32 Of the Checks to Population in the Bk. i. 



thrown a large stone upon it, the grave is instantly 

 filled by the other natives. This dreadful act was 

 performed by Co-le-be, a native well known to 

 our colonists, and who, on being talked to on the 

 subject, justified the proceeding, by declaring that 

 no woman could be found who would undertake 

 to nurse the child, and that therefore it must have 

 died a much worse death than that which he had 

 given it. Mr. Collins had reason to believe that 

 this custom was generally prevalent, and observes, 

 that it may in some measure account for the thin- 

 ness of the population.* 



Such a custom, though in itself perhaps it might 

 not much affect the population of a country, places 

 in a strong point of view the difficulty of rearing 

 children in savage life. Women obliged by their 

 habits of living to a constant change of place, and 

 compelled to an unremitting drudgery for their 

 husbands, appear to be absolutely incapable of 

 bringing up two or three children nearly of the 

 same age. If another child be born before the 

 one above it can shift for itself, and follow its 

 mother on foot, one of the two must almost neces- 

 sarily perish for want of care. The task of rear- 

 ing even one infant, in such a wandering and labo- 

 rious life, must be so troublesome and painful, 

 that we are not to be surprised that no woman can 

 be found to undertake it who is not prompted by 

 the powerful feelings of a mother. 



To these causes, which forcibly repress the 



* Collins's New South Wales, Appen. p. 607- 



