. Their chiefs were merely heads of families,
and distinguished by their strength or cunning: they were thought to
possess very trifling and uncertain control. It is said, that a
notorious bushranger (Howe) fell in with a tribe: he assisted his
companions in lifting a boat, but as he appeared in command, the chief
checked him for lowering his dignity--a sovereign instinct, which shews
the heart of a true prince. When the chiefs accompanied white men in
their sports, and were requested to carry their spoil, they often
manifested disdain and reluctance. Little is known of their policy, and
probably there was but little to be known. The natives lived in harmony
with each other, or when they quarrelled they decided by the weight of
their waddies, and the thickness of their skulls. The aggressions of
other tribes were punished by reprisals, but they rarely pursued a foe.
Offences among themselves were treated according to their supposed
enormity: the culprit had to stand while a certain number of spears were
thrown at him. By this ordeal he was cleared, and the keenness of his
eye and the agility of his motions, usually enabled him to escape a
fatal wound. Faults, of slighter consequence, were punished without
damage: the transgressor was set on the branch of a tree, and had to
endure the mockery of the by-standers. It may be gratifying to discover
such an example, in favor of the pillory!

_Huts._--Their locomotion was predetermined, and their encampments
regularly chosen; generally on the banks of a river or a lagoon. Each
family had its fire; hunted separately, and erected a hut for its own
accommodation. On the mountains, and beside the sea shore, they lodged
in caverns; or where these were not found, as in the open country, they
reared huts, or rather screens: these were of bark, half-circular,
gathered at the top, and supported by stakes: in the front they kindled
a fire. These huts formed rude villages, and were seen from seventeen to
forty together. The former number being raised by a tribe of seventy,
from four to five must have lodged under one shelter. Some, found at the
westward, were permanent: they were like bee-hives, and thatched:
several such were seen by Jorgenson, on the western shore--strong, and
apparently erected for long use. They drew water for the sick in shells:
the robust threw themselves on the bank, and drank as they lay. Boiled
water was not used in their primitive state; it is said to have been