The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-05-06
AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES
"A Race That Defles the Influences
OF Civilization. s.
Native Policemen Who Track Their own
People Down and Slaughter Them
I'm tho Cruelest Manner for
Personal Gain.

It is fact that it is hard to teach the
Australian aborigines anything useful,
says an article in the Californian.
They are naturally lazy and INDECENT,
unsettled and of n rowing disposition.
They will not stay long in any place,
and if raised from their degraded posi-
ton into moro comfortable conditions,
necessitating the breaking with their
natural mode of living, they will al
most invariably return to this at their
first opportunity, and the same may be
said of the half-castes, who otherwise
are far superior to their sable parent
and her relatives.
1t is an oft-rcpeated occurrence in
Australia that half-caste child has
been removed, when eight or ten years
old, to the surroundings of civilization,
has been given an education equal to
any white child of the better classes of
the community, and notwithstanding
this, upon coming in contact with his
own race. has returned to the black
fellows camp, ignoring book learning,
fine linen, and the comforts of civil
lied life.
in two capacities the black fellows
have been found satisfactory-as
tthStsNio siiiNt III Vic uullVC police. ]
can only find correct expression for
their power of tracking by calling it
instinct. have been with them
searching for men whose every trace
! had been practically lost, but the
black trac,ler has found them in spite
of all. They are more sure than
bloodhounds. When the track ceases,
through some mysterious agency, they
fn
again.
In the native police they are very
useful as crackers. This police consists
of small troops OF mounted, uniformed
black fellows under the command of
European officers. They act as gcnd-
arnes in the outlying districts, and are
principally used for the purpose OF
bringing marauding blacks to account.
1t is not uncommon that the up-coun-
try blacks spear the cattle on the sta
ton or murder travellers or settlers,
and it is principally in such cases that
the native police become useful.
The manner in which they surprise
camp of savage aborigincs is charac-
tcristic. Having ascertained, that they
are near camp some of them dis
mount and strip to the skin. Then they
i'-'tSh lISil C>4Ioliic 10 tNclf ankle Dv
means of rope or chain, and. trail
ing it through the long grass. approach
the camp.
The unsuspecting blacks come to
meet their sable brothers, when, quick
Us lightning, the trooper stoops, brings
his carbinc to leyel, and sends death
and destruction into the camp.
Tho aboriginal thinks a good deal
of l,ic In,rc hor Of
Dogs are always found about the camp
in large numbers. They are of mon
grel breed and generally starved to fc-
rocity. The black fellow in most cases
is polygamist, and his wives are used
for carrying everything from their
babies to their husbands weapons-in-
Guiding all their camp paraphernalia.
rations, or whatever else they may
wish to transport, while the lordly
master marches along with perhaps
waddie ora boomerang as the only bur
den to impede his progress.
But if, as in many instances, the
blacks be savage the white men with
whom they come in contact are no less
so. The life of black fellow is count
ed as nothing, and the depredatons
perpetratcd upon them by settlers are
numerous and often particularly cruel.