SECT. II.] CAUSES OP DEPOPULATION. 165 



Whites and their own people. 1 The fecundity of the Indian 

 women is equally increased by better nourishment and diminu- 

 tion of labour. 2 A Chippeway woman is mentioned who had 

 fourteen children all grown up. From these instances we are 

 justified in concluding that sterility is not a peculiarity of the 

 race, but is caused by external circumstances. 



How much the natives have suffered from the invasion of Eu- 

 ropeans is expressed in the following words of a native : " You 

 Whites/' said an Australian, "ought to give us Blacks, cows and 

 sheep, for you have exterminated our opossums and kangaroos ; 

 we have nothing to live on, and are hungry." 3 Though in some 

 parts the natives no longer live by hunting kangaroos, 4 it still 

 is in other parts their principal resource for subsistence. 

 They are in the habit of burning down the grass for the 

 growth of a fresh crop for the pasture of these animals, 

 who are driven off by the cattle of the colonists, and the 

 natives disappear from the spot. At present the aborigines 

 possess no right to the country, or rather they never had any ; 

 at any rate, England has never acknowledged such a right. 

 The land belongs to the Crown, which practically means that 

 the natives, being English subjects, may be punished for their 

 crimes, whilst the Whites are generally acquitted by their coun- 

 trymen. 5 This becomes intelligible when we find that the 

 natives can neither be valid witnesses in a court of law, nor are 

 allowed to bear firearms. 6 Latterly, however, they have in New 

 South Wales at least been admitted as witnesses, but in so 

 limited a degree, that their oppression is but little mitigated by 

 the favour accorded. 7 



An attempt has been made to justify the great injustice done to 

 natives owing to their atrocity, which is greatly exaggerated. 

 >rding to the " Papers on Aborigines of Australian Colonies, 



1 Moodie, " Ten years in S. Afr.," ii, p. 350, 1835. 



2 Schoolcraft, iv, p. 350. 



3 Bennet, i, p. 327. 



4 Hodgkinson, " Aust. from P. Macquarie to Moreton Bay," p. 223, 1845. 



5 Instances in Eyre, ii, p. 176 ; and in Du Petit-Thouars, iii, p. 204. There 

 a criminal process in which the jury for a long time refused to condemn 

 culprits who were guilty of an unprovoked murder of twenty-eight 



natives. 



6 Howitt, " Impressions of Austr. felix," p. 199, 1845. 



7 Eyre, ii, p. 493 ; " Austr. felix," p. 143. 



