EDITORIAL NOTES.
Since the preceding pages were placed in the hands of the Printer, I have read with considerable care and great interest, the Exploring Expedition of Sir Thomas Mitchell, a work which probably is not excelled by any, in its minute descriptions of a line of country previously unexplored. By that reading, I find Buckley's descriptions of many of the customs of the Aborigines fully confirmed, whilst others again are peculiar to those of New South Wales. Sir Thomas Mitchell, however, does not state, that the natives of the localities he visited, are cannibals; but Buckley clearly shews, that those round about Port Phillip are so, under particular and exciting circumstances. They both say something about their extraordinary imitative powers, and I may add my testimony on that matter from my own experience of the Western coast.
I preface my remarks by stating, that a long intercourse with the North American Indians, in peace and war, has given me a tolerable knowledge of what is called savage life, and of the great difference which exists between the warriors of the new world, and the savages of the Australian wilds; the former being faithful, courageous, and intellectual; the latter on the contrary, being generally treacherous, cowardly, and mere creatures holding the link in the chain of animal life between the man and the monkey.
I write as of my own knowledge, having been initiated into all the customs of one of the Six Nations, the Hurons, by
