AustLit

Author's note: ...No one has, so far as I know, attempted to depict the simple lives of that race which is now so fast melting away before the ardour of the white man's progress in the Australian bush:-soon, none of the natural heirs of the soil will remain, and even now, their primitive mode of life is comparatively unknown to the majority of their invaders....For the truthful air of the poem I ought easily to be able to vouch: it was written (or, rather, composed, and jotted down subsequently at intervals) when I was in daily communication with the unfortunate race of which it treats; and I now present it as originally written, rather than interfere with it in a manner which might prejudice its faithfulness as a representation....(iii-v).

Author's note: Written with the forgoing heading, more than half a century ago, and intended for publication in England at that time, the following Legend is now printed in order that the writer may present copies to friends. Few changes are needed in the prefatory words which were prepared for it in the early half of the nineteenth century. Most of them are as applicable now as they were then; and, written under impressions fresh and youthful, they may still fitly introduce my rhymes.'(p.5)