Among cannibals; an account of four years' travels in Australia and of camp life with the aborigines of Queensland; . tribes. Natives employed ona farm invariably share their earnings with their relativesand friends, who live in their camp near the station. Whena black man has regular employment at a station he fre-quently gets five shillings a week besides board and tobacco,but all this he divides with his comrades in the camp. Thelatter do not care to hunt, but live on what he or theirwomen earn from the squatter. No sooner has one of themsaved a pound than he and his friends go to town and
Among cannibals; an account of four years' travels in Australia and of camp life with the aborigines of Queensland; . tribes. Natives employed ona farm invariably share their earnings with their relativesand friends, who live in their camp near the station. Whena black man has regular employment at a station he fre-quently gets five shillings a week besides board and tobacco,but all this he divides with his comrades in the camp. Thelatter do not care to hunt, but live on what he or theirwomen earn from the squatter. No sooner has one of themsaved a pound than he and his friends go to town and buybrandy and opium with the money. As a rule the relation between the whites and the blacksis not at first a friendly one. It has occasionally happenedthat the natives have received the whites kindly the firsttime they met them ; they- have even given assistance to 344 AMONG CANNIBALS CHAP. people who have been shipwrecked, but in most instances awar soon breaks out between the two races. Sheep andcattle begin to feed on the grounds that have belonged tothe blacks, and the latter are prohibited from going where. THE LONELY OLD PEOPLE, NATIVES FKOM THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF TOWNSVILLE. they please ; because the herds are disturbed by the blackmens hunting, nay even by the smell of the savages. As amatter of course, the natives therefore try to resist thestrangers who interfere with their inherited rights. The rough settler, who never sees a woman of his own XXIX MORALITY OF THE BLACKS 345 race, soon begins to associate with the black women. Afriendly relation between the two races is made impossible ;the white men shoot the black men, and the black men killthe white men when they can, and spear their sheep andcattle. Both parties, however, gradually learn to take advantageof each other. The colonist avails himself of the cheaplabour furnished by the blacks, and the natives acquire ataste for what the white man has to offer, though it is ofcourse mainly limited to tobacco, food, and
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