Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central Australia And Overland From Adelaide To King George's Sound In The Years 1840-1: Sent By The Colonists Of South Australia By Eyre, Edward John
- Page 856 of 914 - First - Home
The Attempts To
Civilize And Christianize The Aborigines, From Which The Preservation And
Elevation Of Their Race Was Expected To
Result, HAVE UTTERLY FAILED,
though it is consolatory, even while painful, to confess, that NEITHER
THE ONE NOR THE OTHER
ATTEMPT HAS BEEN CARRIED INTO EXECUTION, WITH THE
SPIRIT WHICH ACCORDS WITH ITS PRINCIPLES."
With such slight encouragement in colonies where the best results are
supposed to have been obtained, and with instances of complete failure in
others, it is surely worth while to inquire, why there has been such a
signal want of success? - and whether or not any means can be devised that
may hold out better hopes for the future? I cannot and I would not
willingly believe, that the question is a hopeless one. The failure of
past measures is no reason that future ones should not be more
successful, especially when we consider, that all past efforts on behalf
of the Aborigines have entirely overlooked the wrongs and injuries they
are suffering under from our mere presence in their country, whilst none
have been adapted to meet the exigencies of the peculiar relations they
are placed in with regard to the colonists. The grand error of all our
past or present systems - the very fons et origo mali appears to me to
consist in the fact, that we have not endeavoured to blend the interests
of the settlers and Aborigines together; and by making it the interest of
both to live on terms of kindness and good feeling with each, bring about
and cement that union and harmony which ought ever to subsist between
people inhabiting the same country.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 856 of 914
Words from 238311 to 238584
of 254601
