One common mode of argument among deistical writers is to imagine barbarous man let loose upon the earth without undergoing any previous preparation for the scene upon which he was about to enter; and they then trace out how, urged on by his necessities and aided by his senses, he successively discovered the natural productions necessary for his subsistence and the arts which ministered to his wants, until step by step he mounted to the pinnacle of civilization. But these are merely reveries of the closet, dreams of the inexperienced, and have no real foundation in as far at least as Australia is concerned. That the first natives who were placed on that continent must have been instructed how to provide for their wants, how to form weapons suited to their circumstances, how to select roots, and to capture animals fitted for food, has been demonstrated over and over again, but at no time more forcibly than when the portion of my party, under Mr. Walker, were coming overland from Gantheaume Bay to Perth. In this case six full-grown men, provided with knives, fishing-hooks and lines, a kettle, vessels to hold water and cook their food, arms, and a small quantity of ammunition, and many of them possessing considerable experience in the bush, must all have perished from hunger had not timely assistance reached them; and this from their ignorance as to which of the productions surrounding them would serve to support life, and not from neglect in making the requisite experiments to endeavour to ascertain this, for the poor fellows ate everything they could find which appeared to afford sustenance; yet notwithstanding all the comparative advantages they were in possession of, if the relief sent from Perth had not reached them, death must have overtaken all. The same result has frequently occurred under nearly similar circumstances. If then men, full-grown, in the complete possession of all their faculties, provided with fire and many useful implements, and aided by considerable experience, from ignorance of the natural productions of a country, and the means of procuring these, die from hunger ere they can learn how to supply their wants, is it probable that an unarmed, naked, untaught man, who knew not even how to make his senses act in concert until he had from experience acquired this knowledge, could by any possibility have avoided a fate, which would inevitably overtake the European in possession of all his superior energies of mind and character, if he chance not to fall in with friendly natives. ENQUIRY INTO THE ORIGIN OF THE NATIVE LAWS.