ABORIGINAL CONVICTS. 129 



No one would say that the Australian natives can- 

 not work, if they could just see the nice cottages of 

 which this settlement is composed. The Superin- 

 tendent merely gives the convicts a little instruction 

 at first, and they follow his directions with astonish- 

 ing precision. They take great pride in shewing visi- 

 tors their own work. It is an interesting though sor- 

 rowful sight to see these poor fellows — some of 

 them deprived of their liberty for life, perhaps for 

 crimes into which they have been driven by the treat- 

 ment they receive from those who have deprived 

 them both of their land and of their liberty. Many, 

 if not most of them, are in some measure unconscious 

 of guilt; and they are almost incapable of appreciat- 

 ing the relation between what they have committed 

 and the punishment which has fallen on them. Their 

 minds are plunged in the darkest ignorance ; or if 

 they know anything beyond the means of satisfying 

 their immediate wants, it is that they have been 

 deprived of their rightful possessions by the m.en 

 whose chains they wear. Surely this reflection should 

 now and then present itself to the white man who is 

 accustomed to treat them so harshly, and induce 

 him to judge more leniently of their acts, and in- 

 stead of confinino- himself to coercive measures for 

 protection, make him resort to the means which 

 are within his reach of raising the despised and 

 oppressed savage more nearly to a level with himself 

 in the scale of humanity. 



The native prisoners at Ilottenest collect salt from 



VOL. II. K 



