Page:A Descriptive Vocabulary of the Language in Common Use Amongst the Aborigines of Western Australia.djvu/10

 form, and upon a more comprehensive plan; embracing, also, such additions and alterations as have been the natural result of longer time, greater experience, and a more familiar acquaintance with the language. In the first place, it contains several hundred additional words, inclusive of such tenses of the verbs as have been accurately ascertained (for although the three known tenses are tolerably regular, they are not invariably so). In the next place, the meanings are in general given in a more copious form, and whenever a word has required or admitted of it, the opportunity has been taken of giving an account of everything interesting in the habits, manners, and customs of the aborigines, and in the natural history of the country. In the third place, the English and Australian part has been added, which, it was considered, would be of great assistance to such as desire to ascertain any word in the language. This work owes much of its present form to the industry and attention of Mr. Symmons, one of the protectors of the aborigines, with some assistance from a friend whose name I am not at liberty to men- tion; but mainly through the means of the interpreter, Mr. Armstrong, with such aid as a long residence in the country, and constant communication with the natives, both in a public and private capacity, enabled me to impart, and such attention as the leisure of a sea-voyage permitted me to bestow. I have been requested to