Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/17



object of this publication is to preserve and to place before the public, in a collected form, some of the few accounts which have been written respecting the native tribes of South Australia. They are not numerous, nor are they sufficiently complete to furnish the materials for a full history of those races which once inhabited the immense territory known as the Province of South Australia. No attempt was ever made by, or at the instance of the Colonial Government, to investigate and record the manners and customs of the Aborigines, nor to preserve their language; so that now only a comparatively imperfect idea can be formed of the South Australian natives as a whole.

The province which formed their home extended at the period of its proclamation as a British dependency, from the 132nd to the 141st degree of east longitude, and was bounded on the south by the Southern Ocean, and on the north by the 26th parallel of south latitude. The area of the tract of country thus taken over by the white men was about 300, 000 square miles, or 192, 000, 000 of acres. A considerable portion of this region was extremely fertile, and for Australia, well watered. From the way in which the black inhabitants are known to have lived, it was capable of supporting a large native population. Grass was abundant and game plentiful; and, if they had been anything but savages of a very low type, they might have turned the natural products of the country to good account by making permanent dwellings, and by living in a kind of comfort equal at least to that enjoyed by savage races in other lands where nature has not been more bountiful. The Australian savages, however, are