[1] Published, all of them, by T. and W. Boone, London, to whom it is only just to acknowledge their kindness in permitting the use that has been made of these two publications in the first portion of the present Work.
[2] See Dr. Ullathorne’s Reply to Burton, especially at p. 5, where it appears that the judge was not quite impartial in one of his statements. Dr. Ullathorne himself has, in his 98 pages, contrived to crowd in at least twice as many misrepresentations as Burton’s 321 pages contain. But that is no excuse. The Romish Church may need, or seem to need, such support. The cause defended by Judge Burton needs it not.
[3] It is supposed that the word “Sin,” applied to the wilderness mentioned in Exodus xvi. 1, and also to the mountain of “Sinai,” has the same meaning, so that the appellation of “Bush” is no new term.
[4] Collins’ “Account of the Colony of New South Wales,” p. 11.
[5] This river must not be confounded with another of the same name in South Australia.
[6] See Oxley’s Journal, p. 299.
[7] See Mitchell’s Three Expeditions in Australia, vol. i. p. 38.
[8] An expedient used by the natives in Torres Strait, on the northern coast of Australia, for getting water, may here be noticed, both for its simplicity and cleverness. “Long slips of bark are tied round the smooth stems of a tree called the pandanus, and the loose ends are led into the shells of a huge sort of cockle, which are placed beneath. By these slips the rain which runs down the branches and stem of the tree is conducted into the shells, each of which will contain two or three pints; thus, forty or fifty placed under different trees will supply a good number of men.”—Flinders’ Voyage to Terra Australis, vol. ii. p. 114.
A different plan for improving the water that is hot and muddy, is thus detailed by Major Mitchell. To obtain a cool and clean draught the blacks scratched a hole in the soft sand beside the pool, thus making a filter, in which the water rose cooled, but muddy. Some tufts of long grass were then thrown in, through which they sucked the cooler water, purified from the sand or gravel. I was glad to follow their example, and found the sweet fragrance of the grass an agreeable addition to the luxury of drinking.
[9] “The most singular quality of this vapour or mirage, as it is termed, is its power of reflection; objects are seen as from the surface of a lake, and their figure is sometimes changed into the most fantastic shapes.”—Crichton’s Arabia, vol. i. p. 41.