dying exterior there was a soul which m a 



The following will furnish another illui 

 a little amusement on account of its comii 

 mcntum ad verecundiam by a black lubra. 

 of the living, I use fictitious names, 

 a visitor to the colony and the lion 

 large scale was arranged in his honour, not a hundred miles from 

 Hindmarsh Island. Wishing to give an additional zest to the 

 performance, the Hon. Roderick Random requested the black 

 women to undrape and perform an antique dance representing 

 innocence without her clothes. The reply came sharp and crisp, 

 " What for white-fellow wantum black woman dance likeum that ? 

 You askum white lubras jump about mid no clothes : you hear 

 what she yabber yabber." Mitford, one of Australia's greatest 

 humourists, published an apology in words something like the 

 following : " It was evidently a misapprehension on the part of 

 the native woman, due no doubt to her want of a correct know- 

 ledge of the English language. We are in a position to state, 

 that the Hon. Roderick did not ask the native women to dance in 

 a state of nudity. He simply requested them as a favour to their 

 illustrious guest, to kindly dance to a new ditty; hence the unfor- 



Those who speak of the natives as a naturally degraded race, 

 either do not speak from experience, or they judge them by what 

 they have become when the abuse of intoxicants and contact with 

 the most wicked of the white race have begun their deadly work. 

 As a rule, and to which there are no exceptions, if a tribe of blacks 

 is found away from the white settlement, the more vicious of the 

 white men are most anxious to make the acquaintance of the 

 natives, and that too, solely for purposes of immorality. The 

 native women have hearts to break, and the native men outraged 

 honour to vindicate, and these have ever been the chief factors in 

 the so called attrocities of the aborigines of Australia. I saw the 

 natives and was much with them before those dreadful immoralities, 

 were well known. I saw them and was often with them, when 

 the old died off and the race no longer propagated itself, and 1 

 say it fearlessly, that nearly all their evils they owed to the white 

 man's immorality and to the white man's drink. 



As late as 1879, I knew one brave old chief or king, who when 

 he could no longer restrain his tribe from yielding to the degrad- 

 ing customs of a degenerate white race, retired with his only son 

 to spend his remaining years in the seclusion of the Wirrabara 

 forests and mountain ranges north of Beetaloo. This case w 

 first brought under my notice by Mr. Daniel Kearney, then the 

 genial and respected overseer of Booyoolee Sheep and Cattle 



