pious Cotton Mather was so imbued with this fierce doctrine, and so full of complacent regard for the Lord's people, as to exult in a destructive sickness among the Indians, and could quietly write: "By this prodigious pestilence the woods were cleared of those pernicious creatures, to make room for a better growth."
Mr. Merivale, in his "Colonies and Colonization," lays down the principle that "Native races must in every instance either perish, or be amalgamated with the general population of their country."
The amalgamation with aboriginal people has never been a favourite theory with the colonists from the British Isles. In a certain circle, the presence of Indian blood, provided it be direct from Pocahontas, or other historical princess, would be a passport to respectability; otherwise, it need not be mentioned. With the Spaniards and Portuguese it is otherwise. Alliance with the coloured race, though not always a necessity, was unobjectionable to taste, and was sanctioned by religion. The spread of mixed populations over the Americas has preserved the Indian element, not only by direct amalgamation, but by the growth of sympathy with the dark man of the woods. The Romish Church was eager to facilitate such unions, as they extended its influence and secured its triumphs.
Though the gratification of mere lustful emotions brought the opposing races occasionally together in our southern settlements, it tended greatly to the further decline of the weaker people. Marriages were scorned, and lengthened associations were only maintained for the convenience of the stronger party, to be broken at his will, and annulled without remorse. Concubinage itself was abhorrent to many Bushmen, when with such a debased and inferior race as the Tasmanians, especially in the later times of their degradation and decay. But still, with the lighter coloured, higher developed, and even graceful inhabitants of New Zealand, the alliance could not reach beyond the temporary and the selfish. Some remarks from a recent number of the Taranaki Herald of New Zealand illustrate the difficulties in the way:—
"The great excess of males over females will of itself prevent in a great measure intermarriage between white men and native women. In addition to which it may be mentioned that, until
