The evidence contained in these notes unfortunately proves that the pioneers of British civilization are not always the best of the British people. Many of them, it is to be feared, leave their own country, stained with vice and vicious habits, ready for any act of oppression, ready {16} to take any advantage of the simplicity of the poor aborigines. Such people have introduced everywhere the use of intoxicating drinks, together with the diseases as well as the vices of their own depraved standard of civilization. Where the races are found most rapidly decaying, there the married women are found living in a state of prostitution and exposed to its diseases. And we know where such is the case, decline and extinction are inevitable. This appears to be a main cause of the falling off in births; while the other evil habits introduced by Europeans destroy the stamina of the adult population and raise its rate of mortality. With the facts before us, imperfect as they are, we need feel no surprise at the gradual extinction of these unhappy races. But we should draw from them an argument for doing all that can be done to lessen these evils, and to remove, as far as practicable, any causes of disease and death which it may be in our power to remove. Complaint of such things, in some form or other, runs through the whole of the evidence regarding these aboriginal populations, who appear to be far more susceptible of the operation of causes of disease arising out of imperfect civilization, than are civilized† men; how much more so must they be to such dreadful causes as those indicated above! † Meaning by “civilized,” men who can live together in a city or village without cutting each other’s throats. There is a strong presumption that, if aboriginal races are left undisturbed in their own country to follow their own customs and even their own vices, they will continue to exist as they have hitherto done, in a slowly increasing or stationary condition. But there is no reason to doubt the evidence contained in these papers that certain races require very little disturbance in their primeval habits to pass into a state of decline. The great question at issue is, how this is to be arrested. The facts appear to point to such remedial measures as the following:― 1. That provision of land should be made for the exclusive use of the existing tribes; but this, by itself, would be simply preserving their barbarism for the sake of preserving their lives. And the question naturally occurs whether Moravian settlements or settlements conducted on entirely similar principles, under whatever Christian {17} denomination, might not be introduced for the purpose of wisely and gradually winning the people to higher and better habits.