Dr Pritchard on the Extinctiun of Human Baces. 1(39 



pie of the Canary Islands, now exist only in their mummies, 

 and in the traces of those arts by which they sought to pro- 

 cure for the dead an eternal repose, and wliich have proved 

 the occasion of transporting these mummies into the museums 

 of Europe. It would be endless to recount the names of tribes 

 and whole nations in America, who have been extirpated by 

 the Spanish conquerors of that country. The last race that 

 was utterly destroyed was the Charreas, of whom I saw three 

 surviving individuals brought to Paris, and exhibited as curio- 

 sities. They were a most singular race of people, whose mo- 

 ral and physical character is briefly sketched by Don Felix de 

 Azara, but of whom we have no satisfactory account, nor can 

 we nov/ ever hope to obtain it. The whole country now oc- 

 cupied by civilized nations in the New World, was, three or 

 four centuries ago, thickly peopled by native tribes. A simi- 

 lar process of extermination has been pursued for ages in 

 South Africa, formerly the abode of numex'ous pastoral na- 

 tions of Hottentots, a peaceable and inoffensive race, who 

 wandered about with numerous flocks, in a state of jDrimitive 

 simplicity, and v.hose descendants are now found in the mise- 

 rable and destitute Bushmen, condemned to feed upon A^erinin 

 and reptiles, and rendered savage and cruel by the wretched- 

 ness which their Christian conquerors have entailed upon 

 them. ^Vherevcr Europeans have settled, their arrival has 

 been the harbinger of extermination to the native tribes. 

 Whenever the simple pastoral tribes come into relations with 

 the more civilized agricultural nations, the allotted time of 

 tlie4r destruction is at hand ; and this seems to have been the 

 case from the time when the first shepherd fell by the hand 

 of the first tiller of the soil. 



Now, as the progress of colonization is so much extended of 

 late years, and the obstacles of distance and physical difficul- 

 ties are so much overcome, it may be calculated that these 

 calamities, impending over the greater part of mankind, if we 

 reckon by families and races, are to be accelerated in their 

 progi-ess ; and it may happen that, in the course of another 

 century, the aboriginal nations of most parts of the world will 

 liave ceased entirely to exist. In the mean time, if Christian 

 nations think it not their duty to interpose and save the nu- 



