38 



a mere estimate of an elapsed period of seventy years, rests on as. 

 very uncertain foundation. Hawdon ( 2 °; reports it from the 

 same place at some period antecedent to 1838, the year in. 

 which he visited the locality. 



As Swan Hill is the nearest place to the South Aus- 

 tralian boundary at which a date can be approximately fixed 

 for the alleged occurrence of an epidemic the event is of 

 some importance to the present part of our inquiry. 



If Mr. Taplin's similar estimate of a long period of past 

 years, the actual duration of which, cannot either in his own 

 case or in that of Swan Hill quoted by Mr. Curr, be 

 accurately determined, is to be regarded as approximately 

 correct the date of the Narrinyeri outbreak would be fixed 

 at about 1814 (1, 44). 



If, then, we might assume that there is no great error 

 in the estimates on which these two dates, 1807 and 1814, are 

 fixed they might be considered as coming near enough together 

 for us to consider that the Swan Hill outbreak was the fore- 

 runner of that occurring among the Narrinyeri. 



Moreover, the view that there may have been an. 

 epidemic among the natives of the lakes about this time, or r 

 at least, at a period anterior to 1830, receives some support 

 from information recently received from Mr. G. G. Hacket, 

 J. P., of Narrung, Lake Albert, a resident of this district of 

 very long standing. He writes, under dates May 17 and 

 June 1, to the effect that in 1864, when a young lad, he saw 

 pock-marked blacks in these districts. To the best of his 

 recollections these natives were at the time between fifty and 

 sixty years of age, and it would seem, as Mr. Hacket 

 observes, that they must have had the disease in infancy, for 

 they had no recollection of their own particular illness and 

 referred it to a legendary sense.' 21 ) Now, a native fifty years 

 old in 1864 would have been an infant in 1814, which is the 

 date' arrived at on Mr. Taplin's estimate, while one sixty 

 years of age would have been only four years of age, or little 

 more than an infant, in 1807, which is the estimated date of" 

 the Swan Hill outbreak. 



(20) Log. cit. 



(21) In the story the blacks told Mr. Hacket the idea that 

 the disease came down the Murray is again prominent, and 

 they also believed that it was brought by an evil spirit. The 

 natives further said that it affected old and young, that the- 

 dead were buried Avhere they died., and that in many cases the 

 sick were abandoned and left in their wurleys. Speaking of 

 the skulls used as water vessels Mr. Hacket mentions that he saw 

 them, and that their use was more general about Wellington; 

 than round the lakes. 



