CHAPTER XX 



THE NATIVE BLACKFELLOW 



Taking up the books of the early navigators we find the 

 black of the land called indifferently "the native" or "the 

 aborigine," and his mental and moral qualities are 

 generally painted in colour a good deal blacker than his 

 skin. Colloquially, he is known as "a blackfellow" on the 

 east, and " a blackboy " on the west side of the continent ; 

 and so much has been written about him, that it may be 

 thought that I could better utilise the space than by adding 

 my quota to his description. My object is rather to correct 

 errors concerning the native Australian than to paint an 

 original portrait of him ; yet I think there is still some- 

 thing that is new to be recorded on the subject. The 

 extent to which writers contradict each other when 

 writing of the blackfellow is sufficient proof that they have 

 very little first-hand knowledge of him ; and even eminent 

 navigators and explorers have too often substituted what 

 they thought for what they ought to have known. 



The Australian black has been, by a majority of writers, 

 described as the most degraded of savages. He is a 

 savage, but is not, by many degrees, the most degraded 

 of savages ; on the contrary, he is remarkably intelligent, 

 and quite as cleanly and well-behaved as the drunken sots 

 who may be seen at some of our low drinking-dens, 

 " shouting," and " lambing down." He has many vices ; 

 but, in the face of frail humanity, of all races is it just to 

 dwell on the failings of a poor child of the wild, who has 

 not had thrust upon him, as the white has, the training and 

 traditions of a thousand generations of civilisation — not 



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