No. 17

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch
No 12 of the 2nd of September last, transmitting to me a copy
of a letter from the Aborigines Protection Society, invoking the
protection of Her Majesty's Government on behalf of those
people.

2. While you do not wish to be understood as adopting the
views of the Society, as to the means by which that may be best
accomplished, you express a wish that the subject should have my
prompt and careful consideration, and I shall not fail to give the
fullest effect to your instructions on that head, as soon as the
present pressure of business has somewhat abated. I may however
remark, that the Native Indian Tribes are protected in all their
interests to the utmost extent of our present means.