Page:An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal.djvu/215

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time in 1826; this was done to satisfy my friends of the impro- priety of introducing the English sound of the vowels instead of those of the Continent, which are also in use in the South Sea Islands.

This present copy of the Gospel by Luke is the fourth re-written revisal of the work, and yet it is not offered as a perfect transla- tion; it can only be regarded by posterity as a specimen of the language of the aborigines of Noav Holland, or, as a simple monu- mental tablet, on which might be truthfully inscribed, as regards the unprofitable servant who attempted to ameliorate the pitiable condition of the aborigines and attain a knowledge of their lan- guage: — " He has done what he could."

L. E. THRELKELD,

Ministei'. Sydney, New South Wales,

loth August, 1857.

��[Note. — The original manuscript was illuminated for Sir George Grey by Annie Layard, daughter of Sir A. H. Layard, the explorer of Nineveh.

The original title page is this: —

EVANGELION

UNNI TA

JESU-IJM-BA CHRIST-KO-BA.

UPATOARA

LOUKA-UMBA.

Translated into the language of the aborigines, located in the vicinity of Hunter's River, Lake Macquarie, &c., New South Wales, in the year 1831, and further revised by the translator, L. E. Threlkeld, Minister, 1857.— Ed.]

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