a less than auspicious start... (warning: contains image of unknown deceased aboriginal man)

from Vancouver's Log 1791....

"At the borders of this clump was found[the] most miserable human habitation my eyes ever beheld, which had not long been deserted by its proprietor, as on its top was lying a fresh skin of a fish, commonly called a leather jacket, and by its side was the excrement of some carnivorous animal, apparently a dog. The shape of the dwelling was that of a half a beehive......"

"The reflections which naturally arose on seeing so miserable a contrivance for shelter against the inclemency of seasons, were humiliating in the highest degree; as they suggested, in the strongest manner, the lowly condition of some of our fellow creatures, rendered yet more pitiable by the apparent solitude and the melancholy aspect of the surrounding country, which presented little less than famine and distress." 

I found image 1976 trawling through the online catalogue of the Albany History Collection   (sans date, location, subject and photographer). When I go to the Library I hope the original has some information attached. This collection has no information attached to any of the images and is arranged in a bizarre seemingly random fashion. It must be one of the first photographic images taken of an aboriginal man locally and although obviously taken some 100 years after Vancouver's visit, his words were the first thing which came to mind when I saw the photograph.  

Vancouver's quote came from Douglas Sellick's First Impressions of Albany. It makes me wonder what the Nyoongar, whose lunch was rudely interrupted, and probably ran for his life from the white devils, thought!