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Australian aborigines have generally been represented as harmless and inoffensive; but the pioneers of geographical discovery in that interesting continent frequently came upon tribes, and portions of tribes, from whose warlike attacks they only escaped with difficulty. Descriptions of encounters with them are frequent in the narrative of the gallant Sturt, who, in the four years from 1828 to 1831, traversed fearlessly no less than 3222 miles of country in the interior of Southern Australia; exploring the courses of rivers, examining the hills and valleys, and laying down all in a map, almost with the accuracy of a land-surveyor.

During his first expedition, as the party were travelling through a forest, they surprised a party of hunting natives. Sturt and Mr. Hume, one of the principal officers of the expedition, were considerably in advance of the party at the time, and had only one gun with them. Three of the natives were observed to be seated on the ground under a tree, and two others were busily employed on one of the lower branches cutting out honey. As soon as they saw the strangers four of them disappeared; but the fifth, who wore a cap of feathers, stood for a moment looking at them, and then, very deliberately, dropped out of the tree to the ground. Mr. Sturt then advanced, but before he got round a bush that intervened, the man darted away. Fearing that he had gone to collect his tribe, Sturt rode quickly back for