Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/219

 EFFECTS OF COLONISATION ON ABORIGINAL RACES. 145 CHAPTER XII. THE FUTURE OF THE ABORIGINAL RACES. IT is common to hear even intelligent people speak of the Aborigines as a race which within a few years is certain to become extinct. They point to the diminished numbers of the red men of America and the Maories of New Zealand, and declare their conviction that it is a law of nature that the uncivilised should die out to make way for the civilisedthat-low-class races should perish in order that high-class races might take their place. Very little is said in opposition to such statements, and it is taken for granted that they are correct. Now, the writer is quite willing to grant that appearances, as far as they are connected with Anglo-Saxon colonisation, are altogether in favour of these opinions; but yet, when a wider view of things is taken, facts may be seen which suggest that these assertions may not be so correct as they appear at first sight. If we look back very far into the history of the world, we see that a process of colonisation has been going on, and that it has not been the invariable rule that the barbarous race should die out in the presence of the civilised. To take a familiar instance, the Ancient Britons did not become extinct after the advent of the Roman invaders. We need not even go so far back as that. Although the Aboriginal races of America were treated with great cruelty by the Spaniards and Portuguese, they did not die out so rapidly as some equally fine races such as the North American Indians and Maories are dying out under the just and benevolent and indulgent treatment of British colonists. I am also informed that Dutch colonisation does not result in the destruction of the Aboriginal races, but, on the contrary, that these races increase and are benefited by