The Sun.
London, England, 1842-05-17 00:00:00

THE ABORIGINES' PROTECTION
SOCIETY.

The Fifth Annual Meeting of thts Society was held
yesterday at Exeter Hall. Among the ladies and
gentlemen present we noticed William Gore Ousely,
Esq., late Charge d'Affaires at Brazil; Dr. Hodgkin,
Sir C. E. Smith, Bart., Wm. Tooke, Esq., Rev. John
Burnett, Josiah Forster, Esq., John Barton, Esq.,
Chevalier Dillon, Dr. Ernest Dieffenbach, Colonel
Jackson, Edward Backhouse, Esq., Mrs. Samuel
Gurney, Mrs. Amelia Opie, and several other ladies
of distinction.

The Chair having been taken, shortly after one
o'clock, by F. HODGKIN, Esq., M.D., the Father of
the Society," the Secretary read the following
REPORT.

" The Aborigines' Protection Society are again met io
receive from their Committee a retrospective statement
of a year's exertions. Your Commttee are painfully
sensible that the Society has not attained to that magni-
tude and importance, or achieved those results which,
doubtless, their early friends, who five years since met to
receive their first annual report, might reasonably antici-
pate, when advocating so interesting and important a
cause, and appealing to a public at once enlightened and
benevolent. They are, nevertheless, encouraged to hope
that their constituents and the public will regard with
favourable indulgence the exertions, of the past year.
From necessity and not from choice, their labours have
been proportioned to the smallness of their resources,
rather than to the magnitude, and interest, and neces-
sities of their cause, yet in hopeful confidence they come
before you, trusting that the continuance of your interest,
and the increasing support of the public, may enable
their successors so to conduct the operations of the So-
ciety, that it may more nearly realize the hopes and
wishes of its founders. You will perceive from the ab-
stract of occurrences which this report contains, that the
past year, like its predecessors, has been fruitful in events
of great importance to the existence of that portion of the
human race, in accordance with custom, rather than with
strict propriety, comprehended in the term Aborigines.
"It might naturally be supposed that the exalted position
which man holds as the highest and noblest of living
creatures, would render an accurate knowledge of the
varieties into which his species is divided, a most legiti-
mate and interesting object of research ; yet so little
does this view of the subject engage attention, that it
may safely be said, that man is less generally and mi-
nutely studied than many of the groups of inferior ani-
mals, whether they are numbered amongst the living
inhabitants of the globe; or are only known through
those organic remains which are scattered beneath its
surface.

"Important as the study of man must confessedly be,
as the highest object of natural history, the subject be-
comes far higher and more important, when we seek,
through its assistance, to trace out those families, into
which Sacred Record informs us that the decendants of
our first parents have been divided in their diffusion over
the surface of the terraqueous globe. How few are there
who most confidently believe in the common origin of
mankind, who can form any accurate idea of the divi-
sions and combinations of tribes which have taken place,
and how little has been done to prove, by the incontest-
able evidence of living witnesses, that the doubts of the
sceptic in this respect are manifestly groundless. Sonic
idea of the kind of interest connected with this inquiry
may be formed, if we take as an illustration the attention
which has been paid to any feasible inquiry as to what
is become of the lost tribes of the children of Israel.
Almost every branch of our great family is precisely in
the same state, and we must despair of arriving at any
satisfactory solution, if we allow tribe after tribe to be
I sacrificed to our cupidity.
" Your Society do not limit themselves to a particular
portion of the globe because from all quarters, in which.
civilised and uncivilised men are brought into contact,
they may derive those facts which serve to prove the
aggressive character of the former, and to engage the
most attentive interest, and call forth the strongest
sympathy on behalf of the latter.
" At the meeting of the Society last year, the most
gratifying announcement the Committee had to make
related to Western Australia, where a colony had been
founded, under the auspices of the Western Australian
Company, consisting of London merchants and capital-
ists, who gave assurances that they would surpass all
their predecessors in their efforts to benefit rather than
injure the natives of the soil which they proposed to ap-
propriate; nor could a stronger proof of the merits of
their assurances have been given than the fact, that the
Company offered, if sanctioned by Government, to send
out a Commissioner nominated by your Society, for the
express purpose of making himself thoroughly
acquainted with the natives and their territory;
in order to frame on the spot measures cal-
culated to secure their existence and well-being.
in peaceful alliance with their new neighbours. The most
gratifying encouragement, and fullest co-operation was
given at the Colonial-office, and your Committee had
the satisfaction of securing a Commissioner who raised

their hopes in proportion to their entire confidence in
his qualifications for the task assigned him. It is not
for this Committee to dive into or judge of the reasons
which led the Directors of the Company to decline car-
rying out their proposal when preparations were so far
completed. But the Committee would not be doing jus-
tice to themselves if they omitted to state that they did
not relinquish their hopes of success until much time and
careful attention had been devoted to the subject.

" AMERICA.

"With regard to the Aborigines of British possessions
in North America, your Committee regrets the defi-
ciency of documentary evidence, and the want of in-
formation bearing on those people.
" The little remnant of Micmacs, cut off from • Com-
munication with kindred tribes, and leading a semi-
civilized life, on a greatly restricted and inadequate ter-
ritory, have sought, by the personal application of a
deputation from their number, relief at the hands of the
Colonial Department of the mother country ; and your
Committee feel unfeigned pleasure in stating that the re-
ception with which those Indians were favoured by the
present head of that department, Lord Stanley, warrants
the hope that the petition will not have been heard in
vain. Through the kind attention of the Rev. Egerton
Ryeson, the Editor of the Christian Guardian, your
Committee have received repeated accounts of the suc-
cessful operations of missions in isolated Indian villages.
The Mohawk children are advancing in school educa-
tion, and the converts to Christianity in the Credit, Rice
Lake, and Muncey settlements, maintain their improved
character with respect to temperance, and are advancing
in agriculture and domestic tomfort--facts which esta-
blish the feasibility of those reforms in regard to the
treatment of the Indian population of our North Ame-
rican provinces, for which this Society has perseveringly
pleaded.
" The difficulties which for some time continued to
exist in the arrangements with the Cherokees, subse-
quently to their removal, have, it appears, been satis-
factorily terminated ; and private accounts from Washin-
ton announce that the enlightened chief John Ross had
received the payment of many thousand dollars due to
his tribe.

" The Chippewa chief, Hesh-ton-i-quet, who formarly
resided within the Canadian frontier, and has often been
mentioned in the publications of your Society, states in
a recent letter, that the payment of his land is still with-
held, though ordered, nearly two years since, by the
authorities at Washington. The natural consequence
of this delay has been greatly to discourage the efforts of
the chief and his companions, who have been subjected