ABORIGINES, a term by which we denote the primitive inhabitants of a country. Thus, to take one of the most striking instances, when the continent and islands of America were discovered, they were found to be inha bited by various races of people, of whose immigration into those regions we have no historical accounts. All the tribes, then, of North America may, for the present, be con sidered as aborigines. But the word abori gines has of late come into general use to express the natives of various parts of the world in which Europeans have settled ; but it seems to be limited or to be nearly limited to such natives as are barbarous, and do not cultivate the ground, and have no settled ha bitations. The aborigines of Australasia and Van Diemen's Land (if there are any left in Van Diemen's Land) are so called as being savages, though the name may be applied with equal propriety to cultivators of the ground. Some benevolent people suppose that aborigines, who are not cultivators of the ground, may become civilized like Europeans. But it has not yet been proved satisfactorily that this change can be effected in any large numbers ; and if it can be effected it is an essential condition that the aborigines must give Hp their present mode of life and adopt that of the settlers. Tho New Zealanders, a people of natural industry and acuteness, will perhaps fqrnish the most striking example of the dominant influence of civilization. But
such a change is not easy: even in the United States of North America it has been only par tially effected. The wide expanse of country between the Mississipi and the Atlantic is now nearly cleared of the aborigines, and the white man, who covets the possession of land, will follow up his victory till he has occupied every portion of the continent which he finds suit able for cultivation. The red man must be• come a cultivator, or he must retire to places where the white man does not think it worth his while to follow him. The savage abori gines do not pass from what we call barbarism to what we call civilization without being sub jected to the force of external circumstances, that is, the presence among them of settlers or conquerors. There is no more reason for supposing that huntsmen will change their mode of life, such as it is, without being com pelled, than that agricultural people will change theirs. As contributors to the In dustry of Nations, the aborigines of North America are important auxiliaries to the com mercial skill of the European. The fur trade is supported by the hardihood and sagacity of the Indian hunters and trappers. See Ens TRADE.