But How Inferior
Do They Show When Compared With The Subtle African; The Patient Watchful
American; Or The Elegant Timid Islander Of The South Seas.
Though suffering
from the vicissitudes of their climate, strangers to clothing, though feeling
the sharpness of hunger and knowing the precariousness of supply from that
element on whose stores they principally depend, ignorant of cultivating
the earth - a less enlightened state we shall exclaim can hardly exist.
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.
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