Page:Narrative of a survey of the intertropical and western coasts of Australia, Volume 1.djvu/192

 132 svY oF m maTROPXC and they are also reported to yield copper and iron; it is, however, with great difficulty that gold is procured, on acount of a super- stitions feeling on the part of the mountaineers, who think it necessary to sacrifice a human life for every bottle of gold dust that is collected; and this barbarous custom, we were informed, is ri- gidly enforcedby the chiefs, who, of course, take good care that the lot does not fall upon their own heads. Gold is, however, sometimes found in the bed of the river near Coep ., particularly aier occasional freshes from the mountains, and during the rainy season; but it is detected in so small a quantity, as hardly to repay the searchers for their trouble. Some years since, during the early possession of this part of the island by the Dutch, sixty Bol- diers were sent into the country to search for gold, but they were all killed by the mountaineers, and since then no further attempt has been made; indeed it would take a very considerable force to effect it, on account of the warlike character of these people. Tl,eir defensive mode of warfare is to distribute themselves in all directions among the trees and rocks, from whi .ch, by their num- bers and unerring aim, they might easily destroy a much larger force than the Dutch could afford to send against them from any of theft possessions in

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