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APPENDIX TO SECTION II. 



ON THE ASSERTED INVIABTL1TY OF THE AMERICANS, 

 POLYNESIANS, AND AUSTRALIANS. 



THE facts we have collated appear sufficiently to prove that 

 none of the uncivilized peoples are deficient in viability. There 

 remains, however, one circumstance in favour of an opposite 

 doctrine, which is, the rapid decay of several races and their 

 apparently approaching extinction. We shall, therefore, have 

 to investigate whether the causes of their extinction consist in 

 a defect of their organization, or whether the fact must not be 

 attributed to accidental circumstances. The tribes of which we 

 shall have to speak are the aboriginal Americans, Polynesians, 

 and Australians. 



The rapid diminution of the aboriginal population of America 

 is established by the official census, and can thus admit of no 

 doubt. In some regions the diminution may have been only ap- 

 parent. When we have the statement, that all the peoples which 

 the first immigrants found in Louisiana and Mississippi, have 

 almost entirely disappeared, and even their names forgotten, it 

 may be explained by some misconception. The names of small 

 tribes have frequently, by travellers, been given to repre- 

 sent whole nations, whilst the names are often those of chiefs 

 and their families. The old travellers exaggerated the numbers 

 of the peoples by seeing themselves on their arrival surrounded 

 by a crowd of natives, who had merely collected on the spot 

 from considerable distances either to see or to drive away the 

 wonderful strangers. Hence the old estimates of the native 

 population of America and Polynesia are evidently erroneous. 

 There can, however, be no doubt that the aboriginal population 

 has diminished in a most remarkable degree, which we in the 

 first place attribute to destructive diseases. 



