Miscellaneous papers relating to Aborigines, ca. 1839-1871 - Page 72

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A copy of these suggestions accompanies this, to which is appended the Ethnical Alphabet of Mr. Alexander John Ellis, B.A., Cambridge, and a short vocabulary, classified so that the words follow in sequence of relation. This form is adopted in order that the mind of the native may not be perplexed by sudden transitions from one subject to another unconnected and dissimilar. The whole can be moulded into alphabetical arrangement when the papers are returned. It is not expected that equivalents for all the words will be found, inasmuch as the condition and habits of the native do not induce the necessity for a copious language : nevertheless, resort should be had to careful interrogation, frequently repeated in different forms of expression, before it be asserted positively that the native language is unable to supply the convertible terms required.
I may be allowed to express a hope that you will be pleased to give the project the benefit of your cordial and active support. It is one in which the combined operations of the European inhabitants of Australasia may be well engaged : one, the influence of which will not be confined to the period or the place of an Exhibition, but in which all philologists will feel a common interest. Moreover, it may form the groundwork of future more extended inquiries of a like nature, in the progress of which intercourse with the Aborigines may lead to improvement in their intellectual and social, as well as their physical condition. While all employed may have the satisfaction of redeeming, in some degree, the obligations they owe to the humble race,-the primitive possessors of the soil.

I have the honor to be,

Sir,

Your obedient Servant,

Redmond Barry
President