Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/435

 A MYSTERY. 321 it easier to support themselves ou birds and such animals as shelter 1788 themselves in the hollow trees, than on fish ; but then, I think, they o July, would not go to the top of the mountains, where at present it must be very cold. I intend going to Landsdown or Carmai'then Hills as soon as the weather permits, if it is possible, and which will explain, what is at present a mystery to me, how people who have How the not the least idea of cultivation can maintain themselves in the in the bush, interior parts of this country. When I went to the westward in hopes of being able to reach the mountains, we carried slk days' provisions, and proceeded five days to the westward. Returning we were very short of provisions, and our guns only procured us two scanty meals. The mystery which puzzled Phillip and his contemporaries so much — ^how the natives contrived to keep themselves alive in the bush — ^remained a mystery for many years after his time. It was not until the explorers of comparatively recent days made their way into the.interior, that the means of subsistence available to the natives inland became known. Mystery cleared up. The idea that the native population was confined to the sea- coast was almost universally entertained, in the first instance; and the interior of the country was looked upon as an un- inhabited wilderness, in which it would be impossible to find suflSlcient food to maintain life for a week. Hence the stories about natives seen ^^ dying with hunger'' in the bush, and human bodies roasting on their fires — as if they had been driven to cannibal practices in order to save them- selves from starvation. The fact was that, except in times of drought, the inland natives were well supplied by nature.* I shall now conclude with saying that I have no doubt but that the country will hereafter prove a most valuable acquisition to Great Britain, though at present no country can afford less support to Proepects of the first settlers, or be more disadvantageously placed for receiving ^^ ~^®"y- support from the mother country, on which it must for a time depend. It will require patience and perseverance, neither of which will, I hope, be wanting on my part. could find no food inland :— " They must attend the Wares [for catching fish], or else they must fast : For the Earth affords them na Food at all.''— Vol. i, p. 466. Digitized by Google
 * Post, p. 552. Dampier came to the conclusion, in 1688, that the natives