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:—
“Dear Sir,—I received your kind letter, and was glad to hear from you. I am always reading my Bible, for I believe in God the Father and in Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen. I often speak to the blacks about Jesus Christ; and some of them believe in God and in Jesus. I always teach my children to pray to God our Father in Heaven.... Colin will try not to drink any more. He is always praying to God. Them blacks that come with me, I will tell about God and about their sins; but they are so very wicked, they won t listen to me teaching them. Sir, I shall always pray for you, that God may bless and guide you. O Sir, pray for me, my husband, and my children! Your obedient servant, Nora Hood.”
In her second letter, she says:—“Your kind letter gave me great comfort. I thank God that I am able to read and write. Mrs. and Miss MacKenzie taught me; and through them I came to know Jesus Christ my Saviour. Our Lord says, ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ ‘Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters!’ Sir, I will tell Joe and King John, and I have been always telling Katy and all the rest of them about Jesus Christ our Saviour. Please, Sir, I would like you to write to me, that I may show them your letters,” etc., etc.
In a third letter, also dated 1863, she says:—“Dear Sir, Colin and I were glad to hear from you. I am telling the blacks always about God our Saviour and the salvation of their souls. They are so very wicked. They go from place to place, and don’t stop long with me. I am always teaching my children to pray, and would like to send them to School if I could.... I hope you will go home to England safely, get more Missionaries, and then go back to your poor blacks on the Islands. I will be glad to hear from you. May the Lord God bless you, wherever you go! Your affectionate, Nora Hood.”
Poor, dear, Christian-hearted Nora! The Christ-spirit shines forth unmistakably through thee,—praying for and seeking to save husband and children, enduring trials and miseries by the aid of communion with thy Lord, weeping over the degradation of thy people and seeking to lift them up by telling them of the true God and of His love to Mankind through Jesus Christ. Would that all white Christians manifested forth as much of the Divine Master’s Spirit!
Alas, in reading Marsden’s “Life,” and other authorities, one shrinks with a sickening feeling at the description of the butcheries of the poor blacks! Imagine 1830, when the inhabitants were called out to join the troops, and nearly three thousand armed men gloated in the work of destruction from the 4th of October till the 26th November. Read of one boasting that he had killed seven blacks with his own hand; another, that he had slain, and piled up in a heap, thirty men, women, and children; and a third, a _gentleman_, of whom Lieutenant Laidlaw tells, exhibiting as a trophy over his bookcase the skull of a poor black, pierced by the bullet with which he had shot him! And their sin, their crime? Oh, only seizing a sheep, in the frenzy of hunger, which fattened on the lands where once grew their food and from which the white man had pitilessly hunted them. Retribution comes, but sometimes slowly, and is not recognised when she appears; but Australia suffers to-day from the passions then let loose against the blacks. The demons have come home to roost.