DISEASES OF THE NATIVES. 
125 
out the tribes, nor were the youngest infants exempt from 
them. Indeed, so young were some, whose condition was 
truly disgusting, that I cannot but suppose they must 
have been born in a state of disease ; but I am uncertain 
whether it is fatal or not in its results, though, most 
probably it hurries many to a premature grave. How these 
diseases originated it is impossible to say. Certainly not 
from the colony, since the midland tribes alone were infected. 
Syphilis raged amongst them with fearful violence ; many 
had lost their noses, and all the glandular parts were consi- 
derably affected. I distributed some Turner’s cerate to 
the women, but left Fraser to superintend its application. 
It could do uo good, of course, but it convinced the natives 
we intended well towards them, and, on that account, it 
was politic to give it, setting aside any humane feeling. 
The country through which we passed on the 26th, was 
extremely low, full of lagoons, and thickly inhabited. No 
change took place in the river, or in the nature and con- 
struction of its banks. We succeeded in getting a view of 
the hills we had noticed when with the last tribe, and 
found that they bore from us due north, N. 22 E., and 
S. 130 W. They looked bare and perpendicular, and ap- 
peared to be about twenty miles from us. I am very 
uncertain as to the character of these hills, but still think 
that they must have been some of the faces of the bold 
cliffs that we had frequently passed under. From the 
size and number of the huts, and from the great breadth of 
the foot-paths, we were still further led to conclude that 
