41 



-were accompanied by a rushing wind such as the natives 

 'described, and he has heard the natives themselves refer to 

 -a similar occurrence. 



Summary. 

 Epitomizing the principal points of the foregoing in- 

 vestigation— 



1. There is clear evidence of the occurrence in 1789 of a 

 virulent disease among the aborigines of Port Jackson which 

 was at time considered to be small -pox ; and 



2. Doubtful evidence that this originated from the Eng- 

 lish ships that brought the first convicts to Sydney more than 

 •a year previously, though there is a possibility that it may 

 have done so. 



3. This outbreak having apparently subsided, nothing 

 more is definitely recorded of a similar disease until about 

 1830 and the years following, when it reappeared at 

 Bathurst, New South Wales, and similar outbreaks seem to 

 have continued at other places in New South Wales and 

 Victoria up to about 1845. There is also some uncertain 

 evidence that the disease may have reappeared still earlier, 

 viz., at Swan Hill about 1807. 



4. There is no evidence to show how this later series of 

 •epidemics arose, but 



5. There is good reason to believe that an outbreak took 

 place in the coastal regions of the Northen Territory between 

 1862 and 1865, which was presumably brought by the Malay 

 trepang fishers. 



6. As the Malays seem to have visited the north coasts 

 of Australia as early as 1783 and to have continued their 

 visits, annually, until the present time they may have been 

 the source both of the Sydney epidemic of 1789 and of those 

 of 1830 and following years in eastern and south-eastern 

 Australia ; almost certainly of those occurring in north- 

 western Australia between 1860-70, and possibly of those 

 which, there is some evidence to show, took place still earlier 

 in the nineteenth century both in the eastern and western 

 parts of the continent. 



7. However originating, there is abundant testimony to 

 the fact that the disease at some time spread throughout 

 almost the whole of Australia, reaching even the heart of 

 the country. 



8. In its symptoms, progress, and behaviour the disease 

 corresponded to genuine small-pox, though in its incidence 

 and effects it differed in some respects from this disease as it 

 occurs among un vaccinated white people. 



9. As regard South Australia, there is considerable 

 testimony to support the belief that the disease came fronw 



