“Long ago white men laughed at black fellows, praying to their idols. Black fellows said, white men never see them again! Suppose this white man not know all about them, he would not now see them. No white men live now have seen what you have seen.” Thus it has been demonstrated on the spot, and in presence of the most reliable witnesses, that the Aborigines, before they saw the white invaders, were not “brutes” incapable of knowing God, but human beings, yearning after a God of some kind. Nor do I believe that any tribe of men will ever be found, who, when their language and customs are rightly interpreted, will not display their consciousness of the need of a God and that Divine capacity of holding fellowship with the Unseen Powers, of which the brutes are without one faintest trace. The late Mr. Hamilton, of Mortlake, wrote me in 1863 as follows:— “During a residence of twenty-six years in New South Wales and Victoria, from constant intercourse with Australian Aborigines I am convinced that they are capable of learning anything that white people in an equally neglected condition could learn. In two instances I met with females possessing a greater amount of religious knowledge than many of our white population. The one was able to prompt the children she was attending as a servant in the answers proper to give to the questions I put to them regarding the facts and doctrines of Christianity. This was in New South Wales. The other was Nora Hood, baptized and married to an Aboriginal. I conversed with her according to the usage of the Presbyterian Church, and I believe her to be a sincere and intelligent Christian. I baptized her children without hesitation; while I felt it to be my duty in many cases to withhold the privilege from white parents, on account of their being unable to make a credible profession of their faith in Christ and obedience to Him. Under God, she owes her instruction and conversion to Mrs. MacKenzie. William Hamilton, Minister.” William Armstrong, Esq., of Hexham Park, wrote in 1863:— “The Aborigines of Australia certainly believe in spirits, and that their spirit leaves the body at death and goes to some other island, and they seem to have many superstitious ideas about the dead.... I believe they would have been as easily influenced by the Gospel as any other savages, if they had been taught; but intoxicating spirits, and the accompanying vices of white people have ruined them. William Armstrong.” But let Nora, one of the “poor brutes in human shape,” who was “incapable of taking in the Gospel,” and must “perish like brute beasts,” now speak to the heart of every reader in her own words. In February, 1863, she wrote to me as follows:—