The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-04-08
MANS LOWEST EBB.
AMONG THE AUSTRALIAN ABOR-
TGINES.
How the Boys Take the Rite of
Manhood-The First Bite" at
Meals.
- DIR. EuEENE sTANpER

The traveller or explorer who visits Aus
tralia will soon discover that he has made
a serious mistake if he alludes TO the
black inhabitants as natives
This title natives" belongs, in the opin-
ion of the descendants of the earlier set
tiers, only to the whites.
The term aborigines, or the name Bush
men, is applied 10 the original inhabitants.
The application of the word native to
the blacks is looked upon as an insult to
the white settlers.
Etllnologists are agreed that in their
primitive state savage men are found at
the lowest known point of human develop
ment in the Australian wilderness. All who
have observed these Wretched people, even
after they have undergone some years OF
so-called civilizing influence, Will agree
thaf nowhere can more debaSed and de-
graded SET of human animals be found.
Very little is known OF the ethrology or
early history of the inhabitants of the
great island-continen MT Chinese history
shows that these people were aware of the
existence and position of Australia for
centuries before the time of Christ and for
at least 2,500 years before its discovery by
naVigaforS from western Europe. Beyond
a few chance voyages to its north shore
however, from which they appear to have
been promptly driven by the fierce
cannibal aborigine, they seem to have
made no attempt to conquer its territory
or study its people.
Tie Aalaynesian people to the north and
west, probably those from Papua or
Borneo, at one time spread over a con-
siderable portion OF Australia This is at
tested by the fact that in many caves
there have in recent years been found
picture writings of d grotesque sort thai
Enthusiastically belong to these people
Crude as they are, these writings rise far
above the powers of the present Austral-
ian saVages. The Bushmen have no leg
ends to account Tor these rude heirogly-
phics.
There is but little reason, however, tC
wonder at the isolated condition of these
aborigines, and that they remained I'M
conquered and almost unknown, by then
mere intelligent neighbors. Indeed, the
improved arms. and all other Superioriti,as
of modern ciVilizat ton, have barely Sufficed
to bring them under subsection after many
Years of CeaSelesS struggle.
Even yet we know comparatively little
about the Bushmen and their lives in the
dense wilderness of the untamed Interior
When a. coastal schooner landed me al
Geraldton, on the far west coast Of Aus
tralia, I had the impression that a triI
Of a few miles inland would bring me tC
numerous settlements OF the aborlSlneS
Notwithstanding all l had read l did MOI
have it clear in my head that the 5000 0g
savages of few decades ago haC
dwindled TO less than one-6ftieth tina
number that their hatred of the white:
kept them far in the interior, and tina
their habit OF building no settled homes
but always on the move, made a visi
TO them very difficult
I made a tedious trip of about $50 mile!
into the deSOlate interior, beyond LAX
Austin; and wei over to the edge. Of tn
Great Victoria, desert, without having dis
covered a single trace of the SaVaget
Now and then I met a semi-civilize;
aborigne, but l began to understand tia
my determination 10 live for while viii
or near these people was easier forme.
than carried out.
The semi-civilized wretches that I me
We're indeed a sorry lot. The worst of tn
Aottentots of Africa, of the CaTibs in III
interior of Dutch Guiana or of the Afri
cans of Haiti are sufficiently bad 10