On The Whole
They Appear To Me To Stand Some Few Degrees Higher In The
Scale Of Civilization Than The Fuegians.
It is very curious thus to see in the midst of a civilized
people, a set of harmless savages wandering about without
knowing where they shall sleep at night, and gaining their
livelihood by hunting in the woods.
As the white man has
travelled onwards, he has spread over the country belonging
to several tribes. These, although thus enclosed by one common
people, keep up their ancient distinctions, and sometimes
go to war with each other. In an engagement which
took place lately, the two parties most singularly chose the
centre of the village of Bathurst for the field of battle. This
was of service to the defeated side, for the runaway warriors
took refuge in the barracks.
The number of aborigines is rapidly decreasing. In my
whole ride, with the exception of some boys brought up by
Englishmen, I saw only one other party. This decrease, no
doubt, must be partly owing to the introduction of spirits, to
European diseases (even the milder ones of which, such as
the measles, [1] prove very destructive), and to the gradual
extinction of the wild animals. It is said that numbers of
their children invariably perish in very early infancy from
the effects of their wandering life; and as the difficulty of
procuring food increases, so must their wandering habits
increase; and hence the population, without any apparent
deaths from famine, is repressed in a manner extremely
sudden compared to what happens in civilized countries,
where the father, though in adding to his labour he may injure
himself, does not destroy his offspring.
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