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 in