e from time to time endeavoured to
educate and civilize young boys of this unhappy race. One was sent to
England, where he was kept at school till he was fifteen years of age;
and he then returned to his native country. He had not been two days on
shore in Sydney, when, meeting with some of his countrymen, he threw off
his European clothing, and started for the bush, whence there was no
getting him back.

Like most savages, the natives are seldom if ever known to express
surprise or astonishment under any circumstances. Shortly before leaving
the Colony, I saw a native, early in the morning, standing on one of the
heights overlooking the harbour of Sydney. On my asking what he was
about, his reply was: "I belong big river (300 miles distant); first
time come Sydney; come here see ship; _budgerie su_ (pleasant sight);
never see ship or salt water before." This poor savage had come three
hundred miles on foot, assisting a drover with a herd of cattle; he had
never before seen either the sea or a ship in his life; and yet there he
stood, looking at these, to him, most extraordinary objects, with a
countenance as placid and unmoved as if they had been daily sights from
his infancy. On questioning him, I could extract nothing further from
him: he _would not_ allow that he was astonished, but simply repeated,
"_budgerie su_." While idling away an hour one day in the criminal
court, I saw an aboriginal black tried for murder. Nothing could exceed
the perfect indifference that he exhibited throughout the whole scene.
When called upon, through an interpreter, to plead guilty or not guilty,
his reply was: "I did it because he (the deceased) stole my wife." He
would not condescend to deny an act which he considered himself
justified in committing. This plea of justification, the learned Judge
directed to be taken as one of not guilty; and the result was, the
prisoner's acquittal.

Sir F. L. Mitchell, the Surveyor-General of New South Wales, in his
admirable journal of his three celebrated expeditions into the interior
of Australia, has described the aboriginal inhabitants of that portion
of the country named by him, "Australia Felix," as a race of men
altogether superior to those found in other parts of this continent.
This race may, and probably will be found formidable neighbours for the
first settlers to encounter. Their country, from the description given
by its discoverer, must be a very fine one; and should it prove to be