"Darwin wasn't the first person to observe that primitive people, all over the world, were dying off."
Well, then, why don't you spell out, for the benefit of the lurkers, just who Darwin was talking about, when he referred to primitive people in that excerpt? It's there, in plain English. I'm also intrigued by the notion that Darwin had in his possession, or had observed, fossils of civilized Caucasians.
I am not familiar with this claim. Could you please provide a link or additional information?
Huh? How is this unclear to you? He contrasted "savage" to "civilized" people. So he's talking about indigenous groups of people without advanced civilization. Duh.