f the most brutal nature of these unfortunate victims of lust
and cruelty (I can call them by no better name) are, I believe,
always selected from the women of a tribe different from that of the
males (for they ought not to be dignified with the title of men) and with
whom they are at enmity. Secrecy is necessarily observed, and the poor
wretch is stolen upon in the absence of her protectors; being first
stupified with blows, inflicted with clubs or wooden swords, on the head,
back, and shoulders, every one of which is followed by a stream of blood,
she is dragged through the woods by one arm, with a perseverance and
violence that one might suppose would displace it from its socket; the
lover, or rather the ravisher, is regardless of the stones or broken
pieces of trees which may lie in his route, being anxious only to convey
his prize in safety to his own party, where a scene ensues too shocking
to relate. This outrage is not resented by the relations of the female,
who only retaliate by a similar outrage when they find it in their power.
This is so constantly the practice among them, that even the children
make it a game or exercise; and I have often, on hearing the cries of the
girls with whom they were playing, ran out of my house, thinking some
murder was committed, but have found the whole party laughing at my
mistake.

The women thus ravished become their wives, are incorporated into the
tribe to which the husband belongs, and but seldom quit him for another.

Many of the men with whom we were acquainted did not confine themselves
to one woman. Bennillong, previous to his visit to England, was possessed
of two wives (if wives they may be called), both living with him and
attending on him wherever he went. One named Ba-rang-a-roo, who was of
the tribe of Cam-mer-ray (Bennillong himself was a Wahn-gal), lived with
him at the time he was seized and brought a captive to the settlemerit
with Cole-be; and before her death he had brought off from Botany Bay, by
the violence before described, Go-roo-bar-roo-bool-lo, the daughter of an
old man named Met-ty, a native of that district; and she continued with
him until his departure for England. We were told, on the banks of the
Hawkesbury, that all the men there, and inland, had two wives. Cole-be,
Bennillong's friend, had two female companions; and we found, indeed,
more instances of plurality of wives than of monogamy. I do not recollect
ever noticing children by both; an