­ 1840. Poor McAlister was killed in a con­ bers of the watch fires and the green bough* flict in 1841. Even after the settlement II on the top of tho mound." 30 BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAN;

DESCRIPTION OF THE BLACKS.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE. chivalrous Surveyor-General of New South Wales, Sir T. L. Mitchell. In one place he Most absurd and ludicrous caricatures have tells us,'' If a naturalist looks a savage in been given by voyagers and travellers in the mouth, he finds ivory teeth, a clean their passing glances. Mr. Pritchard, the tongue, and sweet breath; but in the mouth of greatest authority upon ethnology, thus a white specimen of similar or, indeed, of refers to them : " The lean and half-starved less age, it is ten to one he would discover forms of the Australians, arid the dispro­ only impurity and decay." He thus de­ portionate size of their limbs and head, are scribes a wild, black:—"He was a very strongly exemplified by the plate represent­ perfect specimen of the genus homo, and such ing the two Australian figures, which is as never to be seen, except in the precincts taken from the magnificent atlas of M. of savage life. His motions in walking were d'Urville." The historian of the United more graceful than can be imagined by any States Exploring Expedition properly remarks who have only seen those of the draped and on this : " Natives in a state of starvation shod animal. The deeply set yet flexible may have borne some resemblance to the spine; the taper form of the limbs; the delineations given in most publications." fulness, yet perfect elasticity of the glutei Although in our travels through the bush muscles*; the hollowness of the back, and we have met with large numbers, and can symmetrioal balance of the upper part of the bear testimony to the falsehood of such a torso, ornamented, as it was, like a piece of charge of baboonish ugliness, we will place fine carving, with raised scarifications most before the reader the language of two of the tastefully placed ; such were some of the greatest Australian explorers, Dr. Leichhardt characteristics of this perfect piece of work." and Sir Thomas L. Mitchell. The first says: And yet we have Captain Grant writing thus " They are a fine race of men. Their bodies in 1802 : " As there is thought to be a chain individually, as well as the groups which in creation, beginning,with the brute and they formed, would have delighted the eye ending in man, I should be at a loss where of an artist. Is it fancy? But I am far to place my bush native, whether as the more pleased in seeing the naked body of next link above the monkey, or below it." the blackfellow than that of the white man. Mr. Ludwig Becker, a martyr to Aus­ When I was in Paris I was often in the tralian exploration, when examined before public baths, and how few well-made men the Victorian Committee\>f Council respecting did I see." Mr. Gellibrand, when visiting the physical condition of the aborigines, the then wild natives of Port Phillip, was gave some valuable scientific information. struck with the same thing. " They are a In an account of the skull of John, the chief fine race of men," he says ; " many of them of the Adelaide tribe, he has the following handsome in their persons, and all well observations: " The bones very much de­ made. They are strong and athletic." And veloped and of great strength. The peculiar Copt. Hunter made the observation in 1789: character of the Australian race is in this "They are a straight, thin, and well-made specimen, well represented. Parietal diame­ people." Dr. Leichhardt, when visiting ter, 5£ inches ; occipit-frontal diameter, 74 ; another part, thus notes his views: "The width of forehead between the temples, 3|. proportions of the body in the women and The zygoma, though very strong, is less pro­ the men are as perfect as those of the jecting and less curved than in the Mongolian Caucasian race, and the artist would find an race. The upper jaw slants so much for­ inexhaustible source of observation and study wards that the facial angle is lowered to among the black tribes." It was the same eighty-five degrees. In the same proportion impulse as led Count Strzelecki to write : the chin falls backwards. In consequence of "When the native is beheld in the posture the obliquity of the jaw, the front teeth are of striking or throwing his spear, his attitude also in an oblique direction, so much so, that leaves nothing to be desired in the point of after some time, by chewing and gnawing, manly grace." the teeth are worn away in such a manner But the most enthusiastic admirer the as to resemble molar teeth, for which indeed aborigines had was the late lamented ana they are often mistaken. The form of the AND THE BLACKS OF VICTOBIA. 31 upper half of the craniam, when viewed freedom in the wilds, without the tyranny of from behind or in front, has a pyramidal irresponsible chieftainship, and the thraldom shape, which I foand to be the case with all of a legal code. the native skulls I had under examination. We cannot close the notice of their physical This appears to me to be a typical charac­ aspeot without allusion to the rite of circum­ teristic of the Australian race." cision among them. This is found only, as The following is his description of a native far as at present known, on the northern from Port Fairy, Victoria: "The likeness side of the continent and in South Australia; was taken by me from life, in 1854. His age at North-west Cape and the Gulf of Carpen­ was eighteen years ; height, five feet two taria in the North; at Port Lincoln and the inches ; complexion, light chocolate brown; Great Bight to the South, though not extend­ flat nose ; jaws, very much projecting ; ing to King George's Sound. Some say that month, lagge ; lips, sharp, edged with a the great lizard, Yura, now in Wodli Purri, reddish hue; teeth, complete and pare white; or the Milky Way, first introduced the prac­ chin, small and receding ; well shaped eyes, tice. It is remarkable that this rite, exist­ the iris nearly black, the white of the eye ing once among the ancient Egyptians and has a light yellowish tint; eyelashes, long Ethiopians, and identified with the Jewish, and black; head, well formed ; forehead, Mahometan, and other forms of faith, should rising nearly perpendicular from horizontal; be retained among a people so isolated as these. black and bushy eyebrows ; hair, jet black The time of the performance of the cere­ and full. His voice is a finemanl y baritone." mony differs somewhat among the tribes ; Air. Pardoe, an intelligent Melbourne dentist, but as one of the modes of initiation to man-, thus refers to their teeth : " Large crowns, kind, it is seldom delayed beyond the thir­ thickly covered by enamel, more so than teenth or fourteenth year. Among the Europeans ; the fangs not so deeply seated f" Bechuanas and the Kaffirs south of the Zam­ in alreolar, nor does the epiphyses of max­ besi, Dr. Livingstone saw the second part of illary bone cone so high as in Europe. the initiation performed upon boys of four­ The gums are much thicker and make teen, when the victims were severely struck up this loss."* He found them vain, of with rods, scarring their backs for life ; but their teeth, which they cleaned with a reed. the real ceremony takes place at the age of Their eyes are large, brilliant, vivacious, eight. At Port Lincoln, South Australia, the and expressive. Their noses are broad, their incision extends towards the navel. The teeth are powerful and white, their mouths observance is conducted with great secrecy in arsjwide, and their hair is dark, glossy, and the forest, and in the absence of females. curly. Many men have beards of long and The boy is first beaten with green boughs, shining curls that woifid excite the envy of a and then sprinkled with blood from the arm Pasha. When an aboriginal young man is of a warrior. Laid upon the ground, and adorned for a corrobory, with his hair parted, covered with dust, he is raised from his dry greased, and curled; his sinewy and finely baptism by the ears, amidst great rejoicing. chiselled limbs untrammelled with dress; Some men lie down upon the grass for an his noble bast artistically decorated with altar, upon which the act is performed by ochre by a favourite lady ; and his joyous the doctor of the tribe, and a secret name face beaming with exuberant good humour, — given. There is a remarkable coincidence • he presents a far more pleasing object to the between these ceremonies and the religious lover of natural grace than the bejewelled, rites of the ancient Egyptians. scented, smirking fop of civilisation. The skin is not quite black, but of a very dark i copper cast. The use of grease, charcoal, and INTELLIGENCE. ochre, however beneficial in resisting the rays of the sun, obscures their colour. I Much misapprehension exists as to the Cicatrices, or raised scars across their chests, mental position of the aborigines. Mr. supply as ornament the tatoo of the ancient I Westgarth truly says : '' The untutored English or modern New Zealander. Their I savage shines with a lustre of his own, which habits may appear disgusting sometimes from appears so much superior, as in others it our ignorance of their object. Their sense is manifestly inferior in comparison with of decency is observed according to the civilised man." The skill they exhibit in Mosaic ritual, Deut. xxiii. 12, 13. The hunting and tracking their way through the majestic step of our savage, his erect posture, forest, excites the astonishment of the white the ease with which he comports himself in men. The development of their perceptive the presence of our colonial grandees, his faculties corresponds with their extraordinary independence, nay, his haughtiness of power of sight and touch, with mechanical demeanour, with that serene, confident, and ingenuity and dexterity. Though not stu­ cold glance of the eye, all indicate a life of | dents of Euclid, Locke, or Herschel, they 3 BUCKLEY, THE 1 ILD WHITE MAN; exhibit in their own way a practical sense of I endeavouring to give native lads some con­ reasoning and propriety of judgment, as led ception of number. Sir Thomas Mitchell to exclaim, " They a\e They are naturally indolent, and care not as apt and intelligent as any other race of to exert themselves for anything in which men I am acquainted with." We may at they are not interested, and in which tbey least believe, with Mr. Guardian Thomas, perceive no possibility of personal advantage. that " Providence has endowed them with With oral lessons we have found them quite sufficient intelligence for their present state;" delighted, especially if a little fun be thrown or with the learned Archbishop Folding, of into the exercise. We have been, on several New South Wales, when he told the Legis­ occasions, interrupted in our lecture by loud lature, "I have no reason to think them bursts of merriment, accompanied by spas­ much lower than ourselves in many respects." modic action of legs and arms, when some­ Mr. Ridley, the missionary, says: 4*In fore­ thing had been said which excited^their love thought and what phrenologists call 'con- for the comical. In geography they take centrativeness,' they are very deficient; in much pleasure. An aboriginal boy, in the mental acumen, and in quickness of sight Normal School of Sydney, carried off the prize and hearing, they surpass most white for geography from all his white compeers. people" Mr. Thomas speaks highly of their capacity It is unfair to gauge their intelligence by for language, and says :—"They pronounce the aptness for civilised life. Because their English far better than half the Scotch or traditions, habits, inclinations, and necessi­ Irish emigrants." Barrington's hopes of them ties do not dispose them to accept of the so- seventy years ago have not yet been realised. called blessings of civilisation, they have Then he remarked :—"We have a right to been styled brutish, human monkeys, and presume that, when equally enlightened, they irreclaimable savages. It is a striking fact ' may become equally possessed of those re­ that the wild native often evidences a higher fined qualifications which at present render grade of intellect than is to be found among Europeans their superiors." the dissipated associates of the Europeans. Mr. Burke, whom we had the. pleasure of knowing at Mount Shad well, bears this testi­ CHARACTER. # mony before the Committee of Council upon the aborigines, in 1858 : "I believe," says Respecting the character of our dark he, " the intelligence of the race has been friends, opinions differ as about their in­ much misunderstood. The introduction of tellect. The disciples of Rousseau behgld civilisation has not tended to develope their them faultless, and spoke of them as gentle, character advantageously ; but, on the con­ virtuous children of nature. On the other trary, they have suffered a moral and physical hand, some apply to them the foulest epithets. degradation, which has reacted upon their The English author of a work upon the colo­ intellectual powers. Had we been able to nies, published in 1852, writes this disgrace­ reclaim them from barbarism without sub­ ful passage :—*' They have every )>ad quality jecting them to the temptation of evils which which humanity should not possess, and have enslaved them, we should have found many of which their congener, the baboon, them an Intelligent race." would be ashamed." It is satisfactory, at Where the youths have been placed at school least, to findtha t those who knew them best along with those of our own race, they have in their wild state, uncontaminated by con­ not been slow in the acquisition of knowledge. tact with the whites, cherish a higher Having had, at various times, some of the estimate of their worth. The most chival­ young people at our table, we can bear wit- rous advocate for the poor Australian might witness to the shrewdness of their observations, safely leave their defence in the hands of and their pleasure in receiving information. such men as Sturt, Mitchell, Leichhardt, and Having repeatedly addressed them when Grey. It was a noble testimony which the assembled in school, we have not remarked last named explorer bore to his old bush- a laxity of attention, a torpidity of mind, or companions:—"In their intercourse with a want of sympathy with the subject of each other I have generally found the natives address. Mr. Protector Parker went perhaps speak the truth, and act with honesty." too far in saying, ''They are just as capable Could as much be said for all civilised com­ of receiving instruction, just as capable munities ? of. mental exercises as any more favoured In calling them savages, we must not race.". It is certain that they learn to read associate the idea of rudeness with their and write with facility, but they never accom­ character. All travellers agree in describing plish much in arithmetic. As engaged for them as having such a natural sense of many years in tuition, we must admit that politeness, as greatly distinguishes them, we never had our patience so tried as when according to Sir Thomas Mitchell, above the AND THE BLACKS OF VICTOBTA. 33 peasant class of Britain. They often ex­ ] We were much pleased with a family hibit great delicacy of feeling and sense of scene which we witnessed in the colony some propriety. We were once passing some seven years ago. Having ridden a consider­ native huts, when a lot of rude boys came able distance in the bush, without a track, up, looked impertinently within, and made guided by the sun towards our destination, use of very unpleasant expressions. Instead we were not sorry to come at last upon a of a rough repulse, which the young rascals couple of wirlies, as we wished for more "well deserved, this was the reproof adminis­ certain knowledge of our whereabouts. Two tered : "What for you do the like o1 that! or three fine-looking young fellows were No do that. When blackfellow sit down lounging on the grass. A lubra within tras -with whitefellow, him say, • Be off, be off ;' stitching a garment for a rosy-cheeked half- . blackfellow no do the like 0' that." ' caste, who lay snugly asleep in the warmest Their good temper, according to Mr. Eyre, corner. An old man, who bore upon his the courageous overland er, is a remarkable ample chest a brass plate, with the inscrip­ feature. Certainly their merriment in the tion of " Coc Coc Coine, king of the Warrions," everting is one continual carnival. Their sat beside the smouldering native fire. Be- camp is a thorough home of buffoonery and i fore him, as if about to take farewell of him, laughter. Without the conventional decorum was a really handsome young man, with a* and restraint of our civilised society, without most ingenuous countenance, clad in good our jealousies and punctilious observances, European clothing, and with a dashing pair they gambol with the freedom of roystering of patent leather boots on. He held by the children. Without bills to meet, or position bridle a spirited-looking horse. to sustain, we cannot be surprised to learn That which first struck our attention was that suicide is unknown among them. So­ the smile of gratified affection upon the ciety does not tolerate the " happy despatch" face of the white bearded patriarch, as he of the Chinese, the knot of the English, or listened to the words of the Anglicised the charcoal fumes of Parisians. aborigine before him. With the compli­ The affections of our common nature are in ments of the day to the old man, we turned lively exercise among them. They will always our conversation to the young one. It was generously divide with each other anything not long before we got the family narrative. given them by Europeans. The social rela­ Coc Coc Coine, (junior, had come on a tions are strictly observed. Respect to age visit to his father, mother, sister, and is rigidly enforced. The condition of the old brothers. Able to speak tolerable English, men of a tribe is honourable, gratifying and he informed us, as we rode along afterwards flattering; for their counsels are treated with I together, that the day before, he had come attention, they marry the young wives, and fifty miles, with three, days' leave of absence they may eat what they please. I from his master. No son could more highly Unbounded is the indulgence given to the I extol the virtues of his parent. The old little ones. Even the poor lubras, in spite I man was evidently an object of profound of an occasional hasty waddying, lead no very reverence as well as affection. The pane­ miserable life, if one may judge by their gyric was wound up with the exclamation— incessant fun and chatting. The family bonds " He good old man ; he never drink—no are cherished with much affection. A man rum, no beer, no brandy." Delighted as we was seen tending his sick wife with great were with this exhibition of filial attach­ solicitude. He lifted her into his lap, and ment, we were even more gratified to observe soothing her against his shoulder as a mother derecognition of his temperance as an addi­ would a child. A Murray black was re­ tional reason for esteem. marked rubbing up an old pannikin which I Yet there is a darker shade to the native had belonged to his deceased wile. Being I character. The sons of a fallen race, they - asked what he intended to do with it, he are our brethren in natural depravity. mentioned his intention to carry it to her The eye that beams with such tenderness at brother at Moor unci ie, on the river, adding, one time will kindle with the fiercest rage •' Then him plenty cry." We have repeat­ at another. Though not, according to edly witnessed kind attentions among them, I Governor Grey, a blood-thirsty race,—never, and the distress of a family when a death even in their wars, carrying national hatred occurred. After the burial of his wife, an to the extent, as among civilised people, of old man was observed sitting by the camp slaughtering helpless women and children,— fire in a state of abstraction of grief. Pre­ I they are sometimes vindictively treacherous. sently a married daughter arrived from a Their transitions of feeling are rapid : now distance. The bereaved husband rose up, tranquil and soft as an Australian eve, and fell upon her neck, and shed a MTent of again violent and destructive as the stormy tears, amidst the heartily expressed sympathy typhoon. But tfcere is one good feature in of the tribe. I their anger, that it is seldom lasting. No 34 BUCKLEY, THE WI ,D WHITE MAN; fight takes place without a joyous corrobbory strings of pieces of small reed around their of the combatants at its close, and a profuse necks. The Gheysiquas make necklaces of demonstration of sympathy for the wounded sheep's trotters. The women are deemed foe. sufficiently beautiful without such silly ap­ But the existence of the crime of infanti­ pendages ; they have no auxiliaries to their cide among them, though plenty of apologies native charms. The men even appropriate are pleaded for its continuance, is a dark to themselves alone the curl and ochre band; blot upon their character. Other evils, as though both sexes have cicatrices of raised swearing and intemperance, are to be attri­ scars. The MosaicaJ injunction, " Nor print bute! to their connection with civilised life. any mark upon you," may thus apply to our Under the influence of drink, their worst natives. The Tattoo proper belongs to the passions, as with the whites, are called forth New Zealanders. into malignant action. To this paralysing Upon this subject Barrington observed, curse of society, above all others, may be in 1802:—"This custom has been found traced, not only the decline of numbers among most of the uncivilised nations in­ among the native race, but the rapicl deteri­ habiting warm countries, and probably owes oration of their character. As Jong as drink I its origin to a total want of mental resources can be obtained, the philanthropist despairs and of the employment of time." These of seeing any amelioration of their moral tattoo scars are called Manka in South. condition. Australia. Those upon females are slighter than upon men; some of the latter have fantastical resemblances to stars and other CLOTHING AND ORNAMENTS. objects. The cut is first made with a flint or bone, water is spirted into the wound, Generally speaking the Australian abori­ which is kept open for some days, so as to gines prefer the absence of dress. Tacitus form the required ridges of flesh. The refers to the German tribes spending whole Japanese men tattoo extensively, but the day8 before the fire altogether naked. An women are free from its practice. old writer says of the Macarongas, "They The cartilage of the nose is often bored go naked, men and women, without shame." to receive sticks, grass, &c.; though the ear* So do the Doko of South Abyssinia, and the are not stretched as with the Ulietea Islanders. Shilukh of the Upper Kile. The ancient The nasal hole is kept distended with a bone. Caledonians of Scotland are described by the Thin round stems of withered grass are in­ Romans thus : " They live in tents, without serted, fresh ones being brought until the shoes, and naked." Governor Hunter thus right size is obtained. Much suffering is mentions his glance at the natives of Jervis endured in the process,—as the Chinese Bay, New South Wales, in 1789: "They with feet, and Europeans with waists. A were all perfectly naked, except one young small bone from the leg of a kangaroo supplies fellow, who had a bunch of grass fastened the place of the grass when the wound is round his waist, which came up behind like healed. In early days the women painted the tail of a kangaroo.'1 The Adamites of their noses red and their breasts red and Holland considered clothing a sign of an un­ white alternately. The teeth are let alone, converted nature ; therefore they worshipped except on the Sydney side, when two front in a naked state. An attempt to exhibit ones were knocked out in the work of man- their principles in public brought annoyance making ; but they do not, like the Malays, • to their persons and extinguished their sect. and the Makuas of East Africa, file their In cold weather, the opossum or kangaroo teeth;-nor, like the ladies of the Zambesi, skin rug, neatly sewed with sinews or a kind knock out the front teeth of the upper jaw, of grass, is thrown around their persons. so as not to resemble zebras. The lips are The substitution of this by the lazy blanket undisturbed; they do not, like some South is no improvement. On the sea coast, gar­ American Indians, make a hole in the lower ments have been worked out of rushes and one to receive a block of wood; nor, like the seaweed. Maraviof South America, pierce the" upper Their ornaments are simple, and not so lip and insert a shell, so as to resemble the regarded as among other people. There Australian Platypus. is rather an indifference than otherwise The head is sometimes adorned with to indulgence in finery; though it may bunches of emu feathers. Men occasionally arise from public opinion, and the fear of wear coverlets of feathers or tassels of ridicule. The feathers of the swan, emu, opossum yarn. This is made by twisting a cockatoo, &c., adorn them on grand occa­ cross-shaped spindle on the thigh of the sions ; when the hair is sometimes studded female,4*hile the shaft is turned by the with the teeth of kangaroos and claws of hands. Women, upon some special seasons, birds, as among the American Indians, with dance before the men, rubbed all over with AND THE BLA 3 OF VICTORIA. & * emu fat and ochre, with only an apron of too much plenty v.flea." Sometimes, the emu feathers. The hair receives great atten­ wirlie, gunya, or mia mia is'f ramed of reeds tion from the males, who will, in some parts, or sticks, and covered with boughs, bark, tie it up into form with fur or string, though grass, rags, or old clothes; it is occasionally not so ridiculously as the Batoka, who thrust made to turn round, so as to suit the change up a cone of hair a yard in height; nor, like of wind. Where food is plentiful, as at Indians, stiffen it with paint and grease into Cooper's Greek, &c., the huts are better a sort of cock'8-comb. Though the women built. Mr. Protector Robinson, on his first shave their heads in grief, the men never visit to the wild tribes of Lake Hind marsh, part with their hair. They scent it with no found some of this* character, which he thus odoriferous wood-powder, as the Namaquas, describes:. "Large and well constructed nor defile it with the liquor used by Green­ habitations shaped in the form of a span land wives, hut content themselves with emu roof, thatched with reeds, pleasantly situated fat. on the verge of a pond, was quite unique, Captain Hunter, afterwards Governor of and highly creditable to the skill and indus­ New South Wales, thus records a visit to a try of the native artisans." When near black encampment, about 1790, exhibiting Mount Napier he came upon thirteen largo the love of finery in Fort Jackson seventy huts of wood covered with turf. Trenches 500 years ago:—"They were all Adams and yards long led to extensive intercourses. Eves," he tells us, "without even a fig-leaf, " The whole," says he, " covered an area of but without their dignity. Uhe young women about ten acres, and must have been done at were employed with all their art in painting great cost of labour to the aborigines." the young men, who were chiefly ornamented with white, done with pipeclay, and in dif­ ferent forms, according to the taste of the FOOD AND COOKING. young man himself, or that of the lady who adorned him. No fop preparing for an There was no want of adequate nutrition assembly was ever more desirous of making for our natives before the advent of the his person irresistibly beautiful. This paint whites; and even now, especially with their could not be employed without a little diminished numbers, there is enough and to moisture, and the lady in drawing these spare. In some districts certain descriptions marks upon the face, which were so essential of food are now scarce, and the invasion of a part of the decoration, I have seen fre­ the hunting grounds of another tribe is a quently to spft in the face of her friend cause of strife. The animal world, roots, whom she was adorning, in order to make seeds, and fruits, are indifferently taken. the white clay mark the stronger." But they had certain strict regulations about these. Thus, children might eat anything before they are ten years of age. Then, HOMES. boys might not eat the kangaroo, nor the female and young of any kind. Young Their dwellings are not substantial. Con­ females were not to partake of the crane, tinually roving about in search for food, they bandicoot, male wallaby, emu, and native cannot trouble about such erections ; and, companion. Young men were prohibited generally, in so fine a climate as this, they black ducks, cranes, emus, eagles, snakes, have little requirement for them. A very wallabies and the young from the pouch; early writer on New Holland humorously the seniors tell them that if they do eat of tells us that " their ignorance of building is these, sores will break out all over their amply compensated by the kindness of nature, bodies. Married men till forty years old in the remarkable softness of the rocks," must not taste the emu, crane, eagle, and so that they can easily construct caves. A native companion. The adult female could few sticks and boughs ;—some branches not eat of the male opossum, wallaby, emu, against a fallen tree ;—or the breakwind of red kangaroo, and snakes. No females were an opossum rug, are about all they desire. to eat of fish caught under the cliffs to which Tacitus says the Finns slept on the ground. they retired to spawn. Women in a certain The Hare Indians live without shelter. Sir state had to consume more vegetables. The T. Mitchell speaks of bower huts under trees old folks ate what they liked. These rules and flowers, in North Australia, whose ap­ have lapsed since the aborigines' decline and pearance did great credit to the builders,— change of habits. the Gins. The Pinos of California have a They were not wanting in dainties, besides dome-shaped hut of wickerwork, with an ducks and geese. There were delicious arbour front. When once questioning the sausages of fat, placed in the entrails of the blacks about their frequent change of abode, pelican, which were passed round the circle one answered, "No good stop long there— for individual sucking. The loap,,or manna, 3£ BUCKLEY, THE ^WIL D WHITE MAN; eawes quite a festival in its season. The The native cook was pronounced by Mitchell favourite Myrnong root, of a radish character, and others to be no despicable artiste. Inno­ has been much destroyed by our sheep. The cent of lucifers and the veteran sulphur word Myrnong means hand, from the resem­ matches, the aborigine procured fire from blance of the tuberous bunch to the fingers friction of two pieces of wood, called by some ef the hand. It is cooked, like other roots, " Thaal Kalk," or sounding sticks. We were in the ashes, or on heated stones. The roast­ confidently informed that the proper material ing of some poisonous seeds and roots makes came from the mountains, "All the same them wholesome. The karko stick with a apple tree." One piece was three or four feet hook fishesu p the luscious grubs from their long, and the other much shorter. In the wooden caverns. The grub has a nutty first, about the middle, a hole was made, and flavour. Leichhardt, the traveller, says— partiafly filled with dry bark reduced to a *' It tastes very well, particularly in chewing fine powder. Fixing one end of the larger the skin, which contains much fat." We stick against a tree for support, and holding have known Anglo-Australian boys very fond the other end in his hand, the native rapidly of picking out grubs from old fallen timber. moved the other pointed stick among the bark We eat oysters, but refuse grubs. A whale particles in the hole until smoke appeared. The east upon the shore is a thorough Lord Marquesan islander has a somewhat similar Mayor's feast. Neighbouring tribes would method ; but be mounts astride one stick, make friendly overtures, and there would be while he rubs the other up and down the rirst nothing but cut and come again. Capt. until a groove he made. He quickens his Lyons tells us that he gave an Esquimaux motion, until fireissue s from the dusty parti­ 40 lbs. of seal's flesh for a day's feed; we cles which the friction creates at the end of do not think that an Australian's appetite is the groove. quite so voracious, but he made the whale's The lazy mode of cookery is by pitching visit the occasion of a gorge, and carried off the meat on the live embers. But they cook masses of the half-putrid flesh as a present splendidly by steam. The meat or fish is to his inland acquaintances. Mr. Liddy, laid at the bottom of a hole upon a heated who had the first garden on Melbourne stone, and covered with clean grass. A stick Eastern Hill, found the sable strangers fond stands upright upon this, while the earth is ef the cabbage, but without a relish for the thrown into the hole. Then, extracting the potato. stick, water is poured down upon the stone, Wild honey hunting is a favourite pursuit. and the steam raised is kept within. The The bee is much smaller than the domestio meat is sometimes laid in hollow bark to one. The native sees the little creature when save the gravy, in the same way as the North •very high in the air, and skilfully follows it Australians bake their turtles in the shell. to its rocky or branohlet home. The lubra, A capital dish is prepared by putting the tomahawk in hand, ascends the cliff or tree, fish upon wet grass resting on the hot ashes, notching her way to the nest, with reed in alternate layers, to the top of the hole. basket or calabash for the honey. The flowers Eggs are cooked in ashes. Ants' eggs are ef some shrubs, which have a sweet taste, roasted on bark slips. Though it is usaal are eaten. The ends of grass-tree roots; the to oast the opossum or kangaroo whole upon tops of palms; with berries of many varieties, the fire, the intestines are always extracted constitute articles of diet. A large kind of when warmed through; these were then moth, Booyong, is caught upon the rooks of washed, dressed separately, and reserved as Gipps Land, and smoked. But kangaroos the ohoioe morsel for a friend, or the indi­ and opossums form the staple food of the vidual oapturer of the game. Australians. Vegetables are but little used in any state. Meat is largely eaten also by Europeans in this* country ; for, though the RIOTING. climate is hot, the air is dry and salubrious, like the fine plateau land of Southern Cen­ Without monetary cares, without the neces­ tral ^frica; of which Livingstone writes :— sity of heavy toil for the .maintenance of his " A considerable portion of auimal diet seems family, the Australian native has a comfort­ requisite here ; no bad effects, in the way of able Ufe, His lubra gathers roots, and when biliousness, followed the free use of flesh, as it suits him, rather for pastime than necessity, in other hot climates. A vegetable diet he takes his spear, boomerang, or waddy, and causes acidity and heartburn," The Aus« soon vet urn a with a bountiful supply. Fancy­ tralians drank only water, "Till," as Mr, ing an opossum, he outs notches in the bark Thomas says, "the white man introduced for hia toes with a stone hatchet, quickly cursed rum, which has caused double the asoemls the lofty tree, examines a hole or two number to die by the visitation of the devil in deiHyliitf lliuU, twlata out a fellow by the to those whp die by the visitation of God." tail, ami IIUIIN him dowu to the dogs belowr. AND THE BLACKS OP VICTORIA. 3* Both the emu and wild turkeg are very shy, SONGS AND DANCES. . and difficult of approach. Our dark brothers, therefore, have stealthily to approach them When approaching a native camp in the under cover of a large green bush. One Yarra evening, the traveller's ear is saluted with blackfellow gave us a capital description of the monotonous tune of some forest ditty, catching the turkey :—Armed with a long now soft and slow, and then rapid and rod, haying a noose at the end, and a little vehement Without -the squall and frightful bird fastened to the top, the hunter in the time of a London ballad singer, it wants moving bush nears the victim. The silly variety of cadence and intelligibility of fowl walks up to the struggling captive, and language to suit our taste. Yet the sound is pecks at him. The adroit savage watches not without musical power. Simple as the. his opportunity, and judiciously turns his notes are, they have an influence upon an rod to entrap and strangle his prize. The excitable people, soothing their passions,. turkey is quietly removed, and the bait is arousing their vengeance, or enkindling successful with a mate. The pretty lyre their desire. The self-congratulations of the bird is more awake, *nd must be waddied tuneful circle are not foreign to the self- down. Boys practise throwing at birds with satisfied nod of the village chorister, after a wooden instrument three feet long,- termin­ the execution- of Handel or the doing of ating in an elongated egg shaped knob, which Bishop. If not attracted by their harmony* has been charred to harden it. The young we are not repelled by their discord. Their urchins are expert in snoozing the wide measure is admirably maintained. The awake Wood pigeon. knocking of two sticks performs the office of • The net is an important feature in hunt­ Hullah's clap, and Jullien's baton. The ings some* nets being one hundred yards crescendo and diminuendo, the andante and long. Those to entrap kangaroos on their allegro, aire indicated and followed with way home along their tracks are made out of accuracy and taste. Ignorance of their the bullrush root. Other nets are of bark or speech prevents the due appreciation of their of the Wongul root. The fibres are separated lyrics. Dr. Lang, in his learned ethnological by mastication. The netting needle is like a work upon the South Sea islanders, gives the lead pencil, and round it the string is wound. following story. "A Scotch clergyman," says No mesh is used. The string of fibres rubbed he, " who was settled some time ago in the on the lubra's thigh becomes a material as interior of the colony, and* who has studied ' neat as whipcord. The Goulburn blacks the language of the aborigines, has assured have fishing nets of a sort of grass. The me that a black native has on one occasion Yarra tribe fishwit h the spear. The Murray repeated to him a poem, descriptive of a war­ men seek their finny friends at night, when like expedition against some hostile tribe, a whole fleet may be seen, with a fire of extending to not fewer than fifteen stanzas, fragrant wood in the prow of their boats. and evincing poetical feeling to a consider­ The canoe is of bark, softened by fire and able degree." The blacks are fond of intro­ moulded to the shape, which is afterwards ducing some fun about Europeans present at maintained until hardened by props to keep their games in an improvisation. When a the sides apart. Such a vessel will not pre­ native was first shown a musical box, the serve, its equilibrium without difficulty ; but buzzing sound made him cry out, " Mosquito every native is nearly amphibious. The sit down here, I bleve." Murray blacks have ingenious modes of Some writers, as Governor Grey, Mr. catching the waterfowl. We have seen Howitt and others, have given us transla­ them prowling among the reeds. A long tions, or embodied poetic sentiments of the stick with a noose projects through their natives in a pleasing manner. We will only ambush, and hangs over the water a tempting venture to give two of these of local interest. object. Sometimes they keep under water One by Mr. Richard Howitt, composed ie breathing through a reed, and draw down 1840, entitled "Tullamarine," giving name the ducks floating above. Or, they will to a district of the countiLof Bourke. The float down the stream with their heads other is taken from Mr. JRlen's South Aus­ enveloped in a thick bush of leaves, until tralian Magazine for 1842, and refers to a they fall in with a quacking party. Occa­ tradition of an overflow of the Murray Biver. sionally they dive down with a light spear, TULLAMARINE. feel in the holes for a fish, and fix him. The hunting grounds of a tribe are known by well Tullamarine, thou lovely flower, marked physical features in a country. In­ I saw thee in a happy hour; When first J gazed upon my boy, cantations are often resorted to when a grand I saw thee with a mother's joy. chase is to take place. Methought thy beauty on me smiled; And by thy name I called my child:

• ^g BUCKLES^ USB

And {hence alike wish joy wore seen, I XAJUkUNiLIK. Both boy and flower, Tnllnmarme. | 'Where is the light and the father of days, Whither t»— blank night his burning zaoe The lights in heaven appear, and go: \ driven? Both stare and flowers their imanmir know: t Was it quenched in the ocean, that dramk up Thus, in tby season, thou art seen, his rays. Sweet earthly star, TuDamazine. ! Or again will he sffde through the regions of fioother of many a wearv hour, i heaven? By mountain stream, in faimit bower: | CHERABOC. I gathered thee with choicest care, | And wore thee fondly in my hair. , far off, on Pamka's* distant side, Where the lake mingles with the sky, Wide wandering through the woods away, And farthest bills the banks divide, "Where with thy bloom the ground was gay, ^ Where Murray flows niajesticTy: I called thee then the " flower of joy," Mark thou the brighter shades that spread, Sweet namesake of my darling boy. | And break the blending mists in twain,— Chase the dull clouds £om Parnka's bed, He grew, he nourished by my aide, And lift morn's eyelid up againi fie ran, he gathered thee with pride ; | But, woe is me \ in evil hour I Tis the sunshine, Death stole away my human flower, j His gleam is there: Night doth resign I wonder in my sorrow's night, The realms of air! My star is emptied of its light; > Thou, flower of joy, art changed to grief, POSDZBTE. Tby dews, my tears are on tby leaf. The swan doth rise on heavy wing. Therefore do I behold in Tain, And shrilly pipes hi? morning note,— Thy beauty, look on it with pain; The meroles*r from the she-oak sing, 1 see thee with an inward groan, The ducks from lake-side slowly float: Because I look on thee, alone. i The wary cranes of snowy white Do look around with care. AH things my sorrow seem to share, And pelicans at every height There broods a sadness on the air,— Wing circles in the air; There hangs a glootti along the sky, ! The bittern booms, the blue-bird calls My hoy is dead, and thou shouldst die. His mate, with flaming crest: The dew from every leaflet falls, Kow for the joy which long I had. Whereon a bird did rest. The sight of thee must make me aad; So in my path no more be seen. ALL. But -deck his grave, Tullam&rine. Then let us join the happy throng: Come, rise up black men all. And, with the merry birds of song, Respond to nature's call I THE MUBBAI TRADITION. 2JLKRL&JQE. They believe that many years ago their Ixmg did our fathers wander through vwn tribe, with numerous others, lived in The lofty gum-trees' shade, the interior towards the K.NJL, where there And marked the yearly falling strew The BOLL, where it had stayed was abundance of gonvtrees, opossums, and Unmoved for long, long years, fresh water; that the sorcerers of the land Weeping its blood-red tears. of Tooleoon, a neighbouring country, set the hush on fire, the flames of which spread in m An old wife, breathless fled and came all directions, driving the natives before it, ' Upon their paths, pressed by the flame and destroyed many tribes. Coma, the Of the bush fire, which ran, progenitor of the £ urray tribes, was on the And the hot winds did fan point of perishing, with his family, when Close after her, and crackled round, the Murray burst from a deft in the ground Sweeping the forest to the ground, With crash on crash; and fire and smoke and extinguished the flames around them. Followed her steps. And thus she spoke: It flowed on, till it came to the sea, and has ever since formed a barrier to the fire extend­ " Up, Corns, X up, and fly with me, ing across the continent, as it did once in Thy children, and thy wife; aneient times. Whether this story has any If, haply, we may reach the sea, foundation in the facts of former ages, it And save our perilled life. would be vain to attempt to determine, but * Lake Tietaria. it is evidently based on natural causes now in + Native mxsriiits. existence, and in extensive operation. X Coma siguiiies black man.

t • AND THE BLAOKB 09 VlOTOftt*. ' From Toolcoon's distant land I come, Thine and thv children's home, where'er Where fiery spirits dwell, Its seaward current laves. Who have destroyed my tribe, my home,— "There make thy paths, and every child And seek our race to quell. Will follow in thy track, ' Though many tribes of men I've passed But shun the inland scrubby wild That scorn my hurried word, That teems with shadows black. Yet, as the flames did follow fast, " The fish, that sport with shining scale, Their dying shrieks I heard. And all the beasts that drink! * Thine, Coma,'is the only race And birds, that gaily fly and sail The angry fiendsca n spare, About the reedy brink. Then, up, and with thy quickest pace, n " There are enough for thee to eat! By flight, my safety share. So climb not in the tree, Corna left spear and shield, and fled ; That may deceive thy careful feet, Each lubra seized a son, Or bruise thy active knee. The father took two girls and sped, " Give thou unto this stream my name Whither their guide did run. Parnka, OoroondooiFs own; The sea was very far away ; And when a man disputes thy claim, Although they quickly fly, Show him this charmed stone. Paster the flames pursued, and they " His sight will fail, and dark as night, Thought only but to die. His blighted orbs will roll, The old wife, faint and weary grown Until he owns my Coma's right, Fell down a tree beneath, And Parnka's high control." And yielding up a heavy groan, Corna sailed down the rapid stream, She ceased, thenceforth, to breathe. For manv, many miles; Whither shall Corna fly—forweak , At length he saw wide waters gleam, His lubras slowly crawl ? And cliffs that loomed like isles. What place of refuge shall he seek The currentewiftly swept across ; Against that fiery wall ? His bark irpon the lake The smoke, the old wife's form concealed, Did roughly on the billows toss, The fire came swiftlv on, And every fibre shake. The flamesdi d reach the brain, he reeled, Till as he drew the heights between, And Coma's sense was gone. That form the western head, A form rose from the kindled grass, From whence the sandy hills are seen, Where the old wife had died, That rise from ocean's bed. And, through the burning woods did pass, He heard the roar upon the beach, Till Corna she espied. He saw the breakers' haze, She stamped upon the ground, a flood He turned his bark, in haste, to reach Burst from the heated soil, A hill, to mount and gaze. Which, round about the blazing wood, 'Neath Taipangfs crag, the weary man Began to hiss and boil. Brought in his light canoe ; The water rose, the earth did cool, Himself and lubras cramped and wan, The old wife, in her hand Their legs they hardly knew. Took up a little from the pool, Corna sat down beside his fire, And sprinkled on the band. And here, upon this rock, " Corna, my son, arise, and live ! Was the first wurly of our sire. These waters, far and wide, The cradle of our stock. To thee, and to thv sons I give, To dwell, their banks beside. Dancing is associated with social gatherings and religious worship. There have been " Toolcoon shall ne'er pursue, or burn Thee, or any children more, sacred dances among the Egyptians, Greeks, This river back its flames shall turn, Buddhists, Jews, Mahometans, and Chris­ E'er they approach thy shor3. tians. Whatever connection some dances of the Australian natives may have originally *' Here is a tiny, barken boat, had with idolatrous* ceremonies, we are sure Thou, with a spear, mayst guide ; that the spirit of them has long since* Fear no^ but it wrtl safely float, departed. We have our Kangaroo dance, And launch it on, the tide. Emu dance, Prog dance, &c. The ancient " Do thou, the downward stream pursue, Celts held moonlight -corrobories. • Layard Until thou well canst hear witnessed a night dance among the devil The roar of ocean, or thy view worshippers of Assyria. The Dyaks of Of its blue waves be clear. Borneo have a similar practice with our abo­ "That is thy land, this river there rigines. The Indians of America, like these, Will spread abroad its waves: terminated theirdances with a loud' * Wanghl" 40 * BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAN; But a simple sketch of the author's obser­ of the thigh and calf is seen quivering in vations of a Correbory may interest those who an extraordinary manner. This excites deep arrive .in the colony, to behold a scattered, interest in the spectators. Exclamations of deteriorated, spiritless, and decimated people. delight issue from the eager witnesses of the The moon is fnll; and the hills which had performance, at some peculiarly charming glared in the noontide heat, and sympathised and difficult wriggling of limb. After sundry with the declining sun in varying hues of chasseeing, tbe men break their line, rush gold, of purple, and of ashy grey, now sleep together in a mass, without disorder or con­ in the soft and soothing light. " The laughing fusion, leap upward in the air, wave their jackass has caroled his farewell note, when boughs over their head, utter a loud froni the valley there rises a strange, mys­ " Waugh," and, bursting into laughter, join terious sound. We go nearer;—there, amidst in a mel6e of chattering, and receive the that dusky mass, we distinguish the plaintive hearty congratulations of their friends. chant, the tapping of time-sticks, and the Some of the enthusiastic females persist in muffled murmur of opossum-rug drums. grasping our hand, and pointing to the dis­ Various companies are sitting round small tinguished actors, with a roguish, merry leer, fires, which are occasionally bursting into crying out, " Bery good that corrobory; bery blaze as dry boughs or a few leaves are laid good blackfellow ; you gib him tixpence ? " on the embers. Women have folded their Bathed in perspiration, tbe young men rugs and placed them between their thighs, obtain a drink, stretch themselves upon the and now beat them with the open palm of dewy grass, and take a spell. But the their hand. Some are seated cross-legged, ancients have arranged for another dance, of singing a mournful dirge, with their eyes a different movement from the other, and the downward, and with a melancholy aspect. stand-up process is re-enacted. The interest There is no interruption, for the tune sub­ is renewed, and the lady of night floats on dues the loquacity of the loquacious tribe. her silvery way over a great arch of the A livelier air succeeds ; the old men beat heavens, before the corrobory is over, the their sticks quicker, the tum^um is louder, wirlie filled, and the dancer at rest. the eyes brighten, a laugh now and then Occasionally they have a pretty game, interludes, the prattling begins, and with the something like, our hoop. One will take a last sharp, shrill chord rushes in a tumult of tuft of emu feathers in his hand, and go off noisy merriment. to a little distance. Then, holding aloft the But the corrobory is to begin. Certain feathers, he would plunge into the forest, or important-looking old gentlemen are gliding dodge among the women, pursued by a lot of about, consulting and giving directions about young men. Now and then the shaking of the fete. The rJerformers see that the pipe­ the trophy would be seen in the twilight clay lines of beauty upon their bodies are in shade, as the bearer managed to elude proper order, redaubing where necessary. observation, and again came into view. After an amount of fussing, coquetting, Tumultuous mirth followed the successful fidgetting, and confusion, worthy of a more capture. civilised reunion, there is a fall to places. A young fellow is noticed led by two The ladies squat near the fires, clear their others into the camp. The evidence of throats for a song, and give an extra tighten­ intense agony, as from some terrible acci­ ing to their drums. The old men sit or dent, is as strong on the form of the one, as stand in groups. The young men spring that of sympathising solicitude on the fea­ blithely into the centre, accompanied by an tures of the others, while tenderly supporting involuntary Ha ! Ha ! of admiration from their friend. The camp fires are deserted, the throng of ebon beauties. Some little and anxious faces gather round the group ; bantering passages between the sexes are wjien all at once the lame man^eaps up With silenced by the seniors, in growls from their a whirr—r—, his carriers burst into laughter white-haired lords, and spiteful snappings at the success of* the deception, and a long from the shrivelled hags of mammas. Silence and pleasant yabber. is the result. The is called. The ranks are formed. The dances of the women are intended for the moon's beams rest upon the naked perform­ amusement of the other sex, and are not ers. With bunches of gum leaves in their more remarkable for chaste propriety than hands, and others round their Inkles, like the celebrations of some more refined com­ flying Mercuries, the dancing men are ready. munities. They are simply clad in an apron + The band strikes np. Slowly moving their of emu feathers. The flapping of their long bodies from side to side, the young men pendant breasts serves to beat time. The gracefully and tremulously move their hands Seah Posh of India have the sexes dancing to the measure. At a signal, the legs com­ separately. Mr. Hunter saw women dance mence a similar motion, having a most gro- with men at Fort Jackson in 1789. He i tesque and unnatural appearance. The flesh speaks of "a great deal of variety in their AND THE BLACKS OF VIOTOBIA. '41 different dances, in»one of which they paired men naked as for a corrobory, sitting at a themselves, and frequently danced back .to distance in two large circles, with their eyes back." They often dance in doubled and to the ground, silent and motionless. Not a tripled changing lines. * sound was to be heard from the women and One of the finest corrobories was witnessed children ; but from one of the wirlies a low by the Hon. Wm. Hull, on April 22, 1845, moan proceeded. We walked to the spot, when a party of 800 visited Melbourne at and saw a poor creature in dying agonies. the full moon. A huge edifice (if so it may Presently every man left the ground. Think­ be called) of stringy bark branches was con­ ing our presence was not required at such a structed, and divers rude hieroglyphics were season, we retired also. In about half-an- daubed by the old men, who alone penetrated hour the party reassembled, and a fiirious within this Adytum. In the morning nothing corrobory ensued. Doubtless the death- was to be seen. A superior corrobory took struggles had closed,, and the natives sought place in 1839, on the Eastern -Hill, opposite to to dispel their gloom in the excitement of the site of the Argus office. Another curious the dance. peiformance, with a dim shadowing of mean­ ing, was witnessed in 1842. Fifty men, with bunches of leaves reeled in serpentine motion, hissing as they went. Their arms were laid WOMEN AND CHILDREN. over the shoulders of others, while they sang a mysterious song. Arrived at a certain Mr. Gellibrand bore this testimony to the place, they all set up a " Waugh," and ran chancter of the lubras of Port Phillip in ' full speed back to the wirlies. A new line, 1835: "The women, and especially the was formed, and new decorations prepared. young ones, are modest in their behaviour— Wanda were placed in their hands, orna­ they all appear to be well disposed." Alas! mented- with the down of cockatoos and this conduct suffered a grievous change when green boughs. A series of singular bound- the whites came over from Van Diem en's ings succeeded, with the aforesaid hissing. Land soon after. Captain Hunter, sixty . Again the whole party of dancers and singers years ago, gave a pleasing account of his first were observed in rapid flight toward the interview with the women of New South creek, yelling and hallooing on the road. Wales. It runs thus : "The men desired to They halted at a bark hutr, on the sides of have the presents for the women, and they which were ochre drawings in the shape of would carry and deliver them; but to this pro­ shields. After,other rapid evolutions, they posal I positively refused to agree, and made threw their wands upon the roof, with air- them understand that unless they were allowed rending cries. The white men were told to come forward, they should not have any. that this was not a corrobory. but a Gageed. Finding I was determined, an old man who Mr. Parker gives an account of a Yepene, seemed to have the principal authority or Dance of Death, upon the Loddon. It is directed the women to advance, which they a movement beneath boughs. A solemn did immediately, with great good humour ; lengthened silence is then maintained in the and during the whole time that we were darkness of night. A sudden exclamation decorating them with beads, rags of white of joy, with mutual kind congratulations, linen, and some other trifles, they laughed close the scene. Might not this have some immoderately, though trembling all the while dreamy resemblance to the Egyptians mourn­ through an idea of danger. Most of those ing for the death of Osiris, and their glad­ we saw at this time were young women; they ness for his recovery? A grand site of were all perfectly naked, as when nrst born. native gathering was near Mount Macedon, As soon as the women were ordered to where there are many massive basaltic approach us, about twenty men, whom we columns, some twenty feet high, the stones had not before seen, sallied from the wood, of which have a convex base and a concave completely armed with* lance and shield. top. Here, amidst the magnificence of They drew themselves up in a line upon the nature, with the moon piercing the shade of beach, and each man had a green bough in a gum forest, and lighting up as a fairy his hand, as a sign of friendship. Their scene the amphitheatre of romantic looking disposition was as regular as any well-dis­ mountains, the tribes would assemble in ciplined troops could have been, and this friendly greetings, and enjoy their soul- party, I apprehend, was solely for the defence stirring corrobories. of the women, if any insult had been offered * We were much struck one evening with an them." unearthly uproar, arising from a large "native The native women in their wild state are camp. Yells were intermingled with the seldom much encumbered with clothes. As turn turn of rugs and the barking of dogs. in New Guinea the young females only have Banning hastily to the place, we saw the a covering, and that but a very Blight one) BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAN; •o the Australian ladies are similarly tin- lighted gaze at the spectator, when she dis­ adorned. Barrington -wrote, in 1803: "The covered her wilful and naughty inadvertence, females at an* early age wear a little apron could not but provoke a smile. made of the skin of the opossum or kangaroo, The female aborigine seldom bore a large cut into slips, and hanging a few inches from family. Old colonists speak of small tribes the waist; this they wear till they grow up, of a score of individuals, fourteen or fifteen and are taken by men, and then they are of whom would be children. But what a left off." Travellers declare that innocence frightful change must have come over the is perfectly compatible with such an apparent dark woman, when we learn that in one breach of decorum. Major Mitchell found year lately only two native children were the Port Phillip lubras unconscious of any born in an area of thousands of square miles, impropriety in their appearance. Some had in the Portland Bay district? -The young a kind of basket work to protect their backs mother has not much preparation for her from the cold, while they saw no occasion to hour of sorrow* no length of sufferings, and provide shelter elsewhere. The separation no repose after deliverance. A mixture of of the sexes is said to have been made by charcoal ochre and fat is rubbed oyer the the Thirri, a smalP lizard: there is great fun skin of the newborn, as a defence agiinst in a camp whenever one of these creatures is insects and the heat. The tribe cannot wait found. The Levitical law is observed every for her, and the next day she is on the trail. moon, the female being a wetk alone in a The placenta is regarded as sacred. No one but, though near friends. In Western Aus­ scarcely thinks of remaining with the poor tralia the word employed to express this is creature in her trial. A string of opossum wallak ngwandowin (dwelling apart). fur is fastened round the infant's wrist. The The personal aspect of the elderly females birth of twins has been so rare as hardly to is sometimes repulsive, they being far infe­ have b#en noticed by the whites : in fact, rior to the old men in physical appearance. such an occurrence takes place elsewhere Short in stature, extremely attenuated in only once in three thousand times. Though form, with elongated and flaccid mammae, the families are usually so very small, and stubble like hair, thick lips, and no Egyptian in the civilised parts few if any children* cleanliness, they rather resemble the Hotten­ are ever born, yet the fact of a specific tot Venus than the ideal De Medici. Mr. appellation for the seventh male and female Cunningham, the botanist, met with such child would imply that such paucity of in­ specimens in the bush as inclined him to crease was not formerly the case. A woman exclaim, "Really some of the old women was known to have had nine births. Mr. only seem to require the tail to complete Protector Moorhouse has remarked in some their identity with the monkey tribe." Yet tribes numerical names for the children of a Mr. Moore, Advocate-General of Western Aus­ family—one, two, three, four, &c, the male tralia, can say, " In early life their form is name differing from the female ; thus, symmetrical, their movements graceful, their warritya, female, and warriarto, male. voices musical, and the countenances of many So far for desiring children at the present lively and rather pleasing." One cause of day, they take no pains to conceal their this inferiority to the males may be their pleasure at being barren, though arising very early marriages, their hard usage, and from a guilty cause. It was otherwise for­ as hard a fare. We have been favoured, merly, when native customs were unbroken however, with glances at decided exceptions by the advent of Europeans, and native to this dark picture. Some fifteen years ago virtues unsupplanted by civilised vices. the Muz-Ay tribe visited their Adelaide Families were then an institution of the friends. Among the river aborigines was bush. We have an incidental allusion to seen a young female about sixteen years of this fact by one writing towards the close of age, who was possessed of such charms as the last century. "In fishing," he says, to elicit universal admiration. Her form was " we frequently saw a woman with two or as delicately and beautifully rounded as that three children in a miserable boat, the highest of a Circassian dame. Her breasts were part of which was not six inches above the spherical, her hair was parted in glossy ring­ surface of the water, washing almost in the lets, her mouth exhibited a noble show of edge of a surf, which would frighten an old ivory, her head was thoroughly Caucasian seaman to come near in a good manageable in shape, and her eyes—brilliant, restless vessel. The youngest child, if very small, orbs, with thin, long, black, voluptuous lies across the mother's lap, from whence, lashes—completed her fascinating appear­ although/ihe is fully employed in fishing, it ance. Her opossum-rug was worn with the cannot*fall; for the boat, being very shallow, taste of a drawing-room belle. The occasional she sits in the bottom with her knees up to coquettish partial fall of her robe to expose her breast, and between her knees and body, her beauty, with the half-bashful, half-de­ the child lies perfectly secure." Early •

AND THE Ml I OF VICTORIA, 43 voyagers and travellers frequently refer to spite of the pure, liuunrt, tend imiwiilUfrg the number ^of children in the tribes. zeal of our missionaries, by some accursed The half-castes are few; even in 1846 process, has blanched their babies' faces." • Mr. Robinson only knew of from twenty to The young folks of a camp are full of fun. thirty. One of the loveliest children we ever Although the father seldom condescends to beheld was a half-caste infant on the banks a romp, the maternal feelings are in all of the Marray. With a rich bronze colour, their natural «play. We have repeatedly soft curly hair, and chubby, ruddy cheeks, spent an hour in watching their happy gam* he had the sparkling eyes of his really pretty bols. Once asking a native to send her mother. One roguish little fellow of some child to the Black School, Bhe answered fifteen months would peep over the labra's sorrowfully, "No, no, no, me plenty cry." shoulder when a white man or woman passed, Though the lubra may now and then get a and holding out its tiny hand, would laugh- tap with a waddy for want of assiduity in ingly whine in English, "gib me copper." procuring her coolie a good dinner, or for We have known several half-castes in being too chattingly familiar with a young Australia, though only, with but two excep­ man, it is very rare that a child is struck ; tions, in the condition of very young children; the demonstration of temper is admired in for, as declared in the report of the Victoria the boy, as an evidence o£ future warlike Church of England Assembly of 1856, "the spirit. Kind, however, as the mother is to half-caste male children are usually de­ her offspring, she has another favourite, on stroyed," while the female live little after. whom she lavishes her caresses. No lubra We are never likely to have in Australia a is seen without a pack of hungry, spotted, mixed race of Europeans and blacks, forming dirty, mangey dogs, whose pups share with a distinct people, as the Griquas of South her own child her lactary blessing. A friend Africa. A few, a very few, half-caste Tas- told us he once saw, outside of Melbourne, manian females have lived to maturity, under a native woman suckling in their turns a the protection of the whites ; but such cases little boy and four puppies. The Australian have been even rarer among the more nu­ mothers suckle their children for two, three, merous tribes of the New Holland shores. and occasionally four years. This is chiefly It is a singular fact that, in the extreme because the nature of native food compels the paucity of births among the Australians, little one to depend upon the breast. Ano­ almost the whole of those taking place are ther motive is undoubtedly to avoid trouble half-castes. Proud of such occasions, the in frequent conception*; this does not always natives always direct the attention of passing succeed, for two children of different ages strangers to the pretty little one. Onot have been seen dependent on lactation at* stopping to admire a very lovely half-caste the same time, the supply of nourishment infant on the banks of the Wannon, playing never ceasing through the crisis. Mr. Ellis in the arms of its clean and even beautiful observed this also in Polynesia. This ex­ young native mother, a spruce, dandified tended period of nursing, from two to five young fellow, adorned with a magnificent years, is not uncommon among the black beard, walked up to us, and smilingly asked tribes of India, American Indians, Cingalese, us, "You like him, picaninny?" Upon Laplanders, Persians, and Tartars ; it was so our answering, " Yes, very much like him, with Jews formerly. Even the Koran sanc­ pretty little picaninny," he extended his tions two years for lactation. This system hand toward us in. a mock suppliant manner, certainly, to some extent, limits the fecundity and said," Yery well, you give him sixpence." of women. They are full of fun in the Another time we noticed a little rogue, red family. A girl once making fun' of her as an Indian, with glowing cheeks and mother before us, .pointed her out, and sparkling eyes, tumbling about the rags of a laughingly exclaimed, "She my bad old wirlie. His aoi disant mother, an ancient- woman—plenty ugly—plenty growl." The looking dame, replied to my interrogation of woman rose, ran at her, rolled her over on "Who him father?" by pointing with a the grass, and pretended to beat her, while knowing leer to the black chief beside her, joining heartily in the laugh of her merry a white-haired old man of sixty. As may be daughter. supposed, these children are great favourites with the white ladies of the bush. It is,sad enough to reflect upon the end as well as the MARRIAGES. • life of such offspring. Sir Francis Head, when Governor of Ca­ The old story is, that when a young man nada, wrote thus of the question of half-caste wanted a wife, he lay in wait for a girl, Indians, in a despatch to Lord Glenelg:— sprang upon her like a tiger, felled her "As regards their women, it is difficult to senseless with his club, and dragged her off refrain from remarking that civilisation, in bleeding to his lair. We need hardly say 44 BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAN; that this ia a gross calumny upon the native Her 'possum rug her only wealth, character. The process of courtship among Her wishes little more ; t^em is about what it is with us. What is Her nuptial couch the "gunyah" shade— called the throwing of sheep's eyes is the Her thoughts no higher soar. usuaj. preliminary of attack, followed by Yet e'en that lea/y bower is blest importunity, coyness, ardent avowals, and If Love make there his stay; bashful pleasure. There is one lamentable And not unknown with dark tribes is deficiency in their love makings, which will A happy wedding-day. dispose every sentimental youth and lassie The system of early betrothment pre­ to consign them irretrievably to the doom of vails, as in most countries of the world, and baboons ; we allude to their incomprehensible' as it prevailed among the civilised nations of non-appreciation of the mysteries of a kiss! Christian Europe not a long time ago. As The New Zealandei and his#neighbours have polygamy is sanctioned among these tribes, an agreeable substitute for labial embraces as among almost al\ nomadic people, from •—they rub noses ; the strength of a lover's the Bedouins of Genesis to the present roving attachment was estimated by the force of a Tartars, the grown folks get more of such cartilaginous pressure. But our benighted promised favours than the juveniles. Hence aborigines have not even this nasal consola­ it is that old men may often be seen with tion. youthful wives, while strapping young fellows On the Swan River, the word for marriage are portionless. When we* sympathised is Balyata, which signifies fixed,-as stumps with the latter upon their forlorn condition, of trees, or the embedded rock. All the the usual response was, " Never mind, plenty dialects seem to possess derivatives from the lubra one day." The young fellows often joke word heart, and express the tender passion. around the fire at their unhappy lot in having We received from a respected widower, no lubra yet, and talk of getting one in who had passed the fearful ordeal, a faithful various ways, fair or foul, with great glee. and vivid description of a native courtship, We have jheard them often say, "Plenty which we immediately transferred to paper pretty girls sit down there—me go and see in language as similar to his own as we could by-and-bye. What for old man keep him recollect. First telling us that if not pre­ all lubras?" A hearty laugh will follow viously engaged to a young unweaned lady, this sally of wit! according to the fashion, 'the young man Some of these Turks, as Kangaroo Jack sought a partner from.a neighbouring tribe. of Gipps' Land, managed to have four He would join them at a visit, and sit down or five ladies, who contrived to plague at the family fire ; selecting that particular the old fellows most wofully. In sheer hearth graced by the presence of some youth­ desperation, they have been known to make ful beauty. Thus the courtship begins, a present to a friend of some shrivelled, according to our authority:—"Young man ancient partner, who would afterwards com­ sit down, very fine young man, see one plain of the advent of another into the estab­ woman, very fine young woman. She look lishment. The man with two wives, if they at him, say, ' very fine young man.' He will only tolerably agree, lives an easy life, look at her, say, ' very fine young woman.' as he has a couple of providers. The con­ He talk to her; she talk to him ; then plenty dition of a junior wife is often one of great one talk, one day, many day. Then he say, hardship, from the jealousy and cruelty of ' I like you my wife.'. She say, ' I like you her senior. my husband.' Then he say, ' you go when Such sorrows are alluded to by the learned me ready ?' She say, ' me go when you Hindoo Banerjen in these words : " Nothing ready.' By-and-bye the say, * when you is more dreaded or calculated to poison a ready ?' Then she talk one woman, all the maiden's happiness for life than her hus­ same friend. She say, 'very nice young band's polygamy; and supplications are man, you go along him his country ?' One made to the Deity, by means of certain most day, young man walk about. Two women degrading and superstitious rites, that it may walk about, plenty long way. Then fine not be her lot to be yoked with a husband of young woman she take hand fine young man, more than one wife." run away plenty fast his own country. By- Sir James F. Palmer, 'the Speaker of the and-bye, big one angry that young woman Council of Victoria, once related to us an fatl^r. Tribe come young man tribe. illustration of the misery of polygamy. A Plenty spear and boomerang. So blackfellow young woman, who had been servant in his get wife." family for several years, and had proved No mystic Hymen knot is tied; industrious, affectionate, and thoroughly well- No orange bloom in hair; conducted, receiving not only the advantages No ring of faith, no bridal robe of secular instruction but those of religious Bedeck the maiden fair. training, was afterwards obliged to marry an .AND THE BLACKS OF VICTORIA. 45 old man to whom she had been betrothed, known in Gum forests and on Honeysuckle and who had already another wife. No Plains. The following tale, roughly put in longer clad and living as a civilised and a verse, will serve as an illustration. The Christian woman, she was then a wanderer incidents are strictly true. The occurrence with her besotted husband, amidst the filth, took place about 1843, and the final conflict exposure, and depravity of a native camp. was witnessed by a friend of the#writer's :— Hut even this system is not worse, perhaps, than that of the South Sea Island*, in which Laloa dwelt beside the stream one woman has two or more husbands. v That named the Goulburn tribe : Bishop Short, of Adelaide, speaks of the The forest belle of those who longed men "treating their wives as slaves ; and, To have her for their bride. by tyrannical polygamy, appropriating them A stranger from the Yarra side, to the old men of the tribe, or from time to Young Kooin, courting came; time relaxing this custom with promiscuous And soon soft looks and smiles from each, . intercourse." Disclosed the mutual flame. Missionaries have been much tried with E'er, in the chase, the mimic fight, • the difficulties of polygamy in their work. Or the corrobory, Women, when married, are under the pro­ In swiftness, skill, and arms, —o'er all tection of their husbands,—are provided for, He won the victory. and receive support and protection for their And as, in ochred beauty,dressed, offspring. Great inconvenience, with no He sat beside the fair, small suffering and crime, having arisen from With sparkling eyes and honeyed words, the abandonment of wives by the Christianised She* owned a conquest there. men, Bishop Colenso, of Natal, has per­ He bound the white clematis wreath mitted, under certain circumstances, his Around her sable brow, Kaffir converts to retain their duplicate of And from her rosy lips received partners. When Dr. Livingstone was entreat­ Love's tender, lasting vow. ing the friendly chief, Sechele, to abandon Alas! the course did never yet his harem, the African desired some com­ Run smooth to lovers true; promise, and exclaimed, "No, no; I want Such sorrows come to all alike, « always to have five wives, at least." Whate'er their clime or hue. Jealousy is always one consequence of For native customs had set forth polygamy,—not only of wives with each That Marmon should possess other, but the husband with his wives. He This Goulburn beauty for his wife,— is often plagued with the idea of one or more To charm the wilderness. hatching some mischief against him. Dr. Laloa wept, and told her love Livingstone thus records an African case: — Beside her father's knee; "When a man suspects that any of his wives But nought could move his stern reaolva, have bewitched him, he sends for the witch­ Nor change the tribe's decree. doctor, and all the wives go forth into the To dreary gunyah of her lord, field, and remain fasting till thpt person has A helpless captive led,— made an infusion of the plant. They all By many blows compelled to yield, drink it,—each one holding up her hand in By waddy forced to wed ; attestation of her innocency. Those who But faithful to her Yarra lad, vomit it are considered innocent, while those And weary of her chain,— whom it purges are pronounced guilty, and One night she glided from her home, put to death by burning." Her lad to findagain . In the event of a girl, unbetrothed, She scaled the dizzy mountain height, being without a father, her brother took And trad the fern-tree vale,— charge of that property, and bestowed it Nor halted until Kooin's ears on whom he pleased. Sometimes men would Had heard her love-sick tale. exhibit friendship by a change of sisters. But, ah! her chasing kinsmen soon A present expedited the transfer much in Appear in vengeance there; the same way as among more civilised And they her fainting body f«*m nations. Among the Kaffirs the price of a , Her wounded lover tear. wife is regulated by the price of an ox ; and His tribe resent the cruel deed, an author remarks : "She, considering her- And bloody battle wage ; Belf as an article for sale, is seldom surprised While kindred tribes on either side or unhappy on being told she is going to be In strife haste to engage. disposed of." Occasionally heart questions Laloa's head bore many blows, do occur with the female Australians as From Marmon and from sire,—- among their fairer sisters of Europe, and Yet would she no opossum get, romantic love scenes are not altogether un­ Nor light the evening fire; t

40 BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAX J But sadly sit, and fondly look entered into, for we are informed that tbe Across fa Kooin's home,— beauty thus expressed her sentiments:— And vainly seek a chance to fly— "You no beat me—me love you^-you love Again with him to roam. me ; me love your sisters—your sisters love An aged chief at last was moved: me; my brother no good." It is pleasing to He wished the fray to cease; record that the avenger returned from the And so proposed a duel should pursuit a happier and a married man. Unite the tribes in peace. This wife-dragging system seems to prevail The day anives: and warriors among the Greenlanders, according to Hans From alps and creeks repair, Egede, the enterprising Moravian missionary The single combat to behold,— to these Esquimaux. His account is very Their feud to settle there. amusing from its very simplicity. He says: So Marmon, full of rage and hate, "They go to the place where the youug Young Irobin came to fight; woman is, and carry her off by force; for, For all declared the victor there though she ever so, much approve of the Should claim the bride that night. match, yet out of modesty she must make And well they fought; but love prevailed, as if it went against the grain, and as if she For Kooin won the day; was much ruffled at it,—else she would be 'Midst shouts of joy, he seized his price, blamed and get an ill name, as if she had And bore his bride away. been a love-sick wenoh. After she is brought to the house of the bridegroom, she keeps The favourite mode was that of courtship for some time at a distance, and sits retired in another tribe. This subjected the parties in some corner upon the bench, with her to a little harmless fighting, and a good cor- hair dishevelled, and covering her face, robory made all friends again. Sometimes being bashful and ashamed. In the mean­ they adopted the old English system of trial while the bridegroom uses all the rhetoric he by wager of battle. The aggrieved parties is master of, and spares no caresses to bring demanded justice of the eloper's tribe. The her compliance: and the good girl, being at young man stood forth naked at a fixeddis ­ length persuaded and prevailed with, kindly tance, armed defensively with a shield. yields to him." • The friend of the stolen lady then threw a The men have some influence exercised certain number of spears, one after the other; over them in their matrimonial speculations these weie to be parried off through the by the voice of the tribe, and often by the activity of the Gretna Greener. Sometimes parents. For instance, a young man once a flesh wound would be received, but this brought home a girl as his bride. His mother was a rare case. If not satisfied, or, if such looked at her, disliked her, and told the were the agreement, the' same number of man that she would not do. The obedient boomerangs were next hurled. Having son returned the goods, and proceeded to made the requisite atonement, justice was j, make another selection. The mother on the declared satisfied ; and the hero walked up other side has great power among an African to his lady-love,"received her formally from tribe, and where the* lover has to work for her tribe, and, amidst universal congratula­ the parent o# his bride, fetching her wood tions, bore off his prize. and water, and bowing before her upon his A capital story is told by Barrington, the approach. When Dr. Livingstone was among pickpocket author of the early New South them, a maid of the chief's, being fairer than Wales days. A certain blackfellow dwelt in the generality, was sought in marriage by some leafy palace of the bush wfth -his three five at once. Greatly bewildered, and fear­ sisters.. Once upon a time, a young fellow ful either of giviug offence or of being belonging to the neighbouring tribe caught carried off into the bush by one of them, sight of one of these fair ladies, and, in true she cast her cares upon the benevolence of Boman style, picked her up and ran off with her master. He ordered the suitors to stand her, without first putting the question. in a line before him, and requested the girl The indignant brother rushed after the to make her choice. " She took care," says the ravishing lover with spear and waddy. In missionary traveller, "to select the finest- the way he*encountered and recognised the looking fellow of the party, and was led home sister of the robber. His first impulse wall in triumph and safety by the sable favourite." to try the keenness of his weapon upon this Even this system differs alike from the relative'of his foe ; but she threw herself at Australians and the Muraas of the Amazon his feet, and cast upon his fiery glances so Biver. The latter enter into fair lists about soothing a ray from her lustrous orbs, that the lady; the rivals set to fighting with fists, his arm and brow relaxed, his eye^softened, a la Tom Sayers, and the best thrasher and in a gentle tone he allayed her fears. gains the fair prize. * A formal treaty of peace must have been Marriages are celebrated at an earlier age AND THE BULOKS OF VICTOBIA. 47 with the blacks than among the English, cuous in Ireland and the British manufactur­ though not, as some have said, when the ing towns, that some European Governments parties are mere children. Fashions change have fixed the legal time so high in years, or, with times; for very frequently such contracts as in Norway, until the young man has took place in Europe, as Dr. Boberton of satisfied the authorities that fee is able to Manchester has shown in his learned treatise maintain a family. upon the subject. While the wardship laws As among the ancient Jews, the wife was were in force, girls were often given in mar­ always transferred to the brother of the riage when but twelve years of age, though the deceased husband. A widow was obliged to* laws of the country do not now permit union wait two weeks before another match ; a. under twelve. Catherine Parr was married widower was not subjected to such restraint. at twelve, and had a second husband long The widow went to her friends for protection before twenty. Good old Grafton appealed and bestowment. In those cases where no- to Elizabeth, as a queen and a woman, to male relative lived to receive her, the widow's redress the wrongs of her sex. ' * It is much fate was a hard one. She was the prey of to be lamented," says he, "that wards are any ruffian. Mr. Protector Sievwright alludes bought and sold as commonly as are beasts ; to such a case as this, when saying, M The and marriages are made with them that are cries which the female has uttered at night, many times very ungodly, for divers of them, by blows received by the unfortunate victim being of young and tender years, are forced at the hands of the men, have reached the to judge by another man's affections, to see encampment." Among the Esquimaux, the into another man's eyes, and say yea with widow supports herself and her children by another man's tongue, and finally consent prostitution. The Hindoo widow cannot with another man's-heart; for none of these marry again : a fruitful source of licentious­ senses be perfected to the parties in that ness, abortion, and infanticide. When Aus­ minority." tralian husbands went upon a journey, their Among people who view women but as wives were given in charge of certain male goods and chatties, or with whom the means relatives. Before a regular marriage takes of living are easily obtained, marriages are place between a native and his betrothed usually early. The code of Menu, of India, one, the mother of the girl must on no declares, "A girl may be married at eight, account look upon the face of her intended and even earlier ;" though it humanely stipu­ son-in-law, else her hair would immediately lates, "If her father fails to give her a hus­ turn grey. Therefore, great care was exer­ band for three years after she is marriage­ cised by the gentleman to avoid her presence. able, she is at liberty to choose one for her­ A cunning fellow took advantage of this idea self." This gives the key to the mystery. when tormented b/the intimacy of a gigantic Marriages were arranged by the parents warrior with his wife. He promised, before- before the age of puberty, according to law, the tribe, to give his infant daughter as wife being regarded as sinful afterwards, though to the gallant. After this the hero was- not marriageable in the true sense of the obliged to absent himself from the fair one, term until the age of fourteen or fifteen, as or incur the penalty of capital punishment among ourselves. The observations of Mr. . from his people. While the man could dis­ Crawfurd, though relative to the Australian pense with the services of hjs helpmate, his neighbours of the Indian Seas, are applicable other half had not equal privileges. It was to the early unions of all savage races; " their not so in Poyn, according to old Marco Polo ; minds, from the moral agency under which for there if a husband was absent from they are formed, certainly acquire a kind of home for twenty days, his wife was allowed premature ripeness earlier than in Europe, to select another protector. but their bodies do not. Puberty comes on Women had fine times of it among the at the same age as in Europe; the body con­ Gado, the original aborigines of India, a tinues to grow aa long; women bear children people allied to the Australians in many to as late a period of life." Mr. Ellis says respects. There a man could not turn off the same thing of the South Sea Islanders:— his wife, even on account of adultery, unless "Some years usually elapse in early mar­ he gave her not only her children, but the riages before child-bearing." Montesquieu whole of his own property for their main­ was the real author of the absurd theory of tenance. On the j fttrary, the lady could early maturity among .people in warm lati­ turn off the man i * r toe she liked, and tudes. Among his dijpiples may be classed could take the wh ["'lis possessions, and the first New Holland historian, Collins, who bestow them up I lover whom she pre- writes:—"The union of the sexes takes ferred in his st< ynder those circum- place at an earlier period than is usual in* •tanoes, divorces] male party very colder climates." It was to check the evil rarely took | may be supposed,. consequences of early marriages, so conspi­ among these ATO people the 48 BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAN J courtship was always a leap-year one, the An unhappy girl, who had been waddied selection being made by the woman. and speared for refusing to live with, an old The domestic life of the aborigines differs man, who had already three wives, vented from ou*s. When retiring for the night the her complaint to a lady friend of ours in husband rolls .himself up in his rug, with his these words,—"No good. Whitefellow one feet to the fire ; and on the other side, it may lubra, very good. Blackfellow, plenty— be, the wife, similarly enveloped, composes but no good plenty 'pear 'em." herself to sleep. On one occasion only did Governor Grey has very prettily hit off a we meet with husband and wife beneath the piece of family history, in the shape of a same coverlid, in European fashion. squabble between an ancient lubra and her The treatment women receive from their lord, about the latter introducing another lords is often severe. The enlightened Bri­ spouse into the household :— tish nation, after a civilisation of a thousand "Wherefore came ye, "Weening, years, has at last thoroughly awakened to a In my beauty's pride, Bense of the wrongs of beaten wives. As the Stealing cautiously, Australians have not entered upon their Like the tawny boreang (wild dog), career of refinement, public opinion among On an unwilling bride. them baa not yet assumed the indignant upon 'Twas thus you stole me this home question. Among them, as until From one that loved me tenderly ! lately among ourselves, the husband may do A better man he was than thee, what he likes with his own in the way of a "Who having forced me thus to wed, Now so oft deserts my bed. little thrashing. Some of the lubras submit Yang, yang, yang, yoh! quite patiently to the infliction of punish­ ment. A scene is got up about the dinner O where is he that won not being ready, or some other omission of My youthful heart, Who oft used to bless domestic duty. The% man rages and the And call me loved one ; woman cries. Then he seizes his waddy, You Weerang tore apart when she, meekly presenting her head at a From his fond caress judicious angle for the convenience of her Her whom you now desert and shun; tormentor, takes her one, two, or a dozen, Out upon thee, faithless one ; and retires yelling to her seat at the fire. O may the Boyl-yas bite and tear While apologizing for a breach of confi­ Her, whom you take vour bed to share. dence, the author has just met with so good Yang, yang, yang, yoh ! an illustration of native economy, in a letter Wherefore does she slumber written by his sister to an English friend, Upon thy breast that he cannot refrain from giving an extract. Once again to-night, " About a month ago," writes the fair cor­ Whilst I must number respondent, "I had a newly-married couple Hours of sad unrest and broken plight ? spending their honeymoon under the gum Is it for this that I rebuke trees in the paddock. One night the bride Young men, who dare at me to look ? While she, replete with arts and wiles came from home with a doleful face to show Dishonours you, and still beguiles. me a blow she had had from her husband. I pitied the poor, young thing, and asked her THE HUSBAND RETOETS. why he had done it. She looked up with Oh! you lying artful one ! great astonishment, and said, " 0 missus, he Wag away your dirty tongue; my husband—he knock me down when he I have watched your tell-tale eyes like." I suppose, by this time, you have Beaming love without disguise ; guessed the colour of my friends. They I've seen young Imbat nod and wink were the chief of the Yarra tribe and his Oftener perhaps than you may think. wife Maria, as fine a pair as can be met with, Blows with a waddy, followed by a shrill black or white. Maria has as sweet a smile cry, close this dialogue. and pair of sparkling eyes as ever bewitched poor mortal man." An Encounter Bay black had stolen or INFANTICIDE AND CANNIBALISM. decoyed away the wife of one of the Murray tribe. The husband, in one of his rambles, The destruction of children arises not from found the frail one alone, and at once gave a want of maternal affection, but, from the her the orthodox punishment with the waddy. will of the tribe, fligfctfro m an enemy, the The poor creature got free from him, and difficulty of following roving husbands with ran towards the sea. Caught in the water, infants, and the want of natural* food for she resigned herself to her fate, stood quietly such offspring. The last reason is a strong to receive a furious blow on her head, sank one. The character of native food is unsuit­ into the sea, and expired. able to very young children. These depend AXB THE BLACKS OF VICTORIA. 49 upon their mother for a period of twice or Britons, were equally guilty of this crime. thrice the time of Europeans. Mr. Wedge Many nations of antiquity devoured the dead wrote of our Macks in 1835 :—"They have of their enemies. The human sacrifices of another custom, namely, that of destroying Mexico were eaten. Not only the New their new born children, if born before the Zealanders, but all the South Sea Islanders, former child has reached the age of three or were fond of such flesh; also many tribes of four years, until which time they are not Africa, South America, Borneo, and New weaned." Guinea. The like foul habit existed in It appears to have been also the custom, Japan, Tartary, and South Eastern China, when a woman was promised to one man but Old Sir John Mandeville talks of certain given to another, to kill thp first child. If Monguls relishing men's ears "soused in two were born at a birth, one was usually vynegre." Marco Polo gives a narrative of strangled. Humboldt mentions the same coming to one place where they suffocated thing of the Guiana Indians; though that was the dying and ate their friends. "When because it was so much like rats to have two dressed," says that traveller, "the relatives at a time. Mr. Assistant Protector Parker assemble, and in a convivial manner eat the adds another reason for the practice, reflect­ whole of it, not leaving so much as the ing on the women: "because they feared to marrow in the bones." Grievous trouble get prematurely old, and unacceptable to would come to the deceased if not thu3 their husbands." The fearful crime of pro­ absolutely devoured. There is an allusion ducing abortion was not uncommon, espe­ to cannibalism in Lev. xxvi* 29. cially after a quarrel between man and wife. Among the Battas of Sumatra, allied to the Dr. Ross has this statement in his Almanac Australians, an old man will mount a tree, for 1836.:—"One female, the wife of Nulla- which his friends shake, and say, "The boid was pointed out to Mr. Wedge, as season is come, the fruit is ripe, and it must having destroyed ten out of eleven of her descend," when down tumbles the poor fel­ children." Mr. Protector Thomas talks des­ low, a meal for the cannibal party. Gibbon, pairingly 'of the practice, alleging that the the historian, tells us of the Attacotti, a natives have lost heart and wish to have no people living on the site of modern Glasgow, children live after them, because they have who indulged in similar tastes. The Ottawa* no country now. * The half-castes have nsed to make soup of captured Iroquois. almost always been killed. A woman, when One of the early American governors speaks appealed to about i$ simply answered—"No of a standing committee of seven Miamis good—all the samewarrigal"; or, like wild Indians, to devour b£ authority. An Eng­ dog. Mr. Briarty, of the Upper Yarra, once lishman was eaten in Kentucky so late as saved a half-caste from destruction by his 1760. A cannibal feast was held at Taur- entreaties. A lubra, speaking to us upon anga, in New Zealand in 1842. In $, New the subject, frankly exclaimed: "Blackfel- Zealand song occurs the following passage: low kill 'em plenty white picaninny." They " Leave as food for me* the flesh of my enemy, have been known to acknowledge the murder Titoko. I will shake with greedy teeth the of infants on the plea—"What for pica­ bodies of Huhi Kahu and of Ueheka. My ninny?—whitefellow ^hoot 'em when 'em throat gapes eagerly for the brains not yet young man." taken from the skull of Potukeko. In my The following passage from Captain Grant, great hatred I will swallow now the stinking the discoverer of the shores of Port Phillip, brains of Tarati Kitiki." in 1S01, exhibits them in their early state : Our blackfellows have long been accused " One of the women," says he, "applied to a of this crime. Mr. Wedge, in his visit before female convict to lend her a spade that she the whites settled here, wrote as follows:— might bury her child alive, as she said it " Tho natives are cannibals, but they do not cried very much, and was not worth rearing indulgo in this horrible propensity except in up. Upon being refused, she ran away and times of war, when tho bodies of thoso who left ber child with the woman, which pined are killed are roasted and eaten. They and died for want of the nourishment of the make no secret of this barbarous cuatom, but breast. There is reason to think that the apeak of it as a matter of course, and coolly New Holland women have a secret method flexor! ha their manner of preparing tho ro- of destroying the ftvtus in utero,—a horrid paxt, tho process of which is too revolting to practice, and which is often of fatal, coruto- commit to paper." quences to themselves." Mr. Aw-uHtant-Protoctor Riovwright do- Cannibalism is a revolting practice, but lie- mrUim a woman Iwing cut open, tho blood longing to all ages, and almost all countries drunk, part of tho flesh eaten raw, and the We need not be too hard upon the Port othnr roimtod, Dr. Simpson, of Mo re ton Phillip black, when we rememt>er that our Hay, doclurim that dying children were de­ own forefathers, the Saxons as well ai tho voured by their parents. Some perrons found so BUtffcLEY, THE WILD WHITE »MAN ; part of a woman's breast in the bag of a wooden weapon, two feet long, with one end lubra, who confessed that the other portions heavier than the other. The JSllemaiiy -were eaten. Dr. Thomson sent the head of Hieleman, or JJelimar is a sort of shield, a baited child to the Edinburgh Museum. two or three feet in length, of a long, oval, The Murray natives never ate the head, but or angular shape, of bark or thin wood, and threw that into the river. An old colonist sometimes the shell of protuberances upon informed us that a lady friend of his was a trees, with which they catch the spears of great favourite with the Yarra blacks, from their foes. The handle is through . the a belief that she was the risen appearance of middle of the under portion. Another kind of one of their own people; consequently she Bhield, of heavy wood, narrow but strong, had secrets told her that were withheld from has a knob to befused offensively. others. One day a lubra came to her with The spear is of various kinds. Light ones something under her blanket; she then pro­ are used for hunting or fishing. The wood duced a piece of a cooked child, requesting is always selected from the hardest and the lady not to tell. Mr. Sutherland was toughest forest trees and shrubs. Tu our informant about a cannibal scene, when straighten the sticks they are held over a a party was after poor Mr. Gellibrand in fire, or bent beneath the force of strong teeth. 1837. The Barrabool tribe had captured an The jagged spear is furnished with pieces o: old man and a young girl belonging to the angular quartz, fastened on with gum ; in Lake Colac tribe, whom they had iwjustly these more civilised times, the glass of charged with the murder of their friend broken, bottles is employed. The spears are Gelliband. The child was killed and roasted, pointed in the fire. They are not to be and the fat employed for macassar oil. Some despised, when able to wound at a distance of the warm flesh was laughingly offered to of one hundred yards. The Wommera, the Englishmen ; Dr. Cotter, we believe, Midla, or Throwing Stick is an ingenious brought away part of the thigh as an evi­ contrivance for accelerating and directing dence of the fact. IJalf-a-dozen children, the motion of the spear. It is applied as a left as a pledge of friendship with the wild lever, and in the socket of it the spear rests Gipps Land tribe, were killed and devoured when poised. The point of the catch that by their careful guardians. In Mr. Fawk- fits the spear is called in South Australia the ner's Geelong Advertiser of April, 1841, is Baku. When made to .fit into the end of a notice of some such feast, when two lubras the spear, the hole is known as the Yudnu. affectionately tendered a choice smoking mor­ The wommera is commonly made of cherry- sel to the Protector. Captain Grant declares tree or wattle-wood, about two feet long or his conviction of such practices, chiefly upon less. Barrington noticed that used by the the evidence of a native who could speak a Port Jackson blacks sixty years ago to be a little English at Sydney. *' She showed me,'' stick with a shell at one end, and a hook at says he, ''in what manner they despatch the other. It was not seen at Moreton Bay their victims, which is done by striking in 1820, but has been noticed at Endeavour them in the pole of the neck with a waddy River on the east, Hanover Bay on the or club, after which, with (the wommara, an north-west, and King George's Sound on the instrument they throw the spears, with, they south-west. The New, Caledonians have a make an incision from the throat down the similar contrivance. They have a cord breast to the lower part of the belly, and attached to the forefinger, and twisted another across the chest. This she showed round the end of the spear, but so as to quit me by making me stretch myself on the hold when the weapon is hurled. deck." The Boomerang is a curved thin stick, turning at rather a sharp angle, being about two feet long and two inches broad, which is WEAPONS. thrown- at the enemy in such a way as to return to the hand of the owner, after per­ The weapons of the Australians are of a forming a-singular rotatory motion in an up­ very rude character. The native aze is of ward and downward curve lihe. It is too stone, usually basalt or clinkstone, of a jet ingenious and philosophically constructed an black colour, and exceedingly hard and instrument to be the invention of the Aus­ heavy. By dint of much trouble a rough tralians. The representation of a similar edge is brought to it. It is then fixed into weapon on the walls of ancient Egypt indi­ the cleft of a stick with gum and native cord. cates its high antiquity. Thrown at a sheep The gum of the Xanthorrhea, or grass tree, at a distance of eighty yards, it has killed is preferred fromvits pitchy quality, and be­ the animal, and yet returned to the hand of cause it is not softened by the sun. The axe the man. The natives of the Lower Murray is similar to those found in British tombs. and Lake Victoria tribes are said not to have The Nulla Nulla or Waddy, is a weighty used it until recent times, when it was in-

AND THE BLAC \ OF VICTORIA, 51 troduced by their neighbours on the Glenelg. idle spectators. Each one bore in hand a It is in use all along the east coast, and has long, heavy pole with a sharpened point. been seen on the north. The Lliangle is a " There being no prospect of an amicable formidable weapon as we have seen it exer­ settlement of differences, war was declared. cised. It is a heavy stick, with a knob at The conflict was less of a melee than of single the handle end, and a halbert-shaped elbow combats. At first, one who wore a cap at the top, coming to an axe edge. Frightful seemed to attempt the pacificator; but with wounds are produced by the blows, unless the clash of arms his warlike blood was warded off by a strong shield and an active arm. stirred, and he leaped, and shrined, and The Australian tribes were often involved struck as madly as the rest. Seizing an in petty conflicts, arising from trespass upon armful of boomerangs, a swift succession of their hunting grounds, the abduction of them would be hurled against the antagonist, their women, revenge for injury to indivi­ who by crouching, dodging, or shield move­ dual members of the tribe, and the usual ment sought to evade the wooden shower. jealousies of neighbouring states. We never When his artillery was exhausted, the war­ heard of schemes of territorial conquests, or rior rushed upon the foe with his lliangle. of wars to satisfy the ambition of a dark The other was ready, and they met on Alexander or Napoleon. Due notice was equal terms, each striving with power­ usually given of the approach of hostilities ful arm to deal a crushing blow, and by missives, in the shape «f certain sticks, with the eye of an eagle to ward off attack. by sacred messengers. No unf&jr advan­ The amazing springs they made, with the tage is taken, and no instance is Known of violent and extraordinary contortions of their guns being employed by those acquainted limbs, gave the combat anything but the with their use, it being regarded as a cowardly appearance of a human one. and unworthy act. They like to work them­ "In the meanwhile the lubras were*going selves up to the fightingcondition , by beating about the field with their poles, cracking the of weapons, violent gesticulating and jumping, heads of those opposed to their side, or who the biting of beards, shrieking and roaring, were thought to be taking an unfair advan­ with the free use of tongue in abuse. When tage. It was difficult at our safe boomerang advancing to the attack, a good yabber is afstance always to distinguish the part of the first charge, in which the women take these Amazons. Now and then a fearful yell no mean part. Often the men would burst from some of them would betoken hearty into loud laughter, when an Amazonian sympathy in an effective blow, or deep con­ heroine of their party brought out some cern in the fate of the wounded. All of a bright sally of wit at the expense of the other sudden one would thrust her stick in the side. Sometimes the tragedy of the Horatii ground, and, amidst unearthly shrieks, would and the Ouratii would be enacted, or a single go through a series of the moat wonderful champion step forward to defy the strongest vibrating movements of the frame, as if of his opponents. A spear or boomerang wholly controlled by the maddest of furies. thrown would be the signal for universal Then, catching up the pole, she would spring action, although pauses for yabberings would off, and lay about her ten-foot staff as though occasionally take place. But as the author it were a switch in her hands. Again, a had the fortune, good or bad, to witness a number would rush together, and send forth native fight, the narrative is here given, as a very chorus of uproar. Occasionally a detailed in his work on " Western Victoria." wild exulting laughter reached our ears, as " Some half-dozen blacks were encamped if from impish revels. Two of these women opposite the Wickliffe Hotel. I noticed them rushed down to a fine active fellow who was through the forenoon as being particularly then engaged in a sharp struggle. It was noisy. At length three men walked off in almost interesting to see the way in which fighting costume, armed with several boome­ he parried the pole-thrusts by the slightest rangs, the lliangle, and the narrow shield. apparent turn of his liangle or shield, never They were much excited, and one nearly for a moment seeming to turn his eyes from naked fellow cut some wonderful pantomimic the darkie before him. capers, brandishing his weapons, leaping in " It was not long before one of the wounded the air, vibrating his legs and arms in a came walking towards us on the bridge, rapid manner, and vociferating furiously: followed by his weeping lubra. He was a Following some neighbours, I walked on to noble-looking man, and evinced no concern the Hopkins bridge. There I saw another at the wound save that of pointing it out party of Blacks engaged in a violent dispute to us. We saw the cheek-bone laid bare, with the three new comers. All carried but the rest of the cut was concealed in the their weapons, and from time to time, in whisker. Willing to gratify curiosity, he the heat of wrgument, jumped aside to coolly took his finger and thumb and opened flourish their lliangles. The lubras were not out the gash, displaying the interior of «hi*

• AKD THE BLAC KS OF TICTORIA. 53 years totfwcertain from missionaries, settlers, 1 among them is rather an argument against and natives whether they were acquainted the character of the tales they tell. It is with the Supreme Being before the white with great difficulty that the old men can be men came. The result of our inquiries is a brought to say anything upon their mysteries reply in the negative. They were a godless, to the infidel whites. The reader will detect * prayerless race. The New Zealanders and in the following account some vague appre­ South Sea Islanders, on the otntrary, were hension of an immortality. Mr. Thomas, not so. Before they launched their canoes the present devoted Guardian of the Abori­ for fishing,the y addressed their Deities for gines, ventures to assert, " They have an protection and success. This development idea of a future state, think they will be ©f the reverential was an auxiliary to mis­ happy, and that there is a world above, sionary enterprise. Far different was it with with all the requisites for subsistence without Fuegians and Australians, whose sentiment trouble or chasing. They have a notion of ef veneration was certainly objectless, and transmigration. Some stars, they say, were who, therefore, cannot be charged with the once blackfellows on this earth." sin of idolatry. Their non-appreciation of A singular .story, however, appeared in Mr. religion is sometimes exhibited in a painfully Westgarth's excellent report of Port Phillip ludicrous light. A boy, who had been taught in 1846, which we notice as a curiosity. A the Lord's Prayer, one day remarked to his friend of this gentleman's, living in the • teacher a practical difficulty in his scholastic bush, extracted, as he thought, some start­ career. He said, that when out in a desert ling theological theories from the blacks. •where food was scarce, he had often repeated These proved rather too much, and so proved " Give us this day our daily bread," and yet nothing. He appears, however, to have no 'possum came; observing, as he walked believed that they received the following away, " Plenty gammon, all that yabber." notions:—They recognised a Trinity. The One who had quietly endured a long dis­ Father, the Creator, reposed on a crystalline course at a mission station in the hope of a throne, in a realm to the north-east. His good tuck out, was very much disgusted at Son, proceeding, not begotten, or* rather, the small donation he received, and thus rising from a red liquid flowing through the vente"d his spleen : "No good that: plenty sky, was pre-eminently the friend of men, one big yabber, picaninny plour" (flour). It became their mediator in the time of trouble, was no adequate return for the patience and and conducted their shades, after death, to forbearance he had manifested-. I judgment. The third being was a compound Those who were best acquainted with the f of divinity and humanity, the mystical first Port Pnillip blacks, as the Protectors, agreed man, immortal and omniscient, and the in regarding them as destitute of any definite especial enemy of the wicked, whose evil notion as to the existence of a Supreme Being. doings he reported to the Son. Heaven was Mr. Assistant-Protector Dredge writes:— described as a happy region, the distant mur­ "It has generally been found that where murs of whose joys may be distinguished by any ideas of a Supreme Intelligence remained the sensitive human ear, as the approaching among a people, there have usually existed traveller recognises the hum of Melbourne some outward indications thereof, as mani­ or Sydney. The abode of darkness sent fested in sacred relics, idols, rites, and forth echoes of yells and groans from the ceremonies, constituting their religion. The midst of fire and demons. Women were not entire absence of anything of this sort to be admitted to the same quarUrs as the men, because God had neither wife nor amongst the savages seems, therefore, corro­ I mother. Our informant did not learn borative of their utter loss of the knowledge whether Houris were to be the substitutes of God." There is, however, sufficient for the root-digging lubras, nor what com­ ground for believing in some customs ex­ pany would be provided as a solace for the hibiting the remnant of an ancient faith; exiled wives. as Mr. Protector Parker wrote in 1844, " Further communication has induced a con­ Mr. "Westgarth quietly remarks upon the viction that a traditional mythology exists statement of this singularly credulous or among them, rude and obscure, indeed, but self-deluded settler :—" Such is the substance in all probability the indistinct relics of some I of the notes gathered on this subject by a older and more complete system." Captain I highly respectable witness; but the degree of Hunter wrote, sixty years ago : " The natives 1 credit to be attached to these details must sing a hymn* or song of praise from daybreak depend, in a great measure, on several cir- till sunrise." I cumstances which do not appear in the In directing attention to some of these account—namely, the knowledge which the traditions, we must again warn the reader natives who were questioned may have picked against placing too much reliance unon the I up concerning other religious systems than suue. In fact, the very contrariety o Apinjra I their own, the degree in which the language 54 BUCKLET, THE WILD WHITE MAN; used on the occasion of inquiry was mutually "Mawn," who held such to be his ojpn pro­ understood, and the words and manner in perty. which the questions were put to the abori­ A bush man, who was much troubled with gines." blacks in his hut, and who were too well p At Cape Schanck; of Western Port, a cave armed for him to attempt force, played upon is pointed out from which Pundyil or Bin- their superstitious fears to some purpose. Beal used to take his walks beside the sea. He stooped down to a hole in the wall now He was accustomed when upon earth to fre­ and then, and appeared to be looking for quent other caves, chasms, or dark places. something. "What for you do like o* Seep basaltic glens were favourite homes. that ?" said they. ''0, nothing," replied the We are well acquainted with one of these shepherd, "only, Debble-debble come through assumed divine residences situated in a ro­ there by:and-bye, and plenty frighten black- mantic volcanic rent some fifteen miles from fellow !" The hut was cleared immediately. Ballaarat, through which the river passes A similar tale is told of another settler. He after rolling down the Lai Lai falls. The knew the blacks were in great consternation planet Jupiter shines by the light of his whenever they heard what they called the camp fire in the heavens, whither he has " Whisper of Potoyan," a spirit of the dark­ now retired. The Wellington tribes spoke ness. Being one evening troubled with some of one Baia-mai, who lived in an island to of them, whom he could not induce to with­ the east, and in honour of whom there was draw from his verandah, he gently opened a an annual corrobory, taught them by some window in front, and imitated the sound of strange natives. A brother of this spirit, which he had heard them speak. Their Dararwirgal, dwells in the far west. He quick ears soon caught it, and, amidst un­ once sent the small-pox among them because mistakable signs of terror, they slunk away he wanted a tomahawk. That useful weapon from the spot. In 1801, Captain Grant having been in some way conveyed to him, found them in dread of "Bogle!!' saying, the disease stayed. Mr. Eyre tells us that "Me murreg jarrin,, (much afraid). the Lower Murray blacks believe in a certain Among the charms carried, as a protection old man in the sky named Nooreele, who against evil spirits or more substantial foes, had several children without a mother. was a sacred ball, which, placed in a not From the use of the wprd Baal, as in Lake of opossum yarn, was hung in the girdle. Baal Baal, the hill Bool-ga, the Boyl-yas or The missionary, Threlkeld, succeeded in doctors, Bin-Beal of the Loddon, &c, some getting an inspection of one in his study. have argued a reference to the ancient Phoe­ The poor man—who was conscious all tie nician worship. This Bin-Beal a long time while of breaking one of the customs of his ago got hold of a kangaroo, how manufac­ tribe, and who, in tpite of his semi-civilisa­ tured we know not, and cutting it into a tion, could not shake off the influence of great many small pieces filled the land with superstition—stood by trembling, with the kangaroos. According to Mr. Parker, Bin- perspiration streaming from his forehead. Beal, at the request of his daughter, Kara- After unravelling many yards of yarn pre­ karock, told the sun Gerer to warm, and pared from the fur of the opossum, the immediately the earth opened like a door. gentleman found the enclosure to be a white At this burst of light * plenty biackfellow semi-pellucid piece of quartz, about the size jump up, sing all the same whitefellow." of a pigeon's egg. This might be as effi­ The said y^ung lady was once walking upon cacious for the purpose when swung round this cold earth with a stick in her hand, as the sacred cow's tail of the Annua of killing snakes; giving a sharper blow than Africa. The Romans held crystal balls, or usual the stick broke and flame issued, which Bactyli, in reverence. In Scotland and was the origin of fire. Ireland, to this day, persons believe in the Among all tribes there is a great appre­ efficacy of magic stones to cure diseases, as hension of a being answering to the " Debble- the Pixie stone of Cornwall. debble," though going under various appel­ This devil appears to fly about only at latives. On the coast of New South Wales, night; but he may be easily kept off by the "Koen" is the ghost of a biackfellow, maintenance of ever so small a fire before the painted all over with pipeclay, having an wirlie. He is known as the Tulugal on the immense abdomen, and going about with a Muruya river, when he appears, but only to firestick in his hand. His cannibal pro­ the doctors of course, in the guise of an old pensities are much dreaded in the camp. man with longjegs, to give him the capacity The Adelaide Koen, or Devil, is called for catching his victims, and with short "Kuin-yo." The word Koen has been arms to grasp them well. He is reported to identified with the Egyptian Khron and the possess a shocking bad wife. But in this Hebrew Cohen. At Port Jackson, formerly, respect he is not singular ; for, according to they feared to touch a dead body, because of the^evft)r. Braim, Archdeacon of Portland, AND THE BLACKS OP VICTOBIA. 55 Koin of Lake Macquarie has a wife much thereabout killed certain insects which usually worse than himself. She is known under abound in the hair of savages. A number the three names of Mail-Kun, Bim-poin, and had been so sacrilegious as to roast the ver­ Tippa-Kalleun. He only frightens people, min in the firl. The perpetrators of such a "by picking them up at night, carrying them deed were brought ^together by the lizard, rapidly through the air, when they feel an and crashed to death by a huge stone brought unpleasant choking sensation, but afterwards from an Olympian quarry. They who had good-humouredly setting them down at day­ been content with simply cracking the light in their former place. But the wife favourites of heaven were speared by a long cunningly creeps under the ground while the reed, procured from some marsh of Elysium. natives are asleep, and places a large bag Fairies, a* well as ghosts, received the net beneath them. Unconsciously they drop homage of native faith. The Balumbal of % through the sod into the trap, but are never New South Wales were kind and gentle brought back again. It is currently reported spirits, living upon a mountain to the east­ that she roasts and eats her victims. ward, and subsisting upon honey. Mr. There is another spirit who indulges in Thomas assures us, of the Port Phillip blacka, a little fun, while gratifying his malice. He that "they have an idea of ghosts, spirits, will meet a blackfellow and propose a fight, and other imaginary beings." Their water giving him at the same time a bigger waddy sprites are the Turong; while those on land than he retains for himself. He first presents are the JPotkoorok; and those living in caves his own hard skull for a crack, which of are tbe'Tambora. Singularly enough, they course makes no impression upon the cor­ are all females, and all move about without poreal demon. The unhappy mortal has heads. The Esquimaux, who resemble them then to put forward his head for the return in many particulars, have Ingnersoit, or sea stroke. This is effectual. Then skewering sprites; Sillagiksortok, or of ice ; Ignersoit, the body, the Evil One walks off home with of fire ; Tunuarolit, subterranean ones; be­ it for his evening repast. This Koyorowen sides, Tunnersoit and Erk'iglit. is also blessed with a helpmeet of kindred A ghost appeared to a lubra, and announcsd tastes and sympathies. Kurriwilban is pro­ her speedy death. She told the story next vided with a sharp horn upon each shoulder, day, with most melancholy forebodings. In with which she^impales unsuspecting mortals, two days after.she was dead. Many similar and afterwards conveys them to the spit. cases might be extracted from the works of " This agreeable pair in no way interfere with authors of repute at the present day. Some each other's pleasures; for, by muttfal agree­ souls were supposed to live "in trees and «t ment, the devil has all the women, while lizards. Among some tribes to the westward his partner appropriates the men to herself. it was held that the souls of the unborn A sort of devil appears to have been formed wandered about among the grass trees. The by Nooreele of the Murray, in the form of a Irish on the west coast, until lately, saw the serpent. The name Miftdye strikingly re­ souls of departed relatives in the butterflies minds us of the old English notion of Mind- flitting from flower to flower. The following yard, which, by curling his tail round the supernatural story is given upon the autho­ world, kept it from tumbling to pieces. The rity of Mr. M'Kellar, otthe Broken River, small-pox in one place was called Monola Victoria :—" They tell," says he, "with every Mindye, the dust of the Mindye, from being appearance of firm belief, of a warrior, sur­ raised by that evil genius. The scars were prised by many enemies, and forced to flight, recognised as Lillipook Mindye, his scales. being closely pursued by another possessed by The great whirlwinds of dust which rise supernatural powers. Both exerted their upon the Australian plains are produced by most powerful charms to disable each other, the flourishes of his tail. Mr. Parker judi­ but for each * gibber' one cast from his ciously observes, in alluding to this tradition, mouth the other cast another. At length he " I think in their ceremonies and superstitions who was pursued spat a ' gibber,' and took may be traced the obscure and nearly ob­ refuge in it; the pursuer dashed in it after literated relics of the ancient ophilatria, or him, and shivered it into fragments. In serpent worship, still extant in India and the confusion, the one pursued escaped with Africa." a twig, of the diameter of a pipe stem, and The Wau-wai is a snake-living in the water, so baffled his adversary." and very destructive to man. The Oorundoo Our dark friends seldom quitted the camp dwells under the Murray, and has the-re­ 'fire at night, for fear of encountering malig­ putation of coming out occasionally to drown nant spirits: we know of more refined people, the bad wives of the tribe. A lizard, now of more than one sex, who have similar removed to heaven, once visited Lake Mac­ timidity at the witching hour of night. They* quarie in fierce Mgtr. He had noticed from have as much respect for their doctors or his celestial abode that some of the natives sorcerers as many of our London maidens 56 BUCKLE?/, THE WILD WHITE MAN ; hare for fortune-telling astrologers. A friend of inflicting it, was apprehended. They were of ours saw an*odd ceremony performed* by greatly excited, and entreated my interfer­ one of these gentlemen on three sable ladies ence. The circumstances were that a chief laden with future cares^ They stood before had died from natural causes, but which his him in usual native unaress. He looked at people attributed to incantation of another each attentively, catching the eye of the tribe. A victim was required, and the pro­ person. Drawing back to a stump, he scribed, an innocent person, put to death, uttered an incantation. Then advancing to and the pestilence so alarmingly apprehended the women, he blew on their bodies. This was the consequence." was repeated several times. It was doubtless Those men are the doctors of the tribe, intended to procure safety and»deliverance in alleviating pain or removing disease by the forthcoming hour of suffering. Mr. Eyre charms, manipulations, and certain less mentions that the Murray boylyas or doctor mysterious but more probable curative agen­ used to carry upon state occasions a stick cies. By the supposed extraction of a bone ornamented with feathers; he conjured rain or stone from a diseased part, the cause of by certain crystals, and charmed death away the malady, they resemble' the celebrated with a sacred power. Evil spirits may be Myalists or Obeah men among the negroes, driven out of the air by divers means. Peter who are described as extracting nails and the Great ordered all Russian bells to be other substances from the flesh of the suf­ rung, to frighten away the demon that ferer ; though our black sorcerers are not so enabled the Swedes to beat him at Narva. clever as they in catching troublesome walk­ In the wilds of Port Phillip they ha4 a ing ghosts, and quieting them in a small simpler contrivance. The doctor seized the coffin. Such men, aided by the old women Mooyum Karr, a piece of oval board with a of the tribe, exercise a most tyrannical influ­ string attached to it • and, with a few hearty, ence upon the rest. They are the upholders whirring swings, would effectually purify the of those native habits which form the great atmosphere from tne presence of such malig­ bar to the civilisation of the aborigine ; as nities. Captain Grey truly remarks, " So long as he The doctors of the tribe have other means is enthralled by these customs, which on the of exorcising the evil spirit, as by spitting, other hand are so ingeniously devised as to blowing, and the waving of reads or branches. have a direct tendency to annihilate any Rone but them are able to see this myste­ effort that is made to overthrow them." rious being. Possibly they are enabled to Man-making is attended with several 4Jb this from their ability to render them­ mysterious and often torturing ceremonies, selves invisible, as easily as the Scotch black varying according to the tribe. Different witches of old; which power in the old nations and religions have analogous cele­ women was- as steadfastly believed in by brations of the youth assuming manhood. judges, philosophers, divines, and all good The American Indian and South Sea Islander Christians of Britain not a long time ago, as undertake their solemn duties at the age of BOW by the dark wanderers of the Australian fourteen or fifteen. The initiation of youth forests. among our blackfellows takes place in the They are toy no means harmless characters. darkness of night, the seclusion of the forest, By means of the sacred bone they can with and in the absence of the women. Like as impunity execute their vengeance. This they with the Egyptian and Greek mysteries, the procure in the following manner:—They sleep noviciate undergoes considerable suffering upon the grave of a person recently deceased, during the process. Previously and after­ when a bone of the dead man rushes through wards, for several days, he must eat of the earth into the body of the sleeper, nothing prepared by the hand of a female. inflicting a slight pain like the sting of an The Indian is similarly restricted. Among ant. There it remains until they wish to some Port Phillip tribes the hair is plucked kill some one ; when, by an act of volition, out by the roots from certain parts of the the bone starts forth into the victim with body, and green leaves placed under the arm­ such force as to cause his death. These pits. Charmed pebbles placed in a bag are Boylyas, Warrawarras, or doctors, can, bke to be worn round the neck, and never the Angekkoks of Greenland, by transform­ exhibited to a woman; the dust of these ations, carry themselves into the camp of stones has great virtue in sickness. Other an opposing tribe, and so accomplish their masonic intelligence is to be withheld from vindictive intentions. Even at a distance, the less sacred, or more tale-telling sex* by extraordinary incantations, they are able Occasionally a lad is smothered with mud or to exhibit their mischievous propensities. dust, or covered with grease, and has his • Thus Mr. Protector Robinson, referring to a hair nearly all shaved off. With some he is border race, says: " A plague from a neigh­ said to be sent to the Kipper Grounds, and bouring tribe, who had the power they said loses a tooth or a joint of the little finger. AND THE BLACKS OP VICTORIA. 57 He speaks in a low tone for weeks after­ hope, that with a little more study, those wards! One tribe will place the boy upon leaders of the intellect of the Old World will a man's shoulders, and the friend will pierce arrive at the standard of mind as existing in. his own chest to let blood fall upon his youth­ the rude Port Phillip savage, and honestly ful ward. Incantations are constantly being avow their conviction of th/truth of that employed by the old men. After all this, sublime dogma, " Jump up Whitefellow." the youth may adorn his hair with two kan­ Among the superstitions has been placed garoo teeth and emu feathers. Tbe tatboing their belief in the fabulous Bunyip. This or marking is usually done at a later period. monster was said to issue from the lakes, and In South Australia circumcision is performed carry off children, and even women; the at about fourteen by one supposed to be natives never attempted to" kill jone. Some inspired. Only in North Australia besides early stockkeepers asserted the presence of a has the same rite been observed, and not in large amphibious animal, covered with hair. Victoria or New South Wales. The effect of But since the more complere settlement of the ceremony upon lads is to make them the country, the bunyip has disappeared, to more than ever devoted to the customs of the dwell with the banished ghosts and fairies of tribes. There is no doubt but that the exhi­ the olden time. Among other notions, is bition of certain cabalistic signs by a passer­ that of some spirit stealing down a tree at by has caused many a steady, hopeful ser­ night, when the fire goes out, and so causing vant to throw up his charge, change his the death of the party. Yet little depen­ trousers for a dirty blanket, and the hut for dence is to be placed upon this assertion, for a wirlie. the natives invariably seek in more substan­ The "Jump-up Whitefellow" doctrine is tial beings than ghosts the means of revenging odd enough. Buckley's life was saved such death. Sometimes upon the departure because he was believed to be the embodied of one of the tribe, the others will describe spirit of a deceased friend of the tribe. Mr. a circle on the ground, place an insect within Wedge wrote in 1835:—"They certainly tbe ring, observe the direction in which it entertain the idea that after death they will crawls, and, running on in that direction, again exist in the form of white men ;" will kill the first strange blackfellow they though he thinks it an idea borrowed from meet, take away his kidney fat, and rub it the whites. It is not without consolation to over their bodies, as a charm against evil. the savage; for, when one was being swung There is an allusion to this agency in-the off on the Melbourne gallows, he exclaimed, following pleasingly rendered song :— 41 Very good : me jump up whitefellow: plenty sixpence/' Mr. Parker states,—" It Muldaubie, thy ill-omened cry Troubles the sleeper's ea/; is remarkable that the designation given to But if thy shadow meet his eye, the white inhabitants of the colony in most He knows that death is near. of the dialects of which I have heard (Amy- deet, Jajowrong, Amerjig, Koligan, Amy- Begone, our boys we need, To throw the quivering spear; gai, &c.), appear to be identical with the And let*their young limbs bleed words used to describe the soul when sepa­ For all they hold most dear. rated from the body." The belief is not confined to Port Phillip; Captain Grey, Then turn thy evil form away when in Western Australia, was recognised From where the black man roams, " Nor come at eve or dawn of^day and most affectionately greeted and claimed To desolate their homes. * as a returned son by an unoommon Ugly old lubra. A gentleman of Moonie Ponds told The native customs respecting articles of us, that while down in Port Fairy district^ diet may be included among their supersti­ an old woman recognised in his little girl a tions. Thus, a young man may not eat the departed daughter of hers. There is an evi- black duck, emu, young kangaroo from the dent relation here to the Asiatic doctrine of pouch, eagle, snake, native companion, ban­ the» transmigration of souls. The Buddhist dicoot, and old man opossum. Young girls, records inform us respecting a certain sancti­ before the age of puberty, could not take, fied priest, who made his spirit enter the among other things, tbe young from the body of a man dead, to personate a character. pouch, the white crane, bandicoot, native The several incantations of Vishnu have companion, or old male of wallaby. Mar­ relation to it. The most distinguished men ried young women must not taste the of learning and philosophy fa England, male opossum, black duck, native com­ America, France, and Germany are obtaining panion,'snake, young from pouch, bandicoot fresh light upon the nature of the soul. or emu egg. Women, during certain They do not see why the soul that was in periodical seasons, must not eat fish nor go Socrates may not reappear in some more near water. No female could eat fish, at modern savant; in short, there is reason to any tyne, caught under cliffs, where they 5S BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAS'; spawn. The wives, however, were not com­ wba stood by told me he was looking for the pelled, as the Greenlanders, to. eat no food ghosts of dead men. At last he began to in*childbed excepting what is taken and pre­ move very slowly, and soon rushed to and fro pared by the husband. Married men under at full speed, flourishing a branch as if to forty years could not eat of the young from drive away some foes invisible to us. When the pouch, the red kangaroo, crane, or native I thought his pantomime must he almost companion. But the old mfn and women may over, ten more, similarly adorned, appeared I eat what they please. from behind the trees, and the whole party | This taboo of certain things»is one of the joined in a brisk conflict with their myste­ few points in common with the Polynesians. rious assailants. * The music became louder, There is also, in some places, a sort of taboo as now and then the actors came stamping of things selected by a tribe or family as a up to the choir; and at last, after some kind of badge,"called a Kobong. Governor rapid evolutions in which they put forth all Grey declared Dhat the Kobong had elements their strength, they rested from the exciting in common with the taboo of other people. toil which they had\ kept up all night and Men cannot marry women of the same for some hours after sunrise. They seemed Kobong. Mr. Latham, the ethnologist, asks satisfied that the ghosts had been driven this question: "Is the plant or animal away for twelve months.0 adopted by a particular family selected be­ Mr. Protector Parker's description of cause it was previously viewed with a another is too remarkable to be omitted— mysterious awe, or is it invested with the " I once, and but once, saw a singular cere­ attfibutes of sacro-sanctity because it has monious dance, on a Loddon station, -%bich been chosen by the family ?" We doubt if was called *Yepene amy gai,' or dance of the Australians can give any other than separate spirits. It was avowedly a novel their usual answer to such interrogations: affair to nearly all the actors, and was taught "Me not know; blackfellow always do the by an old man to the westward, since dead. like o' that." In this ceremony, after a very* singular and Perhaps their dances may be regarded as not unpleasing dance with branches in either superstitions as well as amusements. Their hand, all, with the exception of two old recurrence at full moon has induced some to men, who were leaders, came together to one connect them with ancient religious rites of spot, and gradually bent towards the ground, worship to that orb. That there is a proba­ becoming slower and slower in their motion? bility of a spiritual meaning, although not till they were entirely prostrate. They re­ appreciated by the natives.at present, will mained perfectly motionless some time, and appear from a description of some of their a mournful chant was sung over them, and dances. We .may refer to one seen by Mr. they were said to be * dead.' The two old Hull, and described under the head of men then went round them several times, and " Songs and Dances." At Lake Macquarie seemed to be driving something away with was a dance, called the Porrobung, frora^or, their boughs, singing at the same time with to drop down ; in which, at certain set in­ increased energy till they became very loud tervals, the performers suddenly dropped and rapid. Then at a given signal they all down in the mystic ring. sprang to their feet, and recommenced their Our good missionary, the Rev. Mr. Ridley, dance. They were then said to be ' alive.' " has the following account of a remarkable Their superstitions of an astronomical cha­ corrql>ory :-V'At Burudtha, on the Barwon, racter may be thus roughly rendered:— I met a company of forty blacks, engaged in a ceremony in which amusement was The aborigines have said combined with some mystical purpose. A (Or made the story out of head) chorus of twenty, old and young, were That those bright orbs which gem the sky singing and beating time with boomerangs. Have not been always up so high ; Though the words and notes of their songs But lowly, on this dull, tame earth, are few,—six or eight words, with three All heavenly bodies had their birth. or four variations of the same number At first, 'tis said, the moon arose, Though why she left no native knows. of notes, being repeated for hours,—they Perhaps some lunatic down here, observe yery correct time and harmony. In making love, put her in fear There were a dozen more looking on. Sud­ She'd lose some spangles of her glory; denly from under a sheet of bark darted a So sprang she to an upper story. man, with his body whitened by pipe-clay, The stars remained a while below, his head and face coloured with lines of red But were constrained at length to go ; and yellow, and a tuft of feathers fixed by For, shamed to see the queen of nigh^ means of a stick two feet above the crown of So cold and pale, so lone in sight, his head. He stood twenty minutes per­ They rose, a shining throng, to greet fectly still, gazing upwards. An aboriginal Their mistress in her high retreat. •

AXD THE BLA

t AND THE BLAC I OF VICTORIA. • 61 would have less feaf of the Great Master than are already under tuition. The design is, to the savage heathen would have. • educate them in English, and to teach them The variety of dialects, and the very dis- useful occupations, and then to let them mix * -appearance of languages with declining tribes, themselves with the European population; compelled the friends of the aborigines to with whom it is hoped, by these means, to depend upon English as, after all, the best put them upon a level." means of communication. This was to be The Wesleyan mission at Buntingdale, on regretted, for a man is more moved by being the Barwon, some forty miles west of Gee- addressed about his soul in his own tongue. long, was initiated in 1836. The missionaries As one of the teachers wrote:—" They urged were Messrs. Hurst and Tuckfield. The sums me not to speak to them in their own lan­ granted by the Government towards its sup­ guage, for it frightened them so.,, The want port were as follows:—1836, £221; 1837, of suitable terms in the native tongue, led £664 ; 1838, £1460 ; 1839, £631; 1840, the translators, rather absurdly enough, to £795; 1841, £450; 1842, £315; &c. For a introduce Greek and Hebrew words as well time some hopeful signs appeared. In one re­ as English ones, to supply the deficiency. The port the missionaries state, "About half the limited area over which a language was tribe are comfortably settled* in slab huts, spoken considerably diminished the mission­ which they have erected sfor themselves." ary's power of usefulness. Again, '' Nearly all the tribe are beginning In a discussion upon this subject in the to make their own clothes. During the last 'Victoria Church of England Assembly of four months they have made twenty-seven 1856, it was declared, " That the diminu­ pairs of trousers, twelve shirts, twelve coats, tion of numbers in each tribe exposed to twenty-two dresses, and some braces." Sev­ contact with Europeans, and the decadence eral acre* of land were brought into cultiva­ of dialects one by one, depriving missionaries tion. As to intellectual progress, we learn of opportunities of obtaining converts, and that in 1843 "a class of boys who are destroying the value of their acquisition of learning to read in English can answer with the native language, combine to show how readiness more than half the questions in the helpless is the endeavour to convert the ' Conference Catechism.' They have commenced numerous remnants of tribes by an establish­ with geography." In a higher degree their ment at any one place, unless numbers of labours seemed blessed, when they were able different tribes can* be congregated at it and to write, "six or seven might faithfully be trained to the use of one common language." reported as being converted." Andyetvpry It was recommended, therefore, that the use soon after this the signs of rapid decline ap­ of aboriginal languages be discouraged at peared, disputes with other tribes arose, such an establishment. blood was shed, the mission premises were A mission station by the Yarra Yarra, on deserted, the teachers retired, and the sup­ the site of the Botanical Gardens, was formed posed converts were naked vagabonds of the under Mr. George Laoghorne soon after the bush again. arrival of Captain Lonsdale, in 1836. The • A worthy effort was made by the Baptist Yarra establishment under Mr. Langhorne body in Melbourne, in 1845, to gather some was of shqrt continuance. That gentleman native children together. The Rev. Thomas officiated as a sort of protector as well as Ham and Messrs. Lush and Kerr were its missionary, receiving a salary of £150. He active promoters. An establishment was was assisted by Mr. John Thomas Smith, made on a tongue of land at the junction of afterwards the Mayor of Melbourne, who then the Merri Creek and Yarra. Mr. Peacock acted as schoolmaster to the blacks upon a was the firart; teacher ; he was succeeded by stipend of £40 a-year. We have the follow­ Mr. Edgar. In 1846 there were fourteen ing interesting account of the institution, boys and seven girls. The mission lasted from the pen of Mr. Backhouse, the Quaker but a few years; it was found impracticable missionary, in company with his friend Mr.* to retain the children, because of the parents George Washufjgton Walker, in November, wishing them to follow them, and because the 1S37 :—"Last night, we returned with our men sought the fellowship of the coloured friends to the missipnary station, to lodge. young ladies at the mission house. Assaults The reserve for the missionary institution is had been made upon the nunnery, and the of 800 acres. This, though but a small not vestal virgins in a most Sabine manner extent of land for a pastoral country, was had been withdrawn, with the smiling con­ considered sufficient to devote to the object, sent of the abducted. Yet fruits were not atsoshorta distance from the town. The wanting; some acquired a good knowledge buildings are temporary ones, of mud and of arithmetic, &c, and most could read in plaster, with thatched roofs ; they are not our New Testament. The singing was ad- jet sufficiently extensive to accommodate the mwed. Mr. Kerr supplied us with an anec­ Tuition family and twelve native boys who dote of this Merri Creek establishment, '•.

G2 BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAN; which illustrated the maternal feeling. grant of 640 acres, which 1ft selected within the Having brought the children to town for ex- very limits of the mission premises. Re­ • amination at the Baptist Chapel, they were monstrances were urged by Melbourne clergy­ provided with beds in Melbourne that night, men and others, but no effect was produced on because it was too late to go home. But the Government. The neighbouring settlers their absence was soon known at the native pulled down the very fences .which the good camp, and some mischievous person spread men had erected with their own hands; and, the report of the children being kidnapped thoroughly disheartened and despairing, the and conveyed on shipboard en route for white- German missionaries took their departure fellow's country. Early jn the morning the from our shores. town was .filled with lamentations ; ebon At the close of 1858, a renewed effort under Kachels weeping for their children. To better auspices was made by the Moravians. satisfy them, they were brought before the Brothers Spieseke and Hagenauer established youths, when mothers ran with streaming themselves in the- Wimmera district; and eyes toward their offspring, fondled over them, most cordially do we hope that the honour of and exhibited the wildest demonstration of the colony will not again be compromised in joy. any further injustice to so good an under­ In April, 1844, the Church of England taking. Mr. Spieseke is saddened under Society for the Propagation of the Gospel the trials before him. Speaking of the sent, through Lord Stanley, at the suggestion natives, he says—"Their moral condition is of the Melbourne Branch, the following pro­ so depraved and low, it is rather difficult to position to our Sydney authorities — Port get at them." But, with the faith of a Phillip then being a Province of New South Christian, he exclaims—"I am still in hope, "Wales. Lamenting over the moraHlestitu- for I rest on the command of God." tion of Europeans and aborigines, they under­ While staying a while at Neuwied, a took to provide for the religious instruction Moravian settlement on the Rhine, we were of both parties, on condition of receiving a told by a Brother that the Australian mission moiety of support from the Government, and gave them real satisfaction. the use of the so-called village reserves. This We forbear introducing any account of the offer was not accepted by our Colonial rulers, missionary efforts of Messrs. Robinson, Dredge, who questioned the propriety of giving such Sievwright, Parker and Thomas, as that will advantages to one denomination of Christians, more properly appear under the heading of especially the control of village reserves, in the "Protectorate." which townships might some day be estab­ The Church of England Colonial Mission, lished. recently established, has, with judicious In the year 1851, the Rev. F. C. Taeger prudence, selected Yelta as the site of settle­ was sent out by that noblest of missionary ment, it being at the junction of the Barling societies, the Moravian Church. Governor and Murray rivers, where a large population Latrobe, always a friend to religious effort, exists, and by which the aborigines in their and the son of a Moravian clergyman, has­ travels are often passing. Under the zealous tened to render assistance to the project of attention of the honorary secretary, R. H. the German brother. A site for the mission Budd, Esq., it is thought now hopefully pro­ was selected as far distant as possible from gressing. The two missionaries are indefa­ any settlement. An aboriginal reserve, of tigable in labour, though little fruit is yet twenty-five square miles, W*B proclaimed, near observable. Provisions are distributed, with Lake Boga, in the scrubby desert towards the view of collecting the natives. Industrial the Murray Biver. The first difficulty was pursuits, the school, and religious teaching, the excitement of a prejudice against the are the means employed for their social mission, which prevented the natives ever regeneration. Amidst all the discourage­ approaching the place. The neighbouring ments, it is the simple Christian duty still to squatters resented the benevolent visit as an gb forward. Although the writer has pub­ intrusion. The outburst of the gold fever licly advocated the claims of this interesting soon after placed the brethren in more serious mission, he has not failed to declare that trouble. Supplies could only be obtained his hope of success is small indeed, while the from Melbourne$ and, with carriage at £200 drinking-customs of European society oppose a ton, the poverty-stricken missionaries were so formidable a barrier to missionary effort exposed to great hardships—yet they still here and elsewhere. held on to t!his work. A darker day arrived. As the Christian reader'may be'interested Their friend and protector, Mr. Latrobe, left in knowing what has been done in the neigh­ the colony; persecution increased; and an­ bouring colonies as well as in Victoria, for noyances multiplied. One of the richest men in the heathen aborigines, a brief sketch of this Victoria had one of his stations in that locality. history will be now given. He applied for and obtained a pre-emptive Thirty years were allowed to pass in New AND THE BLAG] > OF VICTORIA. 63 Sonth Wales before any thought was directed Though the island, twenty miles long, was to the poor creatures' souls.' Governor but a bed of Band with forests, Europeans Macquarie, about 1818, formed a station came even there to settle, and, as usual, called Black Town, near Richmond, which blasted the prospects of the missionaries* had no lengthened existence. The Wesleyan In South Australia laudable exertions have native institution arose in 1821, but soon been employed for the conversion of the declined. In 1824, a deputation from the aborigines. Two years after the formation London Missionary Society arrived at Sydney, of the colony, the Rev. Mr. Elose, a Mora­ on its way to and from the Interesting South vian from Dresden, established a mission in Sea Missions. The heart of the colonists Adelaide. A flourishingGovernmen t Native was stirred up to do something for their Institution in Adelaide was for several years heathen, and the Lake Macquarie Mission ably and devotedly managed by Mr. Pro* was the result* The Be v. Mr. Threlkeld, a tector Moorhouse, assisted by the resident man of learning and piety, wrought with teacher, Mr. Ross, formerly of the British untiring energy; and at first, with very and Foreign School Society. A Sabbath- satisfactory results. But when* the Govern- school in connection with the .youth for years lneut required a report of the station in 1842, continued under the zealous and kind super­ the lamentable fact became known that but intendence of Mr. Moorhouse, and Mr. W. two of the interesting tribe were alive ! and Peacock, a true friend of the dark race. We so, by the order of Governor Gibbs, the pre­ were often favoured in being present at mises were abandoned. these religious exercises, and aiding ^n the The friends of the Church of England, at interesting movement. A large native school the earnest remonstrances of the ever active also existed at Walkerville. The Rev. W. Archdeacon Broughton, afterwards bishop Schurmann struggled for a long time to or­ of Sydney, formed the Wellington Valley ganise a mission at Port Lincoln. The New !Mission, in 1830. This, like the rest, has Methodist connexion also attempted to proved a failure. Mr. Gunther, the teacher, establish a mission in Adelaide in 1844. The was obliged to say in one of his reports :— Rev. Mr. Meyer, who as well as his fellow- " Among all the young men who, for years countryman, Mr. Schurmann, published a. past, have been more or less attracted to the valuable grammar of the native language, mission, there is only one who affords some opened a school for youth at Encounter Bay satisfaction and encouragement. He has in 1845. But all these institutions tailed in gradually shaken off the yoke and dominion doing any lasting good for the heathen Aus­ of the elderly men, and has banished many tralians. superstitious notions from his mind." The The only existing successful mission (al­ good man could not tell us that he had re­ though all are for a time successful) is that ceived any better natives in their places. of Poonindie, near Port Lincoln, South Aus­ An interesting German Mission was estab­ tralia. Archdeacon Hale suggested that the lished at the Brook Kedron, Moreton Bay, only hope they had was to get the young in 1838. Personally acquainted with one of people away from their friends and tribe, the brethren, the Rev. Mr. Niquet, now and induce them to form a settlement them­ Lutheran clergyman of Ballaarat, we learnt selves. Being a man of thorough Christian from his lips a sad recital of suffering. piety, untiring energy, tact, and prudence, Without resources, away from English resi­ he succeeded. We were in Adelaide in 1851 dents, they endured great privation for several when the attempt was made to withdraw years. Their lives were sometimes jp immi­ the young people from the Adelaide school. nent peril from the inroads of wild black- Several of the lads were married to girls, fellows. Living upon the produce of their placed on shipboard, and hurried off two garden plots, clad partly in skins of the hundred miles, to Port Lincoln. When the kangaroo and the opossum, they persevered tribes discovered this fearful invasion of their for nine years, till most reluctantly they native privileges, this infringement of native discovered that their labours were wholly customs, a violent excitement was produced. lost, and then they retired from their dried- Fierce invectives were uttered against the np Brook Kedron. plotters of this mischief. Women gathered A Roman Catholic mission was formed about the doors of the Institution, abusing under most favourable auspices. Means were all connected with it. All the girls there plentifully supplied by private subscriptions remaining were immediately withdrawn by and Government grants. The establishment their friends into the bush, and a Kaffir was made on Stradbroke Island, Moreton difficulty on a small scale arose. But unde­ Bay, with natives who seldom saw a white terred by threats, and unmoved by the most face among them. Four Italian monks of pathetic remonstrances, the Archdeacon con-, approved learning and zeal undertook the tinned his work. The Government voted minion. But like the rest, this failed also. X200 a-year towards the support of the mission. 64 BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAN; It was at first placed on Boston Island, DISEASES. in the harbour of Port Lincoln, but the want of water necessitated its removal to the Upon the first visit of the whites, th? mainland. Of sixty native colonists of Poon- natives of Port Phillip were found to be a indre twenty-four were married. Land was healthy, happy race—excepting upon the cultivated, flocks were tended, .houses were Murray, where Sturt observed the dread el erected, and comfort reigned. In the lan­ plague for vice. Proximity to tribes acq uainte I guage of Mr. Hawkes, a visitor, we read of with the older settlement of New South Wales • •' a village of civilised aborigines living hap­ may readily account for the appearance of pily together, employing their time in culti­ the Europeans' blight upon that river. Alas! vating a magnificent estate ; and while who is competent to describe the miseries providing by their own labdur for their following the introduction of that disease ? temporal wants,. not neglecting their all-im­ Tribe after tribe disappear ; men are en­ portant spiritual necessities, but daily seeking feebled and degraded, seeking in drink a , to acquire a further knowledge of their relief to their sufferings and self-upbraidings; Creator and Redeemer, and striving to wor­ women are debased, wretched, barren ; and, ship Him in spirit and truth," We like as to the few childrenx Mr. Protector Thomas not to dim the*lustre of this brilliant vision; writes:—"I have known helpless infants but truth compels us to say that, with the brought into the world literally rotten with well-known fact before us that only some this disease." three or four children have been born to Never shall we forget our sorrowful impres­ these %ozen couples during a number of sions at the spectacle of a Murray aborigine years, we have no confidence in the ultimate dying from this loathsome complaint. The 8access of this most interesting of all the poor creature was lying on the ground native missions. beneath a rough wirlie of reeds. Several % Some interest is now excited on behalf of women were crying piteously around him. a mission to the Cooper's Creek natives, who One old man sat sulkily apart, as though behaved so kindly to Captain Sturt and to brooding over the sorrows of his fallen race. poor King. There is more hope of success The unhappy sufferer sought to excite our there than with our blacks of Victoria. compassion by pointing to his sores. Then, Analogies are so. wanting, associations are so closing his eyes with pain, he feebly uttered, unfortunate, native customs are so passively "Me soon tumble down—me soon tumble antagonistic, and the very genius of religion down." k , is so foreign to their natures, that but small Mr. Protector Robinson, when visiting the results of teaching can be expected within new country to the north-west of the Glenel^ two generations. In the meantime the race river, in 1845, referring to this terrible is silently passing away childless ! evil, says :—" Prior to the occupying of this Though the natives may be so far inacces- country by the whites, they were quite free # sible to dogmatic teaching upon the mysteries from syphilitic disease ; a remarkable cir­ of our faith, they can understand the com­ cumstance, and a further proof of its Euro­ forting belief in a future of happiness. Thus, pean origin." The existence of'this disease a female friend of ours was once talking with in the mission schools has tended to counter­ a lubra pensioner. She inquired after the act all the moral agency of the teacher. It health of William, the sick husband of the is a very remarkable fact, recorded by Dr. dark mendicant. "Him plenty bad—him Livingstone, that this disease "dies out in tumble down soon " (d*e) was the sorrowful the interior of Africa without the aid of reply. A question was asked as to the medicine :" and that " the virulence of the future lot of departed aborigines. "Him secondary symptoms seemed to be in exact go plenty long way—come up whitefellow," proportion to the greater or less amount bf answered the lubra. Full of kindness toward European blood in the patient." Would that the wandering, neglected ones, the good lady it had been so in America, Polynesia, and unfolded to the benighted creature the way Australia! of salvation. Rapt in attention, she listened The introduction of drink among them has to all, until she had heard that if she were been the active agency of their physical as good and her husband good she would meet well as moral decline. What avails the Legis­ him in happy heaven. Throwing up her lature passing enactments that the person arms, and with her eyes streaming with tears, who gave the liquor should be fined, or that she exclaimed, "Me see William again, oh 1 the publican lose his license, when such a * that plenty good—very good—me see William thing as convfctionwas hardly heard of? When w —me see William again." The Christianity a native is intoxicated, he lies down, it may of the affections has charms for even opossum- be, upon some damp and exposed situation, clad Australians. with an inflamed body ; the consequence i.*, that pulmonary complaints are engendered. AND THE BLACKS; OF VICTORIA. 65 Doubtless, the practice of a partial civilisa­ turned with his arm recovered. It appeared tion induces much disease. A man dresses that after receiving certain directions from for a while in warm garments, partakes of our the'old men, he was conveyed into some quiet food, and sleeps in a comfortable hut; after retreat by a stream, and assiduously tended a time he goes again into the bush with his by his wife and sister. Teatree bark bandages blanket, his grubs, and his open mia-mia, A were applied to the arm, which were kept con­ serious epidemic appears to have raged before stantly moistened with cold water. Certain me* Batman came, in 1835. dicinal plants were prescribed ; and the only Diseases, are regarded in some shadowy food of which he was allowed to partake was way to be connected with the ill-doings of the pounded root of the edible fern. Flesh divers fairies, brownies or the like. But wounds heal rapidly under their simple treat­ these are vague and impressionless ideas; ment. Dysentery is attacked by fomentations else we should see them, like others, suppli­ of the leaves of the native currant and other cate the spirits whose malignity they feared. plants. Splints and bandages are' employed Yet they did talk of spirits creeping down in accidents. Venereal ulcers are sprinkled trees at night, and stealing away their kidney with alkaline wood ashes. For certain dis­ fat. In all ages epidemics have been ascribed orders the excrements of animals are rubbed to the power of enchantments, exercised by over the head, and other more disgusting some secret or avowed enemy. When Mr. processes are employed for the body. Their Robinson was on the border some seventeen doctors are old, experienced men, though not years ago, a {Hague was troubling the blacks, of the importance of the Indian medicine men. who entreated him to conciliate the neigh­ They have an odd fashion of relieving pain bouring tribe, whose malignity had occasioned by sucking out from the part affected a piece the visitation. Some diseases were believed of wood or bone, the cause of the suffering, to arise from an infringement of their laws and which is always exhibited to the patient; respecting food : thus, the malformation of the charlatanism of some modern quacks is about as clumsy as this, but often equally a child at birth (a very unusual occurrence) efficacious upon believing minds. Sometimes was supposed to be, induced by the stars, or it is called "taking out the grease." We other unearthly beings, because the mother were one day visiting a native camp with a had eaten forbidden meat. friend, and fell in with a man lying down It is pleasing to record the devotion of ill before a fire. Our companion jocosely natives to their sick relatives. We have told him to get his doctor to take out his been often interested in their delicate atten­ grease for him. The other burst out laugh­ tions, their soothing tones, their gentle soli­ ing at this allusion to the old superstition of citude, and their unmistakable anxiety. his tribe, and cried, "No, no; him no Though men are expected to bear pain like doctor." The incantations of these old men Spartans, the women give way to the wildest over the afflicted are, without doubt, of ser­ grief about them. They seek to assuage the vice to many, especially when accompanied sufferings of their friends by rubbing their by friction, owing to the mesmeric action own gums with cutting grass till they bleed induced. Some of their charming processes profuselv. remind one strongly of those employed in They* have cures for many complaints ancient Greece; and marvels as great have which exhibit no small intelligence in the been wrought by them as by the chants of much despised aborigines. Rheumatisms are the Thessalian maids. A description is relieved by shampooing and lacerations; and given of the operation of the native physician inflammations by bleeding and by cold water upon an ague subject, which is interesting applications; no female is bled. A sacred and suggestive. The woman was stripped of crystal was the instrument for the lancet her blanket, and carried by two men to and among the Bakwains of Africa. A goat's horn fro over a fire. Then the doctor put a string serves for cupping. Wounds are covered round her waist, and holdiug the enols, with a plaster or poultice of mud and ashes, gently pulled her toward him, repeating a or in extreme cases are cauterised. Ampu­ charm. He then gazed earnestly in her face, tation is effected by ligatures; poisons from catching her eye, still uttering a charm, to snakes are sucked out after the ligature has produce a magnetic influence. Going up to Veen applied above the wound ; a vegetable her, he began to employ friction on her body. diet is prescribed while under treatment. A Others came, and joined in the universal medical gentleman once saw a man upon shampooing. Then catching her up, they whom a tree had fallen ; one arm was so rolled her in rugs, laid her before the fire, crushed that he urged the sufferer to submit and left her to an undisturbed repose. to amputation as the only means of saving 1,1 ****!, "Nebber mind," said the other, How make him well by-and-bye." ml weekB' absence, the man re-

J ^ 66 BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAK ;

DflATH AND BURIAL. of an infant, the shrivelled mummied body, became thus the object bf regard. * A similar We have, on more than one occasion, been practice prevails among other nations. The present at the death of Australian aborigines. widow among the Carrier Indians, we are Mingled with natural and genuine sorrow, told, thus bears about the ashes of her de­ there was some of the artificial character, as ceased husband for a certain time, at the in the hired mourners of the Jews, &c., and expiration of which she piously places them the black-craped concern of more modern in a box, and is considered free to accept of days. We hare witnessed a party of women another husband. In Western Australia thus sitting to mourn. With their heads sometimes the beard of the deceased is cut shaven, like the American Indians, with pipe­ off and burned, and the ashes rubbed upon clay on their faces, and a weighty mass of the foreheads of surviving friends. that material on their heads, they leaned We were once at a native camp upon a over one another, and expressed their feelings Queen's birthday, at Adelaide, when the in a low musical chant, in deep spasmodic aborigines were favoured with new blankets, sobs, and in abundant crying; the tears and regaled with " plenty tuck out." Noisy making their way through the plaster, pro­ merriment was the order of the day. By- duced a ludicrous appearance of the face. and-bye a woman came slowly into the Unprovided with civilised handkerchiefs, the camp, and addressed a few words to a party ladies would relieve their features from the seated round the evening fire. Immediately effects of natural discharges at the weeping great concern was expressed on the counte­ season, by appliances in the shape of sticks nances of the group. There was no violent or stones. Now and then they would take excitement, but the evidence of genuine, breath, resume their cheerfulness, have a deep-seated grief. We quietly inquired the chat and laugh, then compose! their counte­ cause, and learned that tidings had arrived nance, wail once more, and fall to at tear- of the death of a relative. There sat this shedding. Occasionally the real sorrewers mourning group before us, a man and three would throw hot ashes on their heads, scratch women. The first, with his head upon his their faces, and cat themselves with flint or chest, exhibited but silent emotion. The quartz. Women would apply a fire-stickt o others around him leaned toward him, weep­ the fleshy parts of their arms and legs. The ing abundantly, and in a low, chanting tone men would cut their beards, and put white seemed to be rehearsing their sorrows, or the paint upon their breasts. The camp was virtues of their friend. A suspension of deserted upon a death. It is the practice hilarity took place in the camp. Some never to allude, in any way, to the deceased came near and wept with the mourners. one, nor mention his name. This has been Others looked sad and sympathising, though foolishly set down to a want of feeling; it never obtruding by officious words of comfort is rather a proof of deep feeling. We were In about half-an-hour the party separated, present when a friend asked a woman after and the man lit his pipe and smoked in a certain person, not knowing that he was silence on the spot. dead. The lubra laid her hand upon kis The forms of their burials varied accord­ arm, looked kindly in his face, and said in a ing to circumstances and the tribe* When plaintively reproachful tone, " Speak plenty the ground was soft, the body was interred low; no you say the like of that; blackfellow in a hole dug with sticks. Sometimes it was plenty growl." When instances are related burnt, and the ashes preserved. Barrington of mothers carrying about with them the said the early natives of Port Jackson buried remains of some beloved child, we may be the young, but burnt the bodies of the old sure that the natural affections at this time and middle-aged. Captain Hunter writes, of sorrow are in full exercise with them as —" The dead they certainly burn." On the with us. Lower Murray it was placed on a wooden A story is told of a strong, athletic, healthy stage, and exposed after the fashion of the woman, who suddenly received the news of Parsees of India and the Red Indians of her son being shot by the whites. Such was Canada West. Some, again, thrust their the effect of her bitter anguish that she soon relatives in a hollow tree or a wombat hole, became an aged-looking, bent, and wretched or bind them among the branches. The object. Pipe-clayed all over, she wandered Bakwains buried in huts for fear the Baloi about a hopeless and stricken one. She was or witches should disinter the corpse, to use often seen sitting apart from the tribe, some part of it in their diabolical arts. The weeping and moaning in sorrow. Siah-Posh of India, a people like our blacks, It was this sympathy for the lost that gave expose their dead in a box on the top of a origin to the custom of carrying about with hill. them some memorial of the dead. The ashes The Portland natives, according to Mr. of a corpse, a bone, or even, as in the case Blair, used to strew leaves and brushwood AND THE BLACKS OF VICTORIA. 67 over their shallow graves. The western whole was an enclosure of sticks, plaited ttibes placed branches and grass over the reeds, worn out garments, and string, to body to prevent the contact with soil. keep the cattle from intruding upon this Mounds were often constructed. The En­ cemetery. Mr. Hinkins relates a singular counter Bay people sewed up the mouth and feature in the customs of the middle Murray nose before interment, and burnt still-born tribes. A man had died while a number of children. On part of the Murray, the intes­ his friends were absent on a hunting expedi­ tines were taken out and examined after tion. Upon their return, and hearing of the death, when they were replaced with green loss, they immediately attacked those who leaves. The head was laid to the west, as had remained behind, for no other reason among the Indians. The Gipps Land wild than they had let the man die while they blackfellows are recorded to have often muti­ were away. lated the corpse, burying the entrails, and preserving bony portions as relics. Some few bodies have been found thrown on the LANGUAGE. top of the Exocarpus, or native cherry tree. The Guiana Indians similarly expose the Humboldt has declared that " Language body, but only till the skeleton appears, is the outward appearance of the intellect of when they collect the bones in a basket, and nations." If so, the philosopher would not preserve them. On the contrary, their be disposed to place the Australians low in neighbours of the Rio Negro disinter the the order of humanity. Their language is corpse after a month, burn it, and drink the rich in material, good in analogy, and uni­ ashes to receive the virfties of the deceased. form in etymological structure. We pause Freycinet, in a plate of his work on New not to inquire into the philological enigma; Holland, gives a march to a native funeral. for, as says the "Encyclopedia Metropolis Two men carry the body, wrapped up in bark tana:"—"The Goths, the Saxons, the and corded round; others, armed, precede Greeks, the Latins (and we would add, the or follow. The wife follows the corpse, Australians), in forming the schemes of con­ naked and weeping. jugation, were probably impelled by princi­ We were present at the funeral obsequies of ples in the human mind, the very existence a Murray visitor on the banks of the Torrens. of which they hardly suspected." Mr. ex- The body was placed in a sitting position, Protector Parker remarks upon the number after the manner of the White Nile Blacks and variety of combinations, "slight varia­ and of all the Indian tribes from Canada to tions in the affixes expressed important dif­ Patagonia. The women remained to weep. ferences of meaning." There are many The men, adorned with pipeclay, hurried dialects among our blacks. But this is their corpse to the sepulchre they had pre­ readily explained by the unsocial nature of a pared. The tomb was not above four feet hunter's life; his country is mapped out deep ; branches of trees and old clothes were into, detached territories for the sake of pro­ laid on the mound, and small fires made round curing a living, as among the American about. A grand corrobory took place in the Indians, &c. In proportion to the consoli­ evening. Mr. Eyre speaks of the Murray dation of a people, so is the diminution of tribes extracting the entrails, and fillingthei r these dialects. Thus, in Timor there are place with green leaves. Upon examination forty; in savage Borneo, many hundreds; of the caul fat, the evil work of a sorcerer in Celebes, four ; and in populous civilised was known by the appearance of a scar. Java, two dialects. Mr. ex-Protector Dredge. Many of their graves are bounded by well- wrote, in 1841 : "Tribes separated from each other by comparatively limited spaces, cut trenches, after the fashion of the ancient scarcely retain the means of common con­ Etruscans, to drain off the rain. Occasion­ versational intercourse." Again, the custom ally tents are constructed over the graves to of never repeating the name of a deceased preserve them from falling showers. We friend, which may be the appellation of some have seldom been so deeply interested as upon common object, necessitates the creation of the occasion of a visit to the burial-place of new forms of expression. Dobrizhoffer ! a tribe allied to the Murray natives, but at noticed the same thing among the Apibonians | a distance of forty miles from the banks of of South America, as he tells us :—"The the river. There were eight or nine rude word Nihirenak, a tiger, was exchanged for edifices of reeds and brushwood, eight or Apanigehak; Peu, a crocodile, for Kaeprhak; ten feet high, held together by several cir­ and Kaama, Spaniards, for Rikel;—because cuits of native twine. Under each dome those words bore some resemblance to the were two or more grave mounds, covered names of Apibone lately deceased." with old rags, leaves, &c. There were walks between and around these mausoleums, which Mr. Moorhouse, the excellent Protector of were kept clean by the tribe. Around the Aborigines in South Australia, thus sums •

BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAN; up the points of grammatical similarity is no want of words for expression in Aus* among the Australian dialects:—"They have tralia; thus we ha*ve in Victoria, kowantenan, suffixes, or particles, added to the terminal a toe; wyebotenan, a little toe; and barbun- parts of words, to express relation \ dual tenan, a big toe. Burmbo, new moon; bulgo, forms of substantives, adjectives and pro­ half-moon; tuandeboop, full moon. Yarra, nouns ; limited terms, being only five, for or hair, means flowing^—thenc e applied to time, distance, and number ; no sibilant, or a river; yarra nunduk, flowing from the hissing. sounds ; no articles ; no auxiliary chin, is the beard; yarra montubernn, is a verb; no relative pronoun; no prepositions; moustache; and yarra myng, the eyebrows. no distinctions in gender ; no distinct form In the philological work of the United of the verb to express the passive voice." States Exploring Expedition, there is a great The remarkable analogy of construction of deal of interesting matter collected. It was language with such dissimilarity of words obtained by Mr. Horatio Hale chiefly from has struck many; the explanation, as the Australian grammarian, Mr. Threlkeld. afforded by the Rev. — Schurmann, German One singularity was observed in the inter­ missionary among the Encounter Bay tribes, changeable character of a and u, e and i, is so interesting that we give it entire:— o and u. "In 300 words," says Mr. Hale, " If we suppose," he says, " what appears to "of the Kamilarai, written down for the be very probable, that the scattered native pronunciation of a native, the letter o is not tribes of this continent started from one once used, and the letter e but four times. point, and were originally one tribe, they On the other hand, in 200 words of the would, of course, speak one language. As Wiradurei, while th%© is found sixty-seven they spread over the face of the country they times, the u occurs but six; the e also is would naturally, in the course of time, more much more frequent than the i." A pecu­ or less corrupt the pronunciation, and change liar form of dual, in which the nominative the signification of many words; would forget and accusative are combined, is used some­ old, and invent new terms for many things; times in conjunction with the verb, forming till at last the most distant tribes seemed to compound dual pronouns; as, banum, I-thee; speak almost radically different languages. banoun, I-her; binun, thou-him ; binoon, Hundreds, and perhaps thousands of years, thou-her ; biloa, he-thee ; bintoa, she-thee. may have elapsed during that process; but There are odd arrangements in the verb of no invasion, or amalgamation with a foreign the Kamilarai, a dialect of New South Wales. nation, having taken place, consequently no There are seven conjugations, ending in— fresh elements introduced into their social aligu, iligu, agigu, igigu, uygigu, angigu, life; their minds retained the impression of ingigu. The very next tribe, on the con­ the original stamp, they could not divest trary, have but four; ending in—aliko, themselves of the forms of their mental kiliko, biliko, riliko. There are also fifteen intercourse inherited from their forefathers, tenses in the Kamilarai. Thus, of the Future, or, which is the same thing, of the gram­ for instance, they have Proximate Future ; matical laws of their language. Hence the as, bumalgiri, I shall soon strike; Instant surprising uniformity and regularity of Future; as, bumalawagiri, I shall imme­ grammatical structure amidst a Babylonic diately strike ; Crastinal Future ; as, buuial- confusion of dialects." yariawagiri, I shall strike to-morrow ; Future As an illustration of the difference, the Preterite; as, bumegiri, I shall have struck. Rev. Mr. Ridley gives Heb. iii. 4 in the They have no especial form for the Passive. native tongue. According to the Rev. W. Verbal nouns are employed. In the West I Threlkeld, the Lake Macquarie tribe would Australian language six tenses are particu­ say—" Yantin kokkere wittima taraito larised. | koreko:' wontoba Noa yantin wittima Eloito As an illustration of the remarkable Noa ; or, Every house built some man ;— diversity of tongues in Australia, we quote I whereas, He everything built: God is He." from Capt. King, the distinguished explorer Mr. Ridley gives the Bar won; as—" Kanungo of the coasts of New Holland during several I kundida gir giwirdi gimbilda: ngirma kan­ years. That gentleman observes :—*' In a I ungo gimbilda gir Baiyame ngirma; or, comparative vocabulary of the languages of j Every house man some built; He everything four different parts of the coast which I built; God is He." In some dialects there formed, the only one of forty words that isj are male nouns with corresponding female similar in all is that for the eye." ones; as, Bandur, Bandurum; Barang, Almost all words end in vowels. There aft Barangan; Murri, Mata. With all their five vowels, and sixteen consonants. Theiw oddities, they had not, as in the Oarib lan­ is a want of the c, /, j, 8, x, or z. Thd guage, the same thing called uniformly one nasal letter ng mostly begins syllables inJ word by the men, and another by the women, stead of ending, as in English. The ng iq literally constituting a double tongue. There more common in the north than the soutl AKD THE BLACKS OF VICTORIA. 69 along with more consonantal sounds. Mr. Singular. Strntt speaks ofr a tribe having but two . Buntan bang....*....I strike. numerals ; making compounds of these, thus —— hi Thou strikest. —enea, one ; petcheval, two; petchevalenea, noa He strikes. three ; petcheval petcheval, four, &c. The bountoa She strikes. persons and cases of nouns are expressed by ngali This strikes. inflexions at the end, formed by combining nyaloa That strikes (near to) the pronoun with the word. Thus, accord­ • ngala That strikes (spoken ing to Mr. Parker, we have Lar, house; of). lar-knak, my house; lar-kneu, your house ; Dual. lar-knook, his or her house ; lar-knak-e, in Buntan bali Thou and I strike. my house ; lar-ye-knak* at my house. The ball.noa He and I strike. following from the Murray dialect, will show bali bountoa.She and I strike. the declension of nouns : — bula Ye two strike. bulabuloara.Thej two strike. Nominative: Plural. Meru, man. Buntan nge eu We strike together. Merakul, the two men. nura Ye strike. Mera, men. bara They strike. Active Nominative : The infinitive in Victoria ends always in eit% The possessives on the Yarra Yarra are + Merinnanna, man. thus made :—Murrumbeek, I; Murrumbeik, Genitive : mine ; Murrumbinner, you; Mmrumbianner, Merining, of man. yours; Murrumaner, we ; Murrumbunarter, Merinnimakul. • ours. Gaubo, one, becomes gauboden for Merinnarango. once. Dative: As further illustrations of the language of Merininnanno, to man. the Port Phillip blacks, we give the "Lord's Merinnakullamanno. Prayer" :— Merinnaramanno. Marmanella Marman wellainer narlunboon karboit ; nerrino murrumbinner koongee Accusative : boundup ; woman trangbulk murrunbinner Meru, man. mongon tandowring beeker. Umarleek nur- Merakul, nin yellenwa tanganan; bar narlarnarny Menu nurnin nowdin murrumarter narlarnarny Ablative: ungo : bar kunark nurnin watticar koolin Merinni, with man. yellenwa nier nillana womeit." Merinnakullamanno. Part of the first chapter of Genesis is thus Merinnaramanno. rendered by a missionary :— Merinnainmudl, from man. 1 Ganbronin Pundgyl Marman monguit Merinnakullamammudl. woorworrer bar beek. Merinnaramainmudl. 2 Nier beek nowdin netbo, beek tando w- The adjective is thus compared on the ring tarkate ; nier boit, nier mill, nier Victorian northern boundary: worpippi, taul, nier turrong, nier uungo : bar great; worpippinni, greater. On the Yarra boorundara kormku bumile. Bar Moorup they add un for the comparative ; and unun Pundgyl warrebounk narlumbanan para. for the superlative. Tourlintablun, lazy, is 3 Bar Pundgyl Marman rombak, womear tournurnenun, for very lazy. The verbs are yangainut, bar yangamut woanan. inflected by the prefixed pronoun. Thus, 4 Bar Pundgyl Marman nangeit yangamut, Ngttpe terrjn, I stand; ngurru terrin, bar tombak boundup nge, bar Pundgyl thou standest; ninni tcrrin, he stands. Marman borungnergurk yangamut boor­ The Chinese have similarly, Ngo ngai, I undara. love; ni ngai, thou lovest; ta ngai, he 5 Bar Pundgyl Marman nerreno yangamut loves. Among the Murray pronouns are yellenwo, bar boorundara borundut; bar —Xgape, I; ngurru, thou; ngedlu, we two; krunguine bar baubaneram nerreno ngupul, you two; ngennu, we; ngunnu, gaubronin yellenwa, you; ninni, he. Postfixes are employed 10 Bar Pundgyl Marman nerreno bidderup for prepositions : thus, Ityarnungko, from ; beek, bar wotonno paru ntrreno warreen- taiapparnalityarnungko, from lips. The warreen ; bar Pundgyl nangeit^ooding conj unc nge marnameek. The ^^^^^^^^^Hn be While pundgyl is spirit, the word marman thus e^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^B>us or father is appended, to constitute the word grama for God. Mr. Thomas, who gives pundgyl 70 BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAN; for God, allows narroon for spirit, lambar- Although our peopb were not quite like moor for ghost, and bullgenkarnee for devil, the first men of JSschylus, * or the ugly one. having eyes to see they saw not.' • The following is a hymn sung at the Merri "XJet we dare afiirra some likeness in other Creek School to the tune of the "Old respects :— Hundredth :"— Like dreamy phantoms, A random life they led from year to year, Ptmdgyl Marman, bar mar-na-roeek All blindly floundering: on. No craft they knew,— Nun-guk kub-ber-don mur-rum-beek No sign they knew to mark the wintry year; Mong-der-re-wat koo-lin net-bo The flower strewn spring, and the fruit-laden Tan-dow-ring koon-gee mur-rum-bo. summer, Mal-yeng-erk par-do-gur-ra-bun Uneal endured, unregistered, returned. Tu-duk yar-rite ko-dun-un-un One of their own* traditions of origin is Ner-rem-bee bo-run, yel-len-wa thus stated. In the primeval times the earth Nul-wor-then bo-pup Koo-lin-ner. existed in darkness, with birds and beasts Ner-doit ye-men-ner mur-rum-beek upon it. Once upon a time a dispute arose Lack-boo-ding myng-ner kar-gee-ick between two birds, the emu and the native Bar ner-doit yan-na-ner war-reet companion ; when the latter, in indignation Kar-gee nger-ren-er mur-rum-beek. at the other's abuse, seized one of her eggs, and threw it into the air a considerable dis­ tance. The egg broke, and out buret the ORIGIN OF OUR NATIVES. sun. Directly the world became illumined? a number of the lower animals were suddenly- Consulting'with Simon, the son of Jagga converted into men and women. But this Jagga, the friend of Batman, upon this may be no more true than the legend which abstruse subject, we obtained the following accounts for the early settlement of Ireland ; opinion:—"Blackfellow always this country. namely, that three men and fifty-threewomen , No like whitefellow, walk plenty, go new not being able to get into the %ark, built a country." Mr. Moorhouse, of Adelaide, like ship at the instigation of the devil, and were the Rev. Mr. Schurmann, has a philological directed by that personage in safetv to Bantry theory of their origin. Observing the singular Bay. uniformity of terms in various dialects for The Polish traveller among them writes : the two first persons, he supposes a party "Their origin is involved in impenetrable 'landing in North Australia, and separating obscurity ; and such other* as have attempted in pairs. But it is very remarkable that to trace their migrations, or to detect the while the tribes of North and South Aus­ links which connect them with any of the tralia practise circumcision, those of Vic­ predominant and primitive races of mankind, toria, Western Australia, and New South have not succeeded more satisfactorily than "Wales are ignorant of the rite. a naturalist would, who might attempt to The uniformity as well as singularity of account for the existence of the marsupials structure of language, inclines us to apply and the ornithorhynchus in Terra Australia.'' the words of Professor Vater, of Leipzig, when Dr. Ross goes so far as to say : " At no showing the unity of the tongues of the former period have we the slightest reason to American Indians :—" Such unity, such believe that they ever existed in a superior direction or tendency, compels us to place the state of society." As Dr. Livingstone regards origin in a remote period, when one original the Bushmen as the only real nomades of tribe or people existed, whose ingenuity and Africa, so would we esteem our aborigines as judgment enabled them to excogitate or the early as well as the later nomades of the invent such intricate formations of language further East. as could not be effaced by thousands of years, The question is asked, has Australia no nor by the influence of zones or climates." monuments of the past, as the ' Cyclopean The language of the Australians is said to be walls of Europe, the cave homes of Asia, or most nearly identified with that of the the rude temples of America ? We reply, nomadic Tartars, while others connect it with there are a few, a very few. but just sufficient the Sanscrit. There is, at any rate, sufficient to indicate either their former connection to show that our race are not a separate with some sort of civilisation, or else that creation, as some will have it. Dr. Thomas another race had visited if not dwelt among Young asserts that if three words coincide in them at a remote period, and been long since two different languages, their identity of utterly extirpated. Mystic circles have been relation is ten to one ; that "six words noticed on the tops of hills, and some of would give 1700 to one ; and eight near stones, after the Druidical fashion. Captain 100,000." Humboldt discovered 170 words Hunter saw a mound in 1789, which he thus in common between the old and new con­ describes :—" It was quite rocky on the top ; tinents. the stones were all standing perpendicularly AND THE BLACE£ S OF VICTOBIA. • 71 on their ends, were in long bnt narrow pieces; I beyond their present limits, even across the some of them three, four, or five sides, in Pacific islands. Mr. Williams, the mis- miniature resembling the Giant's Causeway." [ sionary, thus put tje matter:—" The hypo- Certain caves have been discovered in ; thesis I would venture to suggest is, that the various parts of the coast, on the walls , negro race inhabited the whole of the islands of which remarkable figures are drawn. \ prior to the arrival of the Malay Polyne- Flinders, King, an4 Grey saw these in various • sians; that the latter being a fierce and parts of North Australia. At Ryalstone, treacherous people, succeeded in conquering New South Wales, forty miles from Mudgee, and extirpating them from the smaller is a cave with the bottom paved. Among islands and groups, but were unable to otber impressions are those of a number of effect this in the larger ones." He adds, red hands; some with the forefinger cut off, " The origin of this nation is involved in others crossing one another. In one cave, much mystery." In New Zealand, in spite Grey, in 15° S. lat., found figures with red of the mixture of tribes, there, is still an garments down to the ankles, and a sort of inferior and a darker race, according to glory round their heads. Others have Dieffenbach, an aboriginal people, who were coloured bandages round their heads. Some held more or less in a state of slavery. women, also, are depicted with eyes, but no It has been the custom for travellers to mouths ; one has a blue head-dress. Among dilate upon the deformities and repulsive as­ the buildings of ancient Egypt and India, pect of those aborigines, forgetting the maxim and the monuments of the ancient Peruvians of Buffon, *' All those people who live miser­ and Mexicans, the red cap and red hand are ably are ugly ;" as was found to be the case common, and evidently refer to some uni­ formerly with the half-starved creatures of versally spread mystery—some lost free­ Galway and the Hebrides. "When provided masonry. With these sketches are those of with sufficient food, and unmolested by the kangaroos, snakes, fish,&c . At Gape Schank, presence of a superior and bloodthirsty race, Western Port* at York, Western Australia, they are not seen to be the physically de­ at the coast by Newcastle and Port Jackson, graded beings thus caricatured. But we will and at Cape Bridgewater, west of Portland, now give the reports of travellers upon this similar caves of ochre drawings are to l>e singular, ancient and widely distributed race. seen. To all inquiries the native has the M. Lesson, when in New Guinea, fell in same answer:—•• Blackfellow make it plenty with the Endamenes, the Alforians, or true long while ago before whitefellow come." blacks of the interior. •' They live," says he, But such observations led Mr. Miles, of "in the most miserable manner. The Sydney, to say:—"The races of Australia Papuas described them to us as of ferocious have been in communication with the most character, cruel and gloomy; possessed of no early races." arts, and passing their whole lives in seeking There is no record of a people raising subsistence in the forests. Those whom we themselves from barbarism; but isolation, saw had a repulsive physiognomy; fiat noses, and removal from civilising agencies, will cheek bones projecting, large eyes, prominent soon red ace a community to a low condition teeth, long and slender legs, very black and of mind. Dr. Beke informs us that, "The thick hair, rough and shining without being •culture or degradation of our aboriginal race woolly; their beards were very coarse and will be in proportion to the geographical thick. An excessive stupidity was stamped distance of its residence from the common upon their countenances, probably the effect centre of its dispersion/' If so, our dark of slavery. These savages, whose skin is of friends must have come a long way from home. a very deep dirty brown, or black colour, go naked ; they make incisions upon their arms The boomerang discovered in the tombs of and breasts, and wear in their noses pieces ancient Egypt forms almost the only link of wood nearly six inches long.'' The black connecting them with the civilisation of the race of the mountains of Indo-China, although world. surrounded by idolatrous nations, have no We will now bring forward some state­ idea of God or religion, any more than the ments about the neighbours of the Austra­ Australians. It is the same with the wild lians, to show the relation between them. men of the woods of Malaya. In Darnley It may be premised that there are two Isle of Torres Straits, the men were seen dark races in the Indian Seas, north of New with scars on their shoulders, the septum Holland, one o£ whom is but a mixed race of their nose bored, and going quite naked« of Malays and the aboriginal inhabitants. The women often shaved their heads, as their The reader of Mr. Crawf urd's learned work sisters of New Holland. The Arru Island*- upon the Indian Archipelago will gain much mistook some Australians for natives of valuable information upon these people. It more inaccessible parts of their own cor is more than probable that this primitive The Semang of Malacca have curly, people extended eastward and westward, far 72 BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAS; hair, thick lips, flat noses, and black skins. person of another tribe. They hav^e no The live in rude, moveable huts of leaves and religion. The girl, wjien sought in marriage, branches, and are fed from the chase. The flies to the forest: if found by the lover, she Ombay are a black cannital race, with flat accepts of his protection." There is a similar noses and thick lips, in the interior of Timor. race in Tasso. Mr. Earl talks of the Orang-Benna, of Borneo, After these statements, we are the more as "the tribes which reside in the depths of impressed with the sentiments of the learned the forests." These wild men of that island Sir Stamford Baffles : "Whatever opinion are said by some to live in the trees, not to may be formed as to the identity of origin cultivate the ground, and to be incapable of between the natives inhabiting these islands being reduced to slavery. The Malays have and the neighbouring peninsula, the striking only one method of retaining them in their resemblance in person, features, language, service : they cut off a foot, and fix the and customs which prevails throughout the stump in a bamboo stick, so as to hinder whole archipelago, justifies the conclusion their running away to the woods again. that the original inhabitants issued from the Latham thus describes the Protonesian branch same sources, and that the peculiarities into of the Keleenonesian blacks:—They are which it is at present distributed are the always found in the interior or more imprac­ result of long separation, local circumstances, ticable parts, and always as an inferior popu­ and foreign intercourse." lation. From this we infer that they are the One certain bond of brotherhood thus older occupants." He elsewhere refers to exists among the dark races of Australia and their isolation as of far earlier date than the Indian Seas; but whence they originally their neighbours. sprang, and what circumstances have arisen The same kind of people still dwell among to render them thus scattered over thousands the fastnesses of the Philippine Islands. of miles, through seventy degrees of latitude, Many of them are in Isja de los Negros. The almost wholly divested of any association with Abbate Bernardo de la Fuente is our autho­ other races, is one of the many mysteries of rity upon these Aigta or Blacks. "The said the animal economy which modern philosophy race of negroes," writes the good priest, has not penetrated,«and the lost keys to which "seem to bear upon themselves the maledic­ no time nor research may be able to recover. tion of heaven, for they live in the woods and How can we reconcile these things ? mountains like beasts, in separate families, It may appear that this opens up the great and wander about, supporting themselves by question of the Origin of Man. But without the fruits which the earth spontaneously entering upon that important inquiry, we offers to them ; it has not come to my know­ are constrained to admit that the generally ledge that a. family of true negroes ever took received chronology of six thousand years up their abode in a village. If the Mahometan since the creation of man, or four thousand inhabitants (Malays) make slaves of them, since a deluge destroyed all but one family, they will rather submit to be beaten to death can be no longer maintained. As a very tnan undergo any bodily fatigue; and it is extended period is granted for the formation impossible by force or persuasion to bring them of the crust of the earth,—even millions of to labour. I have ever maintained with years for strata of the most modern date,— these negroes a gentle and friendly inter­ we must be willing to extend our ideas of course, boping that the grace of the Lord time, with regard to the existence of human might fructify in their hearts," Would that beings here. As Christian men see no all had imitated the conduct of the kind- danger to the real authority of scripture and hearted padre! But his very want of success the stability of religion now in believing the as a missionary among them, in contrast with one, so will they eventually cease to be the ordinary Philippine islanders, strikingly alarmed in receiving the other statement. reminds us of the Protestant enterprise No geologist doubts the high antiquity of among the Polynesians of the South Seas, certain rocks in which the bones of man have being unlike the mission failure among the been found. There is good evidence of the poor Australians and Tasmanians. Indians of North America having been there Another writer thus characterises these as a building people for several thousand Negritos : "The creatures seemed to be a years. The borings of the Nile bed reveal large kind of monkey rather than human a condition of rude civilisation in a land that beings." They have large bellies, lank we know to have flourished with a refined extremities, but brilliant eyes. They wear and learned people for five or seven thousand a piece of the rind of a tree around their years. The gravel of north-eastern France, • waists, when clothed at all. They congregate the loess of the Rhine, the clay of South in small tribes, live by the chase, and sleep England, each bear witness to man living around the fire. They revenge the natural along with the elephant, rhinoceros, and death of friends by the slaughter of the first hippopotamus in northern Europe. Beneath f AKD THE BLACKS OF VICTORIA. 73 the streets of Qlasgow have been disinterred 5 £. Th e Neanderthal was 8 for the one, and the rude canoe of the aborigines, who fished 6} for the. other. The Australian skulls a in the waters there. In the valley near were respectively, 7T o and 5f, 7£ and 5|. Stirling, at the depth of many feet below The longitudinal arc, from the nose backward, the surface, have been discovered the skele­ of the Neanderthal was only 12 inches ; tons of whales and the works of man that of the Engis 13f ; those of the Austra­ together. The human remains of- Scotland lians came between these two measurements. alone bear testimony to an antiquity of An average English skull is 13 j longitudinal many thousands of years. arc, 7g longitudinal extreme, and 5£ trans­ The walls of Egypt declare that the various verse. distinctions of colour and feature, appertaining It is remarkable that -their incisors have to the African and Asiatic races now, were the same inclination to be round, as is ob­ known at least four thousand years ago. Sir served in the teeth of the extinct Guanines Charles Lyell may then well exclaim :—" If of the Canaries, and the extinct race of ancient the various races were all descended from a Scotland. single pair, we must allow for a vast series How long, then, the Australians have of antecedent ages, in the course of which dwelt beneath the shade of the gum trees, the long continued influence of external cir­ and plucked the curious fruit of the cherry- cumstances gave rise to peculiarities, increased tree, we have no means of determining. It in many successive generations, and at length is enough for us to know that they were Jere fixed by hereditary transmission.,, long before Abraham went down into Egypt, Assuming, therefore, the correctness of or the most ancient walls of Nineveh or the theory giving so extended a period to the Thebes were raised. The first of our philo­ history of man, we are able more easily to sophical geologists ventures to speak of the account for the striking similarity of the " complete isolation for tens of tlwusands of * true aborigines of the Asiatic continent and centuries of tribes* in a primitive state of islands to our Australians. barbarism." The Norman familks of Eng­ We have but to suppose that in the long land must yield, in their pride, tne palm to lapse of ages past there was no sea dividing our sans cutotte neighbours of Australia ; New Guinea and Sumatra from New Holland, and even the ancient lineage of Israel sinks and none separating those islands from the into a modern date indeed before the hoary Indies, within and without the Ganges. At age of the dark sons of the forest here. that epoch of the world's history, the dark Whence came the race ? Long lost to all Papuan race existed alone in that quarter. The rest of human kind. Slowly did certain low lands become covered They lived secluded savages, with the advancing waters. As part sank To art and progress blind. to be the bed of the ocean again, the higher E'en the productions of their land, lands alone would remain, in isolated por­ So different appear, tions, the home of the human inhabitants. That wise heads have declared, it once Successive elevations and depressions gave Fell from the moon down here ! the present physical aspect of the south The platypus, a quadruped : eastern hemisphere, and left the ancient Egg-laying, with duck's bill; dark-skinned people separated as we find While creatures elsewhere fossil-known, them. Our seas and forests nil. It is an interesting speculation to consider The flora puzzled botanists- how far our black friends are like those Such odd forms met their eye : aboriginal inhabitants of Northern Europe, When cherries carried stones outside, who now and then get unearthed from And grass-stems floweredhigh . amidst their cotemporaries, the hyena, bear, It cannot then surprise us more, ' wild ox, elephant, hippopotamus, &c. The men should curious be; Two of the most ancient skulls yet found True aborigines they are, are those of the Engis and Neanderthal, so Of dark antiquity. called from the places from which they were taken, The Neanderthal is the lowest type yet discovered, being no great remove from CONFLICTS OF WHITES ASD BLACKS. the ape family, according to Professor Huxley. That from the cave of Engis, though quite With their jealousy at the least intrusion as ancient, and, perhaps, many thousands upon their hunting grounds by a neighbour­ OK years old, has an aspect that will bear ing tribe, we cannot believe the Port Phillip comparison with many skulls now. Two blacks, any more than those of other parts of small Australian skulls were examined with Australia, regarded our coming with com­ them. The Engis showed a longitudinal placency, and the occupation of their country txtreme of 7 j inches, with a transverse of by our flocks with satisfaction. The truth t

74 BUCKLEY, THE W ILD WHITE MAN; is, their conduct towards us in oar weakness wounded by the natives of Van Diemen's wm moat generous and praiseworthy. And, Land, and bore a deadly hatred against all although isolated instances of ruthless attack • blacks. Another shepherd about this time occurred at an $arly period, with no obviously bound a native girl to a tree to secure her apparent causes for such, yet we should be while he was away with his flock. Contriving •cautious in condemning a people with whose to escape, the poor thing fled to Buckley for language and motives we were then so protection. He told Mr. Gellibrand, who ignorant, particularly with the knowledge immediately sent the rough rascal back to -of highly exciting reasons of complaint on Van Diemen's Land. other occasions. Mr. Eyre, late Lieutenant- The next attack was an unaccountable one. Governor of New * Zealand, and an able Mr. Franks, formerly of Green Ponds, in authority upon any question respecting the Tasmania, had settled near Mr. Cotterill. aborigines of New Holland, has well observed: Always kind to the aborigines, he had no fear " Our being in their country at all is, so far of aggression. Some callers at the home­ as their ideas of right and wrong are con­ stead discovered the gentleman and James cerned, altogether an act of intrusion and Smith, his overseer, lying quite dead, and •aggression." the premises rifled of their contents. Ac- Warning was given at an early date*by cording to Mr. Connell, four gentlemen Mr. Hoddle, first surveyor of Melbourne, of accompanied Mr. Gellibrand to ascertain the the* consequences to the blacks of our settle­ truth of the report. The remains of the ment of the new country of Port Phillip. men were brought to town and interred on In a small pamphlet, he said;—"As the Burial Hill, the little inclosure near the 'country becomes-occupied by whites the race Flagstaff. An organised party under Dr. will become extinct, unless better steps be Cotter, with Billiang and some of Batman's adopted for their preservation." Tempta­ Sydney natives, set off in hostile pursuit* tions were undoubtedly held out to the They soon came on to the track of the mur­ natives, \dien large flocks of from one to derers. They approached a place where a two thousand were left in charge of a soli­ lubra's grub stick was picked up and recog­ tary, infirm, or old shepherd in a rough nised. The end of the story will be best country. told in the words of Old Goslyn, the octo­ When difficulties did come, and complaints genarian : "They let fly at them, killed a of the outrages of the blacks reached Eng­ great many, and what was not killed and land, a despatch of Lord John Russell's, in wounded ran away, leaving all behind them; 1839, contains* this remarkable passage : "It a dray was loaded-with what they had carried is impossible that the Government should away, and their spears and waddies and forget that the original aggression was our tomahawks." own ; and that we have never yet performed Mr. M'Killop, writing from the New the sacred duty of making any systematic Settlement, Yarra Yarra, June 20th, 1836, or considerable attempt to impart to the gives a version of the murder, and adds :— former occupants of New South Wales the "Since then I have heard from thence that blessings of Christianity, or the knowledge of ample justice has been visited on the tribe the arts and advantages of civilised life." who murdered Mr. Franks. His clothes, The conflicts between the whites and blankets, guns, flour,&c , were found in their blacks of Port Phillip have not been so possession, and no mercy was shown them bloody and constant as in the neighbouring by the tribe that was sent from the New colony of Tasmania. Our natives were a Settlement to do the needful.". A some­ gentler race than the curly-headed Islanders. what similar chase took place after a sheep- Still, a sad tale is to be told of aggressions stealing party near the Victoria ranges, with and murders in the olden times. If the set­ the help of friendly natives—of which the tlers can tell of stolen sheep and slaughtered paper of the day states, " It was not until shepherds, the natives can also rehearse a some hard scuffling had taken place, and a tale of seduction and murder. Mr. Protector considerable number of the blacks were Robinson assures us that "nine-tenths of killed.and wounded, that the marauders the mischief charged to the aborigines is the beat a retreat." Our Black police were result of the white man's interference with horrible instruments of colonial law. Above the native women.'1 The first murder by the fifty of one tribe, the Gipps Land, were aborigines of Port Phillip had its origin in coolly murdered by them in their search for this cause,—interference with their females, a supposed white female captive. Two shepherds belonging to the Port Phillip The natives were not without their tales Association had been sent down in the early of wrongs. The following quotation from part of 1836 to Mr. Batman's first station the Sydney Government Gfazette, confirms this on Indented Head. They were murdered statement :—" Whereas, it has come to the upon their return. One of them had been knowledge of the Government, that on the •

ANT> THE BLACKS OP VICTORIA. 75 night of the 23rd of February last, a party offered a reward of £50 for the discovery of of six or more armed Europeans surprised a the white murderer of three native women number of aboriginal natives, sleeping in a while asleep, at Portland Bay. Not a few tea-tree scrub, in the immediate vicinity of instances are authenticated in which poison the Btatiorf of Messrs. Smith and* Orsbry, in has been laid for them, as though they had • the Portland Bay district; and then and been vermin. The sawyers and splitters of there barbarously murdered three aboriginal the bush have been known to decoy women females and one male child, by gun or pistol to their huts, keep them awhile, and then .shots, besides wounding a fourth female. It destroy them. Commandoes would be got up is hereby notified," &c. Many of the stock- by them on some Sunday holiday for the per­ keepers and shepherds were from Van Die- petration of a threat of vengeance, and from men's Land, and had, in many cases, shed lustful cravings. the blood of the poor Tasmanians. They Several convicts were executed some years -were not indisposed to regard the shooting of ago at Sydney for a frightful raid against a all blackfellows as pleasant and proper sport. tribe, when they butchered parents and The late Protector, Mr. Dredge, thus records children together. With others it was like an atrocity:—"To one has been given the that described by Barrington of the Boers : carcase of a dead lamb, which he forthwith " Firing small shot into the legs and thighs proceeds to roast for himself and his two of a Hottentot is a punishment not unknown ' luhras ; while the operation is going on, he to some of these monsters." Well might the seats himself by the fire with one of his South Australian Commissioners declare of women, while the donor sits opposite with such Englishmen that " they dealt with the the musket in his hand ; in an unsuspecting aborigines as if they regarded them not as moment he shoots the black man, and with members of the human family, but as infe­ the butt end of his piece knocks out the rior animals, and created for their use." brains of the woman and the helpless infant Several cases of cruelty are given in the at her breast. The other woman, gathering author's work on " Western Victoria." firewood at a little distance, escapes by flight. Bobberies of sheep were common enough The bodies of the others are then burnt to Ifin remote districts. The natives doubtless prevent detection." According to Mr. believed that they had a right to a few of Parker, in July, 1838, Mr. Bowman's party the white man's woolly kangaroo that fed of the Pyrenees were said to have killed on their pastures and destroyed their roots, fourteen persons. Bowman's servants were A favourite place of retreat on these forays tried for burning the bodies of the slain, to was the celebrated basaltic Stony Rises. The conceal their cruelty; they were acquitted dogs of the natives were destructive to the for want of white evidence. flocks. Dr. Thomson acted wisely when he - We giv,e the following story upon the went to Geelong harbour in 1837. He got authority of the Rev. Mr. Threlkeld, many Buckley to gather the tribe to receive beef years a missionary in New South Wales :— and blankets, and explain his intention to " A native was taken by a party of whites act well to them, if they would do so to him. and made to ascend a tree with a rope round The result was, that he never suffered moles­ his neck: this he was directed to fasten to tation or loss. It was far different elsewhere. one of the limbs of the tree. When he had The settlers were in constant and harassing done this he was fired at again and again ; fear. The lordly and luxurious souatters of he was wounded and clung to the tree. A the present day endured years ofprivation, volley was then fired at him ; he let go his anxiety, and suffering to maintain their hold, and was suspended as a terror to ground, and open up a country to succeeding others. Was it surprising when they were generations. Whole flocks were carried off, tortured by such acts of cruelty if they be­ out-stations robbed of stores, shepherds came apt scholars ?" The same gentleman speared, and servants so frightened as to be adds:— • * I have been informed that a petition unable to discharge their duties. The squat­ has been presented to the Governor contain­ ters in their meetings condemned the Protec­ ing a list of nineteen murders committed by torate, and recommended the establishment the flacks. I would, if it were necessary, of land reserves and provision depots for the make out a list of 500 blacks who had been blacks, and the formation of missions among slaughtered by the whites, and that within them. The Government was feeble and dis­ a short time. It was known to many there tant, and gazette proclamations were ill- that a party of stockmen went in search of supported by police arrangements, Mf protec­ the blacks to the northward, and having tion either of blacks or whites. • found them ripped up a number of men and For a time in the bush, in some distur women, and dashed out the brains of the districts especially, a state of things e? children." in Port Phillip, which forcibly remind In 1812, the Government at Melbourne of the early days of Connecticut, tb #

76 BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAK; scribed by tine Historian, Forest:—"This able to make them understand that he1 would war reduced the few and scattered settlers do them no harm, but much wished they to great distress. They could neither hunt, would leave his part of the country. His nor fowl, nor fish, but in fear; nor could daring and kindness were rewarded. The they go safely out to work in the fields, blacks -came out of their stronghold, and without burdening themselves with instru­ quietly and altogether abandoned the place. ments of defence. No woman felt certain, Many dreadful atrocities might be detailed when her husband left her in the morning, of our aborigines in the olden times. The that she should not, before the sun went blacks on the Lower Murray, the Coorong, down, see his lifeless corpse brought home, and Lake Victoria were often at war with us. hacked by the Indian tomahawks." The overlanders with stock were more than The sheep difficulty was no common one once waylaid by them, their sheep or cattle in that time, when the aborigines were tbe driven away, and white blood shed in the strug­ many, and had contracted a decided taste gle . A party of 600 thus set upon eleven armed for the " woolly kangaroo." The gun was colonists conducting 5000 sheep across the ' without doubt,used pretty freely. The Port Murray. A strong force of seventy-four Phillip Herald of May, 1840, has this sen­ men was despatched from Adelaide to punish tence :— "Many conscientious men would the thieves. Like the King of Franca with give 100 sheep to save the life of a fellow 40,000 men, they went and returned, killing creature; but if that fellow-creature came none, and taking none prisoners. Mr. Lang- with th$ purpose of forcibly taking away horne's overland party of sixteen had four 100 sheep, it quite alters the case." killed and two wounded. Major O'Halloran Mr. Robinson was sent up to the Borders came upon thirteen natives, who briskly took in 1845, about reported murders and sheep to the river and escaped. That officer stealing there. He found much faAilt with wrote:—'• They might all with certainty have the treatment the natives received from some been shot; but when they found we would squatters. He was pleased with the expe­ not fire, the villains laughed, and mocked us, rience given him by the superintendent of roaring out, * Plenty sheepy.'" one of the outposts of the colony, and thus^i A lamentable tale could be told of the mentions it in his report :—"He had been ' murder of the crew and passengers of the so completely harassed with frequent watch - brig Maria, wrecked in Encounter Bay. They ings and fatigue in riding to the different attempted a ninety-mile walk to the mouth * out-stations, that, had the previous state of of the Murray, and were successively slaugh­ things*continued, he must have resigned his tered in parties as they approached. The situation. Since he had had them in, they bloody clothes of children were afterwards had been at peace. At one time they could found on the bushes of the coast. To this not walk out unless armed, sheep were con­ dangerous locality Mr. Eyre, afterwards the stantly stolen, and they were in danger of celebrated explorer, and a Governor in New being speared. He principally fed the Zealand, was appointed resident magistrate. natives on old sheep, occasionally a few After that we hear of no more outrages by others, and probably they might steal two or that people. The experience of that gentle­ three from the fold ; but what was that, he man is thus strongly expressed :— said, to having four shepherds%illed, and " I believe," says Mr. Eyre, " were Euro­ whole flocks taken away." The advantage peans placed under the same circumstances, of conciliation measures was thus sub­ equally wronged, and equally shut out from stantiated . redress, they would not exhibit half the A strong tribe near Terang, of Port Phillip, moderation and forbearance that the poor had given considerable trouble and anxiety untutored children of impulse have invari­ to the lonely settler of that beautiful and ably shown. It is true that occasionally volcanic district. Arming his men, as he told many crimes have been committed by them, us, he tracked the natives to a dense reedy and robberies and murders have too often thicket of the Pejark Marsh, which he did occurred ; but who can tell what were the • not think proper to enter. Determining to provocations which led to, what the feeling try moral means before recourse to more vio­ which impelled such deeds ? Neither have lent ones, he went ahead of his servants, they been the only nor the first aggressors, approached the edge of the scrub, and nor have their race escaped unscathed in the cooey-ed for the hidden ones. Suspecting the contest. Could blood answer blood, perhaps reason o^none appearing, he went back to for every drop of Europeans' shed by natives, lay dowflps musket.' Again walking for­ a torrent of theirs, by European hands, would ward, and calling, he was responded to by crimson the earth." the stealthy step of one or two of the most venturesome, who were full of• confidence toward so brave a man. The gentleman was AND THE BLACKS OF VICTORIA, 77 5ATIYE BIGHTS AM) BRITISH RULE. sixteen acres was thus retained for no pay­ ment, and the increased value of the land The aborigines were held by our Govern­ would then provide a handsome fund for the ment to hav% no proprietorship in the soil; aborigines. "Thus conducted," add the and yet, Sir. Byre writes, "Bach male has Commissioners, " the colonisation of South some portion of land of which he can point f Australia will be an advent of mercy to the out the boundaries. A female never in­ | native tribes. herits.'' Governor Gawler, speaking of the , But this was too fain a vision to be realised. land, says, "Over which these aborigines The colonists got the land on these condi­ have exercised distinct, defined and absolute tions, but retained the said sixteen acres ; right of proprietary and hereditary posses­ while the worthy Commissioners forgot to sion." Mr. Protector Parker asserts, " Every enforce their own regulations. But all were family had its own locality." Dr. Thomson not oblivious of duty. A gentleman, one of told the Sydney Council, that the native that noble bodv, the Society of Friends, " considers the land as his own ; indeed wrote to the Adelaide paper, on the seventh every family had its separate portion. of ninth monthj IS38, stated that he had Dz, Lang, in a letter to the benevolent Dr. paid • in to the Government the sum of Hodgkin, of London, says : " I have often £3 16s. 6d., being interest at the rate of heard natives myself tell me, in answer to my ten per cent, upon this aforesaid one-fifth por­ own questions upon the subject, who were tion of his land, and had desired that that the aboriginal owners of particular tracts of amount be devoted to the benefit of the country, now held by Europeans; and, in­ aborigines. He says, ** I beg leave to pay deed, this idea of proixrty in the soil, for the above sum for that purpose, seeing the hunting purposes, is universal among the Commissioners, as yet, have neither fulfilled aborigines.'' Again he writes, "The infinity their pledge in this respect to the public, or of native names of places, all of which are carried out the moral principle signified.'* descriptive and appropriate, is of itself a The simple-hearted, hone-t man concludes: prima facie evidence of their having strong " I disclaim this to be either donation, gift, ideas of property in the soil." A colonial or grant, but a just claim the natives have historian, sixty years ago, declared that the on me as an occupier of those lands." Would natives had hereditary property; and spoke that such honourable senli meats were more of Groat Island, Port Jackson, belonging to generally cherished! the father of Bennilong, the first half- The anomalous condition of the blacks civilised blaekfellow. under our rule is thus described by Count Though the English Government recognised Strzelecki : " The late act declaring them the rights of the New Zealanders in the land naturalised as Brilish subjects has not only question, they thought it unnecessary to re­ rendered them legally amenable to the Eng­ gard those of our nomadic Australians, unless lish criminal law, but added one more it be that certain lands were kept from public anomaly to all the other enactments affecting sale,and were denominated "native n serves." them. This naturalisation excludes them, It is satisfactory, however, to oNerve, that from sitting on a jury, or appearing as wit- when South Australia was established as a , ne^es, and entails a most confused form of colony by a private company in London, the ju'lioial proceedings; all whLdi taken to­ prin?iple of justice was fully reco^nis^d. gether, has made of the aborigines of Aus­ The declaration of the Commissioners is most tralia a nondescript caste, who, to u*e their explicit on this held. In referring to the own phni^'jl^jy, are neither white nor formation of a fand for the future sustenance black." The New Smth Wale* Legislature of the natives, they thus propound their !»aion. Mr. Proctor u condition—that for every eighty acres con­ Kobiii'on has properly oVerved, The lecal veyed, the party to whom this conveyance is di» ibilities of the aborigine* Lave I 4> virtue to their protection arid civilw.tijn." acres only ; the conveyance to be niide sub­ The p-i*irt of the Aborigines Sviety of ject to a stipulation, that at the expiration London d<<>'i.iretfv " The ends of justice, when of a term of years iherearW to be de<;id»rd >, injurii-a inrii'-tetl upon the natiws ire brought the land? so convened shall be diviJed into iiit'j court, are almost inevitably defeute I." five e^uil parts. One of these part*, or li'iveriior Grey, of .Smth Australia, a true sixteen tI6> acres, to be resume 1 for a re­ friend of the dark coloured ra:e, in one tf serve for the use of the aborigines : and the hit d acre*, "The ordinance which admits native infor­ to remain as his freehold." The use of these mation and evidence without the smcii «n of 78 BUCKLEY*, THE WILD WHITE M£N; an oath has long been felt to be necessary, Melbourne, on 15th September, 1841. As and confers a first and important boon to the the prisoner had been for a little while in the native population." Such an act was passed native police, he was somewhat acquainted by his means, in Adelaide, in 1844. The with English; but the judge was by no desire for something to be done was illus­ means sure that he understood what was trated in the interesting address of the House said to him. The man evidently could not of Commons to the King in 1835, praying realise that he had done anything so very " That measures be taken to secure to the wrong. Under similar circumstances, native natives of the several colonies the due observ­ custom sanctionedspereonal chastisement at ance of justice and the preservation of their the hand of the aggrieved party; and, if death rights;" ' * to promote among them the spread ensued, the friends of the deceased settled of civilisation, and the peaceful and voluntary the affair* with the survivor. The Kev. Mr. reception of the Christian religion." Tuckfield, the missionary, was questioned • If difficulties were experienced in treating about such usages. He promptly answered: upon questions of dispute b#ween the abori­ " Under all circumstances they do not deem gines and the colonists, they assumed another murder a crime." shape when the cases at issue were between Then came on the legal discussion. Mr. the blacks themselves. As British subjects Barry, afterwards Sir Redmond Barr/, the they were subject to British laws in relation honourable originator of the Melbourne Uni­ to their conduct toward each other, although versity, contended that the Crown had no such cases were totally unknown and un­ power to limit the authority of the natives knowable to them, and in many cases wholly deciding quarrels among themselves ; that if opposed to their own customs. The New subjects at all, the whole machinery of Zealanders were strong enough to assert the British jurisprudence must be applied to dignity of their own usages, and so got them them. The Crown officer, Mr. Croke, in respected by the authorities. Thus, in the refly, produced the opinions of three judges charter granted to the colony of New Zealand of New South Wales, at various periods, there are the following clauses affecting the Messrs. Forbes, Bowling, and Burton, to the natives:— effect that the natives were amenable to the "Within such (aboriginal) districts the laws brought out by the colonists. The laws, customs, anck usages of the aboriginal judge then went into some laboured argu­ inhabitants, so far as they are not repugnant ments about the respective rights of ceded, to the general principle of humanity, shall conquered, and assumed territories, and for the present be maintained." decided that the natives were under British " In cases arising between the aboriginal rule, "But," says he, "can I legally inhabitants of New Zealand alone, beyond exercise my jurisprudence with reference to the limits of the said aboriginal districts, and any crime committed by the aborigines in whatever relates to the relations to, and against each other?" He mentioned that, the dealings* of, such aboriginal inhabitants in the island of St. Vincents, the British with each other, beyond the said limits, the agreed not to interfere with the customs and courts and magistrates of the entire province, intercourse of the Caribs towards each other. or of the district in which such cases may He gives it as his opinion that, " There is arise, shall enforce such native laws, customs, no express law which makes the aborigines and usages, as aforesaid." subject to our Colonial Code ;" and he very Now for a case to'illustrate the position of sensibly adds, " I desire tq see protectioa of our Australians. their rights by laws adapted to their capacity Bon Jon killed Yatner Ween, at Geelong, and suited to t^eir wants,—the protection* on 2nd September, 1841, in some quarrel of all equal and all powerful justice." about his wife, Mary. Hearing that "white- JThe jury were unanimous in their decision fellow" was after him, he fledt o Lake Colac, thai the prisoner was not in a capacity to put some fifty miles to the westward. Mr. in a plea to the jurisdiction of the court, and M'Kerror, the chief constable, followed his that he had not sufficient capacity to say track, and arrested him at night, in the "whether he was guilty or not. So ended, midst of the tribe. • Poor Mary was in sad without an end, this memorable triat There trouble at the seizure,, and, finding her en­ is little need now in Victoria to argue the treaties for his release useless, begged the subject of native rights, as the ancient lords constable at least to allow the captive to take of the soil will soon be laid beneath it. her 'possum-rug extra with hira, because the watch-house was so "cabaun" (cold). Bon PROTECTORS AND NATIVE POLICE. Jon's only remark to the officer was that he killed Ween by accident: he intended to The investigations of a House of Commons' give him a good waddying only. committee upon the aborigines originated the The trial came on before Judge Willis, at formation of a Port Phillip Protectorate of •

•AND THE BLAC [8 OP VIcpKIA. 79> ike Aborigines. The benevolent Lord Glenelg, quired to act against the blacks as well as then Secretary of the Colonies, announced for them, thereby necessarily inducing in this institution to Governor Gipps on 31st their minds a suspicion subversive of their January, 1838. Mr. George Uobinson, who confidence, and calculated to expose me to had been so successful in gathering in the their resentment." • remnant of the hunted Tasmanians, -was The English 'Government had been in­ appointed Chief Protector, at a salary of fluenced by .noble motives in the establish­ £500 a-year. Originally a mechanic of ment of the Protectorate, though rendered Hobart Town, with little education, but great inoperative for good by uncontrollable cir­ energy; tact, kindness, and pious zeal, he had cumstances. The same benevolent spirit lived much with the blacks, learned their actuated the counsels of the Ministry,* as language, gained thlir confidence, and so afterwards led Lord Normanby, when Secre­ conciliated the infuriated and decimated tary of the Colonial Department, to give the tribes. His assistants in the .Protectorate following instructions to Governor Hobson, •were the following persons, sent from Eng­ upon forming the New Zealand Protectorate:— land : Messrs. Sievwright, Dredge, Thomas, " All dealings with the aborigines for their and Parker. Mr. Le Soeuf was afterwards lands must be conducted on the same princi­ nominated Assistant Protector. These re­ ples of sincerity, justice, and good faith,- as ceived £250 salary, and 10s. 6d. a-day for must govern your transactions with them expenses. for the recognition of her Majesty's sove­ This system continued till the end of reignty in the island ; nor is this all; they 1849, after which Mr. W. Thomas was ap- must not be permitted* to enter into any ppinted sole guardian, at a salary of £600. contracts, in which they might be ignorant, The, outlay on account of the aborigines of and unintentional authors of injuries to "Victoria during the seven years from 1852-9, themselves." has been as follows:—1852, the sum of £1690; The employment of the natives for police 1853, £2878 ; 1854, £951 ; 1855, £1931; was first suggested by Captain Lonsdale, who, 1856, £934; 1857, £1528; 1858, £956. in 1836, recommended Captain Machonochie's Of these sums, strange to say, the amount plan. A corps was formed in 1839, under a for bedding and clothing for the poor creatures gentleman named Villiers. The discipline was only £750. We are unable to say how was bad, the leader was dismissed, and his much they have drawn from the public funds men bolted to the bush. Captain Dana had for food during that period, as, rather twenty-four natives under his command in oddJy, the items of '* provisions'\and official 1842, in a thorough soldier-like condition. " forage" are put together. Half the expenses of this establishment came In addition, we may state that a worthy out of the Aboriginal Fund ; the cost in four schoolmaster, Mr. Hinkins, of Moonie Ponds, years was £55,000. Many saw with appre­ received payment for the board of two orphan hension the arming of one portion of natives children, of whom he took the charge. Their against the others, knowing how the deadly father, Bongulene, chief of the Gipps Land animosity and revenge of a tribe may thus tribe, was captured for a supposed outrage, be gratified under the shelter of the law. and died broken-hearted, in the Melbourne Thus we read of one charge of theirs upon a gaol. His widow subsequently married again, tribe for the murder of a native girl, "It and that in due Christian form. Upon the is probable that the murdered child was breaking up of the Merri Creek school, the revenged seventeen to one; for a native two lads fell into the good hands of the kind policeman counted upon his fingers by the old schoolmaster. "We were well acquainted evening fire the number each of them had with both of them. killed, and they amounted to seventeen." From the first,nothin g but disappointment They were an idle, ignorant, drunken set of and dissatisfaction attended the course of fellows, about whose moral condition no oare these Protectors. The colonists, as a mass was, taken, and whose conduct became so were violently opposed to their proceedings, bad as to compel the authorities to disband and the Government afforded them little the force. sympathy ; but there can be no doubt that • though the natives made no further progress GOVERNMENT OF TRIBES AND NUMBERS. in civilisation, they were at least preserved from the violence of cruel men, and the pro­ The form of government among the Aus­ perty of the squatter became safer. tralians is one of great simplicity. There Mr. Dredge soon resigned his appointment are certain understood usages and customs of from the conviction of the uselessness of the society, which stand in the place of laws, f Protectorate, and the hindrance which he which prompt obedience is required, and felt to his efforts as a missionary. There is the infraction of which the tribe affixes some sense in his complaint,—" I am re- enforces certain penalties. But there 80 BrjCEUET, THE WILD WHITE MAN; person aLdespfotism, no will of one to be bowed A traveller once saw a fine young fellow to. The bully of a camp stands the best preparing to undergo this trial of his nerves chance of having his head broken in strife, and sinews. He had been found guilty of #and coalitions for tyrannical purposes are running away with another man's wife, unknown. Practically their constitution is a though other lubras maliciously hinted that democratic one, though# unblest, like the she ran away with him. Brought face to fact Maories, Indians, Americans, and English, in public before the aggrieved husband, he goe with stump orators. himself ready for tha shower of spears. The Nominally, the old men are chiefs; and, Englishman asked him if he was not afraid. by .virtue of their experience, as well as the He replied, "No me pear (fear)." Then, sanction of high antiquity, exercise the prin­ pointing to his shield^ he ad Jed, "No me cipal influence in the tribe. Sometimes one pear—me look out—me catch him like o' is invested with the name of chief or king, that (flourishing his shield); me 'top 'pear although no extra attention seems ever paid (stop spear)*—me catch him—me no care." to him, nor is any presumption of power In this particular instance his courage and evident. In some tribes a sort of hereditary agility were not put to the test. The hus­ distinction has been noticed; in others, an band, for reasons best* known to himself, election of head takes place. declined to cast the spear. He might, per­ A distinction very analogous to that of haps, feel inwardly grateful to the fellow for castes has been spoken of by some travellers. the removal of some nuisance from his neigh­ Thus, in North Australia, near Port Essing- bourhood. ton, three such orders were remarked. The The tribes were numerous, but composed Manjar-ojalli, or fire Manjar, was the lowest; of few individuals. They retained their own the Manjar-wuli, or land Manjar, was the recognised grounds, over which they were next ; while the highest was the Mambulgit, constantly migrating, but crossing the border or sea c&ste. A valuable and learned mis­ occasionally on friendly visits to adjoining sionary, wken in the northern and reuidte states. They have no idea of the time of parts of New South Wales, observed some settlement, merely saying, "plenty long very strange family distinctions among the while ago — always sit down here." The dark race. In one family all the sons are Yarra tribe extended from the sea to the • called Ippata, and the daughters Ippai. In dividing range, fifty or sixty miles to the a second, the sons are Murri, and the daugh­ north. The Western Port line reached to the ters Mata. In a tjrird, the sons are Kubbi, Tar win. Rivers, lake3, and mountains and'daughters Kapota; while in a fourth, formed the boundaries of tribes. The divis­ they are respectively Kumbo and Buta. ions upon the flat land near the Murray are Now, an Ippai may marry an Ippata of less distinct, but well understood. Six another family, or a Kapota. A Murri may tribes on that river now reside within a space take a Buta, a Kubbi an Ippata, and a of three hundred miles of frontage. The Kumbo a Mata. The children of an Ippai by Warriguls, or wild blacks, of Gipps Land, an Ippata become Kumbo and Buta ; but dwelt in the rocky fastnesses of the Australian by a Kapota, Murri and Mata. The children Alps. Among the few reserves for the of a Murri are Ippai and Ippata, while those natives is one in Western Port of 822 acres, of a Kubbi are Kumbo and Buta. and one on the north and south sides of the The punishment of grave offences is with Yarra of 1908 acres. the spear, and the wound is generally in the The numbers of the tribes have experienced leg; but the waddy is used between parties a fearful decrease. Twenty years- ago they in public, when an injury has been inflicted. were many times greater than now. Mr. The offender calmly presents his head for ex-Protector Parker thinks that 2000 is the the complainant'* blows with the stick. If utmost amount of the aboriginal population content with a fair revenge, no return is of Victoria, and nearly all of these residing made: the bleeding head is raised, and the upon the banks of tho Murray, where they hands of reconciliation join. Sometimes the seldom come in contact with Europeans. patience of the penitent is too severely tried, Mr. Robinson wrote thus of the Glenelg and his resentment is re-enkindled into tribe in 1845 : "A bold and warlike race ; action. ' ~-^"fV?>a*gR! tall, strong, and well made. They are ex­ At other times, the old European system ceedingly numerous, and have been estimated of ordeal is ordered. The defendant stands at 2000 ; I think it probable they are from forth naked, and at a -certain distance re­ ten to fifteen hundred." When we were last ceives a given number of spears, which he upon that river we saw but a few isolated does his best to avoid by'his agility. A individuals. shield is usually given to the defaulter to aid Mr. Surveyor Tyers, of Gipps Land, a him in warding off the attack. This is one highly respectable and competent authority, way of affording satisfaction. declares that the numbers'in that district AND THE BLAOKB OF VICTOBU. &1 h&ve fallen fcom &00 to 80, ten to one, in and they seldom, in their intercourse with fifteen years; that in 1^58 there were but us, get beyond that border of omgcondition. 41 men, 24 women, and 15 children, meetly As to living in the close, -smoky, confined half-castes, and young people. In the Omeo habitations of whites in so fine a climate, district, among the Alps, the natives were that could not be endured. To wear .our reduced from 300 to 60 in ten years. The tight fitting dresses seems equally absurd. GonLbarn tribe, now a miserable remnant, Then they cannot comprehend the purpose of mustered 600 a few years ago. The two so much hard work, when they can live tribes by the Port Phillip Bay were a short without it so easily, enjoy their country time since 300, but were brought down to strolls, and obey the will of no man. We 82 in 1858. Poster Fyans, Esq., J.P., col­ cannot give them the notion of saving for lected 297 together in 18&7 near Geelong, their children, as they know that nature, but cannot now learn that twenty of them whioh had so bountifully provided for their axe alive. If such has been the decline in a wants, will be equally generous to their off­ country only known to the whites some seven spring. They have no objection to money, or eight and twenty years, we wondejf not at —that is, those of them so much changed as to , the mournful desolation by the shore of Port have made some progress in pseudo-civilisa- Jackson, on whose waters, in 1788, the tio/i,—S3 they can apply it to the same English saw sixty-seven boats of natives at chosen use adopted by the white people ' once. around them, the purchase of strong drink. In 1858, a committee of the Council of They who work at all, do so for a time only, Victoria collected what information they and for the object of obtaining the means of could as to the numbers of the people. We a debauch. * As one told us, "Blackfellow now present the rgader with some of these take him shilling public-house, knock him results. down drunk." Ten neighbouring tribes amounted to 179 Certain good people have more elevated persons in 1843. Since then 88 have died notiuis of civilisation than merely working and 25 been born. Mr. Warden Wills ascer­ for clothing and comforts. They would have tained that the Omeo tribes were 500 strong the blacks instructed. Eat for what practical in 1835 ; he knew but two men and three purpose ? If so instated, or, rather, so women alive in 1858 ! The Oolac tribe had trained, as to become Christians, all would 19; the Mitta Mitta, 12 ; the Guining- be gained ; but when the principles of piety matong of the Alps, 3 ; the Warrnambool, are so little recognised by our own people, 9 ; the Pertobe, 40 ; the Lal-lal, 15; Lake among whom they mix themselves, we can Condor, 50 ; Portland, 25 ; Merino Downs, hardly expect to be very successful with the 34; Wannon, 9 ; Bmu Creek, 15; Eumer- natives. We are thus beset with difficulties alla and Darlot Creek, 40 each; Edward on all sides. river, 80 ; County of Villiers, five tribes, The blacks themselves are opposed to the including Port Fairy, Mount Bouse, and civilising process. When Encounter Bay Hopkins river, 150 to 200; County of Bob was killed, while acting as a shepherd, Heytesbury, 18; Lower Loddon, 40 ; Gee- by his own brother, the only apology offered long, 9 males and 5 females ; seven tribes, by the latter was, "Him no good—him from Swan Hill to Moorapal Lake, 55 alto­ too much like whitefellow." gether ; Echucaand north-east Murray, 500; Whites could ridicule our efforts, when Belfast, 17; Benalla to the Murray, 140 ; we find one writing, " With a certain class Owangutha, by the Murray and Goulburn of people it seems but just necessary to junction, 80; Wannon Valley, 23 men, 12 acquaint them that some well-meaning women, 2 half-caste children. gentlemen have persuaded a few natives to In every tribe the men greatly outnumber halloo a psalm, or recite a prayer, the mean­ the women, as in Heytesbury and other ing of either of which in most cases is a places the men are three to one more nu­ mystery to them, and they conclude that merous. such a tribe is beginning to advance in the social state." A worthy settler taught his blacks to sing, CIVILISATION. We all sit down together, We're all met here together, We're brothers all together, • The civilisation of a people is not a very Ye-o, ye-o, ye-o. intelligible idea. The aborigines themselves Some of his civilised servants changed the have a belief that to be " all the same like rhyme for them into him whiiefellow," is, among some few com­ We all sit down together, mon things, to be at least accomplished in We all get drunk together. the «rU of smoking, swearing, and drinking; &c., Ac. F 82 BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAN.; Mr. Gunther, missionary of Wellington shirt. When Mary^had finishedhe r morning Valley, ha% these remarks upon the difficul­ work she would put on her best gown and ties of civilisation :—" The evils resulting walii up to sit with her mistress in the from polygamy (which is permitted by the parlour. vile as well as absurd code of laws prevailing From the beginning of our connection with among those people) are great and manifold. New Holland, in 1788, various attempts have On the one hand, it causes constant strife been made to raise them. The first chaplain and fightings ; on the other hand, the elder took a native girl into his house. She, after or influential men, possessed of a plurality awhile, took to the woods a naked savage of wives, being in reality only the keepers again. Governor Darling, nearly forty years of them, have it in their power to hold out ago, employed some as a police force. At, certain allurements to the young, who can­ various places they have been engaged with not obtain wives, and by obliging the latter, great success, *as shepherds, stockkeepers, as it is considered, the former can command splitters, shearers, and reapers; but they or extort obedience. This accounts for the were never to be depended upon, leaving 9 fact, that aboriginal* males, however useful suddenly when the whim came. They were- and* steady they may have been among very useful to the squatters at the time of Europeans when boys, as soon as they grow the gold fever, taking charge of flocks and • up tolnanhood, fall back into4heir w.ander- herds which would otherwise have been dis­ ing, unsettled habits." persed. We have seen a party of eight When the question of granting of land to going from farm to farm, well clad, to gather them was put by the Victorian legislature, in the harvest. But all this fit of industry Mr. Glow, police magistrate, recommended lasted but a# little while, to be followed by their location by Western Port, and the pro­ the blanket and grub eating. curing for them wives from the Polynesian Governor Macquarie, nearly half-a-century islands. He submits, however, "This sug­ ago, established a school to train children gestion would be perfectly useless if it ifcde- to trades. Some years after Mr. Cunning­ sired not to perpetuate the race of aborigines, ham wrote, "Being all associated together, 9 but merely to treat ajlh some show of atten­ and their native instincts and ideas still re­ tion those that ar^dive, and until they maining paramount, they took to their old gradually disappear, through that want habits again as soon as freed from thraldom." joined with others. It cannot have esdaped Major Goulbum, therefore, broke up the in* the observations of the first colonists that stitution, and sent the children to the Orphan the men having females and children, avoided School for Europeans. The experiment more than others the haunts of the white similarly failed in Port Phillip, now Victoria. man." The monetary difficulty of govern­ Mr. Thomas addressed the settlers in 1841 ment is thus disposed of by a colonist, about the bad example of the whites, saying, subscribed *' Aristides" : " Expense ! the "Morally speaking, the lines to my poor expense of saving a people we are disinherit­ blacks have not fallen in pleasant places ;" ing from massacre." he urged that none but holy men should be We had an interesting account from the employed in civilising themt Messrs. Parker Hon. Donald Kennedy, of an old man of a and Dredge complained in the same way. tribe near his station claiming the honours The firstgentlema n said, "The greatest ob­ of chieftainship. He was regularly supplied stacle to their civilisation is to be traced to with rations, and appointed to occasional moral causes, and not to any physical dis­ honourable employments about the place. abilities." We must refer the reader to­ He was particularly exemplary in his con­ other facts under the head of "Missions." duct, and scrupulously attentive to the Some advance was made with a few, who- interests of the master: any irregularities in even located themselves upon farms granted the behaviour of the servants were in the by Government; but drink in most cases most dignified manner reported to head­ proved the ruin of their peace and the de­ quarters. Esteeming himself something struction of their lives. Two or tHree had better than common blackfellow, he never farms near the residence of Mr. Parker, a bemeaned himself by drinking with the men warm friend to all of the race. At Mount of the establishment in their hut, though he Franklin school, in 1859, we found, in pass­ was not indifferent to a glass, provided it was ing, but seven or eight pupils. handfd to him by Mr. Kennedy in the house, No wonder that Governor Latrobe wrote: so that he might drink " like a gentleman." —" The question naturally arises, What can His wife was a clean, orderly, good creature, be the real advantages of education reaped remarkably solicitous to keep her husband by the individuals, or its influence on the in proper trim, as he never presumed to go tribes to which they belong, when 'that up to the house until he had changed his education terminates by a return to the dress, shaved himself, and put on a clean depraved habits of a savage life V1 When, AND THE BLACKS OF VICTOBIA. 83 however, the Government broke up the Pro- 1 race, there are not wanting similar instances tectorate, they sold nearly a thousand sheep among other tribes. Yon Martius speaks of belonging to the Mount Franklin School, an Indian of Brazil who, passing through and appropriated the funds to the general college, was admitted to the Roman Catholic revenue. priesthood. " But all at once," he says, " he The only hopeful place at present is Poo- renounced his new profession, threw aside nindie, to which we refer in "Missions." his habit, and fled naked into tte woods to Describing the marriage of a man there, and his old way of life." ^ his charge of a flock,th e Bishop of Adelaide Mr. Guardian Thomas sees no way of says :—"This omen of success is happily civilising the adults, but would confine his corroborated and followed up by other J attention to the young. These are his re­ instances of solid progress in industrial marks in 1858:—"My suggestion to remove habits, civilised? life, and Christian beha­ the children early from their tribe and viour." Sorry for a moment to appear to parents may, at first glance, appear relent­ damp the zeal of those good friends, we less, and emanting from a breast void of cannot avoid a melancholy foreboding that in feeling ; but whoever will take the trouble a short time even this institution will prove to reflect seriously upon the result of the no lasting good, though based upon the only many previous efforts in the colony, and our sensible system yet adopted—Aat of isolation sister colonies throughout New Holland, to from both whites and other blacks. It comes retain the aboriginal rising generation, after too late. The race has become effete, few they had been educated, from retiring and or hardly any children are born among them I mingling with their race and off to the wil­ even under these most favourable circum­ derness, must be convinced that nothing short stances, and deaths are frequent. The of removing them a considerable distance Buntingdale Mission was similar in some from their tribe can permanently improve respects, and for a time most hopeful; but, their condition, and avert the extinction of as the Rev. Mr. Thielkeld well observes, the aboriginal race." He is quite right in " the frightful mortality among them weighed saying that the isolated ones '' drop down to down the spirit of the Wesleyan Mission­ the vices and dissipation of the dregs of aries." society, and find an early tomb." However desirable to have them work for In the meantime the young people are our advantage, and live with us for the rapidly dying off, and none rising in their imitation of our customs, yet the social im­ place. By the time they are taught to i ead, pediments to their course of advancement the scroll of eternity is unrolled before them. seem overpowering. When Captain Grey We teach them to handle the spade ; but it was forsaken by his guide, Miago, who pre­ is to .dig their graves. There are many ferred returning to the bush, he simply re­ thus, who so closely identify efforts*for civili­ marked, " lie chose that course, and I think sation Kith the decline and extinction of the I should have done the same." blacks, that they would rather exclaim, with To adopt our habits, they must be entirely Count Strzelecki, "Leave them alone." removed from the associations of the mia Sir T. L. Mitchell bursts forth in these mia. And what have we to offer in exchange warm terms upon this subject:—"Such for endearing relations, joyous freedom, and health and exemption from disease; suck unanxious existence ? The man is thrust intensity of existence in what must be far upon a competitive society to earn his bread. beyond civilised men, with all that art can He is exposed to the gibes and contempt of do for them ; and the proof of this is to be the lowest of our countrymen. He is herded found in the failure of all attempts to per­ with men from whom he learns the most suade those free denizens of uncultivated obviously developed principles of European earth to forsake it for the tilled ground. civilisation,—swearing and drinking. They prefer the land unbroken and free from It is true he eate better food, wears better earliest curse pronounced against the first clothing, and sleeps in better dwellings. banished and first created man. The only But wh'ie is his home ? Who will be his kindness we could do for them would be to mother, his sister, his brother? Who will let them and their wide range of territory ally herself as wife to his dark skin ? Can alone ; to act otherwise and profess goodwill he ever know the sweetness of a child's love f is but hypocrisy." No ! he soon tires of our work, our food, our Mr. Breton said, thirty years ago, in New confined habitations, our heartless ridicule ; South Wales:—" Forty years have elapsed and hastens back to his camp fire to find a since the country was colonised, and I have friend, to feel himself a man, to dwell with not yet heard of a single native having been those who can love him. reclaimed from barbarism." Judge Field, of If such cases of flight from civilisation be Sydney, echoes the same sentiment, saying : held as a proof of the irreclaimability of that "lam of opinion that our savages will 84 BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAN J

never be any other than they are." His cause they knocik about in liquor, and no Honor adds : — children .because they Jo with a good many white men." A volume could say no more. Then let him pass—a blessing on his head! Repeatedly have we fallen in with drunken And long as he can wander, Tet him breathe groups, and witnessed deeds of violence. The freshness of the woods. More than once have we narrowly escaped May never we pretend to civilise, * * an onslaught from some infuriated native, in And make Iran only captive. the attempt to rescue the female victim of But all this finesentimen t does not satisfy his rage. We have passed a tree, from the the Christian man; for he looks upon his side of which, the day before, the dead body dark brother as one possessed of a kindred of a native had been removed, who perished soul, and an heir of immortality. He sighs, from exposure one wet winter's -night, when therefore, at the native gliding away without lying out drunk and naked nfar the public- a sign. house. Again and again have we expostulated with publicans, near whose doors were DECLINE. transacted deeds of disgusting abomination, only to be perpetrated by savages, and only So strongly do we feel upon the part which by them when, brutally intoxicated. We strong drink has borne in the decline of the have seen a handsome young fellow, clean aborigines, that we hardly dare give expres­ and respectably dressed, ride up to the Hotel sion to our sentiments of disgust and horror Post Office for his master's letters. In an at the devastation which it has made, and at hour or two after, we have beheld him with the cruelty of those who have thus ministered his drunken countrymen near, his master's to their destruction. property injured or lost, and he himself, Nominally, laws were passed to punish with foul, torn clothes, bleeding from an those who held the cup of death to the encounter. natives; but those were not enforced. Mr. One evening, when visiting the Ballaarat Gillies, the magistrate of Warrnambool, had, Gold-fields, in 1852, we saw a party of however, the honest courage, some time since, aborigines plied with drink by English­ to inflict the penalty of five pounds upon a men, until their bestial manners and coarse publican for this offence. Would that his speech excited the brutal mirth of their cruel conduct were imitated! Perhaps, as a writer tempters. Throughout the night the bush has remarked, "it becomes a nature so active was disturbed with the .mad yells and quarrels in the suppression of slavery to consider of the poor creatures. Early in the morning betimes, in taking up new countries, how we rose to ascertain the cause of moaning at the aboriginal races can be preserved, and no great distance. To our horror there lay how the evil effects of spirituous liqu^s, of before us a wretched man in the mud, with gunpowder, and of diseases, more ironical nothing upon him but a shirt, thoroughly to them than even slavery, may be counter­ drenched with a night of cold, wintry rain. acted." Especially does this seem necessary While his limbs shook with the inclemency when the poor creatures, as Mr. Rusden, of the weather, his brow was wet with the their friend, has declared, "have no moral sweat of agony. In answer to questions, he check to appeal to, and the craving for the groaned out, " Me killed—Long Tom did it excitement of drink becomes a physical —him drunk—him stab me knife." Lifting disease, controlling their wills, as it does in his shirt, we beheld a large gash in his side, many cases the civilised man, who has had out of which part of his bowels were protrud­ better advantages, less excuse for yielding, ing, and mingling with the grit of the soil! and less temptation." The doctor arrived, and pronounced the case If the circumstances attending the intem­ hopeless. The poor fellow must die. But perance of Europeans be regarded as such an who was the murderer ? evil as to call forth the utmost self-denial Prostitution and its effects may be regarded and exertion of their fellow-countrymen to as second only to drink, and as its natural arrest its progress, are we to be indifferent accompaniment in the work of destruction. to its ravages among those dark unfortun­ In the early times of all the colonies, the ates? We cannot be unmoved at this tale want of women was felt to be the cause of of their Guardian:—"At the Merri Creek, much social evil. Female convicts were one morning at daybreak,, there were four or fewer than those of the other sex. Men, five lyiij bedded in the jnud, drunk, not young and unmarried, were not only fore­ dead ; cold comes on, and as soon as disease most in emigration, but for a long time were touches a black's cheat, you cannot save almost alone in the foreign field. Usually of him." Old Mahrout was asked the secret of ardent character, energetic disposition, and their decline, and thus explained it:—"Be­ robust habits of body, with no elevated state of AND THE BLA( S3 OF VICTORIA. 85 moral impulses, the bush shepherds and ance is thus noted:—''Two such hideous stock keepers of Australia were early brought objects I never saw. They were a perfect into association with their black female mass of sores, both of them." Turning to neighbours, with decided disadvantage to the man, and upbraiding him for his cruelty, both parties. At one time force, at other the fellow sulkily said, "No—no—me no times the influence of bribes, were employed cruel—me want to die." to obtain these objects of lawless passion. Mr. Cunningham, about forty years ago, The first consequences were distrust of the noticed the effect of this intercourse,—the whites on the part of husbands and brothers, destruction of the children. " Personal frequent retaliation, and much blood-shed­ prostitution among those associating with the ding. Bat, soon discovering their own feeble­ whites is carried on to a great extent, the ness of arm, and gradually losing feelings of husbands disposing of the favour of their dignity and independence in the treacherous wives to the convict servants for a slice of drink of the stranger, they ceased to regard bread or a pipe of tobaccfis) The children the act otherwise than one of necessity, produced by this intercourse are generally and as a means for gratifying their own sacrificed." The Rev. J. C. S. Handt,. newly-excited and unnatural thirst. Lutheran Missionary at Moreton Bay, bears The moral effect upon the women was similar testimony, in these words:—"A most disastrous. Their strange infatuation principal cause of their decrease is the pros­ for white men everywhere led them into titution of their wives to Europeans. This frequent and fatal confljpts with the males of base intercourse not only retards the pro­ their tribes. They, more than the men, creation of their own race, but almost always imbibed the taste for drink, and suffered far tends to the destruction of the offspring more in proportion. Those who had chil­ brought into existence by its means." dren neglected them; and they who were but Drink and prostitution are proximate as recently married never had them afterwards. well as direct causes of death, by rendering They seemed wholly reckless of the opinion the body more susceptible to attack by disease, of their friends, and utterly regardless of and by inducing those reckless habits which any evil consequences to themselves. Rapid prevent them taking common precautions and wretched was their fall. against the contraction and increase of dis­ The same thing was observed among the orders. Well might the Rev. Dr. Brown Indians. In 1761, President Stiles heard write many years ago:—"A glance at their from an intelligent Indian a statement which habits will convince us that the true solution led him to exclaim :—" From this account it of the question (of decline) is to be found in would seem that the morals of the Indians disease." were corrupt before the arrival of the Eng­ As if this were not sufficient to account for lish, that, although a strong prejudice the sterility of the native^romen, some against illegitimate births existed, it did not writers, as Count Strzelecki, vnert the doc­ prevent prostitution, and only produced trine that no such female who has borne abortion and infanticide, and that these last children to a white man can afterwards pro­ customs being broken up by the influence of duce offspring by her own countryman. The the whites, all reserve was thrown aside, and fact of hardly a child, excepting a half-caste, the Indians became shamefully licentious. being now ever born amon^ the poor ,crea- The young women hesitated not to receive tures of the settled districts, seems a strong presents for their shame. Is it wonderful," argument in favour of this opinion. On the adds the good man, " that communities so other hand, su^h a result is never observed licentious, and, added to this, so indolent among other dark races; for nothing can and drunken, should not increase ?— that exceed the fecundity of the negro women of they should even rapidly decline?" Dr. the United States, between whom and the Wilson, the ethnologist, noticed the opera­ white people more illicit intercourse takes tion of the same cause. place than even in Australia. A few have The physical effects soon manifested them­ employed the argument to try to establish the selves. Disease, the fell disease of vice, theory of the independence of the species of crept among the tribes, blighting peace of the inhabitants of New Holland. families, destroying social pleasures, and Dr. Thomson, late surgeon to the Niger ex­ bringing gall into their daily existence. pedition, investigated this question when visit­ Often, when travelling about in the bush, ing New South Wales, in 1849. Respecting the for a number of years past, have we been Count's theory, he writes:—"I am obliged reminded of the presence of this dreadful to say, that all I could ascertain was quite scourge. A Melbourne magistrate once saw inconsistent with it." He thinks that much a man kicking a child toward a fire, but may be due to the broken down constitutions stopped doing so on his approach. Just then of those who return to wirlie life, after r a lubra came and took it up. Their appear- residence with the white men. The '' I BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAN; fecundity of the gins arises not from any The marked decrease of females, as con­ deviation of nature's laws, as it is attempted trasted with men, is to be accounted for in to be proved, but because the European, the destructive agency of drink. Observing .wherever he takes his civilisation, takes his among a group of natives only three women vices also. to a dozen men, we learned, from one well This gentleman went further. He interro­ acquainted with the tribe, that the disap­ gated the blacks themselves. " On inform­ pearance of several women within his know­ ing," he says, "some of the Wyong natives ledge was entirely owing to drunken quarrels. and others of Hunter's River, that this to be The* murder was committed, the body was acquired sterility of their * gins' had been buried, and the silence of the grave was pre­ imported, they all regarded it with derision, served. assuring me they had known it to occur The picture drawn by Mr. Forest of the repeatedly in their own and other tribes, for Indians applies to the Australians :—"With­ native women fabear children to their black out hope, without ambition, debarred from husbands or companions after having borne even the excitement of war, they smk into a children to Europeans." state of stupid listlessness, and think only of As some demonstration of decay, the fol­ enjoying the present by an unrestrained in­ lowing figures are put before the reader :— dulgence in brutalising, pleasures. They In 1788 it is supposed the native population become more indolent than ever; they in­ about Pert Jackson and Botany Bay was dulge in intemperance as far as their re­ about 1500 ; as many as 67 boats of theirs sources and opportunities will allow." were seen at once in the harbour. In 1853 They lose heart with the helplessness of but eight remained! Maoroo, the last of their situation. Derrimut thus tells the sor­ the Botany Bay tribe, thus told his tale to rows of his people, when speaking to a magis­ Mr. Miles :—" This all my couhfry—nice trate in Melbourne, and pointing down the country. My father chief long time ago, leading*treet of the city:—"All this mine- now I chief ; water all pretty. When I all along here Deriimut's once; no matter little fellow, plenty blackfellow—plenty gin now—very soon tumble down (die)." He —plenty picaninny—great corrobory—plenty was asked, " Have you any children ?" fight. Ah ! all gone now, all gone; dUly me Throwing himself into a passion, he exclaimed, left to walk about." "Why me have lubra—why me have pican­ The desolation after the small-pox, intro­ inny? You have all this place; no good duced among them by our people the year have lubra—no good have children me; me after the settlement of Sycbjpy, is mourn­ tumble down, die very soon." fully described by Captain Tlunter. " It When visiting the Burra Burra copper was truly shocking," he says, " to go round mines in 1850, we witnessed a great excite­ the coves of frbis harbour, which were for­ ment among the blacks in that neighbourhood. merly so mJp frequented by the natives: It appeared that as the smelting works were where, in thecaves in the rocks, which used in vigorous operation, and the forests near to shelter whole families in bad weather, were insufficient to keep the fires going, the were now to be seen men, women, and chil­ Mall6e scrub, towards the Murray, was dren lying dead." being invaded for fuel. The natives, as The decrease among those of Port Phillip easily and as groundlessly excited as children, or Victoria is equally well marked. The had got a belief that the whitefellow intended Tarra and coast tribes numbered 92 in 1848, to cut down all the trees of the country, so and 36 in 1858; there had been but one that there would be no shelter for them nor birth in ten years ! Mr. Parker speaks of their game. They would often stop the wood ten tribes having 88 die out of 179, within carts, and imploringly say to the drivers,— his own knowledge. Of four tribes,about " Why you do this ? Why you cut him Lal-lal but 15 remain. Two tribes mustering down scrub ? No kangaroo—no wallaby for 32 in 1858 had formerly 300. Of a large blackfellow and picaninny. Why you do tribe in GKpps Land there are now but one the like o' that ? " man and a half-caste child. Upon the au­ In the evening, at their camp fire, they thority of Mr. Wills, police magistrate, we would sing a mournful plaint about the learn that 500 of the Omeo blacks were cruelty of the white man, who " take him existing in 1835, and in 1858 but two men everything blackfellow country." They felt and three women. The Gipps Land tribes as Heki the Maori did, when he thus had decreased from 800 to 80, says Mr. addressed the missionary :—"If the great Commissioner Tyers, in fifteen years, ftr. Creator thus continues to press upon us, you Thomas saw 900 collected together at one will soon toll your bell, but^here will be time near Melbourne. Mr. Threlkeld speaks none to answer it." of a tribe in New South Wales being reduced It is no satisfaction to be told by Mr. from 164 to 3 only, in four years. Pritchard, the ethnologist, " It may happen AND THE BLAGK8 OF VICTORIA. 87 that in the coarse of another century, the amity or hatred,—each matters little. When aboriginal races of most parts of the world the chief of the Amazonian Passe' Indians will have ceased entirely to exist." There is was dying, he exclaimed:—"The people of no arresting the progress of their decay. my nation have always been good friends to Wherever the European goes, his simoon the Carwas (whites); but before my grand­ breath destroys them. children are old like me the name of Pass6 Among the Indians of South America a will be forgotten." sickness comes . upon the approach of Yet still the question returns, why should Pale-faces, and the tribes sink gradually our dark races pass away ? There was no away. Even with the apoltgy that we come apparent diminution of physical forle, moral to bless them with the sweets of civilisation, power, or mental activity* Humboldt speaks our footsteps are to them the harbingers of of the Peruviana as " the fading remnants of death; as the naturalist on the Amazons a society sinking amidst storms, overthrown observed, "Before the Indians can be re­ and shattered by overwhelming catastrophes." claimed in large numbers, it is most likely It is otherwise with our aborigines.' They they will become extinct as a race." # retire to the cold shades amidst serenity and Mr. Merivale, in his " Colonies and Colo­ peace; ' nisation," has presented the alternative of Like ships thafrhave gone down at sea, perpetuity or destruction in these terms:— When heaven was all tranquility. " Native races must in every instance either perish, or be amalgamated with the general The signs of their decrepitude suddenly fall population of their country." This gives upon them as the curtain of night descends little hope for even the Maories, and none in the tropics. With diseased frames, with for the Australians. The existing straggle hopeless feelings, homeless and. childless, the in New Zealand is but as the dying throes of present generation glides away from us. Like a people sensible that th^ are "marching the leaves of an English autumn, they wither slowly down the gloomy and dark road to and fall; but, alas! there is no spring for extinction;" and, in sheer desperation, they them. The Sheoak hangs its mournful,weird­ are flinging themselves upon the bayonets of like appendages over their tombs ; and, on it the white strangers, in search of an heroic knotted, leafless strings, the passing breezes rather than an inglorious end. Peace or war, play their solemn requiem.

• • APPE NDIX.

Having been fortunate enough to have I ful lover, and sought, by soft blandishments, some interviews with one of the old origi­ to alter his resolve. He closed his eyes to nals of 'the colony, the man who first rowed her charms and his ears to her appeals. He up the Tarra, and established a home on the dared not encounter the cares and responsi­ site of Melbourne, before Mr. Fawkner or bilities of married life, though that burden Mr. Batman saw Batman's Hill —Mr. George would be shared by beauty and affection. Evans—we obtained his version of the story He fled from the fair one, and hid himself in of Buckley. the leafy solitude. Many a good laugh had One of Batman's men, on Indented Head, the tribe at this disciple of celibacy, and being fond of strolling about) fell upon a the pouting maiden had to console herself party of natives, with Buckley in their with a second and a warmer love. midst. He returned in great excitement to Mr. Evans asked why he had not tried to his companions, exclaiming, " I have seen a escape. Buckley told the story of a boat white man with the blacks." To confirm his coming for wood, and his calling after the conjectures, he took a piece of bread, walked crew as they left the shore. When he found off with it to the group, and presented it to his alarmed countrymen deserting him, the giant as he sat with his friends. Buckley although he spoke in English, he relinquished looked at the damper awhile, and then said even the desire to remove from his forest " This is bread." He afterwards pointed to associates. the initial letters on his arm, and subse­ When, some time after this, as a squatter quently gave his name. about twenty miles from Melbourne, Mr. Our original colonist got the tale of the Evans lost an assigned servant, and wanted past from Buckley, so far as that reserved Buckley, then a constable, to see about the nature was willing to unfold. One of his truant, that worthy, idler, who never liked first questions was as to his social history, • motion of tongue or limb, affectionately his wife or wives. The quiet man assured wished that a certain person would take off • • him he had none, and that he never had one. the runaway's legs, as he should now have +o The tribe who were so kind to him had pre­ walk over to the Qeelong settlement in set i sented a girl to him, but he had prudently of the rascal. declined the sparkling bargain, fearing a The reason of his leaving the oolony was, quarrel with some blackfellow less than him­ according to our informant, the fear of the self. In answer to their importunities, the settlers that he might join the blacks against poor fellow did a better thing than argue—he them. Our friend always regarded Buckley walked off into the forest alone. The young as one who loved ease and quietness, who had lady, betrothed, though not united, and wil­ few wants and cares, and still fewer ideas. ling, though not wooed, went after her bash- ADDITIONAL PARTICULARS

COLLECTED SINCE THE PUBLICATION OP THIS WORK.

CAPTAIH ROBSOH, the man who piloted Batman to these shores, mentions Buckley in his account of the founding of the colony. After describing John Batman's trip up the Yarra, nearly six months before Mr. Fawkner*s arrival in Port Phillip, he adds:—" We watered near where Melbourne now is, then sailed for * Indented Head/ intending to make the settlement where Melbourne now is as soon as Batman oould get more persons there. We left three white men, four blacks, a whaleboat and stores, with instructions to build a sod hut, loopholed and roofed with sods, and to be kind to the natiyes and allow them provisions, a pound a-day. Buckley then came. He had heard on Western Port white men were there, and made his way round. This was after Batman had sailed for Launceston, after leaving the men, and food and boat." On his next trip to Port Phillip, a few weeks after, he says «—" We landed all we had and came back to Laun­ ceston. We saw Buckley on the visit. He had then left the natives and taken up with the whites."

The following extract is from the Eobart Town Colonial Times, of 1835:— "23rd July, 1835. "A most extraordinary discovery has taken place at Port Phillip. Some of Mr. Batman's men were one fine morning much frightened at the approach of a white man of immense size, covered with an enormous opossum skin rug, and his hair and beard spread out as large as a bushel measure. He advanced with a number of spears in one hand and a waddy in the other. The first impression of Mr. Batman's men was, that this giant oould put one of them under each arm and walk away with them. The man showing signs of peace, their fear subsided, and they spoke to him. At first he could not under­ stand one word that was said, and it took a few days before he could make them under­ stand who he was, and what be had been. His story is very remarkable. This man's name is William Buckley; be was formerly a private in the 4th or King's Own. He was transported to New South Wales, and accompanied Governor Collins in the year 1804 to 1 the settlement of Port Phillip. When the new colony was being established, Buckley .ith three others absconded, and when the settlement was abandoned they were left there, supposed to have diud in the bush. It niigbt be imagined that there is some hoax about the affair, and we should not have credited the story had not two of the leading members of the new company gone to one of the old settlers, who was also one of those forming the expedition of Uovernor Collins. After asking a few particulars respecting the country, the question was put, whether any of the party remained after the settle­ ment was broken up, when the party applied to immediately said that four men were left, 90 APPENDIX. one of whom he particularly recollected because he was much taller than Lieut. Gunn, and his name was William Buckley. He added they were never heard of afterwards. It appears Buckley had never seen a white man for upwards of thirty years. He has been living on friendly terms with the natives, and has been considered a chief. He says he does not know what became of the other three runaways. Cariosity induced Mr. Batman's party to measure this Goliath. His height is six feet five inches and seven-eights ; he measures round the chest three feet nine inches. The calf of his leg and the thick parts of his arm are eighteen inches in circumference. By all accounts he is a model for a Hercules. He is more active than any of the blacks, and can throw i\l£^ a spear to an astonishing distance. He refuses to leave the natives. The man may be made most useful by the new settlement, and we trust every precaution will be taken to conciliate the blacks, and bring them by degrees to industrious habits through the medium of this man."

William Robertson, Esq., of Colac, has supplied us with a very characteristic anecdote of Buckley. When that gentleman came over, as one of the founders of the colony, to nwryob inspect the country with Mr. Gellibrand, the giant rode round with him. Showing him leotthe the celebrated cave in which he passed so many years of his life, Mr. Robertson remarked ^S^ a stone rising up in the place where the wild white man had been accustomed to spread ^ 0{ his sleeping rug, and exclaimed, "Why did you never remove that stone from under :pne

beenc The Queensland papers give us the sad news of the death of poor Morrill, who, like youth Buckley, had for many years lived with the blacks, and found both home and friends with ^0B the tribe. When restored to civilisation, he attempted to stay the conflict then raging sup between the settlers and the natives, and boldly declared that since 1860 an indis­ criminate slaughter of the dark race had taken place. His offers of mediation were neglected or scorned. The Danite sword of destruction was drawn; and, as shown by the valued pamphlet by Gideon S. Lang, Esq., the Queensland Government had, in effect, ?J through its official agents, become implicated in the destruction of the aborigines in the L north. Morrill has now passed away, and the people who were his friends in the bush are rapidly following him to the grave. - November 1, 1866. p

.f

REVIEWS OF MR. BONWICK'S COLONIAL WORKS.

Australian Geography. First Edition. 1846. i 1 " As the parent of six children, I am bound to return my cordial thanks, not merely for your volume, which I have placed in their hands, but for an endeavour to provide for some of the educational wants of the children of the colony. Your plan appears to have been formed judiciously, and to be carried into effect with skill."—BISHOP OF TASMANIA. " This is the work of a talented and energetic schoolmaster in Hobart Town, an admirer of M. Fellenberg, one of the enthusiasts so needful to overcome the difficulties upon education ; and it is no small praise to say, that Mr. Bonwick partakes of his spirit. The work is well executed. As an essay on colonial books for schools it is an admirable production."—Sydney Morning Herald,

Geography. Second Edition. 1851. " It appears to me not only to be well written, but its extracts are very appropriate, as calculated to give scholars a correct knowledge of that part of the world in which, or near which their lot is cast."—CAPTAIN CHARLES STURT (the Explorer). " The peculiar and, we think, the crowning merit of these books is, that they have been compiled with particular reference to the notions, habits, and circumstances of our youth. They contain information upon a variety of subjects peculiar to the Australian colonies."—Sydney Empire, 1852. " The execution of the book is in a high degree meritorious, and he deserves the support of all the teachers and parents in these colonies.—Melbourne Argvs.

Geography of Australia and Kew Zealand. Third Edition. " Our estimate of the value of this Australian production may be learned from the fact that, in our opinion, no homestead should be without it, and that here, as in Vic­ toria and South Australia, it should become a class book in all our public schools."-*- Launcester Examiner, December, 1855. * " We are glad to find that Mr. James Bonwick has been engaged for some years in the compilation of such a work. An early copy of it now lies before us; and glancing through its pages, packed closely with facts relating to every feature in the geography of this and the neighbouring colonies, we are struck with the conviction that it is precisely the kind of manual that has long been wanted. Nothing seems to be omitted.—Our wonder is where he has managed to findsuc h a mass of facts as he has compressed into this little book."—Melbourne Age. " Mr. Bonwick is entitled to great credit for this attempt to create an Australian school-literature, and as bis book is used by the educational boards of Melbourne, a better testimonial to its value is afforded than any general expression of approbation by the press could yield."—Sydney Morning Herald. " We cannot express our gratitude too warmly to Mr. Bonwick for his really excellent grammar of Australian geography. From what we know of Mr. Bon wick's antecedents, he is the person best adapted to prepare such a work ;—a man of education, liberal and enlightened views, a resident of many years standing in these Southern lands, and a person possessed of much experience in tuition, must have been well adapted for the task he has executed."—Sydney Freeman's Journal. ii REVIEWS OF MR.BONWICK's COLONIAL WORKS.

" Mr. Bonwick has been for many years resident in these colonies; he has access to the best sources of information; he has been indefatigable in his efforts to produce a boolyphich might be a standard one on the subject he treats; and he has succeeded. —MelHurne Argus. * , "It is the work of a man thoroughly familiar with his subject, a colonist of fourteen years' standing, a traveller, and a practical teacher. The book does not contain a superfluous word ; it is what a book for schools should be,—compact and simple."—London Athenceum, October, 1856.

Grammar for Australian Youth.

" The grammar is a very superior book. Australian adults as well as youth, may glean much information from its pages."—Adelaide Examiner, 1851.

' Reader for Australian Youth.

"The 'Reader' is undoubtedly one of Mr. Eonwick's best productions. Its chief merit is the fact of its being strictly Australian in character and design."—Sydney Empire, 1862. Gold Diggers' Mag a due.

"It contains a variety of useful and amusing information, not only for the absent digger, but the wife and family left behind ; and es, from its tone, it is calculated to aid the cause of order and sound morals, apart from sectarian bias, we cordially hope that it may penetrate to every tent and hut upon the various diggings."—Victoria Standard, 1852. Map of Victoria.

" In addition to the usual features of such productions,' the physical features of the colonies are marked by placing against the name of the place its geological character— the first attempt of the kind here."—Melbourne Leader, 1856.

The Bushrangers; Illustrating the Early Days of Van Diemen's Land.

"In spite of its name, and the numerous deeds of blood that it suggests to the memory,' the book is by no means a mere Newgate Calendar, but something infinitely better. It exhibits a correct position of the state of society in earlier days, and makes our present condition much more than appreciable. We cordially recommend it to any one who desireEL to become acquainted with the history of their real or adopted country. Mr. An wick deservjB great credit for the series of books which he has projected."—Hobart Town Coloniafaimes, 1856.

William Buckley, The Wild White Mac, and his PorS Phillip Black Friends.

"Mr. Bonwick is certainly an indefatigable, interesting, and instructive writer.— He supplements the main story by a mass of information relative to the former con­ ditions, habits, usages, and character of the aboriginal population of Australia, derived from personal observation and other authentic sources. It is extremely well got up, and edited and revised with the greatest care."—Hobart Town Colonial Times, 1857.

^ Bible Stories for Young Australians.

*""" "They are "evidently told by a mind which delights alike in the etherial freshness of these tales of glorious heroism, and in making others love them too. The book is fitted to be, and we think will be, a favourite with all Sunday-school teachers and scholars. Mr. Bonwick is a downright Australian, and his work is full of healthy Christian feeling."—-jSottlAern Spectator. REVIEWS OF MR BONWICK's COLONIAL WORKS. iii

Discovery and Settlement of Port Phillip. " It has been criticised in the most friendly spirit by contemporaries in all the colonies."—Colonial Times and Tasmanian, 1857. '* My chief object being to depict Victoria, not as she was, bnt as she is now, 1 shall not trouble the reader with long narratives of early history. These have been earnestly and copiously gifen by the industry of Mr. Bonwick in his recent publications."— Mr. WSSMA&TH'S "Victoria in 1857." "Mr. Bonwick has had the advantage of sitting by the fireside of many of the Old Chums, who first penetrated the Victorian wilds, and listening to their hair-breadth escapes and marvellous adventures. These he has condensed into a peculiarly nervous and racy style, which delights the reader, and makes him regret he was not there to see the men who figured conspicuously in this sitting drama, and who would }e known to the greater portion of mankind only by their giving their names to some mountain, promontory, or harbour, will in Mr. Bonwick's book appear in all the reality of life, and present themselves before us as they acted, struggled and fought, and conquered in the great field of enterprise which energies and self-denial have bequeathed to their posterity."—Castlemaine Miner's Right. "Mr. Bonwick's succinct and compendious narrative belongs to the class of literature denominated by the French, Memotres pour Servir. Future historians will turn to it as a repertory of valuable facts, lucidly, systematically, and chronologically stated; for the most part well authenticated, and all of them of the deepest interest because bearing upon the infancy and rapidly maturing youth of a country, whose splendid destinies have yet to be revealed, and whose future greatness may transcend both our hopes and our belief."—Melbourne Argus, 1856.

A Sketch of Boroondara.

"One thing we notice in all his works—they are Australian.—Everything Aus­ tralian is tinted with the colours of Paradise by the brush of this patriotic painter."— Southern Spectator, 1858.

Western Victoria; Its Geography, Geology, and Social Conditions.

" It purports to be a narrative of an educational tour made by the author, in his capacity of inspector of schools in 1857 ; but instead of a bare record of dry statistical facts, we have a most charming, readable %odk, full of information of every kind, and interspersed with gossiping anecdotes, and glowing description of scenery. It is written, moreover, in an easy, flowing, attractive style."—Portland Guardian, Decem­ ber, 1858. " He has always something to tell us, does it in easy, graceful, purpose-like style, that is charming to us; a man who knows his work and does it,—keeping withal an honest eye in his head, that can see into and through a considerable number of things, and who can relate to us what he has seen and felt without any affectation or nonsense ; such an one ought not to be other than dear to us, and such an one Mr. Bonwick is.—But it is in contact with his fellow men, of every type or rank, that we like best to see Mr. Bonwick, who has a very warm sympathy with humanity in its every phase.— There are very many natural wonders in that western region, of which our readers, if they look, will find an admirable description in the volume before us, by one who is an ardent admirer of nature.—If they read it with honesty of heart, ne can promise that it will give them an hour or two's very agreeable entertainment, and that it will leave them not worse or fooliaher, but wiser and better men."— Christian Timet, January, 18W.

ALSO PUBLISHED, *

Geography for Young Australians. 4tb edition. Sixpence. I&rljftDays of Xelbocme. lariy Days off Inglard.

t*A1 2 * 1916