Such a right is indubitable, if the new settlement takes place at
such a distance from the seat of the former that neither would
restrict or injure the other in the use of their territory. But in the
case of nomadic peoples, or tribes of shepherds and hunters (such as
the Hottentots, the Tungusi, and most of the American Indians),
whose support is derived from wide desert tracts, such occupation
should never take place by force, but only by contract; and any such
contract ought never to take advantage of the ignorance of the
original dwellers in regard to the cession of their lands. Yet it is
commonly alleged that such acts of violent appropriation may be
justified as subserving the general good of the world. It appears as
if sufficiently justifying grounds were furnished for them, partly
by reference to the civilization of barbarous peoples (as by a pretext
of this kind even Busching tries to excuse the bloody introduction
of the Christian religion into Germany), and partly by founding upon
the necessity of purging one's own country from depraved criminals,
and the hope of their improvement or that of their posterity, in
another continent like New Holland. But all these alleged good
purposes cannot wash out the stain of injustice in the means
employed to attain them.
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