19.  Thus much for the general appearance and habits of the Cape York natives.  A very accurate vocabulary of their language has been published by Mr. M’Gillivary in his account of the voyage of H.M.S.  Rattlesnake.  Of their superstitions I am unable to speak with certainty.  That they have no belief in the existence of a Supreme Being is, I think, positive.  They are, like all the Australian tribes, averse to travelling about at night if dark; this, I believe, chiefly arises from the inconvenience and difficulty of moving about at such times, and not from any superstitious fear.  They travel when there is moonlight.  They are true observers of the weather, and before the approach of a change move their camps so as to obtain a sheltered position.  They do not seem to give the slightest thought to cause or effect, and would, I believe eat and pass away their time in a sort of trance-like apathy.  Nothing appears to create surprise in them, and nothing but hunger, or the sense of immediate danger, arouses them from their listlessness.

20.  I am aware of the great interest taken by his Excellency the Governor and all the members of the Government of Queensland in the promotion of missionary enterprise.  I much fear, however, that the mainland here will be found but a barren field for missionary labors.  One great obstacle to successful work is the unsettled nature of the people.  No inducement can keep them long in one place.  Certainly a missionary station might be formed on one of the neighbouring islands —­Albany or Mount Adolphus Island, for instance, where some of the young natives might be kept in training, according to the system used by Bishops Selwyn and Patterson for the instruction of the Melanesians.

21.  With the Kororegas or Prince of Wales Islanders, who, from constant communication with the islands to the northward, have acquired a higher degree of intelligence than the pure Australians, I believe a successful experiment could be made.  Missionary enterprise beyond the protection and influence of this new settlement at Somerset would, of course, at present be attended with considerable risk.

22.  To the Banks and Mulgrave Islanders in Torres’ Straits, a similar remark will apply.  Those people, however, seem to be of a more savage nature, although intelligent, and giving considerable attention to the cultivation of yams, bananas, etc.  Both the good and bad features in their characters may, I believe, in a great measure be attributed to the strong influence exercised among them by a white man, called by the natives “Wini,” who has been living there for many years.  This man, who is supposed to be an escaped convict from one of the former penal settlements in Australia, no doubt considers it politic to keep Europeans from visiting the island where he resides, “Badu”.  The natives of Cape York hold him and the Banks Islanders generally in the greatest dread, giving me to understand that all strangers going to these islands are killed, and their heads cut off.  The latter appears to be the custom of these and the neighbouring islands towards their slain enemies.