145 



NOTES ON THE ABORIGINES OF TAS- 

 MANIA, EXTRACTED FROM THE 

 MANUSCRIPT JOURNALS OF GEORGE 

 WASHINGTON WALKER, WITH AN IN- 

 TRODUCTION BY JAMES B. WALKER, 

 F.R.G.S. 



In the year 1832 Messrs. James Backhouse and George 

 Washington Walker, two members of the Society of 

 Friends, arrived at Hobart from England. The objects 

 of their visit to the Australian Colonies were philan- 

 thropic. One purpose they had in view was an 

 investigation of the condition of the prisoner population 

 and the working of the penal system. Another was an 

 enquiry into the treatment of the Aboriginal inhabitants. 

 The various Governors afforded them every facility in 

 their enquiries, and the reports which they made from 

 time to time had a considerable influence in obtaining an 

 amelioration of the condition of the large number of men 

 then under penal discipline. 



In October, 1832, (just 65 years ago), they paid a 

 visit to the aboriginal establishment at Flinders Island. 

 Mr. Backhouse was an accomplished naturalist, a keen and 

 accurate observer, and rendered good service to science by 

 his contributions to the Botany of Tasmania ; and his 

 " Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies," (Lon- 

 don, 1843), has given an account of the visit to Flinders 

 Island, and has preserved a mass of information respecting 

 the aborigines and their habits, which forms a valuable 

 addition to our very limited knowledge of this extinct race. 

 On examining Mr. Walker's MS. Journal, which is in 

 my possession, I found a vocabulary of native words and 

 also some songs, which have never been printed. The 

 relics of the native language are so few, that this list of 

 words, taken down from the lips of the natives, has a 

 distinct value ; more especially so as it precedes by 

 nearly fifteen years Dr. Milligan's well-known and 

 more extensive vocabulary, which was compiled many 

 years after the blacks had come under European 

 influences. In submitting these fragments to the Royal 

 Society it seemed desirable to take the opportunity of. 



