Are We a Declining Race ? 



sipation, snatched away by a fit of apoplexy, 

 unless he be removed from inevitable ruin by 

 some forceful interposition.'* 



This wantonness, so conspicuous among the 

 women of the Sandwich Islands, and which has 

 resulted in their ruin, was but the result of 

 European influence in the first place. " When 

 visiting the Sandwich Islands with Cook, Van- 

 couver saw little or no appearance of wanton- 

 ness among the women. But when he visited 

 them some years afterwards, it was very con- 

 spicuous, more so than among the worst of the 

 Tahitians, and he ascribes this change in their 

 habits to their intercourse with foreigners." 

 (Westermarck.) 



This baneful influence of European vices on 

 native races, is also witnessed among the 

 aborigines of Australia. " The females are, 

 many if not most of them, prostitutes from 

 childhood, and the men not only connive at but 

 offer their wives for the worst of purposes. It 

 is lamentable that the iniquitous example set to 

 the aboriginal inhabitants has, in all countries 

 occupied by the English, been attended by the 

 like evil result the introduction of European 

 vices and fatal diseases." (" The Aborigines of 

 Victoria," R. Brough Smyth, Vol. II. ; p. 240.) 



The aborigines of Tasmania suffered in a 

 similar manner from the same causes, and they 

 have now for some years been totally extinct. The 

 Maoris of New Zealand a splendid race have 

 also deteriorated greatly ; this also is traceable 

 to the same causes. 



If these people retain any recollection of their 



60 



