1839.-February.-Noorowurnin and another Jajowrong, shot by Bowerman's assigned servants at the Maiden Hills.

1839. June 22d.-Six men, names unknown, shot by the Mounted Police on the Campaspe.

1840.-January.-Wikur, Keramburnin, and another Taoungurong, shot by Monro and party between the Coliban and Mount Alexander.

1840.-August.-Pandarragoondeet, a Jajowrong native, shot by one of Dutton's assigned servants, who afterwards absconded. 1840.-September.-Panumarramin, a Grampian native, shot by the late J. F. Francis in his sheepfold.

1840. December 21st.-Bonnokgoondeet, Jajowl, Kombonngarramin, and Pertunarramin, shot by J. F. Francis in the Pyrenees.

1841. February 7th.-Gondu-urmin, a Kalkalgoondeet native, shot by Dutton's assigned men near the Loddon.

1841.-March. Mokitte, (Jajowrong) shot near Mount Cole; it is said by a [timber] Splitter.

1841.-May. Koenycrook, a Taoungurong, shot, it is supposed by Bennet's shepherd, who was found murdered. The black was found in a tree badly wounded, and died in Melbourne Hospital.

1841.-July. Two men reported by the Aborigines to have been shot near Hall's, at the foot of the Grampians, by Hall's hutkeeper.

1841.—July or August.-Kowarramin, two other men, and a girl, reported by the Aborigines to have been shot by three white men near Kirk's, Purrumbeep.

1841.-August.-Boodbood yarramin, reported by the Aborigines to have been shot by Captain Bunbury's storekeeper near Mount William.

Total number of Aboriginal Homicides by Whites_Fortythree.

The Return from which these extracts have been made was moved for by my friend Dr. Thomson, when a Member of the Legislative Council for Port Phillip, in the year 1843. I shall have an opportunity, however, of reverting to the subject in the sequel, and of exhibiting evidence of a truly gratifying change that has since been effected in the condition of the Aborigines in the North-western District, under the able and efficient superintendence of Mr. Parker.

As I have included a few particulars respecting the Aborigines of Phillipsland, in an Essay on the origin and customs of the Aborigines of New Holland generally, contained in another volume at present in the

*

press, I shall simply refer the reader who may be desirous of obtaining information on the subject to that volume. Like the Aborigines to the northward, the black natives of this part of the Australian land have no idea of a God and no object of worship, although they have certain superstitious notions as to the existence of beings of a superior order to themselves. For instance, Murnyan, in Aboriginal Mythology, is the name of a superior being of this kind, who formerly inhabited a cave to the northward, called Corong-y-yern, literally, house of the Moon, but who now lives in that luminary. He is doubtless the same personage as our own Man in the Moon.

The general course of the winds in the Southern part of the territory, especially towards Bass' Straits, is either easterly or westerly, and the clouds are consequently seen driving either in the one or the other of these directions. To account for this phenomenon, an old native of the district informed Mr. Tuckfield, that all the clouds driving eastward, before the westerly winds, rest on the top of a pole on the summit of a mountain, at a great distance in that direction, called Maranyo, to which they attach themselves in some way, till an easterly wind comes and drives them back again.

Marriages, among the Aborigines of this part of the country, are generally contracted by the elderly men of the tribe, who voluntarily assume the somewhat invidious office, which Dr. Johnson thought might be safely intrusted for our own nation to the Lord Chancellor of England, of selecting fit and proper persons as helpmates for the younger members of their tribe; but marauding excursions are sometimes made into the territories of other tribes, as is sometimes the case also to the northward, for the purpose of seizing lubras

* COOKSLAND; or the Northern Division of the Colony of New South Wales; its characteristics and capabilities as a highly eligible field for colonization. With a Disquisition on the origin, manners, and customs of the Aborigines.

or gins-and hence the absurd story, which has gained such general credence in Europe, of courtship among the Aborigines of New Holland consisting in knocking down the object of attachment with a club, and dragging her off to the bush by the hair. The New-Hollanders merely repeat occasionally, (for it is by no means a frequent case among them,) what was done by the ancient Romans in the case of the Sabine women, and what the Jewish elders recommended the bachelors of Benjamin to do at the yearly feast in Shiloh. And, as in the case of the Romans, these aggressions not unfrequently lead to wars.

The two gentlemen from Van Dieman's Land, who were supposed to have been murdered by the Colajin tribe, and whose names have been given to the two volcanic mountains in this part of the district, were Messrs. Gellibrand and Hesse, both members of the honourable profession of the law. At the period of my second arrival in Van Dieman's Land from England, in December 1825, Mr. Gellibrand was Attorney-General of that Colony. I had the pleasure of making his acquaintance on that occasion, and of spending a day with him at his beautifully picturesque villa, a few miles from Hobart Town. He was a man of very superior abilities and attainments, and of great enterprise and perseverance; and he had from the first been the soul of the Van Dieman's Land emigration to Port Phillip, and had embarked most extensively in the settlement of that dependency-having repeatedly visited the country at a comparatively early period, and having a large quantity of stock depasturing in its ample territory, which he had carried over from Van Dieman's Land, before it was taken possession of by the Government of New South Wales. In the year 1837, Mr. Gellibrand crossed over to Port Phillip, along with his professional friend, Mr. Hesse, and another gentle man, who was providentially prevented by some acci dent from accompanying him to the bush on their landing, to visit their respective stations in the new settlement. Mr. Gellibrand and Mr. Hesse accordingly