As to the natives on Herbert river, it is my opinion that they do not believe in any supreme good Being, but only in a demon, and it was even difficult for them to give any definite account of this devil. On the other hand, it must be admitted that the natives are very reluctant to give any information in regard to their religious beliefs. They look upon them as secrets not to be divulged to persons not of their own race. Hence there is a possibility that they believed in a God and had more developed notions than I suspected, but I do not regard this as probable. Besides, I have evidence from various sources that the same is the case with other tribes.
Mr. George Angas[[17]] says of the tribes on Murray river in South Australia: “They appear to have no religious observances whatever. They acknowledge no Supreme Being, worship no idols, and believe only in the existence of a spirit, whom they consider as the author of ill, and regard with superstitious dread. They are in perpetual fear of malignant spirits, or bad men, who, they say, go abroad at night; and they seldom venture from the encampment after dusk, even to fetch water, without carrying a fire-stick in their hands, which they consider has the property of repelling these evil spirits.”
[17]. Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand. London, 1850, vol. i. p. [88].
In The Fifth Continent, p. 69, Mr. Charles Eden appears to me to use rather strong language when he says: “I verily believe that we have arrived at the sum total of their religion, if a superstitious dread of the unknown can be so designated. Their mental capacity does not admit of their grasping the higher truths of pure religion.”
Mr. Curr is of the opinion that the religious ideas which people claim to have found among the Australian natives are simply the result of the influence of the white man, the ideas being modified to suit the fancy of the natives.
At all events, it is certain that neither idolatry nor sacrifices are to be found in Australia. Nor have the natives, so far as I know, ever been seen to pray.
In conclusion, I will give a brief account of a conversation which I had one evening with the Kanaka at Herbert Vale, for in my estimation it throws some light on this question. In his native home, in the far-off South Sea Islands, he had received instruction from missionaries, but had not been converted to Christianity. He said he did not like the missionaries. On this occasion—it was a mild, starlit night, such a one as can be seen only in the tropics—he asked me if it was true that we would some day go to the stars up there. I explained to him what Christianity teaches in regard to a life hereafter. “There is a much better place up there after death,” he remarked. Some of the natives were standing round us with their mouths wide open. Suddenly he burst into laughter, and pointing with one hand to the glittering stars, said: “The blacks do not believe that there is anybody above us up there.”
The objection might be made to this statement, that the natives, particularly the older ones, had secrets which they were unwilling to divulge to the younger members of the tribe, with whom the Kanaka mostly associated, and that he consequently was not acquainted with the religious ideas of the tribe, but it appears to me that so important a matter as the belief in a God could scarcely have escaped his observation, for he was constantly with them both by day and by night. He spoke their language fluently, was married to a woman of their tribe, and had become wholly identified with them in customs and habits of thought.
CHAPTER XXIV
My life in danger—Morbora’s ingratitude—Another danger—My position grows more precarious—The black man’s fondness for imitating.