English settlers go forth to exercise their freedom, and the Government does not strictly watch their actions, while it makes no particular law for the aboriginal races suitable for their particular situation.
English law is forced upon them; whereas the French and Dutch Governments watchfully manage and regulate everything—the governing power goes with them; the roads, police, everything is kept under the governing power, even the aborigines are under the same.
This, no doubt, in some degree has its influences, while, on the other hand, the native laws to which they were obedient are removed, and the power of the chiefs is destroyed, so that the aboriginal is placed between two influences, the one to which he had always been subject is destroyed, and a new law of which he knows nothing is substituted, and thus he is left in a position of doubt and perplexity, while the food, drink, clothing, and vices of the whites soon gain supremacy.
Nothing can be more disgraceful to a civilized and professing Christian people than this wholesale ruin of their fellow-men, which they attribute to a law, but which is in fact a consequence criminally brought about by our depravity, selfishness, and want of Christian principles. The writer concludes his remarks by saying that they are not an irreligious race; he believes that nothing but the Gospel can save them from extinction.
A few extracts from the lecture of Gideon Lang, delivered in Melbourne, will throw some more light upon the habits of this race.
He says the inhabitants of the whole continent form one people, governed by the same laws and customs, with some allowance for the difference of localities; every tribe, however, has its own district. The government is most arbitrary, composed of old men and powerful men, but degrading to women, the old men often having from five to seven wives, which privilege is denied to young men.
The government is administered by a council of old men, the young not being admitted. There is also a class that go from tribe to tribe, and their medicine men.
The intelligence of the natives is quite underrated. Their skill and activity in war, and their subtlety as diplomatists, Mr. Lang says, are quite equal to the North American Indian. (Having mixed with the North American Indians, I think this is rather exaggerated.)
In the corroborees they have especial performances. 500 sometimes assemble and represent a herd of cattle feeding, the performers being painted accordingly; they lie down and chew the cud, scratch themselves, and lick the calves, &c.; they then proceed to spear the cattle; next are heard a troop of horses galloping; a party with faces painted white, and bodies painted whitey-brown, some blue, others to represent stockmen; then comes a body of natives, and a regular sham-fight takes place, in which the natives are conquerors. But, alas! the murderous hand of the whites has destroyed them by shooting them down, and even resorting to poison, while by our occupation of the country, the destruction of their game, and the introduction of disease, they are fast dying out and disappearing.
Governor Phillip supposed that there were 3,000 aboriginal inhabitants within 200 square miles of Sydney, but now there is scarcely one left.