[Note 36:

Vide Vol.

I. July 4, Aug 31, and March 19.] And about longitude 128 degrees 20 minutes E., when crossing over towards King George's Sound, large parrots were found coming from the north-east, to feed upon the berries of a shrub growing on the sea coast, although no parrots were seen for two or three hundred miles on either side, either to the east or to the west, they must, therefore, have come from the interior. Now the parrot is a bird that often frequents a mountainous country, and always inhabits one having timber of a better description and larger growth than the miserable shrubs met with along the coast; it is a bird too that always lives within reach of permanent fresh-water, as rivers, lakes, creeks, pools, etc. Can there then be such in the interior, with so barren and arid a region, bounding it? and how are we to commence an examination with so many difficulties and embarrassments attending the very outset?

The second series of facts which have attracted my attention, relate to the Aborigines. It is a well known circumstance that the dialects, customs, and pursuits in use among them in the various parts of the continent, differ very much from each other in some particulars, and yet that there is such a general similarity in the aggregate as to leave no room to doubt that all the Aborigines of Australia have had one common origin, and are in reality one and the same race. If this then is really the case, they must formerly have spread over the continent from one first point, and this brings me to the

Third reason I have mentioned as being one, from which I infer, that there is not an inland sea, viz., the coincidence observable in the physical appearance, customs, character, and pursuits of the Aborigines, at opposite points of the continent, whilst no such coincidence exists along the intervening lines of coast connecting those two points, and which naturally follows from the circumstances connected with the present location of the various tribes in which this is observable, and with the route which they must have taken to arrive at the places they now occupy on the continent. [Note 37 at end of para.] I believe that the idea of attempting to deduce the character of the continent, and the most probable line for crossing it, from the circumstances and habits of the natives inhabiting the coast line is quite a novel one. It appears to me, however, to be worth consideration; and if it is true that the natives have all one common origin, and have spread over the continent from one first point, I think it may reasonably be inferred that there is a practicable route across the centre of New Holland, and that this line lies between the 125th and 135th degrees of east longitude. It further appears that there must still be a second route, other than the coast line, in the direction between Port Jackson in New South Wales and the south-east corner of the Gulf of Carpentaria on the north coast.

[Note 37: Vide Chapter VII. of Notes on the Aborigines, where this subject will be found fully discussed, and the reasons given for supposing the conclusions here assumed.]

If then we have reasonable grounds for believing that such lines of route actually do exist, it becomes a matter of much interest and importance to determine the most favourable point from which to explore them. My own experience has pointed out the dreadful nature of the southern coast, and the very great and almost insuperable difficulties that beset the traveller at the very commencement - in his efforts even to establish a single depot from which to enter upon his researches. The northern coast may, probably, afford greater facilities, but in a tropical climate, where the heat and other circumstances render ordinary difficulties and impediments still more embarrassing and dangerous, it is a matter of deep moment that the expedition for interior exploration should commence at the right point, and this can only be ascertained by a previous examination.

I have myself always been most anxious to attempt to cross from Moreton Bay on the N. E. coast to Port Essington on the N. W. I believe that this journey is quite practicable, and I have no doubt that if judiciously conducted, and the country to the south of the line of route always examined, as far as that could be done, it would completely develop, in connection with what is already known, the character and formation of Australia, and would at once point out the most proper place from which subsequent expeditions ought to start in order finally to accomplish the passage across its interior - from the north to the south.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALIA.

CHAPTER I.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS - UNJUST OPINIONS GENERALLY ENTERTAINED OF THE CHARACTER OF THE NATIVE - DIFFICULTIES AND DISADVANTAGES HE LABOURS UNDER IN HIS RELATIONS WITH EUROPEANS - AGGRESSIONS AND INJURIES ON THE PART OF THE LATTER IN GREAT DEGREE EXTENUATE HIS CRIMES.

Upon bringing to a close the narrative of an Expedition of Discovery in Australia, during the progress of which an extensive portion of the previously unknown parts of that continent were explored, I have thought it might not be uninteresting to introduce a few pages on the subject of the Aborigines of the country.

It would afford me much gratification to see an interest excited on their behalf proportioned to the claims of a people who have hitherto been misjudged or misrepresented.

For the last twelve years I have been personally resident in one or other of the Australian Colonies, and have always been in frequent intercourse with the aboriginal tribes that were near, rarely being without some of them constantly with me as domestics.

To the advantages of private opportunities of acquiring a knowledge of their character were added, latterly, the facilities afforded by my holding a public appointment in South Australia, in the midst of a district more densely populated by natives than any in that Colony, where no settler had ventured to locate, and where, prior to my arrival in October 1841, frightful scenes of bloodshed, rapine, and hostility between the natives and parties coming overland with stock, had been of frequent and very recent occurrence.

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