CHAPTER II.
The Aborigines: Food, Clothing, Huts, &c.—Character—Natives of the Murray River—Recent Encounter—Mounted Police—Tendency of Penal Settlements—Native Claims—A Treaty recommended—Appeal for Missionaries.
The tribes who frequent the districts in the vicinity of the Swan, Port Augusta, and King George’s Sound (the territory now occupied by the settlers), do not exceed, perhaps, a thousand souls. The form of their government is patriarchal, and they live under independent chiefs; to whom, however, they are little in subjection, except when they are at war among themselves, which is not unfrequently the case. Their mode of life is migratory.
Their food is of various kinds, and as the season arrives for each, they remove to that part of the country most favourable for obtaining it. At one season they live principally on the kangaroo. This animal (of which there are several species) they kill with spears, and occasionally hunt with dogs. These dogs vary considerably in size, and, from their bushy tail and short pricked ears, resemble the fox. The natives also eat the opossum, an animal they find mostly in the hollows of trees: they show great agility in pursuit of it. At the fishing season they resort to the vicinity of rivers and lakes. Their mode of taking the fish is by spearing, at
