ORIGIN OF AUSTRALIAN NATIVES. 13 



Curr, "that the Australian is, by descent, a Negro, with 

 a strong cross in him of some other race ; but of what 

 race I have found no evidence to show." 



They are far from being as fine a race of men as our 

 North American aborigines. During our stay of nearly 

 a year in Australia, we saw many of them, both at the 

 mission stations and elsewhere, but none of them were 

 above five feet ten inches in height, and it was very 

 rare to see one above five feet eight. 



We visited the schools, and from the quickness dis- 

 played by some of the little black fellows, and from 

 what we saw of those that were older, together with 

 statements made by writers, such as Mr. Curr, Mr. 

 Dawson and others, we cannot but regard them as 

 having a fair intellectual capacity. Mr. Curr says : 

 " The children at the stations learn reading, writing 

 and arithmetic more easily than white children ; and 

 if their education is persevered in for several genera- 

 tions, I see no reason to prevent their being brought, 

 in this particular, to a level with ourselves." 



I have seen a letter written by a native aboriginal 

 girl which would reflect credit upon any girl of her 

 age, no matter what may have been her birthplace or 

 parentage. 



She was a pupil at Mr. Camfield's school, King 

 George's Sound. 



