Four years aboard the whaleship / Embracing cruises in the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Antarctic oceans, in the years 1855, '6, '7, '8, '9

by William B. Whitecar

The oldsters, when ashore, of course, resorted to the grog shop and got merry; the younger ones, burning to emulate them, were soon half seas over, and rolling around in too heavy a style even for a sailor. The first day, however, settled the affair, as on the following one the youngsters discovered that the way of the transgressor is hard; for they had to pay the penalty of a disordered stomach and severe headache. On the next liberty-day Bacchus had but few votaries.

I will now endeavor to give a slight description of the town of Vasse. The town and bay take their name from a French vessel and her master—the town from the captain, and the bay from the vessel. She was cast away here years ago, and remnants of her timbers are still to be seen. After half a mile’s wading through the sand, we came to the outskirts of the town; the first house was a grog-shop, the second a smithery, the third a grog-shop, and, half a mile farther on, another groggery; so that it was easily to be seen that the Maine Law had not yet gone into operation in this vicinity. Three grogshops, in a village of about one hundred inhabitants, are rather more than one would suppose were needed; but all seemed to be doing a thriving business, everybody, men, women, and children, indiscriminately going to the bars and drinking miserable spirits, for which they pay six-pence sterling, equivalent to twelve cents of our money, per glass. Then again, within a compass of a few miles, numerous sawyers are employed, who, after laboring hard for two, three, or six months, and accumulating a sum of money, resort to the village, and, to use their own expression, proceed to knock their earnings down. This they soon effect, and return to their old employment, when forced to, for want of funds to continue their carousal. The ticket of leave men, too, who are mostly employed in this section by the government, in repairing roads and public works at certain seasons of the year, are allowed a short time for recreation; and recreation to this people is only known in intoxication, and hence they too are amongst the publican’s best customers.

The aborigines are a slender made people, with faces and bodies as dark as a negro’s, but with straight hair. Their features, to me, are unpleasing, and they heighten the disgusting expression by besmearing the cheeks, forehead, and the fore part of the hair with a reddish clay, resembling Spanish brown, mixed with oil. They are very filthy, being alive with vermin. Their only clothing consists of a kangaroo skin, with the hairy side turned in, thrown over the shoulder; this they call a bouka. The paint they put on their faces they call willagee. Their weapons consist of a hard piece of wood, shaped like a half moon, called a boomerang, which they send whizzing through the air, striking any object they aim at with the most unerring precision. The spear, too, they dart with exceeding accuracy from a diamond-shaped piece of wood which they call a womara; they also dart it from the hand. One morning I had half a dozen children darting for small pieces of tobacco, which they invariably struck. They have a passion, like all uncivilized nations, for rum and tobacco. The former they are debarred from using, from the fact that the government inflicts heavy penalties on any person who supplies them with the smallest quantity of alcoholic stimulant. Our fellows, in several cases, got a bottle and carried it into the bush, and gave them small quantities for the fun of seeing and hearing them dance and sing; and, indeed, a very small portion of spirits causes them to act more like demons than members of the human family.

One afternoon I witnessed a sham battle between about a score of them, equally divided. Twigs were substituted for their spears; the latter being pointed, and armed with glass attached by means of a red gum, are rather dangerous weapons to play with. They charged each other, rallying and retreating, and, when opportunities presented, darting their weapons, all the time making a hoarse guttural sound, and becoming much excited. The sport continued for some time, and, after they had finished, tobacco was given to them. One of them demurring at the quantity in rather an outrageous style, was cooly knocked head over heels, and this arousing a combatant spirit amongst our crew, the whole of the natives, in a few moments, were flying as if for dear life from the vicinity. From observation on different occasions, I should say that the men are possessed of no courage; the women fight brutal battles with each other, armed with sticks, and never succumb until powerless from exertion or injury. But few, if any, of the females whom I have seen, were not covered with welts, thicker than one’s finger, on the back and breast, the result, no doubt, in many instances, of these encounters: but they have a custom, I am told, of abrading their flesh on the death of a relative, and to this cause is assigned most of the scars they are covered with. They, like the men, are dressed with the bouka or kangaroo skin, and are squalid, dirty, lewd, and ignorant. Anything, a chew of tobacco, or a mouthful of biscuit, will cause these libels on the name of women to forget the allegiance due to their lords.

In the summer these people sleep in the open air, making, towards sundown, a fire in the bush, and sleeping with their feet to the fire. In winter they build rude huts of twigs and reeds, about four feet high, and large enough for two or three individuals, and here they, having in their hunting season collected provisions enough to subsist on, huddle together and sleep away the rainy season, which usually lasts about five months. Their food comprises almost everything that is endowed with life—kangaroos, snakes, iguanas, and grubs being their dainties; and if in the neighborhood where a bullock is killed, they greedily flock to the spot, secure the entrails, and devour them without cleansing. They are also very fond of the flesh of the whale; and if by accident one comes ashore on the coast, or they take one at either of the fisheries in the bay, they resort to the spot in great numbers and devour the meat, fresh or putrid, without cooking. The women back all the burdens, beside carrying the children; the child, perfectly naked, sits astride on the mother’s shoulder, with the hands firmly clasped in her hair, and in this manner they travel miles with them. Some of the children carried in this way are of so light a complexion, as to excite strong suspicion of amalgamation with some of the whites in the neighborhood. The women, beside the child, carry a bag, into which all the surplus provision is stored. Impelled by curiosity, I one day bargained for a sight into one of these mysterious receptacles, and for a plug of tobacco had revealed to my sight half a dozen grubs, several snails, part of a toad, a snake, roots and herbs. The snakes they will not eat without they have been present at the time they were killed, being fearful that the snake, on being wounded, should have bitten himself. These people are remarkable for accuracy of vision and keen scent. For the former quality they are occasionally carried out by whaleships, for the purpose of looking out from the masthead; and I have been told by those who were shipmates with them, that they could discern a spout or sail at as great a distance with the naked eye, as a practised hand could with the glass. The last mentioned quality causes them to be employed by the government in tracking convicts who have taken to the bush, by captains of whaleships to recover deserters, and by the settlers to track up their stray cattle. In all these pursuits they are said to be infallible; although when they arrive at the runaway, if he present a bold face to them, they will not molest him; and unless they have a white man with them to urge them on, they will retreat empty-handed. They have a wholesome dread of fire-arms, and some of their race having seen a revolving pistol, has impressed on most of them the supernatural character of the weapon; and the “little fellow,” as they call it, is to them a great bug-a-boo.

On the strictest inquiry I could not discover that they had any religion. The only inkling that I received of their ideas of hereafter, was the fear they expressed of jing-ge, a word synonymous to the English word devil; whether they have gleaned this idea from their intercourse with the whites, or that it is traditionary with them, I have no means of ascertaining.

These people are in the extremest degree indolent, and are only induced to do even the slightest job or errand, by promising them a meal upon its performance. If the employer good naturedly bestows the recompense when they are partly through, or the black fellow has had anything to eat previously, all efforts to induce him to return to the work are futile—words and blows being equally useless. On the appearance of whaleships in the bay, they resort to the town, and every member of said ships on going ashore is importuned for hard bread and tobacco, or an old jack-knife; and if the donor gives to all who ask him, he soon finds his stock of edibles and patience entirely exhausted.

There are no musical instruments among them; their vocal music is monotonous, and sounds harshly to the ear. At certain seasons of the year they meet for the purpose of having a “corroborie” as they call it, to which every member wears his best bouka; and when assembled they vie with each other in grotesque grimaces and contortions, both of form and feature.

These people are protected by the laws equally with the whites in this section. Some few hundred miles to the northward, at a locality known as Port Gregory, it is but a word and a blow; the blow, which is generally fatal, coming first. In the latter neighborhood, depredations committed on the settlers are the causes of their harsh treatment. Some few of them, when young, have been taken, educated and clothed in the European fashion, but in vain; they always prefer life in the bush, with their own people, to all the advantages of civilization, and only return to their benefactors when forced by hunger to do so. This often happens, as they are exceedingly improvident. Their mode is, on obtaining food, to gorge themselves to repletion, and then to sleep or hulk about until Providence sends them another supply, or hunger compels them to seek it.

These Australians contrast very unfavorably with our aborigines (the North American Indians), being possessed of all their bad qualities, without a single one of their redeeming traits; the same love of rum and tobacco, and a mean habit of pilfering, without their perseverance in the chase and bravery in conflict. I shall now, for the present, bid them farewell, though, as my narrative proceeds, I will again have occasion to revert to them.