1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,' p. 103:
"They have no instrument of music, the corobery's song being accompanied by the beating of two sticks together, and by the women thumping their opossum rugs.'"
1847. J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,' p. 447 [Footnote]:
"These words, which were quite as unintelligible to the natives as the corresponding words in the vernacular language of the white men would have been, were learned by the natives, and are now commonly used by them in conversing with Europeans, as English words. Thus <i>corrobbory</i>, the Sydney word for a general assembly of natives, is now commonly used in that sense at Moreton Bay; but the original word there is <i>yanerwille</i>. <i>Cabon</i>, great; <i>narang</i>, little; <i>boodgeree</i>, good; <i>myall</i>, wild native, etc. etc., are all words of this description, supposed by the natives [of Queensland] to be English words, and by the Europeans to be aboriginal words of the language of that district."
[The phrase "general assembly" would rise naturally in the mind of Dr. Lang as a Presbyterian minister; but there is no evidence of anything parliamentary about a corrobbery.]
1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 78:
"The exact object or meaning of their famous corrobboree or native dance, beyond mere exercise and patience, has not as yet been properly ascertained; but it seems to be mutually understood and very extensively practised throughout Australia, and is generally a sign of mutual fellowship and good feeling on the part of the various tribes."
1849. J. P. Townsend, `Rambles in New South Wales,' p. 100:
"When our blacks visited Sydney, and saw the military paraded, and heard the bands, they said that was `white fellows' corrobbory.'"
185. E. Stone Parker, `Aborigines of Australia,' p. 21: