Describing the effects of smallpox, David Collins, Judge Advocate of the colony, writes that 'Kooris are seen lying on the ground, either in excavations of the rock, or lying upon the beaches and points of the different coves which they had been in, the bodies of many of the wretched natives of this country. The cause of this mortality remained unknown until a family was brought up, and the disorder pronounced to have been small pox.’