: 3 
in cages, he was doomed to go to the wall. But other factors, 
beyond this light between the more tit and the less fit, came into 
play to hasten on his extermination. The white man, when he 
left his home to cross the seas, left not disease behind him. With 
vast care, it is true, he could have left some forms behind and 
we might have been free from them here to-day as we are free 
from smallpox, glanders, typhus fever and a few others. But 
medical science was young in those days and the cause of many 
diseases unknown. Had the knowledge we possess now been 
known then, it is possible that tuberculosis in man, measles, 
scarlet fever, whooping cough and other diseases that now take 
heavy toll from amongst us, might have been forbidden entrance. 
Be that as it may, the fact remains that certain diseases, intro- 
duced by the white man, played sad havoc with the black. 
Tuberculosis of the lungs has carried off many thousands, certain 
ghastly diseases due to lax morality have destroyed vast numbers 
and made loathsome such as remain, while in the early days, 
smallpox, which has fortunately been complete^ overpowered, 
decimated vast areas and appears to have preceded the white 
man into the interior of the continent. A disease which appears 
to have been smallpox presented itself amongst the natives soon 
after the establishment of the settlement at Port Jackson, and 
would seem to have spread rapidly from tribe to tribe. Dr. Lang, 
in his “ Historical and Statistical Account of New South Wales,” 
first published in 1834, thus describes it : — In the year 1788 the 
number of the aborigines inhabiting the shores of Port Jackson 
was very considerable ; a disease, however, somewhat resembling 
the smallpox, which appears to have prevailed among them to a 
great extent, shortly after the establishment of the colony, thinned 
their ranks very sensibly, and left only a comparatively small 
number to inherit the invaded patrimony of their forefathers. 
Numerous dead bodies were from time to time found by the 
colonists in all directions in the vicinity of the harbour, in the 
very attitude in which the wretched individuals had died when 
abandoned by their tribe from the fear of the pestilence. There 
seems every reason to suppose that this disease was actually 
smallpox introduced by the whites.* Major Mitchell, in his ex- 
* The actual wording in the description of Mitchell’s Expedition is 
ambiguous. Under the date. May 28th, 1832, he describes meeting four 
men, a boy, and seven women and children on the Darling. He says, “ most 
of them had the smallpox, but the. marks were not larger than pin-heads.” 
Then follows a reference to the natives having met with Sturt, " .... It 
seemed to me that the disease, which it was understood had raged among 
them (probably from the bad water) had almost depopulated the Darling, 
and that these people were but the remains of a tribe.” It is difficult to 
decide whether Major Mitchell means by this that it was the smallpox, aggra- 
vated by the bad water, that had decimated the tribes, or some quite separate 
ailment) In the summary of the chapter, found at its beginning, we find , 
however, " Natives — Mortality among them from smallpox.” If Mitchell 
compiled this summary himself, these words are final ; if, on the other hand, 
the publisher did so, the matter must remain sub judice. 
