ABORIGINES OF NEW HOLLAND. 335 
families and their capital, has elevated the tone of 
moral feeling and public sentiment, among the 
more respectable classes of society. The enter¬ 
prise and activity of the merchants of Sydney, and 
the public spirit, industry, and perseverance of the 
grazier and the agriculturist, are rapidly augment¬ 
ing the resources of the colony itself, and increasing 
its relative importance. Although the moral and 
religious state of its population may not have re¬ 
ceived so much attention as the peculiar character 
of the lower classes have required, it has not 
been neglected. Orphan schools have been esta¬ 
blished, and liberally supported, and other bene¬ 
volent institutions have been founded. A bible 
society has for some years existed, and in no part 
of the world would the influence of its precepts 
be more salutary. In addition to these means, the 
indefatigable labours of the clergymen of the 
church of England, and other communions, can¬ 
not but be highly valuable to the inhabitants of this 
rising colony. 1 
In company with Mr. S. O. Hassel, I made 
several excursions into the interior of the country, 
where we frequently saw the inhabitants more 
completely in a state of nature, than those we met 
with in the vicinity of the principal towns. The 
aborigines are but thinly spread over that part of 
New Holland bordering on the colony ; and though 
the population has been estimated at three mil¬ 
lions, I am disposed to think that, notwithstanding 
the geographical extent of the country, it does not 
contain so many inhabitants. Their appearance is 
generally repulsive, their faces looking more de¬ 
formed from their often wearing a skewer through 
the cartilage of the nose. Their colour is dark olive 
or black, and their hair rather crisped than woolly. 
