THE ROOTS OF EMPIRE 43 



infectious diseases, it was unknown among the 

 scanty populations of the Western Hemisphere, 

 till introduced from the Old World ; whence came, 

 not only Old World diseases, but Old World 

 conditions of life as well — teeming cities, air-tight 

 houses, and clothes, the best of all vehicles for 

 the conveyance of infection. Thereupon, four 

 hundred years ago, began the greatest tragedy 

 known to human history — a tragedy so great that it 

 transcends in magnitude all the combined tragedies 

 caused by all wars in all places during all time. 

 A tragedy which is resulting in the extermination 

 of nearly all the races inhabiting half the world. 

 No gradual evolution, as in ancient Europe, was 

 possible to them under the new conditions. There 

 was no discrimination between the fit and the unfit. 

 The Caribs and the Tasmanians are gone. The 

 Esquimaux, the Red Indians, the Patagonians, the 

 Terra del Fuegians, the Australasians, the Poly- 

 nesians, are going. 



Writing of the Spanish occupation of the West 

 Indies, the late Professor Froude said : — 



" The Carib races whom the Spaniards found in Cuba and 

 San Domingo had withered there before them as if struck by a 

 blight. Many of them died under the lash of the Spanish over- 

 seers. Many, perhaps the most, from the mysterious causes 

 which have made the presence of civilisation so fatal to the Red 

 Indians, the Australians, and the Maoris. It is with man as it 

 is with animals. The races that consent to be domesticated 



