It remains for me, before I close this part of my work, to make a few observations on the natives with whom we communicated beyond the river tribes.  Mr. Eyre has given so full and so accurate an account of the natives of the Murray and Darling that it is needless for me to repeat his observations.  I would only remark that I attribute our friendly intercourse with them to the great influence he had gained over them by his judicious conduct as Resident Protector at the Murray.  I fully concur with him in the good that resulted from the establishment of a post on that river, for the express pur pose of putting a stop to the mutual aggression of the overlanders and natives upon each other.  I have received too many kindnesses at the hands of the natives not to be interested in their social welfare, and most fully approved the wise policy of Captain Grey, in sending Mr. Eyre to a place where his exertions were so eminently successful.

In another place I may be led to make some remarks on the condition of the natives of South Australia, but at present I have only to observe upon that of the natives of the distant interior with whom no white man had ever before come in contact.

If I except the tribe upon Cooper’s Creek, on which they are numerous, the natives are but thinly scattered over the interior, as far as our range extended.  The few families wandering over those gloomy regions may scarcely exceed one hundred souls.  They are a feeble and diminutive race when compared to the river tribes, but they have evidently sprung from the same parent stock, and local circumstances may satisfactorily and clearly account for physical differences of appearance.  Like the tribes of the Darling and the Murray, and indeed like the aborigines of the whole continent, they have the quick and deep set eye, the rapidly retiring forehead, and the great enlargement of the frontal sinus, the flat nose and the thick lip.  It is quite true that many have not the depression of the head so great, but in such cases I think an unusual proportion of the brain lies behind the ear.  In addition, however, to the above physiognomical resemblances, they have the same disproportion between the upper region of the body and the lower extremities, the same prominent chest, and the same want of muscular development, and in common with all the natives I have seen, their beards are strong and stand out from the chin, and their hair the finest ornament they possess, only that they destroy its natural beauty by filth and neglect, is both straight and curly.  Their skins are nearly of the same hue; nor did we see any great difference, excepting in one woman, whose skin was of a jet black.  Two young women, however, were noticed who had beautiful glossy ringlets, of which they appeared to be exceedingly proud, and kept clean, as if they knew their value.  Both Mr. Browne and myself observed a great disparity of numbers in the male and female children, there being an excess of the latter of nearly two to one, and in some instances of a still greater disproportion.