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10 THE ABORIGINES OE AUSTRALIA. The government is administered by a council of old men, the young not being admitted. There is also a class that go from tribe to tribe, and their medicine men. The intelligence of the natives is quite underrated. Their skill and activity in war, and their subtlety as diplomatists, Mr. Lang says, are quite equal to the North American Indian. (Having mixed with the North American Indians, I think this is rather exaggerated.) In the corroborees they have especial performances. 500 sometimes assemble and represent a herd of cattle feeding, the performers being painted accordingly; they lie down and chew the cud, scratch themselves, and lick the calves, &c.; they then proceed to spear the cattle; next are heard a troop of horses galloping; a party with faces painted white, and bodies painted whitey-brown, some blue, others to represent stockmen ; then comes a body of natives, and a regular sham-fight takes place, in which the natives are conquerors. But, alas! the murderous hand of the whites has destroyed them by shooting them down, and even resorting to poison, while by our occupation of the country, the destruction of their game, and the introduction of disease, they are fast dying out and disappearing. Governor Phillip supposed that there were 3,000 aboriginal inhabitants within 200 square miles of Sydney, but now there is scarcely one left. For the whole of Australia the number is under half a million. Around Melbourne and Sydney the population is extinct. At Port Jackson there were but one male and three females left. And the old Brisbane tribe, which once numbered 1,000, is now nearly extinct. The Tasmanian race is extinct. And so the original inhabitants of this immense country will soon cease to be known. In the north they are a finer race; but they are likewise doomed to perish by European vices and encroachment. Yet these men have made excellent sailors, good policemen, and stockmen, and recently they were conveyed home to England as first-rate cricket-players. Can they want intelligence ? They seem very like the Gipsy race—prone to wander, therefore hard to domesticate. This arises probably from their having to seek their food over a widely scattered area. Sir G. Grey’s party met with native huts in considerable villages of a more remarkable construction than those of South Australia, being very nicely plastered on the outside with clay and clods of turf; there were also well marked roads, sunken wells, and extensive warren grounds, certainly indicative of some advance in civilization. _ The most singular tribe Mitchell met with was what he termed the spitting tribe. These savages waived boughs violently over their heads, spat at the travellers, and threw dust with their toes, and forming into a circle, shouting, jumping, spitting, and throwing up dust, sang war songs with the most hideous gestures : their faces seemed all eyes and teeth. The Encounter tribe is remarkable for daring. In one case, where the natives were pursued by two police, the blackfellows rushed on the troopers, and knocked one down, and he was only rescued by the arrival of the other trooper, whom the blackfellows also attacked, but were captured. The sealers on the islands had stolen three women, wives of the blacks. After a short time, two escaped in a miserable canoe ; the third attempted with her child to swim, but was drowned. The natives have suffered much from the whites. There are now three classes of the natives—the old blacks, who hold fast to the customs of the tribes; the natives who are inoculated with the worst vices of the Europeans, being drunkards, gamblers, and utterly lawless ; and lastly, the native Christians, yearly increasing in numbers. The tendency of Christian civilization, when adopted, is to make them more vigorous and long-lived. The country is divided into tribal possessions, which none can intrude upon, so that the tribes are confined within a space of country so small that food often fails. The tribes are jealous of any invasion of territory. This accounts for divisions of districts, as well as a variety of feature, texture of hair, &c., the latter being sometimes, but rarely, found to be woolly in Tasmania. Long hair is generally met with, but in the interior whole tribes are found entirely destitute of the same, while others are remarkable for being very hairy, except on the palms of their hands and the soles of their feet, and a small space round the eyes ; these last are remarkable for strength and stature. Some have frizzled hair like the Papuans, and others have hair over their shoulders like Maccabars, while their beards are as different as the hair of their heads ; the colour of the skin varies from black to copper colour, and again to almost white. Their features also differ; the Jewish, Celtic, and Teutonic type are recognizable, from which the stockmen nick-name them Paddy, Sawney, John Bull. They make good seamen, stockmen, and policemen. The aborigines are not Papuans, but are probably cave-dwellers; having no fixed habitation or residence, they depend entirely upon the natural productions of the soil, game, and fish.
