of the Aborigines of Australia. 43 



their opponents. The prostration of spirit, the listless indifference 

 of the Aboriginal mind, are the natural result of this relative position 

 to the whites. The Aboriginal native, widely different in his habits 

 and pursuits, is unable to rise to a comprehension of the actions, 

 motives, and principles that compose the structure of civilisation. 

 Simple in his ideas, his griefs are evanescent, and he is in general 

 cheerful, and even docile and gentle. The vicinity of civilised man 

 acts, after a time, like a powerful spell upon his conduct ; but the 

 mind remains radically .unchanged ; and when he again returns to 

 the security and undisturbed solitude of his native wilds, this in- 

 fluence is quickly counteracted and thrown off. 



All efforts to civilise and Christianise the Aborigines have hitherto 

 proved singularly abortive. True, indeed, as might be anticipated, 

 the management of the young children presents fewer difficulties than 

 that of the adult natives. There is also with Aboriginal tribes, as 

 with civilised nations, a conspicuous diversity of individual character. 

 They are not all equally fierce or barbarous, or untractable ; and 

 the dark phalanx is occasionally relieved by the advance of some 

 solitary member, whose comparative aptitude and docility have too 

 readily stimulated the anticipations of sanguine and zealous minds. 



But the care and diligence of the missionary, though they cannot 

 convert the mind of the Australian savage, may yet tame and subdue 

 his spirit ; and by removing, as far as practicable, every known in- 

 ducement to his barbarous customs and wandering habits, maintain 

 him at least in quietness, without injury to himself or the colonists. 

 Isolation and solitude, the total absence of hostile tribes, the pe- 

 riodical and regular supply of food at the missions or stations ; all 

 these circumstances, so different from those in which his habits have 

 been moulded, must gradually weaken that stimulus which gives a 

 zest and pleasure to his erratic and turbulent existence. The savage 

 is deprived of much of the enjoyment congenial to his disposition. 

 But his primitive manner of life is no longer attainable in the present 

 circumstances of the colony. His country has been occupied by a 

 race, whose habits and customs, and daily avocations of life, are to 

 him alike unenticing, irksome, and monotonous, destitute of visible 

 motive or of adequate results. He has neither the desire nor the 

 capacity to associate with the whites ; and when he would retreat 

 from their blighting presence, into territories still uninvaded in the 

 progress of colonisation, he is repulsed by other tribes of his own 

 race, who already occupy the locality to which he might retire. His 

 lot is truly hard and unfortunate. The tranquillity of an Australian 

 savage is not that of enjoyment, but rather of quiescence and torpor. 

 The restraints and deprivations to which, in the attempt to reclaim 

 his mind and habits, it is sought to subject him, are to be excused 

 and justified only in the view, that they are the means of avoiding 

 still greater impending evils. 



All projects for the civilisation of the Aborigines should be framed 



