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ENGLAND AND HER COLONIES 
 
 CONSIDERED IN RELATION TO THE ABORIGINES, WITH A 
 PROPOSAL FOR AFFORDING THEM MEDICAL RELIEF. 
 
 The Aborigines who may be termed British, amount, 
 at a low estimate, to one Million inhabiting Australia; 
 one Million in the South Seas, including New Zealand ; 
 half a Million still surviving in North and South America ; 
 and two Millions in Western and Southern Africa; with 
 several Millions of the more barbarous tribes in British 
 India and its borders, and in the Eastern Archipelago 
 and Indian Ocean ; it may therefore be safely said, that 
 our extensive possessions bring us in contact with more 
 varieties of the human race than is the case with any 
 other power; it is to England, therefore, that the world 
 looks for an example in the treatment of the coloured 
 races; but whether we regard the past or the present, 
 the history of these people is a subject of mournful 
 reflection. Instead of efforts to check the progress of 
 oppression in our colonies, we have allowed the spirit of 
 the early Spaniards to keep pace with emigration, and to 
 justify oppression the monstrous doctrine has been pro¬ 
 mulgated that the coloured tribes are not only an inferior 
 race by nature, but totally incapable of improvement— 
 and there are some who consider them the connnecting 
 link between the monkey and man. Many who do 
 not subscribe to this doctrine, have fallen into a delusion 
 of another kind./ They are inclined to the belief that the 
 extinction of the Aborigines is inevitable, that it is an 
 appointment of Heaven, and that every attempt to arrest 
 their doom, must of necessity be unavailing. In fine, 
 to use an Indian metaphor, that “ the coloured man must 
 melt before the white man like snow before the sun.” 
 
 Those who argue in favour of the general inferiority 
 
0 
 
 6*4 
 
 of the coloured races, must have seen the aborigines only 
 in their degraded and debased condition—a people fallen 
 under the infliction of injuries and the exercise of oppres¬ 
 sion—cruelties which we have committed, causing deso¬ 
 lation and utter ruin to those who once composed the 
 most noble of our race. We have only to look at home, 
 and we find men of all capacities, from the greatest 
 statesman down to the man of the most shallow intellect. 
 If in surveying the globe in an ethnographical point of 
 view, intellectual power be the object of our search, we 
 shall not look in vain amongst the uncivilized; and if we 
 are inquest of physical superiority we must altogether yield 
 the palm to the coloured man. Is it to be wondered that 
 men habituated to a roving life should, in the first instance, 
 refuse to engage in pursuits altogether foreign to them ? 
 To expect to bring the coloured man to lay aside his 
 erratic habits, and at once adopt the plough and the 
 harrow is inconsistent with past experience and the 
 records of history. If we refer to the period when 
 Rome was in all her greatness, we shall find that the 
 process of civilization among the barbarous hordes—a 
 class to which the British then belonged—was by no 
 means rapid. Step by step man has advanced, nor must 
 we now look for the instantaneous adoption by the un¬ 
 civilized races of the habits and manners of civilized life. 
 No rational mind will expect a change of such magni¬ 
 tude to be effected at once, but if time be given, their 
 improvement is certain. Civilization has effected, is 
 effecting, and will effect all that can be expected under 
 the circumstances in which they have been, are, and 
 may be placed ; and if the coloured tribes, instead of 
 being extirpated, were encouraged to locate themselves 
 and become civilized, there is no doubt, of their pre¬ 
 servation from extinction, and of their ultimate greatness. 
 This observation is borne out by the advancement in 
 civilization which the Creeks and Cherokees had made 
 prior to their removal from their patrimonial territory. 
 
3 
 
 That the coloured man must retire before his white 
 invader, or in other words, that he is devoted by Provi¬ 
 dence to destruction, is an assertion as atrocious as it is 
 impious—impious, since it calls into question the bene¬ 
 ficent and merciful character of the Most High. To 
 crush in its bud the first indications of such a doctrine,, 
 must be the wish of every Christian. War, pestilence, 
 and famine, and abridgement of territory are surely suffi¬ 
 cient causes for the decline of the coloured man, without 
 having recourse to mysterious agency: but we have 
 yet another-—intoxicating liquors—the accursed “ fire 
 water,”—that poisonous draught which plunges the 
 coloured man with headlong infatuation into the most 
 horrid scenes of riot and bloodshed—that fiend which 
 causes to flow with equal indifference, the blood of friend 
 and foe, and even severs the dearest ties of affection by 
 acts of violence at which the wretch himself trembles. 
 The same acuteness of feeling—The same pangs of 
 remorse which embitter the last moments of the white 
 murderer, accompany the coloured man to his igno¬ 
 minious grave. 
 
 Painful in themselves, indeed, are such reflections, but 
 they are still more painful when we consider how far these 
 acts are tolerated by ourselves, and that the amelioration 
 of the coloured man’s condition would inevitably flow 
 from a plan of conduct and treatment based upon sound 
 principles. Such a plan it is the fervent hope of this 
 Society, at an early period to lay before the Government, 
 feeling assured, that through it alone, really effectual 
 measures to this end can be carried out. With the 
 Gospel let us introduce comfort and happiness; let the 
 arts of life be associated with our religious precepts. 
 
 Since the first edition of this pamphlet was printed, 
 the Society has learned with great pleasure, through the 
 Sydney Monitor, which contains Sir George Gipps’ Ad 
 dress to the Legislative Council of New South Wales, 
 that the late Colonial Secretary, Lord John Russell, had 
 
4 
 
 expressly directed liberal provisions to be made for the 
 protection and civilization of the Natives of Australia. 
 The following is an extract from Lord John Russell’s 
 despatch :— 
 
 “ I have not yet touched on the application of the Land Fund to 
 'the protection of the Aborigines. It is my opinion that fifteen per 
 cent, of the yearly produce of sales should be so applied. It will be for 
 you to consider the details of the appropriation. But I must for the 
 future require, that on or before the 15th of January, in every year, a 
 report should be made to you, for the information of Her Majesty and 
 of Parliament, stating all the transactions of the past year, relating to 
 the condition of the Natives, their residence at any particular spot, the 
 changes in their social condition, the schools, and all other particulars, 
 including the state and prospects of the aboriginal races. 
 
 “ I shall transmit a copy of this despatch, with some other remarks 
 in reference to the same subject, to the Lieutenant-Governors of Port 
 Phillip, Western Australia, South Australia, and New Zealand.” 
 
 It was doubtless under the influence of the same enlightened bene¬ 
 volence which dictated the foregoing paragraph, that Lord John Russell 
 so readily acquiesced in the proposal for sending out a Commissioner 
 selected and approved by this Society, to investigate the condition of 
 the Australian Aborigines, and on the spot devise appropriate measures 
 for their benefit, and the common security of themselves and the colo¬ 
 nists. Had not the projected plan been rendered abortive by the 
 Western Australian Company, (for full particulars see Appendix to 
 Fourth Annual Report,) we should soon have had the satisfaction 
 of seeing devised and brought into execution a practical system of 
 civilization, the funds requisite for which Lord John Russell had, as it 
 now appears, already amply provided. 
 
 The Society’s operations embracing, as they do, an 
 extensive correspondence at home and abroad, the pub¬ 
 lication of documents and papers, public meetings to 
 advocate aboriginal rights, interviews and communications 
 with different departments of the state, the presentation 
 of petitions to the Crowm and to the legislature, neces¬ 
 sarily require considerable time and labour. Rut while 
 engaged in summing up the evidence that has been from 
 time to time laid before it; while the Government has yet 
 to be aroused to a sense of duty, long neglected ; and 
 while other important duties claim the Society’s atten- 
 
tion, whole tribes—nay nations, are being swept from the 
 face of the earth by diseases both of a demoralizing and 
 contagious nature—diseases introduced by Europeans— 
 poisons, destroying life at its very source, administered 
 by whites without an attempt at an antidote. 
 
 If we turn our attention to America, we find in the 
 early part of the sixteenth century, on the occasion of 
 an epidemic small pox, that “ the hand of God fell 
 heavily upon the natives, with such a mortall stroake 
 that they died on heaps as they lay in their houses, 
 and the living that were able to shift for themselves 
 would runne away, and let them dy, and let their carkases 
 ly above the ground without buriall. For in a place 
 where many inhabited there hath been bat one left 
 alive to tell what became of the rest, the living being not 
 able to bury the dead : they were left for crowes, kites, 
 and vermine to prey upon ; and the bones and skulls 
 upon the several places of their habitations made such 
 a spectacle, that as one travelled in the forest, near 
 Massachusetts, it seemed to be a new found Golgotha.” 
 (New English Canaan, by T. Morton, 1637.) 
 
 From the census of 1699, just sixty-two years from 
 the settlement of Virginia, we discover, that the natives 
 inhabiting that colony, were reduced to one-third of the 
 former numbers, small pox being assigned as the prin¬ 
 cipal cause. (Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia, p. 153.) 
 
 It is stated by Humboldt, that a plague called Mat- 
 lazahuatl prevailed among the Indian race in Mexico, 
 in 1545, which carried off 800,000, and in 1576, 
 2 , 000 , 000 . 
 
 Mr. Beale, the talented author of a work, entitled 
 “ The Natural History of the Sperm Whale, and a Sketch 
 of a South-Sea Whaling Voyage/’ witnessed at Monta 
 Christa, in 1831, on the coast of Peru, a “ dreadful 
 scene of sickness and lingering deaths, and not a single 
 medical man of any kind resided among them, to relieve 
 their pains, and therefore stern disease, of which there 
 
6 
 
 existed a great variety, took its painful course un¬ 
 checked.” 
 
 If we turn our attention to New Holland, a portion 
 of the globe to which both the rich and the poor are 
 now looking with, the most anxious attention, we find 
 similar results. 
 
 “ In 1789, the natives of Port Jackson were visited by 
 the small pox, and the number that it swept off was in¬ 
 credible. A native, who at that time resided in Sydney, 
 on going down to the harbour to look for his former com¬ 
 panions, was described by those who witnessed his emo¬ 
 tions, as suffering the extreme of agony. He looked 
 anxiously into the different coves that they visited; not 
 a vestige on the sand was to be found of human foot; 
 the excavations in the rocks were filled with the bodies 
 of those who had fallen victims to the disorder; not a 
 living person was any where to be met with. He lifted 
 up his hands and eyes in silent agony for some time; at 
 length he exclaimed, ‘ All dead ! all dead !’ and then 
 hung his head in mournful silence. The disease was not 
 confined to Port Jackson. On visiting Broken Bay, the 
 path was in many places covered with skeletons, and the 
 same spectacles were to be met with in the hollows of 
 most of the rocks of that harbour. To the disorder the 
 natives gave the name of Gal-gal-la. Two elderly men, 
 a boy and a girl, affected with the disease, were received 
 into the colony, and nursed by the native above mentioned, 
 whose attention to them during their illness excited the 
 admiration of all. He took the disorder, and in eight 
 days fell a victim to his own humanity, to the infinite 
 regret of every one who had witnessed how little of the 
 savage was found in his manner, and how quickly he was 
 substituting in its place a docile, affable, and truly amia¬ 
 ble deportment.”—Collins’s New South Wales, p. 57. 
 
 Notwithstanding this, it was not until May, 1804, 
 “ that the blessings of vaccination were introduced into 
 the settlement. The virus was, however, almost imme- 
 
7 
 
 cliately lost, and the colony once more left without a pro¬ 
 tection from that most dreadful of all disorders the small 
 pox.”—Mann’s Present Picture ofN. S. Wales, p. 14. 
 
 In 1829, when Capt. Sturt penetrated into the interior 
 of New South Wales, he found the small pox carrying off 
 the natives on the banks of the Darling in great numbers. 
 The following year on the Murray, he found raging in all 
 its fury that dreadful malady—the offspring of immorality. 
 Nor were the youngest infants exempt from the disease. 
 Indeed, so young were some whose condition Capt. Sturt 
 describes as truly distressing, that he had no doubt they 
 had been born in a state of disease. Sir Thomas Mitchell 
 has noticed the same deplorable state of the natives in 
 parts of the country which he visited. Mr. Beale found 
 the disease depopulating the natives of Polynesia; at Bo- 
 labola, in 1832, many laboured under the effects of gun 
 shot wounds, for which they have to thank the whites, 
 who taught them the use of powder and shot, but more 
 from the effects of a demoralizing intercourse with 
 foreigners. Men, women, and even little children in 
 arms, were suffering from the dreadful malady, for the 
 cure or alleviation of which they possessed neither know¬ 
 ledge nor means. “ These wretched people, who have 
 suffered torments of various kinds, without a prospect 
 of relief,” says Mr. Beale, “ looked upon me as an angel 
 sent from heaven to administer to their wants, and relieve 
 the poignancy of their pains. How is it that proper per¬ 
 sons are not sent out for this purpose ? If a small portion 
 ® of the immense sums that are annually expended upon 
 missionaries were devoted to such real usefulness, the 
 poor natives would indeed feel grateful for such bless¬ 
 ings, and their minds would be rendered more susceptible 
 of being impressed with a belief in the Christian faith,” 
 
 Not content with recording these appalling facts in 
 his Journal, this gentleman last year published a well 
 digested system for affording medical relief to the suf¬ 
 fering inhabitants of the South Seas. With much good 
 
8 
 
 feeling, however, he has laid aside his own immediate 
 views of a distinct and independent plan, and has now 
 thrown his talent and experience into the scale of this So¬ 
 ciety, hoping that, sooner or later, the suffering inhabi¬ 
 tants of Polynesia may be blessed with the presence of 
 one of its medical agents. It would be well for man¬ 
 kind if their advocates were to follow Mr. Beale’s 
 example, in practically recognizing the motto that 
 “ Union is strength,” instead of forming themselves into 
 many separate societies, and exemplifying, in the words 
 of Berkley, that a “ divided force is a rope of sand.” 
 
 With these facts before us, we cannot doubt that 
 Government is bound to do, on behalf of the Aborigines, 
 all that humanity and justice demands. But if humanity 
 and justice appeal in vain, policy may prevail. The cry of 
 distress is at home ; to assuage the calamity we are na¬ 
 turally directed towards Colonization; but that Coloni¬ 
 zation will not prosper—will not be well pleasing to the 
 Most High, if, in taking nine tenths, we turn not to the 
 best advantage for our wards, like honest guardians, the 
 remaining tithe. The application of this tithe for the 
 benefit of the coloured races is engaging the attention of 
 the Society ; but if measures be not taken, and that 
 immediately, to arrest the progress of disease, famine 
 amongst many tribes must consummate the fate which 
 pestilence has advanced, and thus the efforts of the 
 Society may be rendered unavailing. 
 
 The Society therefore appeals for pecuniary aid to 
 carry out its views, and without waiting to perfect ope¬ 
 rations strongly indicated by necessity, it will, on an 
 increase of income of £300, send out to some portion of 
 the globe where unchecked disease is spreading desola¬ 
 tion, a medical man to administer relief, and as far as y 
 possible, instruct the natives in the practice of his pro¬ 
 fession. At the same time it aims at extending its 
 operations as the success of this experiment, and the 
 
 means placed at its disposal, may sanction. 
 
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