knowledge, that the Samoides, Laplanders, and Greenlanders, are of à sallow complexion; for which he has the following salvo, that the extremities of heat and of cold produce nearly the same effects on the skin. But he is totally silent upon a fact that alone overturns his whole system of colour, viz. that all Americans, without exception, are of a copper colour, though in that vast continent there is every variety of climate. The southern Chinese are white, though in the neighbourhood of the torrid zone; and women of fashion in the island Otaheité, who cover themselves from the sun, have the European complexion. Neither doth the black colour of some Africans, nor the brown colour of others, correspond to the climate. The people of the desart of Zaara, commonly termed Lower Ethiopia, though exposed to the vertical rays of the sun in a burning sand, yielding not in heat even to Guinea, are of a tawny colour, far from being jet black like negroes. The natives of Monomotapa are perfectly black, with crisped woolly hair, though the southern parts of that extensive kingdom are in a temperate climate. And the Caffers, even those who live near the Cape of Good Hope, are the same sort of people. The heat of Abyssinia approacheth nearer to that of Guinea; and yet, as mentioned above, the inhabitants are not black. Nor will our author's ingenious observation concerning the extremities of heat and cold, account for the sallow complexion

of the Samoides, Laplanders, and Greenlanders, The Finlanders and northern Norwegians live in a climate no less cold than that of the people mentioned, and yet are fair beyond other Europeans. I say more, there are many instances of races of people preserving their original colour in climates very different from their own; and not a single instance of the contrary, as far as I can learn. There have been four complete generations of negroes in Pennsylvania, without any visible change of colour they continue jet black as originally. The Moors in Hindostan retain their natural colour, though transplanted there more than three centuries ago. And the Mogul family continue white, like their ancestors the Tartars, though they have reigned in Hindostan above four centuries. Shaw, in his travels through Barbary, mentions a people inhabiting the mountains of Auress, bordering upon Algiers on the south, who appeared to be of a different race from the Moors. Their complexion, far from swarthy, is fair and ruddy; and their hair a deep yellow, instead of being dark, as among the neighbouring Moors. He conjectures them to be a remnant of the Vandals, perhaps the tribe mentioned by Procopius in his first book of the Vandalic war. If the European complexion be proof against a hot climate for a thousand years, I pronounce that it will never yield to climate. In the suburbs of Cochin, a town in Malabar, there is a colony of industrious Jews of

the

the same complexion they have in Europe. They pretend that they were established there during the captivity of Babylon: it is certain that they have been many ages in that country. Those who ascribe all to the sun, ought to consider how little probable it is, that the colour it impresses on the parents should be communicated to their infant children, who never saw the sun: I should be as soon induced to believe, with a German naturalist whose name has escaped me, that the Negro colour is owing to an ancient custom in Africa of dying the skin black. Let a European for years expose himself to the sun in a hot climate, till he be quite brown, his children will nevertheless have the same complexion with those in Europe. The Hottentots are continually at work, and have been for ages, to darken their complexion; but that operation has no effect on their children. From the action of the sun, is it possible to explain why a Negro, like a European, is born with a ruddy skin, which turns jet-black the eighth or ninth day* ?

Different tribes are distinguishable no less by internal disposition than by external figure. Nations are for the most part so blended by war, by commerce, or by other means, that vain would be the attempt to trace out an original character in any cultivated nation. But there are savage tribes,

* Different flowers derive their colour from nature, and preserve the same colour in every climate. What reason is there to believe, that climate should have greater influence upon the colour of men than of flowers?

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which, as far as can be discovered, continue to this day pure without mixture, which act by instinct not art, which have not learned to disguise their passions to such I confine the inquiry. There is no propensity in human nature more general than aversion from strangers, as will be made evident afterwards *. And yet some nations must be excepted, not indeed many in number, who are remarkably kind to strangers; by which circumstance they appear to be of a singular race. order to set the exceptions in a clear light, a few instances shall be premised of the general propensity. The nations that may be the most relied on for an original character are islanders at a distance from the continent and from each other. Among such, great variety of character is found. Some islands adjacent to New Guinea are inhabited by Negroes, a bold, mischievous, untractable race; always ready to attack strangers when they approach the shore. The people of New Zealand are of a large size and of a hoarse voice. They appeared shy according to Tasman's account. Some of them, however, ventured on board in order to trade; but finding opportunity, they surprised seven of his men in a shallop, and without the slightest provocation killed three of them, the rest having escaped by swimming. The island called Recreation, 16th degree southern latitude, and 148th of longitude west from London, was discovered

*Book ii. Sketch 1.

in

in Roggewein's voyage. Upon sight of the ships, the natives flocked to the shore with long pikes. The crew made good their landing, having by firearms beat back the natives; who, returning after a short interval, accepted presents of beads, small looking-glasses, and other trinkets, without shewing the least fear they even assisted the crew in gathering herbs for those who were afflicted with the scurvy. Some of the crew traversing the island in great security, and trusting to some natives who led the way, were carried into a deep valley surrounded with rocks; where they were instantly attacked on every side with large stones : with difficulty they made their escape, but not without leaving several dead upon the field. In Commodore Byron's voyage to the South Sea, an island was discovered, which he named Disappointment. The shore was covered with natives in arms to prevent landing. They were black, and without clothing, except what covered the parts that nature teaches to hide. But a specimen is sufficient here, as the subject will be fully illustrated in the sketch referred to above.

The kindness of some tribes to strangers deserves more attention, being not a little singular. Gonneville, commander of a French ship, in a voyage to the East Indies, in the year 1503, was driven by a tempest into an unknown country, and continued there six months, while his vessel was refitting. The manners he describes were in all appearance original.