APPENDIX. 
421 
commanded to confer with. But in the case of human sacrifices, 
the doctrines of the Christian religion, as well as all natural 
principles of right and wrong, so utterly prohibit them, and the 
practice is so certain to perpetuate barbarism, and so calculated 
to prevent all siife and profitable communication, that you are 
authorized in this case to make an exception from the general 
rule of not interfering with the domestic institutions of each State. 
Wherever, therefore you shall find that human sacrifices 
exist, you will earnestly entreat the Chief to consider the reasons 
for complying with the earnest wish of our Queen who desires 
their welfare, and who is so powerful a friend to them and to all 
whom she protects. You will, if necessary and prudent, 
assemble the Headmen, and urge to them as well as to the Chief, 
the considerations which should prompt them to abolish the 
practice, viz, : 
The general and inevitable effect of human sacrifices in 
lessening the population ; and the particular evil of the practice 
in depriving the country, at times, of persons the most service- 
able to it, at the moment when they are most needed, the 
consequence in all cases of producing misery in the family from 
which the victim is selected ; the utter subversion of all principles 
of justice, in taking away the life of any person without any 
offence having been committed by the individual ; the feeling of 
general insecurity of life, which such a practice produces, and 
the necessary abhorrence of Him who has created all Men, to 
an act which is against every tie of human affection, and to a 
punishment which makes no distinction between innocence and 
crime. 
You will earnestly entreat them to consider the great truths 
you have told them, and to break the bonds which chain them 
to this practice. 
But you will insist on this point no further, than by anxious 
exhortation, and by affectionate advice ; and should you fail at 
present, you will leave it to time, and repeated council, to produce 
a change so devoutly to be wished. 
25. The second stipulation is for a purchase of land, for the 
erection of a Fort. 
It is considered desirable by her Majesty^s Government, to have 
