3884.] Proceedings nfthe Asiatic Society. 63 



The President remarked that without entering into the abstract 

 question raised by Mr. Blanford, it might perhaps be doubted if the 

 facts cited by him fully warranted in their entirety the conclusions at 

 which he had arrived. 



No doubt it was unfortunately true that in the majority of cases 

 m which a race of high civilization had come into coDtact with 

 another of a very inferior civilization, the result had been fatal to the 

 latter. It was unnecessary here to discuss the causes which had con- 

 tributed to produce this effect. The President, however, would call 

 the attention of the meeting to one instance which he believed proved 

 at least that an exception might exist to the general rule. The Laps 

 whom Mr. Blanford had cited as forming a part of the same brachy- 

 cephalic family to which the Andamanese belonged, had been for some 

 time (for more at least than a century and a half) in contact on either 

 side with Swedish and Eussian civilization, and however it might be 

 the fashion to decry the character of the latter, there could in reality 

 be no doubt that it was civilization of the highest order, especiallv 

 in that part of Eussia which bordered on the territory of the Laps. 



Now, the result had certainly not been in this case the extermina- 

 tion of the Laps ; indeed, though not speaking on accurate informa- 

 tion, the President believed that the Laps had neither diminished in 

 numbers nor deteriorated in condition, since the commencement of the 

 last century. 



But whatever might be the opinion of the meeting on the merits 

 of Mr. Blanford's general proposition, it was important to remember 

 that in the present case the question was not whether or not we 

 should leave the Andamanese alone, for the commencement of our 

 intercourse with them was unavoidable. These islands lie in the very 

 track of a very important and daily increasiiag line of commerce. 

 They contain what are in reality the only harbours of refuge within 

 the Bay of Bengal. It had been already constantly pressed upon 

 Government that it was their duty for the protection of these our 

 subjects, and those of other nations trading in these seas to reclaim 

 these Islands now abandoned to a barbarous and hostile population. 

 No doubt these considerations have sooner or later made interference 

 inevitable. The establishment of a penal colony which the necessities 

 of jail discipline in India had compelled Government to form, only 

 hastened the event. 



