ed the man with looks of pity and
commiseration, which the native perceiving, came up to him, holding the
spear (still in the wound) in one hand, and turning round so as to expose
the injury he had received, said, in the most moving terms, "Poor fellow,
sixpence give it 'um."

CHAPTER 13. SOCIAL CONDITION AND DOMESTIC HABITS.

POPULATION.

Several writers have given calculations as to the number of native
inhabitants to each square mile in Australia. Now, although I have done
my utmost to draw up tables which might even convey an approximate
result, I have found the number of inhabitants to a square mile to vary
so much from district to district, from season to season, and to depend
upon so great a variety of local circumstances, that I am unable to give
any computation which I believe would even nearly approach the truth; and
as I feel no confidence in the results which I have obtained, after a
great deal of labour, I cannot be expected to attach much importance to
those which, to my own knowledge, have in several instances been arrived
at by others from mere guesswork.

NATURAL PERIOD OF LIFE.

With regard to the age occasionally attained by the natives I believe
very erroneous ideas have been prevalent, for so far am I from
considering them to be short-lived that I am certain they frequently
attain the age of seventy years and upwards. As they themselves have no
knowledge whatever of their age it is manifest that merely speculative
ideas upon this point must be useless; the means therefore that I adopted
to arrive at a probable conclusion may be illustrated by an example: In
the table I have given of a family descending from two natives,
Nardooitch, and Kimbeyenung (Appendix A) the name of Yenna will be found
as one of Wundall's children; now (1840) Yenna is a young man of about
twenty years of age, and from the usual habits of the natives we must
allow that his father, Beewullo, was at least twenty-three years old by
the time he had married and had a child; such being the case, Beewullo
must now be about forty-three, and Jeebar his father must by the same
reasoning be about sixty-six, yet he is alive and in perfect health, and
his elder brother Nogongo is likewise alive, and as upright as possible,
although the infirmities of old age are creeping on him. Nogongo must be
now at least sixty-eight years old, yet I have seen two other natives
who, by his and their own account, are older than he is; and on making