NATIVE APATHY UNDER COMMON WOUNDS.  ANECDOTE.

The natives pay but little regard to the wounds they receive in duels or which are inflicted on them as punishments; their sufferings from all injuries are much less than those which Europeans would undergo in similar circumstances; this may probably arise from their abstemious mode of life, and from their never using any other beverage than water.  A striking instance of their apathy with regard to wounds was shown on one occasion in a fight which took place in the village of Perth in Western Australia.  A native man received a wound in that portion of his frame which is only presented to enemies when in the act of flight, and the spear which was barbed remained sticking in the wound; a gentleman who was standing by watching the fray regarded the man with looks of pity and commiseration, which the native perceiving, came up to him, holding the spear (still in the wound) in one hand, and turning round so as to expose the injury he had received, said, in the most moving terms, “Poor fellow, sixpence give it ’um.”

CHAPTER 13.  SOCIAL CONDITION AND DOMESTIC HABITS.

POPULATION.

Several writers have given calculations as to the number of native inhabitants to each square mile in Australia.  Now, although I have done my utmost to draw up tables which might even convey an approximate result, I have found the number of inhabitants to a square mile to vary so much from district to district, from season to season, and to depend upon so great a variety of local circumstances, that I am unable to give any computation which I believe would even nearly approach the truth; and as I feel no confidence in the results which I have obtained, after a great deal of labour, I cannot be expected to attach much importance to those which, to my own knowledge, have in several instances been arrived at by others from mere guesswork.

NATURAL PERIOD OF LIFE.

With regard to the age occasionally attained by the natives I believe very erroneous ideas have been prevalent, for so far am I from considering them to be short-lived that I am certain they frequently attain the age of seventy years and upwards.  As they themselves have no knowledge whatever of their age it is manifest that merely speculative ideas upon this point must be useless; the means therefore that I adopted to arrive at a probable conclusion may be illustrated by an example:  In the table I have given of a family descending from two natives, Nardooitch, and Kimbeyenung (Appendix A) the name of Yenna will be found as one of Wundall’s children; now (1840) Yenna is a young man of about twenty years of age, and from the usual habits of the natives we must allow that his father, Beewullo, was at least twenty-three years old by the time he had married and had a child; such being the case, Beewullo must now be about forty-three, and Jeebar his father must by the same reasoning be