ABORIGINES. 171 



of the aborigines, previously seen in the Bathurst 

 district, equally apply to those now seen in 

 this portion of the colony. I cannot consider 

 them so degraded a race as they have been re- 

 presented. Lesson, alluding to the Australian 

 negro, says, " To judge by his external ap- 

 pearance and intellect, the native of New South 

 Wales would seem to have been degraded from 

 the true rank of man, and to approach the na- 

 ture of the brute. 



" This race does not appear to differ in any 

 thing essential from the Oceanic race, of which 

 the Papuas alone form another somewhat dis- 

 tinct branch ; they have a similarity of form 

 and external character to the inhabitants of 

 New Britain, New Ireland, and very probably 

 those of New Caledonia. Poverty of soil and 

 rigour of climate must have exerted an influence 

 upon the race, and deteriorated it, and it is 

 from this source that the slight differences arise, 

 which seem to separate it from the African negro 

 race, with which, however, an attentive exami- 

 nation shows it to be identical." And he fur- 

 ther observes, " it is probable that the negroes 

 of New Holland have extended into the Austra- 

 lian continent, by New Guinea and the eastern 

 islands, and that the migration has been made 

 from the coast of Africa by the great island of 



