6 THE AUSTRALIAN TRIBES. fell into the hands of the opposing party, and they were unable to bear her off in triumph, they would fight for her person. Every vestige of clothing being torn off, the two parties would seize her by her head, hair, legs, and arms, and pull away until one party gained the savage victory. The female was, of course, the main sufferer. Sometimes she would sustain only slight injuries; but at other times I have seen her nearly pulled limb from limb, the contest only ending to leave her to linger for a few days, and then to die from the injuries she had received. In other cases, one of the disappointed party, on seeing that they could not hold her, would plunge a spear into her breast, that she might die on the spot, rather than become the wife of the other, who was, in many instances, the person to whom she was attached. How thankful we ought to be for the Gospel! How many temporal and spiritual blessings it brings to those who receive it! THE AUSTRALIAN TRIBES. WE should be sorry if the sympathy of our readers were to be confined to those tribes of man amongst whom Missionaries are labouring. We should endeavour to take a more extended view; to look beyond the limited range of Missionary exertion to the nations beyond, for whose instruction little or no effort has yet been made, and who are in midnight darkness. We have introduced in the Engraving, as a specimen of such, an Australian native, belonging to one of the interior tribes. Colonel Mitchell, in exploring the course of the River Darling, first met with this tribe in 1835, on the banks of the Bhogan, a tributary of the Darling. They glory in the name of "Myall," which the natives nearer the colony apply to the wild blacks of the interior; nor did they appear ever before to have had intercourse with an European. A few natives who had been at some out-station, and could speak a little English, had joined the exploring party as it proceeded along the banks of the Bhogan, whose woods, from the abundance of acacias of various kinds, are of a very pleasing character. The friendly natives were very anxious that Colonel Mitchell should accompany them to the bush beyond the river, in order that he might have an interview with the Chief of the Bhogan. There, in the deep solitude of the woods, they had to wait for about an hour, the guides silently expecting the appearance of the Chief. Col. Mitchell says At length a man of mild and pensive countenance, fine athletic form, and apparently about fifty years of age, came forth, leading a very fine boy, so dressed with green boughs that only his head and legs remained uncovered, a few Emu-feathers being mixed with the wild locks of his hair. I received him in this appropriate costume, as a personification of the green bough, or emblem of peace. One large feather decked the brow of the Chief, his nose and brow having a tinge of yellow ochre. Having presented the boy to me, he next advanced with much formality toward the camp, having Tackijally, the most intelligent of the friendly natives, on his right, the boy walking between, and rather in advance of THE AUSTRALIAN TRIBES. 7 both, each having a hand on his shoulder. The boy's face had a holiday look of gladness, but the Chief remained silent and serious, without any symptoms, however, of alarm. Not a word could this Chief of the Myalls speak besides his own language; and his slow and formal approach indicated undoubtedly that it was the first occasion on which he had seen the white man. It is to be regretted, that when the Australians have come in contact with the white man, it has been too frequently to their injury instead of to their benefit. The escaped convict from the settlements has frequently been the only European they have known, and in many instances the injuries received from this depraved class have rendered the native hostile and dangerous. There is found to be a great diversity of disposition in the different tribes. Some have proved to be relentlessly fierce, while those on the Bhogan appeared to be friendly and inoffensive. On the return of the expedition, four months subsequently, from amongst the wild tribes on the Darling, Colonel Mitchell and his party found themselves again amongst the haunts of the Bhogan natives; and at sunset were visited by their old friend Dalumbe, the youth in the green bough vestments, whom the Chief had put before. him as an emblem of peace. In the Engraving he is represented in his 8 TRAVANCORE AND ITS SLAVE POPULATION. opossum cloak, his head curiously decorated with the feathers of the cockatoo, &c. These poor people believe in the existence of malignant spirits, whom they greatly dread, seldom venturing after dusk from their encampment, and never without a fire-stick in their hands, which they believe has the property of repelling the evil spirits. Of God they appear to have lost all remembrance. It is in connexion with this sad thought that the burial-places of the natives are so mournfully touching. They may be sometimes found in the midst of a shrub of drooping acacias, a wide space, laid out in little walks, running in gracefully curved lines, and enclosing the heaps of reddish earth where lies the dust of many generations, who have lived and died without the opportunity of knowing God. In passing through these places the natives scarcely venture to raise their heads. And are not such lands as interior Australia the burial-places of living men, where they lie "dead in trespasses and sins?" Lord, hasten the time when these "dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live!" TRAVANCORE AND ITS SLAVE POPULATION. TRAVANCORE, situated at the south-western extremity of Hindustan, is one of the most fertile and best cultivated provinces of the peninsula. It is a narrow strip of land between the sea and the ghauts, exhibiting a pleasing variety of surface, watered by continual springs from the mountains, and clothed with verdure. It is ruled by its own Rajah, under British influence, and is governed by its own Hindu laws. These laws have been considerably modified by English interference; but that much remains to be done will appear from the following statement of one of our Missionaries in Travancore, as to the existence of a considerable slave population in the province. It is from the journal of an ordained Syrian, the Rev. George Matthan; Travancore being that part of India where the Syrian Christians are found, for whose reformation the Church Missionary Society has been labouring for many years. Dec. 5, 1850-In the course of my visits to the people I met with some slaves, with whom I was glad to enter into conversation. The condition of these unhappy beings is, I think, without a parallel in the whole range of history. They are regarded as so unclean, that they are thought to convey pollution to their fellow-creatures, not only by contact, but even by approach. They are so wretchedly provided with the necessaries of life that the most loathsome things are a treat to them. Their persons are entirely at the disposal of their masters, by whom they are bought and sold like cattle, and are often worse treated. The owners had formerly power to flog and enchain them, and in some cases to maim them, or even to deprive them of their lives. Though these * The magnificent carved ivory throne, or chair of state, presented by this monarch to our Queen, will not soon be forgotten by those who saw it in the late Great Exhibition. What a contrast between it and the unhappy subjects of our article! TRAVANCORE AND ITS SLAVE POPULATION. 9 cruelties are not now sanctioned by law, their condition does not, in a practical view, appear to be improved, as they have no means to get legal redress against their cruel tyrants. They are everywhere paid for labour at the lowest possible rate consistent with keeping life. In places where the spontaneous produce of the earth is abundant, and where they have work every day, the rate of their daily wages is so low as a pice and a half-three-fourths of a farthing-while the highest rate does not exceed seven pice-three farthings and a half. The common coolies are paid at the rate of somewhat more than an anna-three-halfpenceper diem, while carpenters and other artisans are paid at double the above rate, their usual daily wages in the interior being exactly two annas and three pice-threepence farthing and a half-for each man. The slaves are of course paid in kind. They are also entitled to certain portions of the produce of their labour, which in a great measure makes up for the low rate of their wages. They are valued differently in different places. The price of an able-bodied slave in the low country, where their wages are comparatively high, is not more than six rupeestwelve shillings. In Mallapalli it comes to nearly eighteen rupees; and in places nearer the hills it rises considerably higher, even to double the above amount. The children of slaves do not belong to the father's master, but are the property of the mother's owner. In some places, however, the father is allowed a right to one child, which of course is the property of his master. The slaves form a great proportion of the population of this country, being probably one-sixth of the whole. In the village of Mallapalli alone their number amounts to 520 souls, while all the other classes together fall below 1500 souls. A great landlord in a neighbouring village has nearly 200 of them daily employed on his farms, while three times that number are let out on rent to inferior farmers. The slaves are chiefly composed of two races, the Pariahs and the Puliahs, of whom the latter form the more numerous class. The Pariahs appear to have been of the Hindu stock, and ejected from society for violating caste. Their own tradition has it, that they were a division of the Brahmins, who were entrapped into a breach of caste by their enemies, through making them eat beef. They now eat carrion and other loathsome things: the carcases of all domestic animals are claimed by them as belonging to them by right. They frequently poison cows, and otherwise kill them, for the sake of their flesh. They are also chargeable with kidnapping women of the higher castes. In former times they appear to have been able to perpetrate these cruelties almost with impunity, from the fear of which the people still betray great uneasiness, though now, through the greater efficiency of the police, the custom is nearly grown into disuse. The Puliahs appear to be quite a distinct race-perhaps the aborigines of the country, like the Bhils, &c., in other parts of India. They do not wear the kutommy on their head, which distinguishes them from the Pariahs and other Hindu castes. They are more particular as to the kind of food they take, abstaining from the flesh of all dead animals. They are considered superior to the Pariahs, who have great fear of offending them. They are thought much better servants, being more faithful to the interests of their masters. There is a division of them known by the name of Eastern Puliahs, who chiefly inhabit the hills. They are, if possible, in a more degraded state than the Western Puliahs 10 ROMANISM AT CHUSAN, and the Pariahs, who would consider themselves polluted by coming in contact with them. They generally go without any other clothing than a string of leaves round their loins. They eat all the refuse which the Pariahs eat. They appear to be outcasts of the Puliahs, as in language and other particulars they do not differ from them, while there is a marked difference between them and the Pariahs. They are considered better servants than even the Puliahs, and consequently are valued at a higher rate. Lying, stealing, and drunkenness are the prevailing vices of these different tribes of slaves: crimes of an aggravated nature are very rare, except among the Pariahs. With respect to their religious notions and practices, they admit the existence of a Supreme Being, but are unable to comprehend how the government of this vast world can be carried on without the assistance of subordinate agents. They believe that the spirits of dead men exist in a separate state, but do not seem to think that their happiness or misery depends upon their conduct in this world. They believe them to be moving about the earth, watching over the interests of their friends in the body. They pay them offerings of rice, arrack, cakes, and other things; which if they withhold, the spirits are believed to haunt them, to take possession of them, and to punish them with maladies. The principal object of their worship is the bloody goddess Kali, whom they propitiate by offerings and sacrifices. They also worship hill gods, in order that the harvest may be plentiful, and that they may be secure from the attacks of wild beasts. This account of the slaves in this country is intended to show to what a miserably low state they are reduced by the cruelty of their fellow-creatures; for I am sure if their case be only known fully, it will raise many benevolent and Christian friends who will sympathise with them, pray for them, and advocate their cause. It is generally supposed that the Brahminical idolatry did not spring up in India, but was introduced into it by a race of conquerors from the north-west. Many aboriginal tribes remain to this day, inhabiting principally the forests and mountains of the country, some of whom have never received the Hindu religion, and others having done so only after it had been much altered by an admixture of their own superstitions. The numbers and condition of these tribes form an interesting subject of investigation. ROMANISM AT CHUSAN. THE Chusan Isles are a group of very beautiful islands on the Chinese coast, lying immediately opposite the entrance of the Ningpo river, the Tahea. They are thickly scattered, and are well cultivated. Nothing can exceed the beauty of the harbour at Tinghae, the capital of the group. The entrance is narrow, but the land-locked harbour within is secure, and could receive a hundred sail of the line. The town of Tinghae stands at the mouth of a gorge, or valley. At the rear rises a beautiful hill, which commands the town, having on its summit a joss-house, or temple. The hills around are clothed with wild shrubs, among which the tea-plant predominates. When, |