338 REPORT — 1841. 



65. How are judges constituted ? Do their trials take place at stated pe- 

 riods, and in public ? 



66. How do they keep prisoners in custody, and treat them ? 



67. What are the crimes taken cognizance of by the laws? Is there 

 gradation or commutation of punishment? 



Geography and Statistics 68. Briefly state the geographical limits and 



character of the region inhabited by the people to whom the replies relate. 



69. State approximatively the number of inhabitants. As this is an im- 

 portant, but very difficult question, it may not be amiss to point out the modes 

 in which the numbers may be ascertained. The people themselves may state 

 their number with more or less accuracy, but it should be known whether 

 they refer to all ranks and ages, or merely comprehend adult males, who may 

 be mustered for war, or other general purpose requiring their combination. In 

 this case state the apparent proportion between adult males and other mem- 

 bers of families. The number of habitations in a particular settlement may be 

 counted, and some idea of the average numbers of a family be given. Where 

 the people inhabit the water-side, the number and dimensions of their craft 

 may be taken, and some idea of the proportion between the number of these 

 and of the individuals belonging to them, may be formed. In drawing con- 

 clusions from observations of this kind, it will be necessary to have due re- 

 gard to the different degrees of density or rarity in which, from various 

 causes, population may be placed. 



70. Has the number of inhabitants sensibly varied, and within what period ? 



71. If it have diminished, state the causes; such as sickness, starvation, 

 war, and emigration. When these causes require explanation, please to give 

 it. If the inhabitants are on the increase, is this the result of the easy and 

 favourable circumstances of the people causing an excess of births over 

 deaths ; or is it to be assigned to any cause tending to bring accessions from 

 other quarters ? State whether such causes are of long standing, or recent. 



72. Is the population generally living in a manner to which they have been 

 long accustomed, or have new relations with other people, and consequently 

 new customs and practices, been introduced ? 



73. If the people, being uncivilized, have come under the influence of the 

 civilized, state to what people the latter belong, how they are regarded, and 

 what is the kind of influence they are producing*. State the points of their 

 good influence, if any, and those of an opposite character, as the introduction 

 of diseases, vices, wars, want of independence, <ic. 



74. Is there any tendency to the union of races ? how is it exhibited, and 

 to what extent ? 



Social Relations. — 75. What kind of relationship, by written treaty or 

 otherwise, subsists between the nation and other nations, civilized or not ? 

 Have they any intercourse by sea with other countries ? Do any of them 

 understand any European language ? Or are there interpreters, by whom they 

 can communicate with them ? 



76. Are they peaceable, or addicted to war? Have they any forms of de- 

 claring war, or making peace ? What is their mode of warfare, either by 

 sea or land ? their weapons and strategy ? What do they do with the slain, 

 and with prisoners ? Have they any mode of commemorating victories by 

 monuments, hieroglyphics, or preservation of individual trophies, and of 

 what kind ? Have they any national poems, sages, or traditions respecting 

 their origin and history ? . Where Europeans have introduced fire-arms, as- 

 certain the modes of warfare which have given place to them. 



* This question will comprise the existence of missions — the success or the want of it from 

 causes connected with missionaries themselves or others. 



