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[Page 14]

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descendants in possession undisputed possession

of this island continent before the advent of the white

man, heralded by Captain Cook? The answer to these

questions may well be left to anthropologists to do the best

they can with them but, even so, any answer must be

more or less surmise, for there is little data to work upon,

and therefore it seems likely that the  [^actual] genesis of the

Australian aboriginee will remain a veiled mystery  

for all time.

Universal customs amongst the blacks, such as tattooing and

the "making of young men", or "bora" ceremonies have been

written about almost "ad nauseam" nor can I add anything

of special interest  and or value, except to say that these

customs were common to the Clarence and Richmond and,

in the early 'seventies, I remember a bora ring on our

property across the Back Creek from Bentley.

Before concluding these "recollections"; what of the general

characteristics of the blacks of the far northern rivers and

of their early relations with, and treatment by, the white

usurper? There is a good [^deal] to be said upon this

somewhat controversial subject.

Recently, turning over "Sydney Morning Heralds" for the year  

1848, I came across several letters from the Clarence

river relating pitiful stories of depredations by

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