434 NEW SOUTH WALES. [CHAP. xix. 



they transfixed it with a spear, delivered by the throwing-stick 

 with the rapidity of an arrow from the bow of a practised archer. 

 In tracking animals or men they show most wonderful sagacity ; 

 and I heard of several of their remarks which manifested con- 

 siderable acuteness. They will not, however, cultivate the 

 ground, or build houses and remain stationary, or even take the 

 trouble of tending a flock of sheep when given to them. On the 

 whole they appear to me to stand some few degrees higher in the 

 scale of civilization than the Fuegians. 



It is very curious thus to see in the midst of a civilized people, 

 a set of harmless savages wandering about without knowing 

 where they shall sleep at night, and gaining their livelihood by 

 hunting in the woods. As the white man has travelled onwards, 

 he has spread over the country belonging to several tribes. 

 These, although thus enclosed by one common people, keep up 

 their ancient distinctions, and sometimes go to war with each 

 other. In an engagement which took place lately, the two 

 parties most singularly chose the centre of the village of Bathurst 

 for the field of battle. This was of service to the defeated side, 

 for the runaway warriors took refuge in the barracks. 



The number of aborigines is rapidly decreasing. In my whole 

 ride, with the exception of some boys brought up by English- 

 men, I saw only one other party. This decrease, no doubt, must 

 be partly owing to the introduction of spirits, to European dis- 

 eases (even the milder ones of which, such as the measles,* prove 

 very destructive), and to the gradual extinction of the wild ani- 

 mals. It is said that numbers of their children invariably perish 

 in very early infancy from the effects of their wandering life ; 

 and as the difficulty of procuring food increases, so must their 

 wandering habits increase; and hence the population, without 

 any apparent deaths from famine, is repressed in a manner ex- 

 tremely sudden compared to what happens in civilized countries, 

 where the father, though in adding to his labour he may injure 

 himself, does not destroy his offspring. 



* It is remarkable how the same disease is modified in different climates. 

 At the little island of St. Helena, the introduction of scarlet-fever is dreaded 

 as a plague. In some countries, foreigners and natives are as differently 

 affected by certain contagions disorders, as if they had bepn different 

 animals ; of which fact some instances have occurred in Chile ; and, accord 

 ing to Humboldt, in Mexico. (Polit. Essay, New Spain, vol. iv.) 



