Ch. iii. lowest Stage of Human Society. 33 



rising generation, must be added those which 

 contribute subsequently to destroy it; such as 

 the frequent wars of these savages with dif- 

 ferent tribes, and their perpetual contests with 

 each other ; their strange spirit of retaliation 

 and revenge, which prompts the midnight mur- 

 der, and the frequent shedding of innocent 

 blood ; the smoke and filth of their miserable 

 habitations, and their poor mode of living, pro- 

 ductive of loathsome cutaneous disorders ; and, 

 above all, a dreadful epidemic like the small-pox, 

 which sweeps off great numbers.* 



In the year 1789 they were visited by this epi- 

 demic, which raged among them with all the 

 appearance and virulence of the small-pox. The 

 desolation, which it occasioned, was almost incre- 

 dible. Not a living person was to be found in the 

 bays and harbours that were before the most fre- 

 quented. Not a vestige of a human foot was to 

 be traced on the sands. They had left the dead 

 to bury the dead. The excavations in the rocks 

 were filled with putrid bodies, and in many places 

 the paths were covered with skeletons.! 



Mr. Collins was informed, that the tribe of Co- 

 le-be, the native mentioned before, had been re- 

 duced by the effects of this dreadful disorder to 

 three persons, who found themselves obliged to 



* See generally, the Appendix to Collins's Account of the 

 English Colony in New South Wales. 



t Collins's New Soutli Wales, Appendix, p. 597. 

 VOL. I. D 



