This was thought to have been New Holland or
Australia."
MR. BARRAUD. "It is remarkable how extremely ignorant the
Australians are: they are certainly the lowest in intellect of the
human creation. The tribes on the western shores of Spencer's Bay
are positively ignorant of any method of obtaining fire: they say
that it originally came down from the north. Like the vestal
virgins, the women keep it constantly lighted, and carry it about
with them in firesticks when they travel: should it happen to go
out, they procure a fresh supply from a neighboring encampment. Then
their manners are so atrociously savage. Their mode of courtship is
one which I fancy would not become popular among English ladies. If
a chief, or any other individual, be in love, with a damsel of a
different tribe, he endeavors to waylay her; and if she be surprised
in any quiet place, the ambushed lover rushes upon her, beats her
about the head with his 'waddie' till she becomes senseless, when he
drags her in triumph to his hut, and thenceforth she is his lawful
wife!"
GRANDY. "After that, you will readily credit the story I am going to
tell you. A Mr. Meredith went over with his goods to Kangaroo
Island, whence he journeyed across the bay to Yankalilly, where he
built a hut, placed in it a glass window or two, and made it look
snug. As he was a young man of about twenty-one or twenty-two, his
warm, generous spirit had led him into difficulties; and, the
friends of his brief sunshine flying from him in his distress, he
contracted a disgust for the world.
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