We may, I think, fairly produce this as a proof that the progress of civilization over the earth has been directed, set bounds to, and regulated by certain laws framed by Infinite wisdom; and, although such views may by some be deemed visionary, I feel some confidence that these laws are as certain and definite as those which control the movements of the heavenly bodies.  I believe moreover, that they are capable in some degree of being studied and reduced to order, although no attempt to do so has hitherto been made; and the institutions of barbarous races, their probable origin, the effects they have upon the people submitted to them, the evidences of design which they contain, and other similar questions, are those points to which in this enquiry attention should be particularly directed.

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS.

The progress of events and the rapid march of science in our country are very wonderful, but the progress of events in the eastern hemisphere at the present moment is still more amazing:  Christianity and civilization are marching over the world with a rapidity not fully known or estimated by any one nation; the English are scarcely aware what has been effected by their own missionaries and commerce, and they are utterly ignorant of what has been already done, and is now doing, by the Americans, Dutch, and Portuguese.

CHAPTER 11.  LAWS OF RELATIONSHIP, MARRIAGE, AND INHERITANCE.

RELATIONSHIP AND MARRIAGE.  DIVISION OF FAMILIES.

Traditional Laws of Relationship and Marriage.

One of the most remarkable facts connected with the natives is that they are divided into certain great families, all the members of which bear the same names, as a family, or second name:  the principal branches of these families, so far as I have been able to ascertain, are the: 

Ballaroke
Tdondarup
Ngotak
Nagarnook
Nogonyuk
Mongalung
Narrangur.

But in different districts the members of these families give a local name to the one to which they belong, which is understood in that district to indicate some particular branch of the principal family.  The most common local names are: 

Didaroke
Gwerrinjoke
Maleoke
Waddaroke
Djekoke
Kotejumeno
Namyungo
Yungaree.

These family names are common over a great portion of the continent; for instance, on the Western coast, in a tract of country extending between four and five hundred miles in latitude, members of all these families are found.  In South Australia I met a man who said that he belonged to one of them, and Captain Flinders mentions Yungaree as the name of a native in the gulf of Carpentaria.

LAW OF MARRIAGE.

These family names are perpetuated and spread through the country by the operation of two remarkable laws: 

1.  That children of either sex always take the family name of their mother.