Long before the Europeans came to mix with the Aboriginal natives of Australia the latter were afflicted with various diseases–some resembling those that are generally regarded as having had their origin in Europe and Asia. They had, as a common complaint, ophthalmia, brought on by exposure to the weather. Over the dusty dry plains of the interior, which cast back the rays of the sun with an intensity that cannot be believed until it is experienced, they were sometimes compelled to wander; and the heat, and the dust, and the stinging of the flies and mosquitos, almost blinded them.

“The poor winking people of New Holland,” as they are called in Dampier's Voyage, “have their eyelids always half-closed, to keep the flies out of their eyes, they being so troublesome here that no fanning will keep them, from coming to one's face; and without the assistance of both hands to keep them off, they will creep into one's nostrils, and mouth too, if the lips are not shut very close. So that from their infancy, being thus annoyed with these insects, they do never open their eyes as other people, and therefore they cannot see far, unless they hold up their heads, as if they were looking at somewhat over them.” It was on the 4th January 1688, in the height of the Australian summer, that Dampier saw the natives of the north-west coast, and his straight forward, uncompromising language was no doubt justified by what he saw.