FL661364

with the Aborigines have often
been struck with the fact that at least
the young men & boys very soon acquire
and speak the English language correctly
& fluently. You can draw out their minds
so as to reflect & reason.
Whether any or many individuals amongst
them might prove when enjoying superior
education, deep philosophers, or great mathe-
maticians, or good arithmaticians may be
doubted. still we can not assert the
contrary.
I do not wonder much at the uncivilized
[word crossed out] & ignorant state of the Aborigines,
being so widely & thinly scattered & without
intercourse perhaps for ages as we may suppose
with other races; what else would be the result?
Let us imagine a few families of Europeans
living in the Interior without any means of instruction
without a book of any kind [words crossedout] their
offspring for a few centuries or generations cut
off from the civilized world, might they not become
almost as ignorant & uncivilized as the Aborigines?