Page:The Present State and Prospects of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales.djvu/157

 THE ABORIGINES.

hitherto not alluded to the aborigines, as I thought it better to reserve what I had to say of them for an exclusive notice, rather than to mix up the subject with other matter. I shall therefore in this chapter give some details regarding them and their customs, and in the next enter into the more delicate subject of their relations with the white settlers, and the mode of dealing with regard to them, adopted by the government.

There can be but little doubt that the aborigines of Australia are a homogeneous people. The same characteristic appearance pervades the entire race—the same habits and manner of life are every where to be observed, and their several modes of constructing the rude breakweathers or mi-mis in which they live, varies no more than the difference of climate demands: but still further, they are all equally in possession of the same implements of war and of the chase, some of which exhibit such an ingenious application of mechani-