BY R. HAMLYN-HAERVS. 15- 



a story against myself, 1 might remind Mr. Goodfellow. of 

 the circumstances under which 1 ceased to perform this 

 match-striking trick. Having struck match after 



naatch before a crowd of natives who showed not the 

 slightest signs of surprise, notwithstanding that a lucifer 

 box was an absolute noveltj^ to them, I asked the inter- 

 preter to discover what these primitive children of nature 

 thought of the performance. He informed me truly and 

 tersely: He say, what for no gib it he^ He say you 

 blurry fool, chuck'um way.' " 



The earliest records of Queensland Ethnography are 

 undoubtedly contained in Tom Petrie's Reminiscences 

 dating from 1S37 (103), and 8cience owes a debt of gratitude 

 to Miss Constance Petrie for preserving information of 

 much ethnological value while the opportunity presented 

 itself. Miss Petire's book deals in the main with the old 

 Brisbane tribe (Tubrbal), now extinct, and exposes the 

 crude methods by which the tribe was decimated. The 

 experiences of Petrie serve to explain many difficulties 

 and to throw hght upon many a doubtful point. It is, 

 however, of importance to note that some aboriginal traits 

 in character, described, had l)een acquired by contact 

 with early civilization. 



On the authority of Wickham and Simpson there 

 were about four thousand Moreton Bay natives in existence 

 in' 1848. The tribe has been extinct for some years, the 

 whole of the membershij) having died out in little more 

 than half a century. " • 



Miss Petrie, amongst other things, did wisely in expos- 

 ing the fallacy referred to by Dr. Lang (69) in connection 

 with the sacrifice of Queensland girls to propitiate an evil 

 divinity, an idea entirely out of keeping mth our conception 

 of the laws of this race. The vocabulary at the end of 

 Miss Petrie 's book is of special value, containing, as it does, 

 native names which would otherMdse" have been lost to 

 Science. ' . . - . i . .. 



During the course of this address the chronicles pf a 

 iiumber of voyages and scientific expeditions, undertaken 

 in the early days by resolute and valorous men, will be cited. 

 Many of thevse contain only isolated references to Queens* 



