366 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II. 



sense, which Europeans have evinced in their intercourse with 

 the aborigines of every part, have been such that it is utterly 

 absurd to assert, in order to prove the incapacity of certain 

 peoples and savages for improvement, that they have appro- 

 priated nothing from the intercourse with civilized nations but 

 their vices. An unprejudiced observer sees in this only the 

 natural consequence of the intercourse of the refuse of Euro- 

 pean society with primitive nations. Passing by the natural 

 effect of criminal colonies on the natives, it may be observed, 

 that vices are more easily contracted than virtues, even by 

 comparatively civilized beings. To give only one instance, we 

 may mention that the gifted New Zealanders have everywhere 

 descended from their station of proud, though rude, warriors, 

 to become common beggars, in proportion as they came in 

 contact with Europeans. D'Urville 1 says of them, " Though 

 trade may be a potent means of leading rude nations to civiliza- 

 tion, it is incapable, in many instances, of effecting it on account 

 of the bad character of the people who first come in contact 

 with them/' 



Instances of a perfectly peaceable and friendly intercourse, 

 between Europeans and savage nations, are very rare, and 

 belong to a very recent period. Port Essington offers such an 

 instance, having been an English colony from 1839-50, but has 

 since been abandoned. During that whole period, no inimical 

 collision between White and native is said to have occurred. 

 There is another instance of this kind furnished by Brooke in 

 Sarawak, Borneo. Brooke took care that the old laws and 

 customs of the population should, as much as possible, be pre- 

 served ; he protected them from the oppression of the native 

 rulers, established an impartial court of justice to punish 

 crimes, free trade and labour, and very moderate taxes. 2 The 

 results, however, of these attempts at civilization seem to 

 have been, that the natives of Sarawak, by being freed from 

 oppression, by the diminution of taxes, and the obtaining 



1 " Voyage au Pole Sud," ix, p. 134. 



2 Reports of Rajah. Brooke's doings have been latterly spread, which do 

 not agree with the above statement ; whether they are true or not must for 

 the present remain undecided. 



