HORN RXPRDITION — NARUATIVK. Ill 



latter l)('ing really ;i part of l.lie .lames Kanoe. Some few miles south of the norge, 

 Ruddall Creek, which we lia.d ])re\iously crossed near the (Josse Range, joins the 

 Finke. 



A good track leading tJirough tiie scrub showed that we were getting near to 

 the ( )ld Missionary Station of Hei'niannsburg, which we reached late in the 

 afternoon, and where Mr. Heidcnreich who was tiien in charge made us wekome. 

 The mission ,at the time of our visit w,as ,■lV)al^doned, and the whole place more oi- 

 less in luins. A few blacks, the remiiants of a larger numlier who were ca,m[^ed 

 aljout the place when it was opened as a mission station, still remained, li\ing in a 

 squ.alid state in dirty whui-lies. ]i, which is open to question, the mission had 

 ever done any permanent good, there were no e\idences of it to be seen either 

 amongst these blacks or others whom ve met with and who ha.d been in cont.act 

 witii them. 



The morality of the black is not that of the wliite man, but his life so long as 

 he I'emains uneontaminated by contact with the latter, is governed by rul(\s of 

 conduct which have been recognised amongst his tribe from what they spe.ak oi as 

 tlie " alcheringa," which Mr. (iillen lias aptly called the "Dream times." Such 

 rules of conduct are taught by the older men to the young ones and are handecl 

 down fi'om generation to genei'ation. Any l)reach <»f tliese rules rendeis the 

 ol!'end(>r liable to severe puiushment — either corporal or wh.at is perhajis (piite as 

 bad the feeling that he has earned the opprobrium of, and is ridiculed by his 

 fellows. 



To the rules of tiie connnunity the blacks, in their na,tural state, conform quite 

 as strictly, in fact perhaps more so than the average white m.an does to the code of 

 morality which he is taught. 



To attempt as has been tried at Hermannsburg and elsewhere to teach them 

 ide.as absolutely foreign to their minds and which they are utterly incapahh^ of 

 grasping simj)ly results in destroying their faith in the precepts which they have 

 been tiiught by their elders and in giving them in return nothing which they can 

 understand. In contact with the wdiite man the aborigine is doomed to disappear : 

 it is far better tliat as much as possible he should be left in his native state and 

 tliat no attempt should be made either to cause him to lose faith in the strict triba.l 

 rules, or to teach him abstract ide.as which are utterly beyond the comprehension 

 of an Australian aljorigine. 



I do not in any way intend in saying what has gone l)efore to suggest that 

 the Missionaries in charge of the Station did not do their work zealously, but 



