INTRODUCTION. 
3 
ment of it. Our ideas are so different from those of these 
primitive and isolated people, that theirs may seem at first to 
betoken an inferiority of mind; hut when we can enter into 
the causes, which have operated in producing that difference, 
we must allow the result to have been quite natural. 
Philosophically viewing the subject, we should find that even 
the Australian, who has been classed in the lowest grade, and 
been viewed as more closely allied to the brute than to the 
human species, possesses mind, ingenuity, contrivance, and 
perfection too, in his way, far beyond what might be expected ; 
and that were we to place one of our own laborers, or even a 
more enlightened member of society, in a similar position, it 
would be a long time before he could attain, an equal degree 
of knowledge, in any of those arts, which are needful for the 
support of life. 
This is no fanciful assertion. How many instances have we 
of shipwrecked mariners being cast on uninhabited islands, 
who, deprived of everything, have not shown any of their 
ingenuity, in procuring food and raiment; and when in similar 
circumstances they have been cast amongst savages, have in 
general sunk even below their level. Excepting perhaps the 
backwoodsman of America, few would feel themselves equal to 
supply their necessities, when their usual means of support 
were suddenlv cut off. Travellers in countries like Australia 
•/ 
or New Zealand, where all the comforts of civilized life are 
wanting, well know how apt they are to forget the proprieties 
of society, and how readily they fall into the habits of the 
native ; the customs of domestic life become irksome, and are 
abandoned; the squalid filth of those who have made a long 
journey, is often far beyond that of the natives; but in obtain¬ 
ing food, how far is the boasted member of civilized life, 
behind the despised savage. The native of New Holland not 
only knows where to look for it, but how to obtain it ; he can 
fabricate from the raw materials of the wilderness, the proper 
snare or net; he can make his spear and use it with unfailing 
success, and barren and unproductive as his country appears 
to us, in furnishing natural food, it has a sufficiency for those 
who know how to find and take it. There are several instances 
b 2 
