WITH EUROPEANS. 
415 
are seen interspersed throughout the country, until 
at last upon arriving at the more remote regions, 
where the blighting and annihilating effects of colo- 
nization have not yet overtaken them, tribes are yet 
found flourishing in their natural state, free from 
that misery and diminution which its presence always 
brings upon them. 
It is here that the native should be seen to be 
appreciated, in his native wilds, where he alone is lord 
of all around him. To those who have thus come 
into communication with the Aborigines, and have 
witnessed the fearless courage and proud demeanour 
which a life of independence and freedom always 
inspires, it cannot but be a matter of deep regret to 
see them gradually dwindling away and disappearing 
before the presence of Europeans. As the ravages 
of a flood destroy the country through which 
it takes its course, and which its deposit ought 
only to have fertilized,* so the native, who ought 
to be improved by a contact with Europeans, is 
overwhelmed and swept away by their approach. 
dued, coDfused, awkward, and distrustful, ill concealing emotions 
of anger, scorn, and revenge — emaciated and covered with filthy 
rags these native lords of the soil, more like spectres of the 
past than living men, are dragging on a melancholy existence to a 
yet more melancholy doom.” — Strzelecki's N. S. Wales , 
p. 350. 
* “ Hard indeed is the fate of the children of the soil, and 
one of the darkest enigmas of life lies in the degradation and 
decay wrought by the very civilization which should succour, 
teach, and improve.” — Athenaum. 
