f the part
swell they fasten a ligature very tightly above it, so as to stop all
circulation. Whether to this application, or to their undebauched habit, it
be attributable, I know not, but it is certain that a disabled limb among
them is rarely seen, although violent inflammations from bruises, which in
us would bring on a gangrene, daily happen. If they get burned, either from
rolling into the fire when asleep, or from the flame catching the grass
on which they lie (both of which are common accidents) they cover the part
with a thin paste of kneaded clay, which excludes the air and adheres to
the wound until it be cured, and the eschar falls off.

[*Their native hardiness of constitution is great. I saw a woman on the day
she was brought to bed, carry her new-born infant from Botany Bay to Port
Jackson, a distance of six miles, and afterwards light a fire and dress
fish.]

Their form of government, and the detail of domestic life, yet remain
untold. The former cannot occupy much space. Without distinctions of rank,
except those which youth and vigour confer, theirs is strictly a system of
'equality' attended with only one inconvenience--the strong triumph over
the weak. Whether any laws exist among them for the punishment of offences
committed against society; or whether the injured party in all cases seeks
for relief in private revenge, I will not positively affirm; though I am
strongly inclined to believe that only the latter method prevails. I have
already said that they are divided into tribes; but what constitutes the
right of being enrolled in a tribe, or where exclusion begins and ends,
I am ignorant. The tribe of Cameragal is of all the most numerous and
powerful. Their superiority probably arose from possessing the best fishing
ground, and perhaps from their having suffered less from the ravages of the
smallpox.

In the domestic detail there may be novelty, but variety is unattainable.
One day must be very like another in the life of a savage. Summoned by
the calls of hunger and the returning light, he starts from his beloved
indolence, and snatching up the remaining brand of his fire, hastens with
his wife to the strand to commence their daily task. In general the canoe
is assigned to her, into which she puts the fire and pushes off into deep
water, to fish with hook and line, this being the province of the women.
If she have a child at the breast, she takes it with her. And thus in her
skiff, a piece of b