154 ACCOUNT OF NEINMAL, 



tive of much g-ood in rendering them less dangerous 

 and more useful to their white neighbours, without 

 however permanently reclaiming- more than a few 

 from their former wandering and savage mode of 

 Hfe, and enabling them and then- families to live 

 contentedly on the produce of their own labour. I 

 am not one of those who consider that the Austra- 

 Uan is not susceptible of anything like such perma- 

 nent improvement as may be termed civilization, 

 although it appears to have been sufficiently proved 

 that his intellectual capacity is of a very low order. 

 Many of the Port Essington natives have shewn 

 a remarkable degree of intelligence, far above the 

 average of Europeans, uneducated, and living in 

 remote districts, — among others I may mention the 

 name of Neinmal (the same alluded to in the pre- 

 ceding paragraph), of whose character I had good 

 opportunities of judging, for he hved with me for 

 ten months. During my stay at Port Essington, 

 he became much attached to me, and latterly accom- 

 panied me in aU my wanderings in the bush, while 

 investigating the natural history of the district, 

 following up the researches of my late and much 

 lamented friend Gilbert.* One day, while detained 

 b}- rainy weather at my camp, I was busy in skin- 

 ning a fish, — Neinmal watched me attentively for 

 some time and then withdrew, but returned in half 

 an hour afterwards, with the skin of another fish in 



* See Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia, &c. by 

 Dr. Ludwig Leichhardt, p. 309, for an account of his death. 



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