We also appointed a protector of the aborigines, Mr. G. A. Robinson,
at a salary of 500 pounds per annum. He took up his residence on the
then sweet banks of the Yarra, and made excursions in various
directions, compiling a dictionary. He started on a tour in the
month of April, 1844, making Alberton his first halting-place, and
intending to reach Twofold Bay by way of Omeo. But he found the
country very difficult to travel; he had to swim his horse over many
rivers, and finally he returned to Melbourne by way of Yass, having
added no less than 8,000 words to his vocabulary of the native
languages. But the public journals spoke of his labours and his
dictionary with contempt and derision. They said, "Pshaw! a few
mounted police, well armed, would effect more good among the
aborigines in one month than the whole preaching mob of protectors in
ten years."
When a race of men is exterminated somebody ought to bear the blame,
and the easiest way is to lay the fault at the door of the dead; they
never reply.
When every blackfellow in South Gippsland, except old Darriman, was
dead, Mr. Tyers explained his experience with the Government
blankets. They were now no longer required, as Darriman could obtain
plenty of old clothes from charitable white men. It had been the
commissioner's duty to give one blanket annually to each live native,
and thus that garment became to him the Queen's livery, and an emblem
of civilisation; it raised the savage in the scale of humanity and
encouraged him to take the first step in the march of progress.
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