Route by which it had arrived at its present
location; but I feel quite confident that this may be done with tolerable
certainty, when the particulars I have referred to shall be more
abundantly and correctly recorded.
It is at least a subject of much interest, and one that is well worthy
the attention of the traveller or the philanthropist. No one individual
can hope personally to collect the whole material required; but if each
recorded with fidelity the facts connected with those tribes, with whom
he personally came in contact, a mass of evidence would soon be brought
together that would more than suffice for the purpose required.
Chapter VIII.
EFFECTS OF CONTACT WITH EUROPEANS - ATTEMPTS AT IMPROVEMENT AND
CIVILIZATION - ACCOUNT OF SCHOOLS - DEFECTS OF THE SYSTEM.
Some attempts have been made in nearly all the British Settlements of
Australia to improve the condition of the aboriginal population; the
results have, however, in few cases, met the expectations of the
promoters of the various benevolent schemes that have been entered upon
for the object; nor have the efforts hitherto made succeeded in arresting
that fatal and melancholy effect which contact with civilization seems
ever to produce upon a savage people. It has already been stated, that in
all the colonies we have hitherto established upon the continent, the
Aborigines are gradually decreasing in number, or have already
disappeared in proportion to the time their country has been occupied by
Europeans, or to the number of settlers who have been located upon it.
Of the blighting and exterminating effects produced upon simple and
untutored races, by the advance of civilization upon them, we have many
and painful proofs. History records innumerable instances of nations who
were once numerous and powerful, decaying and disappearing before this
fatal and inexplicable influence; history WILL record, I fear, similar
results for the many nations who are now struggling; alas, how vainly,
against this desolating cause. Year by year, the melancholy and appalling
truth is only the more apparent, and as each new instance multiplies upon
us, it becomes too fatally confirmed, until at last we are almost, in
spite of ourselves, forced to the conviction, that the first appearance
of the white men in any new country, sounds the funeral knell of the
children of the soil. In Africa, in the country of the Bushmen, Mr.
Moffat says -
"I have traversed those regions, in which, according to the testimony of
the farmers, thousands once dwelt, drinking at their own fountains, and
killing their own game; but now, alas, scarcely is a family to be seen!
It is impossible to look over those now uninhabited plains and mountain
glens without feeling the deepest melancholy, whilst the winds moaning in
the vale seem to echo back the sound, 'Where are they?'"
