152 COLLECTOR'S RAMBLES 



Queensland ; and, as white labor is scarce and expen- 

 sive, the planters import blacks from the numerous 

 islands north of Australia. These blacks are quite 

 industrious, and must well repay the trouble and 

 expense of their transportation. Each native has a 

 trunk or large, hinged box, with a lock, in which he 

 stores all the treasures he buys with his earnings. 

 The poor fellows have to work a long time for a very 

 little money, and often get sadly cheated in their pur- 

 chases; but when they carry home a large box well 

 filled with knives, hatchets, guns, ammunition, hand- 

 some calicoes, beads, rings, tobacco, and like articles, 

 dear to the savage heart, the} 7 must be looked upon by 

 their brothers as wealthy men, possessing all the luxu- 

 ries one could desire. 



The Australian natives are rather averse to work, 

 preferring to beg about the towns than to earn a living 

 by labor. They seldom wear any clothing when at 

 home in the woods ; but, as they are not allowed to 

 come into town in this costume, each native has a 

 shirt, which is carefully kept for all great occasions. 



Often on starting out in the morning on a collecting 

 tour, I would meet a band of naked natives on their 

 way to town, each carrying under his arm his shirt, 

 carefully rolled up in a banana leaf. On nearing the 

 first straggling houses, they would don this apparel, 

 and march into town with the air of well-dressed men. 

 Returning, in the evening, I would sometimes meet 



