104 AUSTRALIA, OR NEW HOLLAND. 



known to whom they can be compared ; all would suffer by 

 the comparison. A resemblance may be traced between them 

 and certain tribes of negroes in Africa ; the complexion is the 

 same — if anything, blacker — the shape of the head and some 

 of the features similar, but the countenance far more hideous ; 

 in fact, imagination cannot conceive the extent of their 

 ugliness. Perfectly satanic in appearance, one fancies him- 

 self in the midst of a horde of sooty imps just escaped from 

 the dominions of his cloven-footed majesty. They are gene- 

 rally tall and shapeless, with exceedingly slender limbs that 

 have scarce even the ordinary enlargements occasioned by the 

 muscles. Their manner of living, habits and customs, are 

 those of a people plunged in the lowest depths of barbarism, 

 and showing but a slight superiority over the beasts of the 

 field. They do not settle in communities for mutual pro- 

 tection and benefit, but roam at large over the country, sup- 

 porting themselves as they best can upon what chance throws 

 in their way — sometimes upon fruits and berries, and even 

 roots, and sometimes upon snakes and whatever animals they 

 succeed in ensnaring. They do not even build huts, but 



attempted to trace the original colonization of Australia to a horde of Malays passing 

 over in canoes from the Indian Archipelago, across Torres's Straits to the unknown 

 southern land. The color of the skin, however, the formation of the skull and the 

 limbs, with the genius, the habits, and the general character of the Australians 

 identify them with the negro race of New Guinea. The weapons they employ are 

 similar, and their progress in the industrial i.rts, as well as their mental qualities 

 and condition of existence, being infinitely lower than those of the Malay, and 

 closely similar to those of the Papuan, destroy the theory of their Malan origin. 

 Traditions they have few, and those but faint and incoherent. It is probable, 

 however, that the wild savages of the Indian Archipelago, driven from their original 

 homes by the superior civilization of the Malays, put to sea in rude canoes, and 

 reaching the mysterious southern land, debarked, and gradually peopled the wil- 

 derness. They left their own rich islands to the conquering Malays, deserting a 

 contested heritage for one where security and peace made up for the loss of a soil 

 spontaneously productive. That infusion of other blood has taken place is probable, 

 but not to such an extent as to have influenced the character of the population. 



