aroundworldortra00peebiala-1

74 AEOUND THE WORLD.
Mr. Batman, not inaptly denominated the William Penn
of the colony, finished an interesting account of the original
inhabitants, many years since, in these words :
" They certainly
appear to me to-be the most superior race of natives
which I have ever seen." This is an extreme view: the
Maoris of New Zealand, and certain other races in the Pacific
islands, are vastly their superiors. European interference
here, as elsewhere, has proved a destructive curse to
the original inhabitants.
Essayists of materialistic tendencies have strangely, though
doubtless undesignedly, underrated the intelligence, the
moral and religious position, of the Australian tribes. Mr.
Whitman, writing in " The Boston Radical " upon ideas relating
to immortality, says, —
" The intellectual plane of the Hottentots, Andamanas, many oi the
Australians and Tasmauians, and some of the Esquimaux, is but little,
if any, better than that of the ape-like Bushmen just described. It has
been said feh^t the Australian savages can not count their own fingers,
not even those of one hand."
If this writer had ever conversed with old colonial residents,
and read the carefully-written works of Mitchell,
Sturt, Leichhardt, and Gov. Gray ; or if he were conversant
with the history of William Buckley, who lived with
the Australian natives thirty-two years, never seeing, during
this time, a white man's face, — he would not have written
thus disparagingly, and unjustly too, of these aborigines.
Long acquaintance and study led Sir Thomas Mitchell to
exclaim, " They are as apt and intelligent as any other race
of men I am acquainted with."
Mr. Burke bears this testi-
" I believe,"
mony before the Committee of Council in 1858 :
says he, " the intelligence of the aborigines
has been much
misunderstood. The introduction of civilization has not
tended to develop their character advantageously ; but, on
the contrary, they have suffered a moral and physical degra
dation, which has re-acted upon their intellectual powers."