HIS WORST VICE 281 



part of the continent, where the climate is more benignant, 

 and game and food of all sorts more abundant, are a much 

 finer set of men than those of the south, where the 

 necessaries of life are more difficult to obtain. The food 

 question is really the question of human life ; and this is 

 proved not only by the quality of the blackfellow, but also 

 by his numbers, which are, I should think, quite ten-fold 

 more numerous in the north than in the arid parched 

 deserts of the south. In the north also the native is a fine 

 upright and muscular man, in the south he is generally a 

 puny creature with thin lanky limbs. In the north he is 

 seldom under five feet four or five inches in height, and is 

 often five feet ten, or even more ; in the south, men who 

 have ceased to grow, and are therefore fully developed are 

 often not more than four feet five or six, and in the 

 districts about King George's Sound and Swan River, 

 five feet four inches is a good average height. In general 

 intelligence the Australian black is entitled to take a high 

 place. Those accounts which represent him as sunken in 

 irretrievable sloth and degradation are not to be relied on. 

 He is, in all parts of the country, acute, intelligent, and, 

 on the spur of necessity, remarkably energetic and 

 resourceful. Treachery and ingratitude are rare vices 

 with him, so rare that I cannot recollect, at this moment, 

 an instance of betrayal of trust on his part. 



He has certainly some very shocking vices. He is 

 extremely brutal to his women, and though he is some- 

 times given to jealous emotions, he has no sense of virtue 

 in regard to those poor creatures, who are always his 

 slaves. It is not an unusual thing for him to sell his wife 

 for a little tobacco, or a similar paltry consideration ; and 

 the unfortunate woman is beaten unmercifully at the 

 caprice of her lord. She never wilfully gives him cause of 

 complaint, but any little accident, such as the breaking of 

 his pipe, or the loss of any of his savage weapons or 

 implements of the chase, is most surely punished with a 

 murderous assault, in which it is quite likely the ruffian 

 husband will break some of her bones. This despiteful 

 use of woman is one of the worst traits of the Australian 



