Part 14

+───────────────────────────────────+────+────+────+────+─────+─────+─────+─────+──────+───────────────────────────────────────+ │ │ │ Western │ Other │ │ │ │ │ │ Yarra │ Port │ Tribes │ TOTAL. │Grand │ │ │ —— │ Tribe. │ Tribe. │journeying.│ │Total.│ REMARKS. │ │ +────+────+────+────+─────+─────+─────+─────+ │ │ │ │ M. │ F. │ M. │ F. │ M. │ F. │ M. │ F. │ │ │ +───────────────────────────────────+────+────+────+────+─────+─────+─────+─────+──────+───────────────────────────────────────+ │ From 1 Apr. 1839 to 1 Mar. 1840 │ — │ 1 │ — │ 1 │ — │ 1 │ — │ 3 │ 3 │ It will be apparent from this Return, │ │ From 1 Mar. 1840 to 1 Mar. 1841 │ — │ — │ — │ — │ 1 │ — │ 1 │ — │ 1 │ taken carefully from my journal, │ │ From 1 Mar. 1841 to 1 Mar. 1842 │ — │ — │ — │ — │ 1 │ — │ 1 │ — │ 1 │ that there has been no comparison of │ │ From 1 Mar. 1842 to 1 Mar. 1843 │ 1 │ 1 │ — │ — │ — │ — │ 1 │ 1 │ 2 │ births in proportion to deaths. │ │ From 1 Mar. 1843 to 1 Mar. 1844 │ — │ — │ — │ — │ — │ — │ — │ — │ — │ │ │ From 1 Mar. 1844 to 1 Mar. 1845 │ 1 │ — │ — │ — │ — │ — │ 1 │ — │ 1 │ Of these children born, it is │ │ From 1 Mar. 1845 to 1 June 1846 │ 2 │ 2 │ — │ — │ — │ — │ 2 │ 2 │ 4 │ lamentable that most died before the │ │ From 1 June 1846 to 1 June 1847 │ — │ 1 │ — │ — │ — │ — │ — │ 1 │ 1 │ first month, or removing from the │ │ From 1 June 1847 to 1 June 1848 │ — │ — │ — │ — │ — │ — │ — │ — │ — │ encampment for a week or two and │ │ From 1 June 1848 to 1 June 1849 │ 1 │ 1 │ — │ — │ — │ 1 │ 1 │ 2 │ 3 │ return childless. │ │ From 1 June 1849 to 31 Dec. 1849 │ 1 │ — │ — │ — │ — │ 3 │ 1 │ 3 │ 4 │ │ │ From 1 June 1850 to 31 Dec. 1859, │ 2 │ 3 │ 1 │ 2 │ — │ — │ 3 │ 5 │ 8 │ I have in one line included the last │ │ the last 10 years │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ nine years, as there have been no │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ +─────+─────+──────+ births from any other tribe in the │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 11 │ 17 │ 28 │ Yarra and Western Port Districts. │ +───────────────────────────────────+────+────+────+────+─────+─────+─────+─────+──────+───────────────────────────────────────+

WM. THOMAS, Guardian of Aborigines.

{62}

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Having travelled much in Australia, America, and the West Indies, and having also resided on the Coast of Africa, where I penetrated a considerable distance into the interior, traversing the countries between the Gambia and the Senegal, and ascending the former river 600 miles, I was consequently frequently brought into contact with numerous aboriginal tribes of very different characters and descent, and under varying physical and external circumstances.

I have, however, never seen natives whose general habits and physical conformation impressed me so completely with the idea of a perishable and doomed race as the aborigines of the southern portion of this continent.

I may add that as I almost always find it necessary to release native prisoners before the expiration of their sentences, because death is apt to ensue from any prolonged confinement, I cannot but think that even the partial confinement in schools injuriously affects the native constitution, so nearly do they approximate to the lower animal creation.

RICHARD GRAVES MACDONNELL, Governor.

Adelaide, Nov. 23, 1860.

The aboriginies of this colony (South Australia) have not a very wide range of disease from which they suffer.

I have never seen a case of small-pox, scarlet fever, measles, or hooping cough, and I was officially connected with them for 18 years.

Fever occurs, but not frequently, as they have no confined badly ventilated dwellings.

Diarrhœa and dysentery make their appearance in the hot weather, and from five to ten per cent. of the cases prove fatal; these attacks occur most frequently during dentition, as with the Europeans.

The brain and nervous system are seldom attacked primarily. In their native state they indulge in no stimulants, and are not guilty of overtaxing their mental powers.

Consumption is common amongst them; and in every death that I have seen in the school children, there have been tubercular deposits in the lungs. The same occurs in the adults who have been six months and upwards confined in gaol; in fact, they cannot survive confinement in a prison beyond two years. Confine them two years and they will waste and die in a few months after liberation.

The most fatal disease that has come under my notice is the venereal, contracted by contact with the Europeans. Males and females suffer alike from it, and die generally of secondary effects.

As a race the aborigines are dying off and disappearing before a more highly civilized people, and must eventually disappear altogether. The venereal disease on the one hand, and the fact that the women are apt to become prostitutes, and in consequence cease to bear children, on the other, are reducing them at a very rapid rate.

M. MOORHOUSE, Late Protector of Aborigines.

It is universally admitted that they are fast decreasing in number, and the cause of this decrease is attributed by most witnesses to their partial assumption of semi-civilized habits; where formerly they clothed themselves with the skins of animals taken in the chase, contact with Europeans has so changed their habits that they now, in a great measure, depend upon the scanty dole of blankets issued by the Government, which supplies, it appears from evidence, have been most irregular. Great suffering has been occasioned, especially among the aged and infirm natives, by the insufficient and ill-timed supplies, both of blankets and provisions. Disease appears to be induced by this partial and irregular clothing; pulmonary complaints prevailed to a fearful extent during last winter, aggravated by, if not entirely attributable to, this cause.

This decrease in their numbers is attributable to many causes:―

1st. From infanticide, to a limited extent.

2nd. From certain rites performed upon young men of some tribes, impairing their physical powers.

3rd. From the introduction among them by Europeans of a more aggravated form of syphilis than was known to exist previous to our occupation of the country. {63}

4th. From the introduction and use of intoxicating liquors, a habit of using which to excess is prevalent among the natives, who, despite of existing laws to the contrary, are frequently aided by Europeans in obtaining supplies.

5th. From the promiscuous intercourse of the sexes. This is proved by evidence to be carried to such an extent, not only between themselves, but also with Europeans, as, in a great measure, of itself to account for the infecundity of the race.

6th. From the disproportion of sexes.

GEO. HALL, Chairman.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

The question raised by Miss Nightingale, “Can we civilize the aborigines without killing them?” naturally arises from the fact that wherever Europeans have taken possession of the country of savage races, the latter have gradually disappeared before the face of the “white man.”

This state of things, I believe, may be traced to the three following causes:―

1st. The acquirement by the aborigines of the love for intoxicating liquors.

2nd. The immorality of the women with the “white man,” preventing their bearing children.

3rd. The introduction of diseases more fatal to them than to the Europeans, arising from their exposed lives, and general objection to submit themselves to proper medical treatment.

It will thus be easily seen that the aborigines do not, in reality, gradually disappear before the advantages of civilization, but rather fall victims to the vices and diseases introduced by the advent of unprincipled Europeans among them.

JOHN FERGUSON, Colonial Surgeon.

Perth, Nov. 17, 1860.

It is quite certain that the natives die in quick succession in the districts inhabited by Europeans, and it appears not less certain that a great many of the deaths are attributable to their having lived among us. But it is not civilization that has caused their deaths; it is rather the vices of the Europeans which they have imbibed, and the ignorance and recklessness of results in the natives themselves. They are mere children in understanding, and if their present wants are gratified they care not for the future. As an instance:—There is a stringent law prohibiting the selling or giving intoxicating drinks to them, but they willingly yield to the assistance offered to them by unprincipled sailors and others to elude this law made for their benefit. The men become intoxicated, and misery and wretchedness are the consequences to a portion of their families, who die prematurely, but not before their vicious habits have injured many besides themselves. There are many individuals in all countries who neither regard the laws of God nor man, and these unfortunate people might have been of the number, even if they had been civilized, but the probability is, that there would not have been so many victims if they had been rescued as children, and been taught what was right and really civilized. To live such a life as they now lead in towns among Europeans is not being civilized.

Not one of the Annesfield school children have ever shown the slightest wish to return to the bush; and from their parents and other relatives visiting them they have had opportunities enough to do so, if they had chosen to go. They duly appreciate civilization, and it has not injured the health of any of them, but, on the contrary, several that were ill when they came have improved in health.

It can scarcely be said that the civilization of the aborigines has been attempted in Western Australia. Five or six schools have at different times been established; some of these by private societies or individuals, and the remainder by Government. But there has been no organized system adopted, such as is necessary to the carrying out any great work. How little can any single school do! In the Annesfield Government Institution it has been the aim to prove that the natives are capable of being made useful members of society, and, what is more, that they are capable of understanding and embracing the great truths of salvation; and the result is fully satisfactory. But this institution is limited to 24 children.

The aborigines are like so much material without capital or tools to fashion it. For in a country such as this, where there are so many profitable {64} ways of employing money and labour, few can be found willing to furnish either of these requisites for this work of benevolence and unsought justice. It is said that nothing can be effected among the adult natives. But the colony has now been in the possession of the English 31 years, and if the then parents had been induced to give up their children for training, or even if they had given them up three or four years after, when they had got to know us as a friendly people, there would now be few of them in the settled districts but such as would have had the opportunity of being civilized.

ANNE CAMFIELD.

CEYLON.

In reply to Miss Nightingale’s question, “Whether we can civilize the native people without killing them?” it is gratifying to be able to assure her, that in Ceylon the native population, both of Singhalese and Tamil race, instead of declining and dying off before the European settlers, is rapidly increasing, and that the number both of our schools and scholars would be far greater than it is, if only we had the means of maintaining them at command.

J. COLOMBO.

The steady increase of population, however, except perhaps in the remotest districts, which education in any form has not yet reached, inclines me to believe that schools, whether conducted on the native or English systems, have proved an unqualified benefit to the people, and that, instead of inducing or extending disease of any kind, many of those enumerated in Miss Nightingale’s list being unknown in Ceylon, they have, by even temporarily withdrawing those who by reason of their tender age are most subject to the injurious consequences of bad habits and premature exertion, secured for them a remarkable immunity from the prevailing diseases of the country for the remainder of their lives.

C. P. LAYARD, Govt. Agent.

[Sidenote: See Tables V. and W., pp. 50 and 51.]

The principal civil medical officer has prepared returns to show the diseases of the Singhalese and mixed races, and of the Malabars. The deaths among the latter are in the proportion of 20 per cent. against 8 per cent. among the former. This remarkable disproportion in the mortality may be accounted for by the starving condition in which the Malabar coolies generally arrive in this colony; their uncleanly habits; their abstinence from animal food, and, as a consequence, the low standard of their vital organization; and exposure without sufficient clothing in the cold climate of the hills. They sink rapidly under attacks of diarrhœa, dysentery, and anasarca.

The diseases which are most prevalent and fatal among the native races are such as are incidental to this climate, viz., fever, chiefly of the intermittent type, bowel complaints, and anasarca, while cases of scrofula and consumption, to which Miss Nightingale alludes as prevalent “among those converted to Christian civilization,” are happily seldom met with.

The Commission states, in reply to Miss Nightingale’s question, “Can we civilize these people without killing them?” that those diseases which are supposed to be attendant on European civilization are not common among the native inhabitants of the colony, and that, so far from the natives dying out before the march of civilization, the native population is on the increase in the neighbourhood of the larger towns, while it is only in the remote and less civilized districts that the population is decreasing, and this from causes which are being gradually removed by the spread of education.

C. J. MAC CARTHY

It will doubtless be satisfactory to Miss Nightingale to learn that scrofula and consumption are not common diseases among the native inhabitants of the colony, and that, so far from the efforts made to civilize the people having the effect of causing the extinction of the native races in this colony, the natives in the neighbourhood of the larger towns are rapidly increasing in numbers, while in some of the remoter districts where schools are as yet unknown the population is decreasing. Amongst the causes of this decrease may be mentioned the hateful practice of polyandry, now happily forbidden by law, and the want of proper sustenance, the result partly of imperfect means of cultivation. A better state of things is gradually being brought about by {65} the spread of education, and by this very civilization which is said to be likely to cause the extinction of the native races.

J. F. DICKSON.

_Remarks by the Rev. Mr. Ondoatjee._

MATURA.

In reference to the reasons which induced Miss Nightingale to enter on the present field of inquiry, it may be stated that the conversion of the natives of this island to Christianity, so far from its exerting any fatal or injurious effect on health and life, has vastly improved their condition socially as well as physically. Christian civilization is doing much for them; and the only hope we have of raising the people from that state of moral degradation in which they are found throughout the country is by imparting to them the knowledge of Christian truth, which never fails to produce the happiest effects on their habits of life in general, though it may occasionally happen, that by intercourse with foreigners, vices inimical to longevity are learnt by the aborigines. On the whole, however, it cannot for a moment be doubted that it is to the introduction of Christianity, and, along with it, of European science and European literature, that we have to look for the gradual amelioration of the condition of the races that inhabit this island; and, consequently, it appears to me that no effort should be spared to extend the benefits of a sound Christian education (giving it as much as possible a practical tone and character) throughout the length and breadth of this beautiful and interesting country. It must be admitted that there has been but little done as yet in the island in the way of Christian civilization; but those who are in a position to compare the state of things at present with what it was 20 or 30 years ago admit that there are signs of progress to be seen in various parts of the island, and surely this as a ground of encouragement is not to be despised or underrated.

W. C. MACREADY, Acting Asst. Agent.

Matura, 20th December 1860.

MAURITIUS.

[Sidenote: Vide Tables T. and U., pp. 48 and 49.]

This return contains the numbers of admissions to, deaths and discharges from, the civil hospital, during the last six years, of the creoles and Indians, which may be taken to represent the aboriginal population of this island, although few, except the creoles, are really natives. It will be seen that the rate of deaths is very large, and this, without explanation, might give rise to false inference as to the healthfulness of the island. The general death rate of the Indians throughout the island for 1859 was 25 per 1,000, or only 2 per 1,000 above that of all England for 1858; and, when it is considered that all, or almost all, the Indians are agricultural labourers or servants, and from the nature of their labour much exposed to casualties, such a death rate points to Mauritius as (what it is) an exceedingly healthy locality. Why then so large a mortality as 22 per cent. in the civil hospital? The answer is readily given by the fact that the same prejudice against hospitals exists among the Indians and creoles here as among the poorer classes in England, but in an exaggerated degree, and consequently that a very large proportion of absolutely hopeless cases are admitted; so much is this the case, that in 1860, out of 696 deaths, no less than 108 died within 24 hours after admission, and nearly one-half of the deaths occurred within the first week.

In this return two epidemics of cholera are included; one of very severe character in 1856, and a smaller one in 1859, which carried off above 306 patients. The most fatal diseases, it will be seen, are dysentery, diarrhœa, phthisis, dropsy, and fever. The greater number of the cases of dysentery admitted are old worn-out cases in the last stage of emaciation, filth, and misery; many of them abandoned by their friends, picked up by the police, and brought into hospital to die. The greater part of the cases entered as diarrhœa in former years were undoubtedly either dysentery or phthisis; the latter is as prevalent (if not more so) among all classes of inhabitants as in England. The cases of dropsy depend on the same causes as in Europe, but many cases are seen which present scarcely any morbid change in any of the organs. Fever is of very low type, and true typhus and typhoid are not unfrequent. Although many of the Indians and creoles are habitual drunkards, cases of delirium tremens are very rare. Leprosy is a frequent and fearful disease among creoles and Indians, but the frequency is not shown in the return, as, until {66} lately, all the cases of leprosy were sent to a ward for that purpose in the lunatic asylum. This disease rarely occurs among Europeans arrived from Europe, it is more frequent among creoles of European parents born in the island, and very much more so among the mixed African race and the Indians. Tetanus, both traumatic and idiopathic, occurs very much more frequently than in Europe.

P. B. AYRES, M.D. Lond., Surgeon in charge.

Civil Hospital, Port Louis, 22d June 1861.

CANADA.

Diseases of malarious origin are most numerous among Indians as well as whites, the former comparing favourably with the latter as far as health is concerned.

R. H. DEE, M.D.

MANITOWANING.

[Sidenote: Vide Tables X. and Y. pp. 52 and 53.]

As regards the diseases it is easy to perceive that some predominate over others; for instance, chronicus rheumatismus, worms, porrigo, bronchitis chronica, phthisis pulmonalis, and others. These, of course, in a great measure originate from the careless and dirty habits of the semi-civilized Indians, along with their daily exposure to all sorts of weather without having different clothing to wear in winter from that which they have been in the habit of using during the summer; in addition to which, their living principally upon corn and potatoes (fish not always being procurable), which induces the production of worms, and at the same time being a sort of food very unsuitable for children. Scrofula is universal amongst them, and in a great measure is produced from their near intermarriages; and it is quite a common circumstance for a boy of 16 or 17 to marry a girl of the same age, and very often much younger; hence the offspring of such parents must necessarily be weak and degenerate, and in consequence of their hereditary debility more liable to the attacks of illness. Again, those Indians uncivilized living at a great distance in the interior, and who come down occasionally to trade with the Hudson’s Bay Company, I have always been given to understand were for the most part generally healthy, much more so than those of the semi-civilized tribes. I myself have had but little communication with them, as they seldom visit our island, but the officers of the Company’s service, with whom I have become acquainted, have always expressed but one opinion upon the subject.

DAVID LAYTON.

In running over the diseases for the last five years, many cases of common occurrence, not of dangerous or severe nature, are omitted, from the fact that no particular inventory was required, so that the enclosed number of cases are merely taken at the time of attendance from their symptoms and necessity for peculiar or active treatment.

You are aware that the Savnia Indians are principally Christians, or call themselves such, although living in a half-civilized state. For one portion of the year they are living in warm comfortable houses, while provisions and the necessaries of life are easily procured by them; during this period they are happy and contented, little sickness prevailing. The other portion of the year, from a peculiar propensity, I suppose inherent in the race, _they take to the bush_, while their living in wigwams, scant of clothing, provisions hard to be obtained, exposed to all the vicissitudes of climate, wet feet, &c., as a natural consequence _intermittents, remittent, and other fevers, rheumatism, laryngitis, bronchitis, pleurisy, pneumonia, phthisis pulmonalis, follow invariably_.

_Their diversity of diet_ and method of living has a most pernicious influence in causing dyspepsia, worms, and most other ills to which the alimentary canal is liable, while congestion of liver, lungs, and irritation of bladder are of very frequent occurrence in a mild form; _from this cause_ the whole tribe suffer, even to children of a year old.