NEW SOUTH WALES. 35 



lives of New South Wales, for their conduct to 

 women renders them considerably inferior to 

 the brute creation ; indeed nothing but having 

 promised to give a faithful account of all their 

 customs, induces me to state what I now find 

 become my duty. 



Strangers to the finer passions, they seek only 

 the gratification of their brutal desires, yet like 

 other savages they have customs peculiar to 

 themselves on these occasions. In obtaining a 

 female partner the first step they take, romantic as 

 it may seem, is to fix on some female of a tribe at 

 (enmity with their own, this done, the lover, as we 

 must now esteem him, seeks to find his intended 

 unprotected by her friends, when he steals upon 

 the unsuspecting woman. The monster then 

 stupifies her with blows, which he inflicts with 

 his club, on her head, back, neck, and indeed 

 every part of her body, then snatching up one 

 of her arms, he drags her, streaming with blood 

 from her wounds, through the woods, over 

 stones, rocks, hills, and logs, with all the 

 violence and determination of a savage, till he 

 reaches his tribe, when a scene takes place 

 with the relation of which, I shall neither stain 

 my pages, or offend the reader. The woman 

 thus violated becomes the wife of the ravisher, 

 and is admitted into her husband's tribe. 



The tribe of the female, by the favourite plan 

 of retaliation, redress this outrage, but the 

 female herself seems contented, and seldom, 

 leaves her husband or his tribe for another. 



