Page:The Present State and Prospects of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales.djvu/204

 20th, 1842, which contains a masterly summary of this part of the subject.

"I have read, with great attention, but with deep regret, the accounts contained in your despatches. After making every fair allowance for the peculiar difficulty of such an undertaking, it seems impossible any longer to deny that the efforts which have been hitherto made for the civilization of the aborigines have been unavailing; that no real progress has yet been effected, and that there is no reasonable ground to expect from them greater success in future. You will be sensible with how much pain and reluctance I have come to this opinion, but I cannot shut my eyes to the conclusion which inevitably follows from the statements which you have submitted to me on the subject.

"Your despatch of the 11th March last, contains an account of the several missions up to that date, with reports, likewise, from the chief protector, and his assistants, and from the Crown Land Commissioners. The statements respecting the missions, furnished, not by their opponents, nor even by indifferent parties, but by the missionaries themselves, are, I am sorry to say, as discouraging as it is possible to be. In respect to the missions at Wellington Valley, Mr. Gunther writes in a tone of despondency, which shows that he has abandoned the hope of success: the opening of his report is indeed a plain admission of despair. I sincerely wish that his facts did not bear out such a feeling. But when he reports, that after a trial of ten years, only one of all who have been attached to the mission 'affords some satisfaction and encouragement;' that 'of the others only four remain with them,' and 'that these continually absent themselves, and when at home evince but little desire for instruction;' 'that their thoughtlessness, a spirit of independence, ingratitude, and want of sincere straight-forward dealing, often try us in the extreme;' 'that drunkenness is increasing, and that the natives are gradually swept away by debauchery and other evils, arising from their intermixture with Europeans.' I acknowledge that he has stated enough to warrant his desponpency [sic], and to show that it proceeds from no momentary disappointment alone, but from a settled and reasonable conviction.