a great part of which consisted of wide arid plains, where no savage tribes could find, in certain seasons, either food or water, is too low; and that applying the figures based on the native population of three counties in Victoria to the whole area of the colony, Mr. Thomas's estimate is too high. Between the numbers—1,220 and 6,000—there is much left for conjecture; but if we correct Mr. Thomas's estimate, so far as to make his figures applicable to the area in Victoria available for a savage people, and subtract from the area of the counties he has cited those areas within them which are covered by dense forests and scrub, we find that the total number would not exceed 3,000—that is to say, about 18,000 acres of all kinds of country to each Aboriginal.[1]
It is impossible to give figures which will satisfy the enquirer; but, in attempting to arrive at the truth, he is enlightened and helped by the preceding descriptions.
In his journey towards the Grampians—previous to the occupation of that part of Victoria by the whites—Sir Thomas Mitchell saw very few Aborigines. Mr. Landsborough, also, in travelling southwards from Carpentaria, met with very few natives, the largest number he counted being thirty; and he believes that the country is nowhere thickly peopled; and the statements of travellers generally confirm this impression. Those who are of a different opinion must not be blamed. It is only the experienced bushman who is able to estimate the numbers of a tribe in the bush. A few—fifty or sixty—moving backwards and forwards in the bush, changing their weapons, now holding their arms aloft, and anon appearing without any in their hands (all the time dragging them between their toes), uttering wild shouts, and answered by their wives at a distance, give to a stranger the impression of a multitude of people. The inexperienced man supposes that he has seen two hundred warriors.[2]
- ↑ It appears from a statement in a pamphlet published by Mr. W. Westgarth in 1846, that Mr. G. A. Robinson, the Chief Protector of Aborigines in Port Phillip, had made an estimate of the number of the Aboriginal inhabitants within the area of land now known as Victoria. His estimate was 5,000—one Aboriginal to each sixteen square miles. This closely approximates to the number given by Mr. Thomas. The mean of the three estimates—that made by Mr. Thomas, that made by Mr. Robinson, and that made by me—is 4,600, nearly. Grey found it impossible to give an estimate of the number of Aborigines—not, it is presumed, because of the great multitude of them, but because of the paucity of them. He says:—"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 labor, 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 guess-work."—Journal of Two Expeditions of Discovery, vol. II., p. 246.
- ↑ It is very difficult for a stranger to distinguish one Aboriginal from another. The face of one man appears to be the same as the face of another man—to the eye of one inexperienced. A Chinaman just arrived in Victoria will tell you that he sees no differences in the faces of the Europeans he meets. An Englishman, at the first sight of the people, cannot tell one Chinaman from another. It is long before one can really know a blackfellow. They seem to be all alike; and though they are alike to us, we are not alike to them. The Australian Aboriginal knows a friend at once. I have had many proofs of this instinct; and I have many times been stopped and spoken to by Aboriginals whose names or faces I could not—until after much exertion of memory—call to mind.
