The aborigines of Tasmania / by H. Ling Roth ; assisted by Marion E. Butler and Jas. Backhouse Walker ; with a chapter on the osteology by J.G. Garson.

  • Henry Ling Roth
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The aborigines of Tasmania / by H. Ling Roth ; assisted by Marion E. Butler and Jas. Backhouse Walker ; with a chapter on the osteology by J.G. Garson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the scale of human beings, sufficient had been presented by the occasional intercourse between themselves and the Europeans to arrive at the con- clusion that the nature of their intellectual powers was by no means questionable. They have frequently shown themselves endowed with great quickness of perception, or an acuteness in the senses, not unusually bestowed by Providence ... to supply other deficiencies.” Elsewhere (p. 348) he confirms this view. West’s opinion of them, probably founded on that of Backhouse and Walker, was (II. p. 88), “their intellectual character is low; yet not so inferior as often described. They appeared stupid, when addressed on subjects which had no relation to their mode of life; but they were quick and cunning within their own sphere. Their locomotion sharpened their powers of observation, without much increasing their ideas.” Backhouse's opinion was very similar (pp. 173-174), “After having seen something ol the natives of V. D. Land, the conviction was forced upon my mind, that they exceeded Europeans in skill, in those things to which their attention had been directed from childhood.” While Walker reports: “ We are perpetually reminded that in their taste for amusements, and, in some respeCts in their capacities, they are children. But in many things that occur within the range of their knowledge and acquirements, they shew a quickness of perception and powers of reflection, that prove them to be far from deficient in intellect” (p. 105). In after years, Bonwick (p. 4) writes: “When I saw the aboriginal boys and girls in the Orphan School, near Hobart Town, 1 enquired of their teacher in what respeCt they differed from the children of the conviCts among whom they were thrown. All of the white race were very inferior in point of physique and intellect to others of their age and colour, of different parentage. They were, however, superior to the dark children in facility of learning arithmetic and grammar, though not so in geography, history and writing. Two of the coloured lads readily and cheerfully answered my questions in geography, and indicated places on the map with great correctness.” Walker speaks of an aboriginal boy at the Orphan School, at Hobart, “ who writes a very fair hand for any lad of his age. The master informs me that with some exceptions these aboriginal children are not inferior in capacity to European children (MS. Jour. 28th May, 1834).” We are, however, indebted to two eminent Frenchmen for the fullest details which throw light on the intelligence or of the want of it in these natives. La Billardiere and Peron who visited the island within twelve years of each other (1792 and 1803 respectively) have left such minute records of their intercourse with the aborigines of Tasmania before the days of settlement that we cannot do better than reproduce their accounts as fully as space permits of. Commencing with La Billardiere, the first explorer, we find his companions had some difficulty in opening communication, as on their approach the natives fled away with precipitation (I. ch. v. pp. 181-211). At last, “Two of the officers of our vessel . . . determined to land. . . . They found four savages employed in laying fuel upon three small fires. . . . The savages immediately fled, notwithstanding all the signs of amity which they made them. . . . One of these savages . . . having left behind him a small basket . . . was bold enough to come quite near to Cretin [one of the officers] in order to fetch it, with