CHAPTER 14.  FOOD AND HUNTING.

ERRORS REGARDING SCARCITY OF FOOD OF NATIVES.

The mistake very commonly made with regard to the natives of Australia is to imagine that they have small means of subsistence, or are at times greatly pressed for want of food:  I could produce many almost humorous instances of the errors which travellers have fallen into upon this point.  They lament in their journals that the unfortunate Aborigines should be reduced by famine to the miserable necessity of subsisting on certain sorts of food which they have found near their huts; whereas in many instances the articles thus quoted by them are those which the natives most prize, and are really neither deficient in flavour nor nutritious qualities.  I will give one remarkable example of an error of this kind into which a traveller of great ability has fallen; but this will only render palpable the ignorance that has prevailed with regard to the habits and customs of this people when in their wild state, for those who frequent European towns and the outskirts of population are soon compelled by the force of circumstances to depart, in a great measure, from their original habits.

Captain Sturt, to whom I allude, says in his travels (volume 1 page 118): 

Among other things we found a number of bark troughs filled with the gum of the mimosa, and vast quantities of gum made into cakes upon the ground.  From this it would appear that these unfortunate creatures were reduced to the last extremity, and, being unable to procure any other nourishment, had been obliged to collect this mucilaginous food.

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The gum of the mimosa, thus referred to, is a favourite article of food amongst the natives, and when it is in season they assemble in large numbers upon plains of the character previously described by Captain Sturt in order to enjoy this luxury.  The profusion in which this gum is found enables large bodies to meet together, which, from their subsistence being derived from wild animals and vegetables of spontaneous growth, they can only do when some particular article is in full season, or when a whale is thrown ashore.  In order more fully to show how little the habits of this people have been understood I may state with regard to this very gum, called by the natives kwon-nat, that about the time the above account was published by Captain Sturt an expedition was sent out from King George’s Sound in Western Australia in order to discover what was the nature of the article of food so loudly praised by them, and which they stated was to be found in certain districts in great profusion; the belief at that time being, from the accounts given of it, that it could be only a new and valuable species of grain.  The exploring party did not attain their object, and to this day many of the settlers believe the kwon-nat to be a kind of corn.

FOOD PLENTIFUL.  VARIETIES OF IT IN DIFFERENT LATITUDES.