31 



natives who wear no clothes and have few personal and per- 

 manent belongings, the seeds of the disease could bo kept 

 alive for so long, and if it were actually kept alive why did 

 they not germinate in human bodies? 



If, on the other hand, the 1830 epidemics arose de novo 

 and without any connection with the outbreak that had 

 preceded it forty years earlier, then, for their cause, we are 

 without even the uncertain facts that we possess concerning 

 the possible origin of the Sydney epidemic from the English 

 ships. If, however, we could explain the origin of the out- 

 breaks of 1830 it would not be difficult to trace to them 

 those others which, in New South Wales and Victoria, seem 

 to have occurred, between that date and 1845 or there- 

 abouts, at intervals of, at most, a few years, and at places 

 between which the geographical features would have afforded 

 a ready means of transmission. 



There is, of course, a third alternative, viz., that these 

 later epidemics of which we are speaking may have been 

 transmitted from the north — a question which will be dis- 

 cussed directly — for it has been mentioned that Wilson^ 10 ) 

 found evidence indicative of its presence among the Raffles 

 Bay tribe prior to 1826, and, in face of the difficulties attend- 

 ing other explanations, this is perhaps the most reasonable, 

 as it is the simplest, view to take concerning the manifesta- 

 tions in New South Wales in 1830 and the years following. 



As regards the later outbreaks in Western Australia — 

 that is to say, those occurring for the most part between 

 1865 and 1870 —most of them seem to have taken place at 

 points along the north-western coast, and a continuation of 

 this to the north and east brings us, after no very great 

 distance, to that of the Northern Territory, where we have 

 seen that the disease made its appearance about the same 

 period. 



It is generally supposed, and indeed it is more than pro- 

 bable, that to the latter coasts the disease was brought by 

 the Malay trepang fishers who have paid annual visits to 

 these localities for many years. 



Flinders, whose voyage to the northern coasts of Aus- 

 tralia was made in 1803, was at some pains to ascertain the 

 facts concerning the visits of the Malays to these shores. 

 According to the information given him by the captains of 

 a detachment of one of these fishing fleets < u ) that he encoun- 

 tered at the English Company's Islands, and subsequently 



'10) Loc. cit. 



<n) Flinders' statement (2 7, II., 230) that the whole of this 

 fleet comprised sixty prahus and 1,000 men will indicate how 

 numerous were these visitors. 



