them to commit this crime as often as they like when it only regards
themselves; for this latter course teaches them not that certain actions,
such, for instance, as murder, etc., are generally criminal, but only
that they are criminal when exercised towards the white people, and the
impression consequently excited in their minds is that these acts only
excite our detestation when exercised towards ourselves, and that their
criminality consists not in having committed a certain odious action, but
in having violated our prejudices.

14. In the vicinity of towns where there is a certain judicial force, and
where, on account of the facility of obtaining food, the natives always
congregate, it would, by a steady and determined line of conduct, be
comparatively easy to enforce an observance of the British laws; but,
even partially to attain this object in the remote and thinly settled
districts, it is necessary that each colony should possess an efficient
mounted police, a portion of whom should be constantly in movement from
district to district, whilst another portion, resident in a central
situation, should be ready to act instantly in any direction where their
presence was required. I do not apprehend that this body need be
numerous, for their utility would depend more on their activity and
efficiency than on their numbers. It is absolutely necessary, for the
cause of humanity and good order, that such a force should exist; for so
long as distant settlers are left unprotected and are compelled to take
care of and avenge themselves, so long must great barbarities necessarily
be committed; and the only way to prevent great crime on the part of the
natives, and massacres of these poor creatures as the punishment of such
crimes, is to check and punish their excesses in their infancy: it is
only after becoming emboldened by frequent petty successes that they have
hitherto committed those crimes which have drawn down so fearful a
vengeance upon them.

15. The greatest obstacle that presents itself in considering the
application of the British laws to these aborigines is the fact that,
from their ignorance of the nature of an oath, or of the obligations it
imposes, they are not competent to give evidence before a court of
justice; and hence in many cases it would be extremely difficult, if not
impossible, to obtain evidence on which a prisoner could be convicted.

16. One mode of evading this difficulty would be to empower the court to
receive evidence from the natives in all cases relating solely to
themselves without the witness being sworn, only allowing testimony of
this nature to hold good when borne out by very strong circumstantial
evidence; secondly to empower the court always to receive evidence from
natives called on by a native prisoner in his defence, such evidence
being subject to the before-named restrictions.

17. The fact of the natives being unable to give testimony in a court of
justice is a great hardship on them, and they consider it as such; the
reason that occasions their disability for the performance of this
function is at present quite beyond their comprehension, and it is
impossible to explain it to them. I have been a personal witness to a
case in which a native was most undeservedly punished, from the
circumstance of the natives who were the only persons who could speak as
to certain exculpatory facts not being permitted to give their evidence.

18. There are certain forms in our colonial courts of justice as at
present conducted which it is impossible to make a savage comprehend. I
attended one quarter-sessions at which a number of natives were tried on
a great variety of charges. Several of them were induced to plead guilty,
and on this admission of their having committed the crime sentence was
pronounced upon them. But when others denied their guilt, and found that
this denial produced no corresponding result in their favour, whilst at
the same time they were not permitted to bring forward other natives to
deny it also, and to explain the matter for them, they became perfectly
confounded. I was subsequently applied to by several intelligent natives
to explain this mystery to them, but I failed in giving such an
explanation as would satisfy them.

19. The natives being ignorant of our laws, of the forms of our courts of
justice, of the language in which the proceedings are conducted, and the
sentence pronounced upon them, it would appear that but a very imperfect
protection is afforded them by having present in the court merely an
interpreter (very often an ignorant man) who knows nothing of legal
proceedings and can be but very imperfectly acquainted with the native
language: it must also be borne in mind that the natives are not tried by
a jury of their peers, but by a jury having interests directly opposed to
their own, and who can scarcely avoid being in some degree prejudiced
against native offenders. From these considerations I would suggest that
it should be made binding upon the local government in all instances (or
at least in such instances as affect life) to provide a counsel to defend
native prisoners.

20. Some other principal preventives to the civilization of the
aborigines, in addition to those I have already stated, are:

1. The existence of an uncertain and irregular demand for their labour:
thus they may have one day sufficient opportunity afforded them for the
exertion of their industry, whilst the next day their services are not
required, so that they are compelled once more to have recourse to their
former irregular and wandering habits.

2. Their generally receiving a very inadequate reward for the services
they render; this, combined with their natural fondness for the bush,
induces them to prefer that mode of subsistence which, whilst it is
infinitely more agreeable and less laborious, procures for them nearly as
great a reward as living with white people.

3. Their not being taught that different values are attached to different
degrees of labour, as well as to the skill and neatness with which it is
performed.

21. These impediments might all either be removed or modified in some
districts by the establishment of native institutions and schools, but in
forming a general plan for their removal which would be equally
applicable to all parts of a colony, a very novel difficulty presents
itself.

22. Imagining that a native child is perfectly capable of being
civilised, let it also be granted that, from proper preventive measures
having been adopted, this child has nothing to fear from the vengeance of
the other natives, so that it stands in these respects nearly or
altogether in the position of a European.

23. If this native child is a boy who is to pay the individual who
undertakes to teach him some calling the fee usually given with an
apprentice; who will indemnify this person for the time he spends in
instructing the boy before he can derive any benefit from his labour, or
for the risk he incurs of the boy's services being bestowed elsewhere as
soon as they are worth having?

24. Until this difficulty is got over it appears evident that the natives
will only be employed in herding cattle, or in the lowest order of manual
labour which requires no skill, and for which the reward they receive
will be so small as scarcely to offer an inducement to them to quit their
present wandering mode of life.

25. The remedy I would suggest for this evil would have another advantage
besides a tendency to ameliorate it, for it would give the settlers a
great and direct interest in the aborigines without entailing any expense
upon the Government. It is founded on the following fact:

26. The Government, in order to create a supply of labour in the
colonies, have been in the habit of giving certain rewards to those
individuals who introduced labourers into them. Now it would appear that
he who reclaims one of the aborigines not only adds another labourer to
those who are already in the colony, but further confers such a benefit
on his fellow-settlers by rendering one who was before a useless and
dangerous being a serviceable member of the community, that this
circumstance alone entitles him to a reward.

27. I would therefore propose that, on the production of the
hereafter-named documents, a settler should receive a certificate
entitling him to a certain sum, which should either be allowed to reckon
towards the completion of location duties, or else as a remission
certificate in the purchase of land, or, in lieu of this, a grant of
land; and that this sum or grant should be regulated according to a table
specifying the various circumstances that are likely to occur, and drawn
up by the local government of each place where such regulation should be
introduced.

28. The documents to which I allude are these:

1. A deposition before the nearest magistrate to such settler's house
that a native or natives have been resident with him constantly for the
last six months, and have been employed in stated species of labour.

2. A certificate from the government resident of the district that, to
the best of his belief, such statement is true, for that, on his visiting
this settler's house, the stated number of natives were there, and were
respectively occupied in the kinds of labour described.

3. A certificate from the protector of aborigines that he has visited
this settler's house; that the stated number of natives were resident
there, and appeared to be progressing in the knowledge of that branch of
industry in which they were respectively stated to be employed.

29. It would be further necessary that any settler who intended to
endeavour to reclaim natives should give a short notice to the protector
of aborigines previously to the commencement of the first six months.

30. Could this plan be brought into operation the work of the
civilization of the aborigines would at once be commenced upon a great
scale; it would not be confined to a single institution, but a variety of
individuals, endowed with different talents and capacities for this work,
would at once be employed on it: it is indeed rather suited and intended
for the outskirts of civilization, thinly populated by settlers, than for
towns, yet it is applicable to both situations; whilst its direct
operation would be to induce the settler adequately to remunerate the
native for, as well as to provide him with, a constant supply of labour,
and to use every exertion by kind and proper treatment to attach him for
as long a period as possible to his establishment.

31. In considering the kinds of labour in which it would be most
advisable to engage natives it should be borne in mind that, in remote
districts where the European population is small, it would be imprudent
to induce many natives to congregate at any one point, and the kinds of
labour in which they should be there engaged ought to be of such a nature
as to have a tendency to scatter them over the country, and to distribute
them amongst the separate establishments.

32. Whilst in the well-peopled districts, where a force sufficient both
to protect and control the aborigines exists, they should be induced to
assemble in great numbers, for they work much more readily when employed
in masses, and, by thus assembling them on one point, their numbers are
diminished in those portions of the colony which have a small European
population, and they are concentrated at a spot where proper means for
their improvement can be provided.

33. The first of these principles has been strictly attended to in the
plan proposed in the 27th and following paragraphs of this report; the
second has been carried into successful operation in Western Australia.

34. In order that the work on which the natives are employed in the
vicinity of towns should be of the most advantageous nature it is
necessary that it should be productive of benefit both to themselves and
the Government which employs them, so that it cannot be complained of as
a useless expense, whilst at the same time it should be of such a kind as
to accord with that love of excitement and change which is so peculiar to
this people.

35. Both of these ends would be attained by employing the aborigines
either in opening new roads or in repairing old lines of communication;
indeed this mode of employment is singularly suited to the habits of this
people; they might be kept constantly moving from post to post, thus
varying the scene of their operations; one portion of the party might be
employed in hunting with kangaroo-dogs, or fishing, in order to supply
the others with fresh meat; and the species of labour in which the main
body were engaged might, if they wished it, be changed once or twice in
the course of the day to prevent their being wearied by the monotonous
character of their employment.

CONCLUSION.

36. Among other enactments which I believe would have a tendency to
promote the civilization of the aborigines, and which are applicable to
those districts in which for some time a great intercourse has existed
between the natives and Europeans, are the following:

37. That any native who could produce a certificate (from the protector
of aborigines) of having been constantly employed at the house of any
settler or settlers, for a period of not less than three years, should be
entitled to a grant of land, the extent of which should be fixed by the
local government of the colony to which such native should belong, and
that, if possible, this grant should be given in that district to which
this native by birth belonged.

That, in addition to this grant, he should receive a sum of money, the
amount of which should also be fixed by the local government, and which
should be drawn from the fund raised by the sale of Government lands, and
which sum should be expended in goats, poultry, etc., so as to enable the
native in some manner to stock his land.

That any native, having only one wife, who produced a certificate of the
civil marriage contract having been performed between himself and her, by
the resident of the district to which he belonged, should be entitled to
a small reward.

That any natives who registered duly the birth of any of their children
should be entitled to a small reward.

That some competent person should be paid to instruct two native boys in
such a manner as to qualify them to act as interpreters in courts of law,
and that as soon as they are found competent they should be employed for
this purpose.

I believe that many other regulations, similar to these, would be found
to produce a very beneficial effect.

...


APPENDIX.

APPENDIX A.

GENEALOGICAL LIST TO SHOW THE MANNER IN WHICH A NATIVE FAMILY BECOMES
DIVIDED.

Nar-doo-itch or Mo-rel-li, a Ballar-oke, born about A.D. 1735,

had two wives,

Kan-dow-ree, a Ngotak,

and

Bol-ye-ree, a No-go-nyuk.

Kan-dow-ree, had the following children:

Yin-dee-ree, female.
Wun-ya-ree, female.
Kag-a-ree, female.
Yung-al, male.
Wal-luk-wur, male.

These were all Ngotaks.

Three of these children, Yin-dee-ree, Wun-ya-ree, and Kag-a-ree, were by
Nar-doo-itch's brother, her former husband.

Bol-ye-ree's children were:

Kow-en-ung, female.
No-gong-o, male.
Jee-bar, male.
Koon-a-ber-ra, male.
Ko-teyne, male.
By-er-man, male.

These were all No-go-nyuks.

Kim-be-yen-ung, a Tdon-dar-up, married, amongst other wives, Noo-yar, a
Ballar-oke.

Noo-yar's children were:

Yow-at-ung, female.*
Kad-jen-ung, female.
Ban-in-yung, female.
Now-ween-gool, female.

These were all Ballar-okes.

(*Footnote. Married to Yungal, a son of Nar-doo-itch.)

...

In order to show the way in which the different families marry into one
another I will now trace up the descendants of some of the male children
of Nar-doo-itch by each of his wives.

Yung-al, the son of Nar-doo-itch,

called also

Be-ra-gore,

married:

Ming-an, a Ballar-oke,
Ko-pan, a Nagar-nook,
Yow-at-ung, a Ballar-oke, daughter of Kim-be-yen-ung.

Ming-an's children were:

Book-oop, female.
Yu-yat, male.
Me-kat, female.
Tdan-up, female.

These were all Ballar-okes.

Ko-pan's children were:

E-lar, male.
Wat-up, male.
Bil-yan, male.
Mong-a-na, female.
Wun-daile, female.

These were all Na-gar-nooks.

Yow-at-ung's children were:

Im-bat, male.
Jil-gar, male.
Gi-mat, male.
Dubin, female.
Boo-yin female.

These were all Ballar-okes.

Jee-bar, a No-go-nyuk, another son of Nar-doo-itch, married:

Kag-a-ree, a Ngotak.
Bar-ri-kan, a Tdondarup.

Kag-a-ree's children were:

Mun-gal-wurt, male.
Ell-yar, male.
Wun-jan-ing, female.
War-ran-ung, female.
Bee-wul-lo, male.

Ngotaks.

Bar-ri-kan's children were:

Djar-a-bung, female.
Nag-a-bung, female.
Yu-gat, male.
Ka-ral-ung, male.

Tdondarups.

Bee-wul-lo, a Ngotak, the son of Jee-bar, married:

Wun-daile, a Na-gar-nook,
Noon-dup, a No-go-nyuk,
Du-bin, a Ballar-oke,
Ek-kan, a Ballar-oke,
Ming-up, a Ballar-oke,
We-jee-bung, a Ballar-oke.

Wun-daile's children were:

Yen-na, male.
War-rup, male.
Tu-yin, male.
Dow-eer, male.
Wil-gup, female.
Ka-bin-yung, female.
Bate-up, female.

Na-gar-nooks.

Noon-dup's children were:

Mee-nung, male.
Kow-elwurt, male.
Ngar-ra-jil, male.
Kau-mar, male.
Koot-in, male.
Il-gat, male.

No-go-nyuks.

Du-bin had but one child:

Waj-jup, female, a Ballar-oke.

Ek-kan's children are:

Wy-up, male.
Kok-o-bung, female.
Wee-muk, female.

Ballar-okes.

Ming-up has but one child living:

Win-bill, male, a Ballar-oke.

...

APPENDIX B.

MOUNT FAIRFAX, THE WIZARD HILLS, AND CHAMPION BAY.

(From the Nautical Magazine for July 1841 page 443.)

The only part of the West coast (to the northward of Swan River) that has
been visited by the Beagle is that part immediately to the eastward of
the Abrolhos, and it is remarkable from being under the high tableland of
Moresby's Flat-topped Range, which is a considerable elevation, and in
clear weather is visible from a ship's mast-head at the Abrolhos.

This range of hills extends north-north-west six miles from Mount
Fairfax, which, although a detached hill, may be considered its southern
extreme. Mount Fairfax is a table-topped hill, the summit of which is an
elevated part at its southern edge, and is 590 feet high. It is in
latitude 28 degrees 45 1/4 minutes, and longitude 1 degree 3 3/4 minutes
west of Swan River, and 4 miles from the coast. To the south-east of
Moresby's Flat-topped Range are the Wizard Hills, the highest of which,
Wizard Peak, is 640 feet. It is in latitude 28 degrees 49 minutes 37
seconds south and longitude 0 degrees 58 1/2 minutes west of Swan River.
For 10 1/2 miles to the northward of Moresby's Flat-topped Range are some
remarkable detached ranges of tableland, from 500 to 600 feet high, at
the northern extreme of which are the Menai Hills. Some of them show as
peaks, but appear only to be the gable ends, as it were, of table-topped
ridges.

In latitude 28 degrees 47 minutes south there is a narrow neck of low
land projecting about 1 3/4 miles from the coastline, to the northward of
which there is good anchorage in Champion Bay.

Point Moore, which is the extreme of this low projection, bears west 13
degrees south (magnetic) from Mount Fairfax, and west 17 degrees north
(magnetic) from Wizard Peak. The anchorage is protected from the westward
by a reef that extends upwards of a mile to the northward from Point
Moore: but half a mile to the northward of the reef is a detached shoal
patch which breaks occasionally, between which and the reef there is a
passage through which the Beagle passed, and had not less than six
fathoms. But perhaps it would be advisable in standing into the bay to
pass to the northward of this danger, which may be done by not bringing
Mount Fairfax to bear to the southward of east 1/4 south (magnetic) until
Point Moore bears south.

This bay is open to the northward, but, as the winds from that quarter
are not frequent, and then only in the winter season, it may be
considered as affording shelter from the prevailing winds on the coast.
The water is shoal in the head of the bay, but a good anchorage may be
taken three-quarters of a mile off shore in four fathoms sandy bottom,
with Point Moore bearing south 50 degrees west and a remarkable bare
brown sandhill in the south-east part of the bay, bearing south 31
degrees east. Mount Fairfax will then bear north 87 minutes east, and the
north extreme of the reef from Point Moore north 50 minutes west. Wizard
Peak is not seen from this anchorage.

South of Point Moore is another bay formed by a continuation of the same
reef that shelters Champion Bay from the westward; but it is quite
exposed to the prevailing winds. From Champion Bay the coast to the
northward is sandy, and fronted by sandhills slightly covered with
shrubs. This description of coast continues for nearly twenty miles. In
latitude 28 degrees 25 minutes is a remarkable white sand-patch 274 feet
above the sea, between two and three miles south of which is a deep
ravine where there is probably a stream of fresh water. Here the shore
becomes steeper, and rises abruptly from the sea, forming downs about 300
feet high. Native fires were seen in this neighbourhood, and the country
had a more fertile appearance than in the vicinity of Champion Bay. This
part of the coast is bold too, and is free from outlaying dangers, the
depth of water from two to three miles off shore being taken between 16
and 29 fathoms. High-water at Champion Bay takes place on change days at
9 hours 30 minutes P.M. nearly, and the range is from 12 to 24 inches.
The stream of tide is not perceptible, but there is generally a current
along the coast to the north-north-west from half a mile to one mile an
hour.

Champion Bay appears to be the only anchorage on the coast between Swan
River and Shark Bay: it is preferable to Gage's Road, and may at no very
distant period become of importance to Western Australia in consequence
of a considerable tract of fine country having lately been discovered
immediately to the eastward of Moresby's Flat-topped Range.

...


APPENDIX C.

CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARDS THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE MAMMALIA OF
AUSTRALIA, WITH NOTES ON SOME RECENTLY DISCOVERED SPECIES, BY J.E. GRAY,
F.R.S., ETC. ETC., IN A LETTER ADDRESSED TO THE AUTHOR.

British Museum, 10th July 1841.

MY DEAR SIR,

The very little attention which has hitherto been paid to the
distribution of the animals of Australia, and the very incorrect manner
in which the habitats of the different species are given in collections
and systematic works, have induced me to send you, with the description
of the new species recently brought from that country, a table showing at
one view the distribution of the different species which have hitherto
been recorded as found in Australia, as far as the materials at my
disposal will allow me.

I am the more induced to do so as I believe I have now under my care the
richest collection of the animals of this country in any Museum; as,
besides the specimens which we have been collecting from different
quarters, with the kind assistance of Mr. Ronald Gunn, Mr. Harvey, and
yourself, we have just purchased a complete series of all the species and
varieties brought by Mr. Gould from different parts of this Continent;
and these specimens were all marked with the habitat immediately after
they were procured.

The first column in the following table indicates the species found in
New South Wales, and the east part of the Continent; the number in the
column specifying the particular habitats where the species has been
observed,

1. Sydney, and its neighbourhood.
2. The Rivers Hunter and Maitland, and Goulburn Plains.
3. Liverpool Plains.
4. Liverpool Range.
5. The Namoi and Mokai Rivers.
6. Bong-Bong.
7. Yarrundi.
8. Interior (generally).
9. Australian Alps.
10. Murrumbidgee River.
11. Moreton Bay.
12. Clarence River.
13. Port Phillip.
14. Bathurst.
15. Interior of Australia Felix.
16. Murray River.
17. Bayunga River.
18. Darling River.
19. Glenelg River.
20. Port Stevens Mountains.
21. Port Macquarie.

The second column refers to South Australia, and the numbers in it to:

1. Adelaide and its vicinity.
2. Kangaroo Island.
3. The South Coast.
4. Port Lincoln.
5. Murray River.

The third column refers to Western Australia, as:

1. Perth.
2. King George's Sound.
3. Northam.
4. Canning River.
5. Rottnest and Garden Islands.

The fourth column refers to the North-west Coast of Australia:

1. Hanover Bay.
2. Islands in Shark Bay.
3. Dirk Hatterick's Bay.
4. Generally, the peculiar locality not being marked.

The fifth column to the North Coast:

1. Port Essington.

The sixth column to the Island of Van Diemen's Land, the numbers to:

1. Hobart Town.
2. Circular Head.
3. Bass Strait and King's Island.
4. New Norfolk.
5. Kangaroo Point.
6. Tasman's Peninsula.
7. Launceston.
8. Acteon Island.
9. Mount Wellington.

The seventh column to Norfolk Island, marked Number 1.

PRIMATES. Family Vespertilionidae.

1. Rhinolophus megaphyllus Gray. 1:10.

2. Nyctophilus geoffroyii Leach ? 1:1 1:7 3:1 6:1.
Barbastellus pacificus Gray.
Nyctinomus ---- ? Bennett.
Var. major 3:1.

Scotophilus.

* Wings and interfemoral membranes with lines of hairs.

3. Scotophilus morio, new species.

4. S. gouldii, new species. 1:2 6:7.

5. S. australis, new species. 1:1 1:4 2:1 3:4 6:1.

** Wings nearly bald.

6. S. pumilus, new species. 1:7.

7. Molossus australis 5:1.

8. Pteropus poliocephalus Temm. 1:11 1:12.
Pt. edwardsii G. Bennett not Desm.

FERAE. Family Felidae.

9. Canis familiaris australasiae. 1:1 2:1 ?
Canis Dingo Blumenb.
Family Phocidae.

10. Otaria peronii. 1:1 ?

Family Didelphidae.

11. Thylacinus cynocephalus Fischer 6:2.