Aborigine

“ Every tribe speaks a perfectly distinct tongue [2] which is altogether unintelligible to aborigines out of its own pale; and when we tell the reader that about every fifty miles square of the mountainous or well-watered portion of Australia possesses a separate tribe having a dialect of its own, he can well imagine the diversity of tongues, with which the philologist who undertakes the task of reducing the language of the Australian aborigines to rule has to deal ”

“ The duties performed and the ceremonies used in receiving and attending to the wants of a strange tribe have meanings quite intelligible to the Aborigines. When they welcome the strangers to the forest lands they signify that as long as they are friendly, and under such restrictions as their laws impose, they and their children may come there again without fear of molestation; the presents of boughs and leaves and grass are meant to show that these are theirs when they like to use them ”

“ I need not inform you that the aborigines, who inhabit the valley of the Amazon, are all of the so-called Indian race—though there are so many distinct tribes of them that almost every river of any considerable magnitude has a tribe of its own. ”

“ Yet if we thus question the right of any one tribe or nation of the aborigines to anything of such positive force as a long-inherited claim in connection with the actual occupancy of any particular territory, we do not then dispose of the prior question as to the tenure by which human beings held this continent before the coming of the white man. ”

“ When we closely inquire into their customs, the common origin of all Australian tribes becomes evident.
This pamphlet contains some brief notes on a few of the most important customs of the aborigines of New South Wales, arranged under the following heads:—
Sociology of the Ngēumba Tribe. The Bora of the Kamilaroi Tribes. Aboriginal Weapons, &c. Aboriginal Rock Paintings. Aboriginal Rock Carvings. The Yaroma: a Legend. Pirrimbir, or Avenging Expedition. Bull-roarers used by the Aborigines. Aboriginal Songs at Initiation Ceremonies. Some Curious Beliefs. ”

“ It is more especially my business, in this narrative, to allude to the Aborigines.
The natives live to about the same age, generally, as civilized people—some of them, to be very grey-headed. They have an odd idea of death, for they do not suppose that any one dies from natural causes, but from human agencies: such as those to which I have alluded in previous pages of this narrative. The women seldom have more than six children, and not often so many. ”

“ It is not demanding too much, therefore, to suppose that the general lines of route taken by the Aborigines in spreading over the continent of Australia, have been somewhat analogous to those I have imagined, or that we can fairly account for any material differences there may be in the dialects, customs, or weapons of the different tribes, by referring them to the effect of local circumstances, the length of time that may have elapsed since separation, or to the isolated position in which they may have been placed, with regard to that division of the parent tribe from which they had seceded. ”

“ Thirdly, That our presence and settlement, in any particular locality, do, in point of fact, actually dispossess the aboriginal inhabitants. [Note 14: Vide, Notes on the Aborigines, chap. I.]
Fourthly, That the localities selected by Europeans, as best adapted for the purposes of cultivation, or of grazing, are those that would usually be equally valued above others, by the natives themselves, as places of resort, or districts in which they could most easily procure their food. ”

“ The aborigines have shown every disposition to become civilised. The men are employed in rural and other pursuits, and the women are occupied in domestic concerns, and for which these people have shown the greatest aptitude, and by their frequent enquiries evinced the strongest desire to become acquainted with the arts of civilised life. Their wild habits are fast giving way. Their corroberies (i.e., violent dances, accompanied by vociferous singing) and perigrinations into the bush are less frequent. ”

“ For those who have had an opportunity of observing the Aborigines in their original state, it is not very difficult to distinguish the guilty from the innocent, for they are a simple-minded race, little skilled in the arts of dissimulation. ”

“ Is there not the ancient Hebrew even in this? And is not their national abhorrence of interunion with any people but their own traceable in this custom? They, also, upon the same principle, will not marry or cohabit [21] with the pale-face race, or with any not of their own blood. We write of the Aborigines as they were, and of the mass. There may be on the frontiers some solitary exceptions after their acquaintance with the Anglo-Saxon race; but oftener among the women than the men. ”

“ Now our aborigines present to us these singular conditions: having a fine physique, vigor of body, acuteness of senses, few demoralizing habits, good natural understandings, and living under a stimulating and healthful, not enervating climate, on good soil, they were nevertheless torpid, unaroused, unambitious, idle, listless, indifferent to everything but hunting and fighting. ”

“ Sixthly, What are the relations usually subsisting between the Aborigines and settlers, locating in the more distant, and less populous parts of the country: those who have placed themselves upon the outskirts of civilization, and who, as they are in some measure beyond the protection of the laws, are also free from their restraints? A settler going to occupy a new station, removes, perhaps, beyond all other Europeans, taking with him his flocks, and his herds, and his men, and locates himself wherever he finds water, and a country adapted for his purposes. ”

“ I am aware that the subject of the Aborigines is one of a very difficult and embarrassing nature in many respects, and I know that evils and imperfections will occasionally occur, in spite of the utmost efforts to prevent them. ”

“ For the account given of the Aborigines the author deems it unnecessary to offer any apology; a long experience among them, and an intimate knowledge of their character, habits, and position with regard to Europeans, have induced in him a deep interest on behalf of a people, who are fast fading away before the progress of a civilization, which ought only to have added to their improvement and prosperity. ”

“ I have some old people yet.’ The rapid settlement necessary upon the country being occupied by flocks and herds was more unfavourable to the Aborigines than if it had only been gradually taken up for agricultural purposes. ”

“ The figures in the table are sufficient to show that the Aborigines are not decreasing so rapidly as is generally supposed. If, instead of looking at the totals, which are liable to error for reasons already explained, we compare the returns made by Honorary Correspondents, who have a complete knowledge of the blacks under their charge, and who keep accurate accounts of the births and deaths, we shall see that in no case is the diminution very startling, having regard to the habits and present condition of this people. ”

“ The dissimilarity of the various dialects to what we deem the parent one—that is, the one spoken by the inhabitants of Central Australia—is fully accounted for by the persistent endeavour to forget, which we have before shown, to be one of the leading characteristics of the aborigines. ”

“ I have often heard natives myself tell me, in answer to my own questions on the subject, who were the Aboriginal owners of particular tracts of land now held by Europeans; and indeed this idea of property in the soil, FOR HUNTING PURPOSES, is universal among the Aborigines. They seldom complain of the intrusion of Europeans; on the contrary, they are pleased at their sitting down, as they call it, on their land: they do not perceive that their own circumstances are thereby sadly altered for the worse in most cases ”

“ I have stated, that from the result of my own experience and observation, for a long series of years past, from a practical acquaintance with the character and peculiarities of the Aborigines, and after a deliberate and attentive consideration of the measures that have been hitherto pursued, I have unwillingly been forced to the conviction, that some great and radical defect has been common to all; that we have not hitherto accomplished one single, useful, or permanent result ”

“ Some amongst the Aborigines, however, well acquainted with all such practices, have separated from their tribes and are living with the whites; and some tribes that have not yet relinquished any of their customs are so far tamed as to admit a white friend occasionally to the secret meetings at which their more awful ceremonies are performed ”

“ It is a well known circumstance that the dialects, customs, and pursuits in use among them in the various parts of the continent, differ very much from each other in some particulars, and yet that there is such a general similarity in the aggregate as to leave no room to doubt that all the Aborigines of Australia have had one common origin, and are in reality one and the same race. ”

“ Until this knowledge is attained, we have no right to brand them as either irreclaimable, or unteachable. My own impression, after long experience, and an attentive consideration of the subject, is, that in the present anomalous state of our relations with the Aborigines, our measures are neither comprehensive enough for, nor is our system sufficiently adapted to, the singular circumstances they are in, to enable us successfully to contend with the difficulties and impediments in the way of their rising in the scale of civilization. ”

“ The most singular and remarkable fact, connected with the coincidence of customs or dialect, amongst the Aborigines, is that it exists frequently to a less degree among tribes living close to one another, than between those who are more remotely separated. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The aborigines are a Dravidian people, and, some think, of the same parent stock as ourselves. Thousands of years ago, long, long before our remote ancestors had learned how to build houses, make pottery, till the soil, or domesticate any animal except the dog—long years, in fact, before history began, the aboriginals left their primitive home on the hills of the Deccan and drifting southward in their bark canoes landed at last on the northern and western shores of the great island continent. ”

“ The more savage side of their disposition being, however, so very apparent, it is not astonishing that, brought into contact with white settlers, who equally consider that they have a right to settle, the aborigines are rapidly disappearing. ”

“ From this it will be seen that the aborigines are merely a people of the day, that it is their persistent endeavour to forget—unlike other races, whose whole aim, indeed whose every effort, is a straining to remember.
In all the tribes the males preponderate to a very considerable extent ”

“ The condition of the aborigines, from the foundation of the Colony, was never as prosperous as at the present time. Useful employments have been found for the adults of both sexes; the children are educated and trained by competent teachers; and the material interests of both the aged and the young are carefully guarded. ”

“ It is not easy accurately to ascertain the numbers of the Aborigines, but the Board does not hesitate to declare that the oft-repeated statement that the race is rapidly disappearing is by no means in accordance with fact. ”

“ Though able to understand little more than the general object for which we were assembled, and having scarcely any ideas of a Deity, or a future state, the Aborigines behaved with great reverence and attention.—It was affecting and humiliating to be cut off from communication with them on these subjects, by the want of a knowledge of their language; but there was a comfort in knowing, that "where there is no law, there is no transgression;" and that "sin is not imputed where there is no law;" and that they will be judged only according to the measure of light, they have received. ”

“ As a rule the habits of the aborigines are so just and upright as regards meum and tuum, at all events, as far as members of their own tribes and their property is concerned, that law is an institution perfectly unknown to them, and never by any chance required ”

“ Many books have been written on the Australian aborigines, but we feel constrained to devote a chapter to them, their daily life, habits, and customs, before proceeding with the historical narrative of European settlement and of the consequent silent, solemn, deadly fight between white and black—the sad, gradual extermination of the original possessors of the soil. ”

“ The bad character of the white servants is a reason assigned by many settlers for keeping the natives from their stations. At a few establishments, viz. Norman M'Leod's, Baillie's, Campbell's, Lenton's, and Urquhart's, an amicable and friendly relation has been maintained for several years; the Aborigines are employed and found useful. I visited these stations; and the proprietors assured me the natives had never done them any injury; the natives also spoke in high terms of these parties. ”