Jhoriginal Dialects, 8fc., of Tasmania. 277 



tliey maj thus have obtained. A fortunate few re- 

 turned home, enriched with the legitimate fruits of industry 

 and good management ; others, less successful here in the 

 first instance, migrated early to a neighboimng province, 

 and reaped largely of the golden harvest with which it has 

 been blessed : wliile many have " passed that bourne 

 whence no traveller returns," and left no record of the simple 

 race whose position, rights, and very existence they had 

 come to usurp and to supersede. 



As, under such circumstances, every scrap of authentic in- 

 formation respecting the aborigines of Van Diemen's Land 

 may be regarded as of some value, I avail myself of 

 the opportunity afforded by the publication of the vocabu- 

 lary of certain aboriginal dialects of Tasmania, and of some 

 remarks necessary thereupon, briefly to make record of such 

 particulars illustrative of their habits, manners, and customs, 

 as have fallen mider my notice, or been gathered directly 

 from their statements to myself. 



Li order that ethnologists and others interested in the 

 vocabulary of aboriginal dialects referred to may be 

 inclined to place perfect confidence in their accuracy, I 

 have to explain that every word before being written dowai 

 was singly submitted to a Committee (as it were) of several 

 aborigines, and made thoroughly intelligible to them, when 

 the corresponding word in their language, having been 

 agreed upon by them, was entered. This, of course, was a 

 most tedious method to pursue, but it was the only plan 

 which gave a fair chance of precision and truthfulness. On 

 being completed the manuscript was laid aside for two or 

 tln-ee years, when it Avas again submitted, verbatim and 

 seriatim, to a circle of aborigines for their remarks. A 

 revision which led to the discovery and correction of nu- 

 merous blunders originating in misapprehension, on the 

 part of the aborigines in the first place, of the true meaning 

 of words which they had been required to translate. 



