Part 46 (2/2)
One old native informed me, that all blacks, when dead, go up to the clouds, where they have plenty to eat and drink; fish, birds, and game of all kinds, with weapons and implements to take them. He then told me, that occasionally individuals had been up to the clouds, and had come back, but that such instances were very rare; his own mother, he said, had been one of the favoured few. Some one from above had let down a rope, and hauled her up by it; she remained one night, and on her return, gave a description of what she had seen in a chaunt, or song, which he sung for me, but of the meaning of which I could make out nothing.
Chapter VI
NUMBERS--DISEASES--CAUSE OF LIMITED POPULATION--CRIMES AGAINST EUROPEANS-- AMONGST THEMSELVES--TREATMENT OF EACH OTHER IN DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD, ETC.
There is scarcely any point connected with the subject of the Aborigines of New Holland, upon which it is more difficult to found an opinion, even approximating to the truth, than that of the aggregate population of the continent, or the average number of persons to be found in any given s.p.a.ce. Nor will this appear at all surprising, when the character and habits of the people are taken into consideration. Dest.i.tute of any fixed place of residence, neither cultivating the soil, nor domesticating animals, they have no pursuits to confine them to any particular locality, or to cause them to congregate permanently in the same district. On the contrary, all their habits have an opposite tendency.
The necessity of seeking daily their food as they require it, the fact of that food not being procurable for any great length of time together in the same place, and the circ.u.mstance that its quality, and abundance, or the facility of obtaining it, are contingent upon the season of the year, at which they may visit any particular district, have given to their mode of life, an unsettled and wandering character.
The casual observer, or the pa.s.sing traveller, has but little, therefore, to guide him in his estimate of the population of the country he may be in. A district that may at one time be thinly inhabited, or even altogether untenanted, may at another be teeming with population. The wanderer may at one time be surrounded by hundreds of savages, and at another, in the same place he may pa.s.s on alone and unheeded.
At Lake Victoria, on the Murray, I have seen congregated upwards of six hundred natives at once, again I have pa.s.sed through that neighbourhood and have scarcely seen a single individual; nor does this alone const.i.tute the difficulty and uncertainty involved in estimating the numbers of the Aborigines. Such are the silence and stealth with which all their movements are conducted, so slight a trace is left to indicate their line of march, and so small a clue by which to detect their presence, that the stranger finds it impossible to tell from any thing that he sees, whether he is in their vicinity or not. I have myself often when travelling, as I imagined in the most retired and solitary recesses of the forest, been suddenly surprised by the unexpected appearance of large bodies of natives, without being in the least able to conjecture whence they had come, or how they obtained the necessaries of life, in what appeared to me an arid and foodless desert.
Captain Grey has observed in other parts of Australia, the same ingenuity and stealth manifested by them in either cloaking their movements, or concealing their presence, until circ.u.mstances rendered it in their opinion no longer necessary to preserve this concealment, vol. i. p. 147, he says: ”Immediately numbers of other natives burst upon my sight, each tree, each rock, seemed to give forth its black denizen as if by enchantment; a moment before the most solemn silence pervaded these woods, we deemed that not a human being moved within miles of us, and now they rang with savage and ferocious yells, and fierce armed men crowded around us on every side, bent on our destruction.”
Nor is it less difficult to arrive at the number of the population in those districts which are occupied by Europeans. In some, the native tribes rarely frequent the stations, in others, portions only of the different tribes are to be found; some belong to the district and others not. In all there is a difficulty in ascertaining the exact number of any tribe, or the precise limits to which their territory extends in every direction around. Even could these particulars be accurately obtained in a few localities, they would afford no data for estimating the population of the whole, as the average number of inhabitants to the square mile, would always vary according to the character of the country and the abundance of food.
Upon this subject Captain Grey remarks, vol. ii. p. 246, ”I have found the number of inhabitants to a square mile to vary so much from district to district, from season to season, and to depend upon so great a variety of local circ.u.mstances, that I am unable to give any computation which I believe would even nearly approach to truth.”
Mr. Moorhouse, who has also paid much attention to this subject, in the neighbourhood of Adelaide, has arrived at the conclusion, that, in 1843, there were about sixteen hundred aborigines, in regular or irregular contact with the Europeans, in the province of South Australia; these he has cla.s.sed as follows, viz.:--
In regular contact with Europeans,
Adelaide district 300 Encounter Bay 230 Moorunde 300 Port Lincoln 60 Hutt River 30 --- 920
In irregular contact with Europeans,
Adelaide - Encounter Bay 100 Moorunde 200 Port Lincoln 340 Hutt River 40 --- 680
or together about 1600.
Taking in the southern districts of South Australia 120 miles from Adelaide, the northern ones 160, and the eastern one 200. Mr. Moorhouse estimates that there are altogether only about 3000 natives. This however, appears to me to be a considerably under-rated number, and I should rather incline to the opinion, that there are twice as many, if the Port Lincoln peninsula be added to the limits already mentioned. In the Port Lincoln district, Mr. Schurman conjectures there are about 400.
On the Murray River, which is, perhaps, the most densely populated part of the country, I imagine there are, from Moorunde, about three to four natives to every mile of river, which as it winds very considerably in its course, would give a large population to the square mile, if only the valley of the Murray was taken into account.
There are other tribes also frequenting the river occasionally, from the back scrubs on either side; but as these range through a great extent of country beyond the valley, and only sometimes come down there on a visit; I do not include them in the estimate.
At Moorunde itself I have sometimes had from four to five hundred collected, and among those, only a few, perhaps, from the very remote tribes.
At the Rufus and Lake Victoria, I have seen above six hundred together, where they had no other motive to collect in so large a party, than from custom, and for the enjoyment of festivity.
Large towns are frequently the centre of meeting for many, and very distant tribes. The facility of obtaining sc.r.a.ps by begging, small rewards for trifling jobs of work, donations from the charitable, and a variety of broken victuals, offal, etc. enable them to collect in large numbers, and indulge to the uttermost their curiosity in observing the novelties around them, in meeting strange tribes, and joining them either in war or festivity, in procuring tools, clothes, etc. to carry back and barter in their own districts, and for other similar objects. Thus, Adelaide is nearly always occupied by tribes from one part or other of the country: on an average, it will support probably six hundred in the way I have described, though occasionally eight hundred have met there.
The following returns of the numbers who have attended the annual muster on the Queen's birthday, when bread and beef have been distributed, will show how the ratio has gone on increasing during the last five years.
In 1840 there were present 283 men, women, and children.
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