The Aborigines of Victoria: With Notes Relating to the Habits of the Natives of Other Parts of Australia and Tasmania; Volume 1 - Couverture rigide
Présentation de l'éditeur
Thk character of the following work requires that I should mention the circumstances under which I undertook the compilation of it. When, sixteen years ago, I was appointed Secretary of theB oard for the Protection of the A borigines, it seemed to me to be my duty to collect information respecting the customs of the people who had formerly owned the soil of A ustralia, and to make accurate drawings of their weapons and ornaments. I did not know then that I was commencing a work which would engage all my leisure for many years, and entail upon me a large amount of labor in correspondence alone. I had no idea, indeed, in the beginning, that the work would be a large one; but even if it had been possible to have foreseen that, and to have anticipated the difficulties I have had to contend with in tracing various customs from one point to another, and in verifying by a number of examples statements that, unsupjiorted, appeared at the first view highly improbable still I should, on account of the interest of the questions that presented themselves, and from a sense of duty, have labored earnestly in performing the task. For the proper and efficient treatment of such subjects as I have attempted to deal with, the mind should be wholly devoted to the consideration of them unembarrassed by other onerous duties or fi-ee, at least, from the anxieties that are inseparable from an official position in a new country. And this compilation should be judged rather as a series of sketches, written in such intervals of time as were available, than as a scientific work pretending to completeness. All that I have done in connection with it is founded on information furnished by gentlemen who have had frequent and favorable opportunities of observing the habits of the natives. WT ieu I commenced to figure and describe the native weapons, I asked the late Mr.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)
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