Page:Victoria, with a description of its principal cities, Melbourne and Geelong.djvu/84

 the herdsmen, for, though they are cowardly brutes, and their visits not very frequent, yet, when they do come, it is generally in a pack, and, not content with killing and eating a few of the sheep, they will destroy several for their blood, and, rendered formidable by their numbers, will defy the watch-dogs and single herds. When, therefore, it is rumoured that they are in the neighbourhood, the flocks nearest the station are driven into the home paddock, and all the dogs tied up, everything, in fact, ready for a grand rush at them. The indications of their approach are known by the dogs, by the horses, or by any of the natives if they happen to be at the station; these last are very cunning in detecting the peculiarities of the wild animals common to the country.

There were two of the aborigines almost domiciled at Blenheim, and showed considerable docility and obedience from the kind treatment they received, although the most unintellectual pair of human beings I ever saw. The Australian natives belong to the Malay race, though differing in some essential points. They bear no affinity to the New Zealanders. Unless when domesticated, they wear no clothing of any description; when it is very cold, during winter nights, they wrap round them a rug made from the opossum or wallaby skin. They endure cold, rain, and hardship of every description, without even an attempt to alleviate it. They are exceedingly indolent, and savage in their manners and mode of life, and are very seldom domesticated. They live