knew it was an incorrect one) that the Blacks had but one language; and as some terms used by the Sydney tribe had become generally known to the Whites, we find them introduced into other vocabularies, as collectors did not trouble themselves to ask about words which they believed they were already in possession of. Then the Whites who made inquiries on the subject of language, and the Blacks who replied, constantly misunderstood each other, in proof of which the well-known fact may be mentioned, that many of the names of places which Major Mitchell obtained from the Blacks, and gives in his works, turned out subsequently to be incorrect. As an instance, the Blacks who dwelt on the Goulburn near Seymour called that river Waaring, but Mitchell relates, from inquiries made on the spot, .that its name is Bayungan. No doubt the Black from whom he made his inquiry replied indunga, that is, I don't understand, and that the Major took down the phrase, as nearly as he could, as the name of the river. Between Bayungan and indunga there is a good deal of similarity. Another mistake of exactly the same kind seems to have occurred in connection with the word Moneroo, a name which it may be remarked is and always has been pronounced by the Whites, Manēra, the Crown Lands Commissioner of the day probably being answerable for the accepted spelling. Now in connection with this name, Manēra Plains, one suspects it at once, because, though the tribes have names for every remarkable spot in their territories, they have seldom collective names for large areas. What seems probable is, that the Englishman who first saw the plains had a Sydney Black in his party, who on being asked their name replied manyer, or I don't know (see the vocabulary in Captain John Hunter's Historical Journal.)
Or this answer may have been given by a Black of those
b
