第71章

Generally speaking,a man has but one wife,but infidelity on the side of the husband,with the unmarried girls,is very frequent.For the most part,perhaps,they intermarry in their respective tribes.This rule is not,however,constantly observed,and there is reason to think that a more than ordinary share of courtship and presents,on the part of the man,is required in this case.Such difficulty seldom operates to extinguish desire,and nothing is more common than for the unsuccessful suitor to ravish by force that which he cannot accomplish by entreaty.

I do not believe that very near connections by blood ever cohabit.

We knew of no instance of it.

But indeed the women are in all respects treated with savage barbarity Condemned not only to carry the children but all other burthens,they meet in return for submission only with blows,kicks and every other mark of brutality.When an Indian is provoked by a woman,he either spears her or knocks her down on the spot.On this occasion he always strikes on the head,using indiscriminately a hatchet,a club or any other weapon which may chance to be in his hand.The heads of the women are always consequently seen in the state which I found that of Gooreedeeana.

Colbee,who was certainly,in other respects a good tempered merry fellow,made no scruple of treating Daringa,who was a gentle creature,thus.

Baneelon did the same to Barangaroo,but she was a scold and a vixen,and nobody pitied her.It must nevertheless be confessed that the women often artfully study to irritate and inflame the passions of the men,although sensible that the consequence will alight on themselves.

Many a matrimonial scene of this sort have I witnessed.Lady Mary Wortley Montague,in her sprightly letters from Turkey,longs for some of the advocates for passive obedience and unconditional submission then existing in England to be present at the sights exhibited in a despotic government.

A thousand times,in like manner,have I wished that those European philosophers whose closet speculations exalt a state of nature above a state of civilization,could survey the phantom which their heated imaginations have raised.Possibly they might then learn that a state of nature is,of all others,least adapted to promote the happiness of a being capable of sublime research and unending ratiocination.That a savage roaming for prey amidst his native deserts is a creature deformed by all those passions which afflict and degrade our nature,unsoftened by the influence of religion,philosophy and legal restriction:and that the more men unite their talents,the more closely the bands of society are drawn and civilization advanced,inasmuch is human felicity augmented,and man fitted for his unalienable station in the universe.

Of the language of New South Wales I once hoped to have subjoined to this work such an exposition as should have attracted public notice,and have excited public esteem.But the abrupt departure of Mr.Dawes,who,stimulated equally by curiosity and philanthropy,had hardly set foot on his native country when he again quitted it to encounter new perils in the service of the Sierra Leona company,precludes me from executing this part of my original intention,in which he had promised to co-operate with me;and in which he had advanced his researches beyond the reach of competition.The few remarks which I can offer shall be concisely detailed.