for use: but if eaten before,
it produces the bad effects already mentioned. The pulp is eaten both
raw and roasted; in the latter state, the taste is said to be equal to
that of a chestnut; but this process has no effect whatever upon the
kernels, which act still as a strong emetic and purgative. This subject
of the sources whence the Australians derive their daily food from God,
who, whether in the north or the south, in the east or the west, is
still found "opening his hand," and "filling all things living with
plenteousness," might easily be extended even yet more; for in so vast a
tract of country as New Holland, the varieties of animal and vegetable
food, and the different modes of obtaining it, must evidently be very
numerous. Enough, however, has been stated to enable the reader to judge
respecting the means of subsistence possessed by the inhabitants of the
Bush; and it will be easily seen that this mode of living appears, at
the first view, more precarious and less laborious than it really is. It
is not so precarious a life as it seems to be, because the articles
needful for support, of one kind or another, are perpetually at hand to
those who can find them and use them, whilst Europeans, or even natives
from a distant part, are often, for want of this power, in danger of
starving in the midst of plenty.[54] At the same time, the savage, free
from servile toil and daily labour though he may appear to be, does in
truth earn his living quite as laboriously as others do; nor is he, of
all men, the most exempt from the general curse which sin has brought
down upon us: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." Enough,
likewise, has been stated respecting the supplies provided in the
wilderness for its inhabitants to qualify us to perceive how very
serious an injury is inflicted upon the original people of a district in
Australia, when Europeans _sit down_, as they term it, (i.e. _settle_,)
upon their lands. We might imagine (however Utopian may be the fancy) a
body of able agriculturists settling in a country but poorly cultivated,
and while they occupied a portion of the land belonging to the first
inhabitants, rendering what remained to these more valuable by proper
cultivation, than the whole had originally been. But nothing of the kind
is possible with people accustomed from their infancy to habits of life
and means of subsistence like those of the Australians. Occupy their
land, and the wild animals must