AFRICAN ABORIGINES.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3165, 10 April 1879, Page 2

AFRICAN ABORIGINES.

It is a curious fact that of all the native races brought in contact with our civilisation the African is the only one which has escaped extinction. In spite of hostile measures which their attitude has. rendered necessary, the gunpowder we have sold them, and the proselytising crusades which we have undertaken in.their interests, the. aborigines of South America have so far triumphed over their' eonq'deV'p rors that they have increased and multi?; plied, obtained freedom and civil rights. The French in North America protected the Bed Indian, and would have - made him part of their nation. It is only before us, as in Canada, Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, that the aborigines gradually recede. The one exception to the raid is marked with striking distinctness., The African natives have always held their own at the Cape. Whether it is that our settlements have spread so rapidly that the wide areas occupied left room for the aborigines to thrive-and prosper; or ~ that there is an inherent vitality in the African races which is not easily overcome the fact remains that the African peoples do not diminish, but increase. All this tends to make our policy at the Cape and its consequences one of the most intriovto problems for the coming years. ■'