could the Murrumbidgee or southern districts
of New South Wales, have been peopled from Port Phillip, or from South
Australia, or by tribes passing up the Murray for the same reason. It is
not demanding too much, therefore, to suppose that the general lines of
route taken by the Aborigines in spreading over the continent of
Australia, have been somewhat analogous to those I have imagined, or that
we can fairly account for any material differences there may be in the
dialects, customs, or weapons of the different tribes, by referring them
to the effect of local circumstances, the length of time that may have
elapsed since separation, or to the isolated position in which they may
have been placed, with regard to that division of the parent tribe from
which they had seceded.

At present our information respecting the customs, habits, weapons and
dialects of the various tribes is too limited and too scattered to enable
us to trace with accuracy the division to which each may have originally
belonged, or the precise route by which it had arrived at its present
location; but I feel quite confident that this may be done with tolerable
certainty, when the particulars I have referred to shall be more
abundantly and correctly recorded.

It is at least a subject of much interest, and one that is well worthy
the attention of the traveller or the philanthropist. No one individual
can hope personally to collect the whole material required; but if each
recorded with fidelity the facts connected with those tribes, with whom
he personally came in contact, a mass of evidence would soon be brought
together that would more than suffice for the purpose required.

Chapter VIII.

EFFECTS OF CONTACT WITH EUROPEANS--ATTEMPTS AT IMPROVEMENT AND
CIVILIZATION--ACCOUNT OF SCHOOLS--DEFECTS OF THE SYSTEM.

Some attempts have been made in nearly all the British Settlements of
Australia to improve the condition of the aboriginal population; the
results have, however, in few cases, met the expectations of the
promoters of the various benevolent schemes that have been entered upon
for the object; nor have the efforts hitherto made succeeded in arresting
that fatal and melancholy effect which contact with civilization seems
ever to produce upon a savage people. It has already been stated, that in
all the colonies we have hitherto established upon the continent, the
Aborigines are gradually decreasing in number, or have already
disappea