260 NATTJEAL HISTORY SKETCHES. 



ciples of European civilization swearing and drinking. 

 It is true he eats better food, wears better clothes, and 

 sleeps in better dwellings. But where is his home ? Who 

 will be his sister, his mother, his brother ? Who will 

 ally herself as wife to his dark skin ? Can he ever know 

 the sweetness of a child's love ? No ! He soon tires of 

 our food, our work, our confined habitations, our heart- 

 less ridicule, and hastens back to his camp-fire, to find a 

 friend, to feel himself a man, to dwell with those that can 

 love him. Attempts were formerly made to convert them, 

 which always failed ; but this was long before the country 

 was peopled as it is now. Heathens or no heathens, how- 

 ever, the life of the savage here is perhaps as free from 

 reproach as that of many of their Christian neighbours. 

 When I camped at Mordialloc, I lived on very neigh- 

 bourly terms with the " Bomerang " tribe, for they 

 generally had their "miamies" close to my hut; and 

 as I never made too free with them, or gave them a 

 promise I did not intend to keep, I was a bit of a 

 favourite with them. Like most other savages, they 

 strictly imitate the white man in all his vices ; and this 

 tribe is fast paying the penalty ; for since I knew it first, 

 more than two-thirds have been swept away by disease 

 and intemperance, and in a few years it will exist only 

 in name. It is melancholy to see a whole race of beings 

 thus disappear, without any apparent cause. There is 

 no prostration of physical strength, or mental activity ; 

 they wither in the prime of life, and sink into the grave, 

 as though a blight had fallen on them. 



