That the question under consideration involves the destiny of perhaps 100,000 or 200,000 of our fellow-beings, is a serious consideration, and one which should cause us to pause before we venture to abandon them to what must inevitably take place—destruction.
The numbers now within the influence of the white population, embracing Port Phillip and Moreton Bay, cannot be less, I conceive, than from eight to ten thousand souls, for I found within a given space near Wellington Valley, in 1826, nine tribes, consisting of 1,658 souls.
That a dreadful destruction of life has taken place since, there is no doubt; but that still in the interior, within the reach of the white population, a considerable body of natives is to be found, I feel myself borne out by the various inquiries I have made.
The Reverend Lancelot Edward Threlkeld examined:—
I reside at Lake Macquarie, and have done so nearly fourteen years, during which I have been engaged in acquiring a knowledge of the language of the aboriginal natives, and instructing them; for six years of that period, my undertaking was carried on under the auspices of the London Missionary Society; but owing to the heavy expense of the mission, amounting to about £500 per annum for my own support, and that of such natives as I could persuade to remain with me, for the double purpose of obtaining from them a knowledge of their language, and to give me an opportunity of endeavouring to civilize and instruct them, the Society being disappointed in the amount of aid expected from other quarters, and regarding the expense as encroaching too much upon their funds, relinquished the mission; and for nearly two years I was left to my own resources and the assistance of some friends, without other aid, when General Darling obtained the authority of the Secretary of State for an allowance of £150 a year, and £36 in lieu of rations for four convict servants, which has been granted to me during the last eight years.
The mission has thus occasioned an expense to the London Society, for the first six years, of about £3,000; and for the eight following years, to the Colonial Government (at the rate of £186 per annum), of about £1,488, or about £4,488 for the fourteen years, exclusive of my own outlay.
For the probable result of the mission, if pecuniary aid sufficient to carry out my plans had been continued, I beg leave to refer to the opinion of Messrs. Backhouse and Walker, who visited my station, as given in their letter to the Society, dated 21 May, 1836.
The native languages throughout New South Wales are, I feel persuaded, based upon the same origin; but I have found the dialects of various tribes differ from that of those which occupy the country around Lake Macquarie, that is to say, of those tribes occupying the limits bounded by the North Head of Port Jackson, on the south, and Hunter’s River on the north, and extending inland about 60 miles, all of which speak the same dialect.
The natives of Port Stephens use a dialect a little different, but not so much as to prevent our understanding each other; but at Patrick’s Plains the difference is so great, that we cannot communicate with each other; there are blacks who speak both dialects.
The dialect of the Sydney and Botany Bay natives varies in a slight degree, and in that of those further distant, the difference is such that no communication can be held between them and the blacks inhabiting the district in which I reside.