Page:The Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina.djvu/9

 at that time about thirty or forty miles beyond the most outlying settlers. Here the natives were very numerous, and at first were perfectly harmless. The effect, however, of intercourse with the station employees, many of whom were ex-convicts, speedily generated a hostile feeling against the white man. To this Mr. Andrew Beveridge fell an innocent victim—thereby cutting short what promised to be a noble and useful career. Before joining his family in. the colony, he had completed his studies in the University of Edinburgh, and had taken the Degree of Master of Arts, and in accompanying his brother northward it was his intention not only to help forward the undertaking, but also, as far as possible, to sow among the natives the Precious Seed of the Gospel.

As a matter of course, situated as he then was, Mr. Peter Beveridge was brought into daily contact with the Tribes that frequented his neighbourhood; and gradually acquiring their language, he gained their confidence to such an extent that he was permitted to learn at the very fountain head, much that was accessible to perhaps no-other white man. Even the discovery of the goldfields in 1851, and the disorganization that it entailed but ministered the more fully to what had now become Mr. Beveridge's favourite study—for being, compelled to utilise native labour in order to carry on the work of the station, he had full and frequent opportunity of observing all the phases of Aboriginal life. By 1883 he had amassed a large amount of information, which he put into the form of a Paper, which was read before the Royal Society of New South Wales, and printed among their proceedings. This paper may be regarded as the skeleton of the volume which is now given to the public.

In 1868 he removed from the Murray, and some time thereafter settled in French Island. It was there that he prepared for the press this little work, the manuscript being found amongst his papers after his death, and it is now issued just as it came from his hands.

As a man, Mr. Beveridge was frank, genial, and companionable. His clear intelligence and force of character rendered him a conversationalist of no mean order, his remarks frequently lit up with the gleam of humour and the sparkle of wit—altogether a man for whose loss the world feels poorer.

For some time before his death, he suffered from a painful internal ailment, which he bore to the end with Christian fortitude and patience. Hoping for some benefit from the change he came to Wood burn, but the malady refused to quit its hold. And thus, in the home of his family, tended by the loving hands of wife and mother, he died on October 4th, 1885.

J. STEELE, M.A.