第67章

But if from general view we descend to particular inspection,and examine individually the persons who compose this community,they will certainly rise in estimation.In the narrative part of this work,I have endeavoured rather to detail information than to deduce conclusions,leaving to the reader the exercise of his own judgment.The behaviour of Arabanoo,of Baneelon,of Colbee and many others is copiously described,and assuredly he who shall make just allowance for uninstructed nature will hardly accuse any of those persons of stupidity or deficiency of apprehension.

To offer my own opinion on the subject,I do not hesitate to declare that the natives of New South Wales possess a considerable portion of that acumen,or sharpness of intellect,which bespeaks genius.

All savages hate toil and place happiness in inaction,and neither the arts of civilized life can be practised or the advantages of it felt without application and labour.Hence they resist knowledge and the adoption of manners and customs differing from their own.The progress of reason is not only slow,but mechanical."De toutes les Instructions propres a l'homme,celle qu'il acquiert le plus tard,et le plus difficilement,est la raison meme."The tranquil indifference and uninquiring eye with which they surveyed our works of art have often,in my hearing,been stigmatized as proofs of stupidity,and want of reflection.But surely we should discriminate between ignorance and defect of understanding.

The truth was,they often neither comprehended the design nor conceived the utility of such works,but on subjects in any degree familiarised to their ideas,they generally testified not only acuteness of discernment but a large portion of good sense.I have always thought that the distinctions they shewed in their estimate of us,on first entering into our society,strongly displayed the latter quality:when they were led into our respective houses,at once to be astonished and awed by our superiority,their attention was directly turned to objects with which they were acquainted.

They passed without rapture or emotion our numerous artifices and contrivances,but when they saw a collection of weapons of war or of the skins of animals and birds,they never failed to exclaim,and to confer with each other on the subject.The master of that house became the object of their regard,as they concluded he must be either a renowned warrior,or an expert hunter.

Our surgeons grew into their esteem from a like cause.In a very early stage of intercourse,several natives were present at the amputation of a leg.

When they first penetrated the intention of the operator,they were confounded,not believing it possible that such an operation could be performed without loss of life,and they called aloud to him to desist;but when they saw the torrent of blood stopped,the vessels taken up and the stump dressed,their horror and alarm yielded to astonishment and admiration,which they expressed by the loudest tokens.If these instances bespeak not nature and good sense,I have yet to learn the meaning of the terms.

If it be asked why the same intelligent spirit which led them to contemplate and applaud the success of the sportsman and the skill of the surgeon,did not equally excite them to meditate on the labours of the builder and the ploughman,I can only answer that what we see in its remote cause is always more feebly felt than that which presents to our immediate grasp both its origin and effect.

Their leading good and bad qualities I shall concisely touch upon.

Of their intrepidity no doubt can exist.Their levity,their fickleness,their passionate extravagance of character,cannot be defended.

They are indeed sudden and quick in quarrel;but if their resentment be easily roused,their thirst of revenge is not implacable.Their honesty,when tempted by novelty,is not unimpeachable,but in their own society there is good reason to believe that few breaches of it occur.

It were well if similar praise could be given to their veracity:but truth they neither prize nor practice.When they wish to deceive they scruple not to utter the grossest and most hardened lies.Their attachment and gratitude to those among us whom they have professed to love have always remained inviolable,unless effaced by resentment,from sudden provocation:then,like all other Indians,the impulse of the moment is alone regarded by them.

[This may serve to account for the contradictions of many of their accounts to us.]

Some of their manufactures display ingenuity,when the rude tools with which they work,and their celerity of execution are considered.The canoes,fish-gigs,swords,shields,spears,throwing sticks,clubs,and hatchets,are made by the men.To the women are committed the fishing-lines,hooks and nets.As very ample collections of all these articles are to be found in many museums in England,I shall only briefly describe the way in which the most remarkable of them are made.The fish-gigs and spears are commonly (but not universally)made of the long spiral shoot which arises from the top of the yellow gum-tree,and bears the flower.The former have several prongs,barbed with the bone of kangaroo.The latter are sometimes barbed with the same substance,or with the prickle of the sting-ray,or with stone or hardened gum,and sometimes simply pointed.Dexterity in throwing and parrying the spear is considered as the highest acquirement.The children of both sexes practice from the time that they are able to throw a rush;