Aboriginés

Aboriginés (Lat.), properly the earliest inhabitants of a country. The corresponding term used by the Greeks was Auto'chthônēs. The Roman and Greek historians, however, apply the name Aborigines to a special people, who, according to tradition, had their original seats in the mountains about Reate; but, being driven out by the Sabines, descended into Latium, and in conjunction with a tribe of Pelasgi, subdued or expelled thence the Siculi, and occupied the country. The Aborigines then disappear as a distinct people, they and their allies the Pelasgi having taken the name of Latini. The non-Pelasgic element of the Roman population is supposed to represent these Aborigines, who would thus belong to the Oscans or Ausonians. The name is applied generally to the original or native inhabitants of a country as opposed to an intrusive conquering race, or to colonists and their descendants.—An Aborigines Protection Society was founded in 1838, to take all possible means for protecting the natives of various countries from murder and ill-usage generally at the hands of colonists and other white men.