INHABITANTS OF AUSTEALIA. 385 



that there has been a real increase either of the pure or the mixed aboriginal 

 elements in certain "reserves," where the natives are treated with kindness. In 

 the arid regions of the interior beyond the districts settled by the whites the 

 aborigines are probably even less numerous than in the vicinity of the seaboard. 

 The mixture of white and native blood produces an intermediate race of fair 

 proportions and comely appearance. 



At present the colonists of European birth and descent have become absolute 

 masters of the continent, where they are already at least fifty times more numerous 

 than the aborigines. But their beginnings were lowly enough, and whereas the 

 inhabitants of other countries delight in celebrating the heroic virtues of their 

 forefathers and predecessors, the present citizens of the Australian states prefer to 

 trace their descent, not from the first arrivals, but from later immigrants. Those 

 first arrivals were in fact convicts, who, to the number of seven hundred and eighty- 

 seven, were transported in 1778 to Botany Bay, and thence soon after removed to a 

 more favourable locality on the south side of Port Jackson. But the experiment 

 to found a colony with elements drawn from the criminal classes was attended 

 with little success. The prisoners, treated with excessive rigour, especially under 

 the administration of Bligh, thought only of escape, and thousands perished in 

 their repeated attempts at revolt or flight. Large numbers, however, succeeded in 

 reaching the inland tribes, and although many were devoured by the natives, 

 others rose to positions of authority and became tribal chiefs, while some played an 

 historic part as conquerors of archipelagoes in the South Seas. 



Between 1778 and 1820 Australia received from the mother country 28,878 

 convicts, of whom not more that 3,661 were women. During that period the 

 births did not exceed 1,500, and so far from becoming self-supporting, these in- 

 voluntary immigrants cost the British Government about £600,000 annually. But 

 a new era opened for the Australasian world with the introduction of free immi- 

 gration in the year 1820. The new settlers soon began to protest vigorously 

 against the continuation of the system of transportation, and in 1840 their efforts 

 were crowned with success, at least in the eastern provinces, for Tasmania continued 

 to receive convicts till 1853, and West Australia till 1868. At present the original 

 convict element may be regarded as completely merged in the rest of the popula- 

 tion, and all sense of humiliation associated with the early penal settlements has 

 entirely disappeared. 



The white population, which had hitherto increased at a moderate rate, received 

 a tremendous impulse by the discovery of the gold-fields about the middle of the cen- 

 tury. Since that time it has been multiplied tenfold, rising from three hundred 

 thousand to considerably over three millions in 1889. The mining element con- 

 sisted for the most part of adult males, while other fortune-hunters, traders, artisans, 

 or tillers of the soil, arrive in large numbers without families. Hence the discrepancy 

 between the sexes is all the greater the more copious is the stream of immigration. 

 In Queensland, which receives the largest influx of settlers, the women are least 

 numerous, whereas the equilibrium is already nearly re-established in South Aus- 

 tralia, towards which the tide of immigration has almost ceased to flow. From 

 25— o 



