358 ON THE ABORIGINES OF THE LOWER MURRAY, 



If these people did not retreat before the white man it was 

 not their fault ; they have only the alternative of making a 

 compromise with the settler, or of fighting the next tribe they 

 come in contact with ; and generally they adopted the first they 

 remained upon the soil which had given them food for so many years, 

 took to rum and tobacco, sacrificed their wives and daughters to 

 the white man (if a free offer may be called a sacrifice), and at 

 last, almost ceased to increase in numbers as the women became 

 either barren or produced a weak half-caste offspring, who were 

 not fit to endure the same privations, or obtain their food in 

 the same ingenious manner as their black brethren. 



The Aboriginal population of Victoria in 1847 amounted to 

 about 5000 ; in 1858, shortly after these notes had been taken, 

 their number had been reduced to 1768, men, women, and 

 children ; and if they have decreased at the same rate to the 

 present day there will scarcely be a thousand souls left. 



When I started from Melbourne, in October 1857, for the 

 Lower Murray, I counted the number of natives who visited our 

 camp at every station, and the following is the result, the 

 average distance being about 25 or 30 miles from post to post. 

 Between Melbourne and Spring Plains about 70 miles no 

 native was observed. 



Apple's Hotel 8 



Campaspe River 15 



Echuca 35 



Maiden's Station 8 



Gardiner's Station, (Gunbower Creek) ... 45 



Gardiner's Out- Station 12 



Campbell's Station 18 



Loddon Junction 23 



Eeedy Lake 10 



Lake Boga 6 



Marrapit River 14 



Swan Hill 18 



Tintindyre 13 



' Coghill's Station 7 



Hamilton's Station, and Murrambidgee 



Junction 22 



