of secure shelter while these
people have none.

Ethnologists tell us that these blacks belong to the Ethiopian
race,--the lowest, probably, of all the human family. That they form a
special type is very clear to any one who has been among them. The
conviction forces itself upon one that they must be the remnant of some
ancient and peculiar people, of whom we have no historic record. It is
believed among well-informed persons in Brisbane (as we have already
intimated) that cannibalism is still secretly practised among some of
the tribes. Those living in northern Queensland are so isolated as to
have adopted but few modern tools or domestic utensils, but they still
have their stone knives and axes. As a people they are very far behind
the Maoris in intelligence, and are ever ready to adopt the vices of the
whites but not their virtues. Great care is taken to keep fire-arms away
from them, which effort is by no means successful, as there are plenty
of adventurous white men--themselves outlaws--who will sell arms and
ammunition to the natives whenever it is for their own advantage to do
so. These tribes are quite pugnacious, and are known to have killed many
of the Chinese who have landed at the north, near Torres Strait, whom
they doubtless devoured. The old Brisbane tribe, known to have numbered
not many years ago some twelve hundred, is now absolutely extinct, not a
word of its language even being spoken by a human being. Within a wide
sweep of Sydney and Melbourne the aboriginal tribes have virtually died
out.

As regards morality, or virtue, among the black women, they would seem
to have no idea of the significance of such terms. We learned one
curious fact relating to the burial of the dead among the natives, which
is that they always place the body in the ground in an upright position.
Their religion seems to be a sort of demon worship. "Good God take care
himself; bad God [devil],--look sharp for him!" There is some cunning if
not philosophy in this sort of reasoning. Like many other savage people,
especially those inhabiting tropical regions, they have no idea of
harvesting, or of storing food for future use. If they have enough to
eat at the present hour, that is all-sufficient.

When Australia was first taken possession of by the whites it seems to
have been, if the term is in any instance admissible, a God-forsaken
land; certainly the most destitute of natural productions of any portion
of the globe. We can