This general description of the habits of the race must
suffice for these pages.
In the excellent "Kamilaroi and other Australian Languages," by the Rev. William Ridley,[1] will be found most valuable information, not unattended with internal proof of the vague, second-hand manner in which knowledge has been sometimes assumed to have been gathered. The "Australian Aborigines," by James Dawson,[2] must be commended for its fulness and general accuracy.
The former life of the scattered tribes of Australia quickly became impossible after settlers appeared in any district. The new comers, for the most part as ignorant of the manners and laws of the disinherited race as any unmoved denizen of Wapping, were ready to denounce it as an encumbering tree which ought to be cut down without delay or remorse. Not making allowances for the forced impossibility of living their former life, and the powerful obstacles to their adoption of a new one, the public soon accepted the local maxim that the Australian black was the lowest type of man. It is but just to show some of the influences which tended to crush him.
It was common among the settlers to attract or inveigle into their service some young lad who was able to run errands or to ride. He still associated with his tribe when they frequented the neighbourhood of the settler's house. He knew his native language; he venerated native traditions. He was duly initiated in the mysteries, and, having been long betrothed, when he reverted to his tribe as he grew to manhood, he was denounced as another proof of the incorrigibility of his race. An instance may be told.
Sir George Grey tells of one Miago taken on board H.M.S. Beagle, and found attentive, clean, and cheerful, wearing European dress and waiting at the gun-room mess. The Beagle left him at Swan River, and he became again a savage, wearing war-paint, and inbruing his hands in blood.
"Several persons told me," continues Sir G. Grey. "You see the taste for a savage life was strong in him, and he took to the bush again directly.
