Note 12 — XVIII.

This distinguished gentleman, conspicuous alike as a theologian and a politician, who plays a by no means insignificant part in the legislative assemblies of the colonies, presented an address to the Parliament of Frankfort in 1848, in which he set forth the advantage of founding a German colony in the Pacific. Owing to the ignorance prevalent on the subject this brochure passed unnoticed, and New Caledonia, the island which the worthy Doctor had designed for a German colony, was taken possession of by the French. He has since published a most interesting and valuable work on Queensland, in which he gives some very curious details about the native practice of skinning their dead, when the true skin being of a white colour, the corpse has a most ghastly appearance. He says this is the reason some of the tribes so highly reverence the white man, whom they regard as their own ancestors restored to life, but in an improved nature!!