nd, and the adjoining coasts, the woolly
hair of the negro is not to be found among them, nor is the nose usually
so flat, or the forehead so low. They are seldom very tall, but
generally well made; and their bodily activity is most surprising; nor
is their courage at all to be despised. The Australian native has always
been pointed out as being the lowest specimen of human nature, and,
since, in every scale of degrees, one must be lowest, this is probably
correct enough; yet we are by no means to give too hasty credit to the
accounts of their condition, which have been given by those whose
interest it may have been to represent them in as unfavourable a light
as possible, or whose opportunities of judging have been few and scanty,
compared with their hasty willingness to pass judgment upon them. Men,
more or less busily engaged in killing and taking possession, are not
likely to make a very favourable report of those poor creatures into
whose inheritance they have come; mere self-defence would tempt them to
try to lessen the greatness of their crimes, by asserting the victims of
these to be scarcely deserving of a better fate, and, in the present
instance, the actual condition of the native population would be very
favourable to excuses of this kind. Or, even without this evil intention
of excusing wrong by slandering those that suffer it, many men, with but
few means of understanding their character, may have spoken decidedly
respecting the Australian natives, and that, too, in language even
harsher than their degraded state would justify. Disgusting and horrid
many of their habits and customs undoubtedly are, yet they appear even
more so at first sight, and to one only imperfectly acquainted with
them; especially when (which often happens) not the slightest allowance
is made for the peculiar situation of the savage, but he is taken at
once from the midst of his naked barbarity, and tried by the rules of
refinement and civilization. Recently, indeed, public attention and pity
have been more turned towards the unhappy race of natives, and many
traits have been discovered in their character which would not dishonour
more enlightened nations. The degraded position of those who are in the
midst of the white population affords no just criterion of their merits.
Their quickness of apprehension is often surprising, and nothing,
however new and strange, seems to puzzle or astonish them; so that they
follow closely the advice of