Instruction; and when seen in the
towns, they are generally unfit to engage in profitable conversation. The
thousands of Aborigines, if ever they did exist in these parts, decreased
to hundreds, the hundreds have lessened to tens, and the tens will
dwindle to units before a very few years will have passed away."
"This mission to the Aborigines has ceased to exist, not from want of
support from the British Government, nor from the inclination of the
agent, but purely from the Aborigines themselves becoming extinct in these
parts; and in leaving this scene of much solitariness, privation, and
trial, it is earnestly hoped that He who fixes the bounds of our
habitation, apparently in Sydney for a season, will guide our feet through
life to his glory, and provide support for a numerous family, so that the
'ministry be not blamed.'"]
On the natural intelligence of the native children, Mr. Moorhouse
remarks, after several years practical experience: -
"They are as apt as European children so far as they have been tried, but
they have not been put to abstract reasoning. Their perceptive powers are
large, as they are much exercised in procuring food, etc. Anything
requiring perception only is readily mastered, the alphabet will be known
in a few lessons; figures are soon recognised, and the quantities they
represent, but addition from figures alone always presents difficulties
for a while, but in a little time, however, it is understood."
Upon the same subject, Captain Grey remarks, vol.
