INQUIRIES INTO THE RACES OP MAN. 53 



to the commanders of the vessels, and to the intelligent naturalists and drafts- 

 men who formed a part of their suite. Very recently, intelligence has reached 

 this country, that an expedition, well equipped on all points, is about to pro- 

 ceed, for the purposes of scientific inquiry, from the southern shores of the 

 Red Sea, in a south-westerly direction, with the hope of reaching the Cape 

 by a somewhat circuitous route. Should this expedition happily succeed in 

 its undertaking, it will necessarily have to pass through the midst of nations 

 and tribes of Africans, of whom a more extensive as well as correct know- 

 ledge is, notwithstanding all the research hitherto employed, still essentially 

 necessary for our possessing anything like an accurate view of the characters 

 and distribution of the African races, and for our arriving at any well- 

 grounded conclusions concerning the modes, directions, periods, and circum- 

 stances of their diflusion over the continent, and of the influence which they 

 have reciprocally excited upon each other by fusion, by reduction of num- 

 bers, or by the change of their physical and social condition. Several copies 

 of the Queries are now in the way of transmission to the gentlemen com- 

 posing that expedition. They are accompanied by some observations sug- 

 gested by circumstances peculiar to the mission, and the regions through 

 which it is designed to pass. 



" Sir George Simpson, the Governor of the Hudson Bay Company's terri- 

 tory, having a few months since left this country with the intention of cross- 

 ing the North American Continent, from Canada to Vancouver, of visiting 

 the Russian settlements, and of passing over land by Kamtschatka to Peters- 

 burgh, the opportunity was not lost to endeavour to increase the interest 

 which he already has felt in the character and situation of the several tribes 

 with whom his oflScial situation necessarily brings him into contact. Copies 

 of the Queries were furnished, not only for the governor's own use and that 

 of Dr. Rowand, an intelligent medical man, partly of Indian descent, who 

 was expected to accompany the governor in his entire route, but also for 

 such residents at the Company's settlements as might be judged likely to turn 

 them to good account. Several copies have likewise been addressed to cor- 

 respondents already settled in remote situations. Although it is to be feared 

 that many of the copies which have been thus distributed may fail to procure 

 from those who receive them the direct i-eplies which they call for, it is not 

 too much to hope, that, from various quarters, detailed series of answers may 

 be received, and found in no small degree to contribute to the interest and 

 advantage of the sittings of this Section at future Meetings of the Associa- 

 tion. It is perhaps not too much to anticipate, that in this way the diffusion 

 of these Queries may not only serve the too-much neglected cause of the 

 science of Ethnography, but indirectly promote a practically benevolent 

 interest in some of the feeble and perishing branches of the human family. 

 Even in those cases in which direct replies are not obtained, some good may 

 not unreasonably be looked for from the juere fact of their directing the 

 attention of the reader to a great variety of points connected with the scat- 

 tered families of man. In many minds they may originate trains of thought, 

 and excite interest, inquiry, and investigation ; and even with tliose who 

 have no means of making investigations of their own, they may yet serve to 

 create an appetite for information of a kind which at present is, in general, 

 but little appreciated, and consequently but sparingly supplied. Neverthe- 

 less, the interests of science, of our country, and of humanity at large, arc 

 essentially connected with this subject. When it is considered that other 

 countries, which have immeasurably less direct interest in the condition of 

 the uncivilized sections of the human race, and who, as respects wrongs to 

 be atoned for, and advantages to be reaped, may be regarded as all but 



