4 Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton Smith 
maps, comparatively of recent publication, become almost 
useless, by reason of the new names of places and towns 
which have sprung up into reality within a few years ; while 
the influx of colonists penetrates more and more into the in- 
terior, and is not likely to be checked but by the sterility of 
the higher plateaux of the north-western prairies.” This 
piercing glance into coming events, though so recently writ- 
ten, dates, nevertheless, before the new direction which the 
expansion of settlements has taken, and is now rapidly tak- 
ing, into Texas, a state torn from its Spanish allegiance, 
which popular or party clamour appears anxious to incorpo- 
rate with the other provinces of the Federal Union, not with- 
out an ulterior view to Mexico. Indeed, to the initiated, the 
scheme had its commencement so far back as 1816. It is 
again illustrated by the still more recent Oregon question, 
urged on with an intemperance of zeal that would be amus- 
ing, if it were not for the reflection, that, among public men, 
external injustice and violence is only offensive when com- 
mitted by a stranger or an enemy, and that the principle of 
national honesty is disregarded even more in republics than 
in monarchies ; because there is no responsibility for conse- 
quences in the former, though there may be some in the 
latter. 
Thus the grasping selfishness of civilized nations disposes 
of the earth’s surface according to the dictates of ambition, 
without the least regard to the claims and rights of the mdi- 
genous tribes to whom they send traders to demoralize them ; 
then come missionaries, as if it were to prepare them for re- 
moval ; for, notwithstanding their high calling, they cannot 
arrest the fatal results of gunpowder, ardent spirits, and new 
diseases spread among them : nay, it would appear that some 
undetected law in nature blights the vitality of the children 
of the wilderness ; since every care cannot prevent the gra- 
dual extinction of the natives from the moment civilized man 
becomes a permanent dweller among them. The humane 
and the pious cannot but reflect earnestly upon these too 
common results of their most benevolent exertions : and we 
mention these reflections not without despondency ; for in 
more than one region have we been eye-witnesses to their 
