1827.] Terra Incognita. 2.17 



strange as it may appear, it is a fact, that they would soak a bag of the 

 kind in a common pail of water; and then, each being furnished with a 

 piece of the sugee, or with a corner of the bag, eight or ten of them get 

 quite tipsey, by sucking the liquor out not sucking it up, with their noses 

 in it, like pigs nor drinking it like civilized human beings but by dip- 

 ping the piece of stuff to saturate it with the juice, and then sucking it 

 out, as one might suck the juice out of an orange ; to prolong the pleasure 

 they did it, and to promote intoxication, one would think for it certainly 

 had that effect and then quarrels would arise, and broken heads ensued. 

 To what a pitch of degradation have I seen humanity reduced ! White 

 savages, having given the filthiest means of inebriation to black savages 

 who, unconsciously, remunerated their benefactors by an exhibition, in 

 the public streets, of their naked persons in gladiatorial show ! the men 

 actively engaged in thrashing each other with clubs, hand to hand ; and 

 the women, unarmed, but receiving blows on their heads from both par- 

 ties, as they happened to interfere all, at the same time, vociferating, in 

 their loudest tones, all the abuse that their own language was capable of; 

 and (out of compliment to their benefactors], making up, for its want of 

 force, by the use of English words opprobrious terms oaths curses 

 and blasphemies ! 



The swillings of a rum-puncheon made a liquor called bull, winch was 

 a powerful rival of sugar-bag. Bull, however, would more frequently find 

 its way down the throats of the convict-servants than those of the poor 

 black fellows. 



Revolting as such a state of things appears, it had existed from the 

 earliest establishment of the colony, and did exist for several years after 

 the late excellent Governor Macquarrie's arrival there. At length (In the 

 year 1812, I think), a government order appeared, which put an end to 

 the exhibition of such scenes, in the towns at least ; and a later order has 

 prohibited the natives from appearing in, or within a certain distance of, 

 any of the townships, with offensive weapons about them. To the present 

 day, though, I believe, they wander about the streets, naked as they were 

 born ! The women, of late years, are frequently covered with a blanket, 

 which they either hang over, their shoulders, like a cloak or tie round the 

 waist, like a petticoat leaving the bust exposed. The notion the men 

 have of the use of clothes, may be inferred from this that they will as 

 soon accept a coat as a pair of trowsers supposing them to be previously 

 possessed of neither. Nothing can have a more ludicrous effect, than to 

 see a man (and I have seen many of them) strolling about the town, with 

 a stick drawn across the back of his neck, held at the ends by both hands, 

 and with not a single article of clothing on him, but an old coat perchance 

 it may be a short jacket, or a waistcoat, a hat, or a single stocking or shoe ; 

 sometimes it may be a shirt, or a pair of trowsers but seldom any two 

 articles on the same man and, as often as any, stark naked ! Custom 

 and habit may reconcile one to almost any thing ; and I am sure that no 

 ideas of indelicacy or impropriety obtrude themselves on the minds of the 

 Austral, or long- resident, European females, more than on the minds of 

 those in this part of the world, who are in the habit of frequenting sculpture 

 or picture galleries, where the human form is commonly displayed without 

 covering. 



The first Easter holidays, I went to spend at Parramatta. Two of my 

 school-fellows, brothers, whose father was a justice of the peace, living at 

 the Hawkesbury, had to go home by the market-cart ; and as Parramatta 



M. M. New Series. VOL. III. No. 15. 2 L 



