48 INTERMIXTURE OP CERTAIN RACES 



mentions only one cross-breed, the offspring of a white man 

 and the wife of a chief named Bongari. 1 Cunningham, a great 

 defender of the Australian race which, by the way, has 

 finished by killing, and it is even said eating him has written 

 two volumes on New South Wales, in which neither directly nor 

 indirectly is there mention made of more than one single Mu- 

 latto, and it happens that this single Mulatto is precisely the same 

 of whom Mr. Lesson speaks. 2 No statistical writer, nor any 

 historian, enumerates cross-breeds among the Australian popu- 

 lation. No where, nevertheless, are the classes of society 

 more numerous and more distinct. The officials, the colonists 

 born in Europe, the colonists born in Australia, the convicts, 

 the emancipated, the descendants of convicts, etc.; form as 

 many classes envious of and despising each other, they dispute 

 their respective privileges, and give each other more or less pic- 

 turesque nick names. There are sterlings, currencies, 3 the legi- 

 timate, the illegitimate, 4 the pure Merinos, the convicts, the 

 titled, the untitled, the canaries, the government men, the bush- 

 rangers, the emancipists, 5 and some other classes of immigrants 

 or convicts. In this rich vocabulary there is not a single word 

 to designate the Mulattoes. Yet in all countries where races of 

 different colours mix, the language of the locality contains 

 always distinct denominations for Mulattoes of various shades. 

 Nothing of the kind exists in Australia. There is even a class 

 of white men, the legitimates, which have also the name of 

 cross-breeds. 6 This word everywhere else would designate Mu- 

 lattoes, in Australia it means European convicts, it being 

 thought impossible that the rare issue of an intermixture be- 



1 Cunningham, Two Years in New South Wales, 3rd edit., v. ii, p. 17, Lond., 

 1828. 



2 Lessen, Voyage autour du Monde sur la Corvette la Coquille, executed by 

 order of the French Government, t. ii, p. 278, Paris, 1830. The description 

 of New Holland and its inhabitants fully occupying nearly eighty pages. 



3 It would be superfluous to indicate the origin of these various nicknames. 

 We may however mention, that sterlings are the free settlers born in Europe, 

 and the currencies such as are born in the colony. The pound sterling was 

 formerly of more value than the pound currency. V. Cunningham, p. 46. 



4 These names have here a special acceptation, and designate by no means 

 natural or legitimate children. 



5 The canaries are recently arrived convicts, the government men established 

 convicts, the emancipists liberated convicts, the bushrangers fugitive convicts. 



6 Loc. cit., p. 108. 



