Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/236

 132 PHILLIP 1788-93 Eyre, the explorer, although no one had more cause to com- plain of their so-called treachery. He, like Grey, suffered severely from a wanton act of aggression on the part of the natives; but, like Grey, he could discriminate between deliberate treachery and mere impulse; and even where treachery was proved, he did not dream of condemning a whole race for the wrong-doing of a few. Notwithstanding his personal grievance, he could speak of them as ^'a people hitherto considered the lowest and most irreclaimable of Ejre. mankind, but whose natural capabilities and endowments are, I feel assured, by no means inferior to those of the most favoured nations."* This may seem rather an extreme asser- tion; but it is confirmed by the independent testimony of many capable judges. Of all men whose opinions might be safely taken on such a question, there are certainly none more entitled to respect than Grey, Mitchell, and Eyre. Taken together, the chapters on the manners and customs of the natives written by Grey and Eyre form perhaps the best critical dissection of the aboriginal character that has yet been published. Although each of these writers looked Concurrence ftt his subiect from a totally different standpoint, their con- ©(opinion. _ . ., 1 .? 1 , , ., elusions are smgularly uniform, not only as to the capacity Lieutenant-Col. Mundy, who was appointed Deputy Adjutant-General in the Australian Colonies in 1846, gave the result o! his observations on the subject in equally strong terms : — *' Yet, low in the scale of humanity as is the grade of the Australian savage, I agree with those who believe the assumption unfair that he is incapable of attaining the same standard of intelligence as the European. No really effectual and properly sustained plan for his amelioration has as yet been extended to him. Efforts, prodigal indeed in zeal and money, have been made to civilise and christianise him, but they have hitherto met with signal failure. . . . The promptitude with which the Australian blacks, enrolled in the police, have acquired a proficiency not only in the manual parts of their duties, but in discipline, abstinence from drink, obedience to orders, &c. , affords satisfactory testi- mony of their aptitude for better things. For bush duties, especially against their own countrymen, the native police is infinitely more effective than the English police. Nor is there, I think, an^hinc very extravagant in the assumption that the creature who has sufficient skill and energy to con- ' struct the spear and boomerang, to transfix, the kangaroo at sixty paces, strike down the bird on the wing, ensnare the river fish with his nets, and pierce the sea fish with his harpoon, who can manufacture his canoe and its implements, is capable, also, of learning more useful though in fact less ingenious arts and sciences." — Our Antipodes, 4th edition, 1857, p. 52. Digitized by Google
 * Journals, vol. ii, p. 459.