THE NATIVE TRIBES OF POLYNESIA. 457 



posal. But they showed no steady application. Fixture in one locality 

 did not accord with their ideas of freedom, and after they had remained 

 on the land a short time they all disappeared and went back to their 

 primitive mode of existence. In South Australia, a different plan was 

 adopted. The missionaries who went among the aborigines had suc- 

 cessively failed to accomplish any thing. They were at first listened to 

 with attention, because the natives regarded them as members of their 

 own tribes risen from the dead,, and they listened as to men of autho- 

 rity. But they soon discovered that the practice of the white men did 

 not accord with their precepts, and in this way they lost confidence. 

 Then failing to see any immediate benefit to be derived from an adhe- 

 rence to the teaching they received, they soon learned to treat it with 

 a feeling little removed from contempt. But, in 1859, the " Abori- 

 ginal Friends' Association" appointed a resident agent in one district, 

 who hit upon a different expedient. He kept religion in the back 

 ground at first, and, selecting three of the most intelligent tribes — 

 those of Corong, Goolwa and Point Malcolm — he devoted himself to 

 learning their habits. They lived chiefly by fishing, and he at once 

 set to work to teach them improved means of taking fish. In this and 

 by similar ways he succeeded very quietly in making himself necessary 

 to them. They valued him, for they lived better now than ever they 

 had lived before, and with far less labour. At last, when by these 

 means he had completely won their confideuce, he began to instil into 

 them moral precepts, and they listened to him and profited. They had had 

 their feeling of gratitude — always strong in the native breast — aroused, 

 and thus the way was cleared for the fair reception of other culture. 



I must however add, that all experience seems to indicate that we 

 cannot eradicate from the Australian mind a longing to return to the 

 aboriginal state. I have known natives who have been steadily em- 

 ployed for years upon one station, suddenly and without any apparent 

 reason, strip off their clothes and go to rejoin their tribe. I am pre- 

 pared to give due weight to the consideration that where the Austra- 

 lians have proved quite intractable in the hands of their teachers, there 

 has been as much want of tact on one side as want of capacity on the 

 other; but we possess absolutely no reason for thinking that the natives 

 are capable of any, even moderately great, mental effort, still less of 

 any high degree of intellectual culture. At the same time, however, 

 I wish it to be distinctly understood that I cannot endorse the opinion 

 that they are incapable of considerable advance in civilization. 



