nish colonies has hindered the progress of all researches of this kind.

In man, the deviations from the common type of the whole race turn rather on the stature*, the physiognomy, or the form of the body, than on the colour. It is not so with animals, where varieties are found more in the colour, than in the form. The hair of the mammiferous kind, the feathers of birds, and even the scales of fish, change their hue, according to the lengthened influence of light and darkness, according to the intensity of the heat and cold. In man, the colouring matter seems to be deposited in the dermoidal system by the roots or the bulbs of the hair; and all sound observations prove, that the skin varies in colour from the action of external stimuli on individuals, and not hereditarily on the whole race. The Eskimoes of Greenland and the Laplanders are tanned by the influence of the air; but their children are born white. We will not decide on the changes, which nature may produce in a space of time exceeding all historical traditions. Reason stops short in these matters,

The circumpolar nations of the two continents are small and squat, though of races entirely different.

+ According to the interesting researches of Mr. Gaultier, on the organization of the human skin, p. 57, John Hunter observes, that in several animals the coloration of the hair is independent of that of the skin.

when no longer under the guidance of experience and analogy.

The nations that have a white skin begin their cosmogony by white men; according to them, the Negroes and all tawny people have been blackened or embrowned by the excessive heat of the Sun. This theory, adopted by the Greeks*, though not without contradiction†, has been propagated even to our own times. Buffon has repeated in prose, what Theodectes had expressed in verse two thousand years before: "that the nations wear the livery of the climate they inhabit." If history had been written by black nations, they would have maintained what even Europeans have recently advanced, that man was originally black, or of a very tawny colour; and that he has whitened in some races, from the effect of civiliza

* Strabo, liv. xv. (Oxford edition by Falconer, t. 11, p. 990.)

+ Onesicritus, apud Strabon., Lib. xv, (loc. cit., p. 983). Alexander's expedition appears to have contributed greatly to fix the attention of the Greeks on the great question of the influence of climates. They had learned from the account of travellers, that in Hindostan the nations of the south were of a darker colour than those of the north near the mountains; and they supposed, that they were both of the same race.

See the work of Mr. Prichard, abounding with curious research. "Researches into the physical History of Man, 1813,” p. 233–239.

tion and progressive debilitation, as animals, in a state of domestication, pass from dark to lighter colours. In plants and in animals, accidental varieties, formed under our own eyes, are become constant, and have been propagated without alteration: but nothing proves, that in the present state of the human organization, the different races of black, yellow, copper-coloured, and white men, when they remain unmixed, deviate considerably from their primitive type by the influence of climates, of food, and other external agents.

I shall have occasion to return to these general considerations, when we shall ascend the vast table-lands of the Cordilleras, which are four or five times more elevated than the valley of Caripe. I shall here only cite the authority of Ulloa. This learned man has seen the

* For example, the sheep with very short legs, called ancon sheep in Connecticut, and examined by Sir Everard Home. This variety dates only from the year 1791.

"The Indians (Americans) are of a copper colour, which by the action of the sun and the air grows darker. I must remark, that neither heat nor cold produces any sensible change in the colour, so that the Indians of the Cordilleras of Peru are easily confounded with those of the hottest plains; and those who live under the line cannot be distinguished, by the colour, from those who inhabit the fortieth degree of north and south latitude." Noticias Americ., cap. 17, p. 307. No ancient author has so clearly stated the two forms of reasoning, by which we still explain in our

Indians of Chili, of the Andes of Peru, of the burning coasts of Panama, and those of Louisiana, situate under the northern temperate zone. He had the good fortune to live at a period, when theories were less numerous; and, like me, he was struck at seeing the native, under the line, as much bronzed, as brown, in the cold climate of the Cordilleras, as in the plains. Where differences of colour are observed, they depend on the race. We shall soon find on the burning banks of the Oroonoko Indians with a whitish skin; Est durans originis vis.

days the differences of colour and figure among neighbouring nations, as Tacitus, in the life of Agricola. He makes a just distinction between the influence of climate, and hereditary dispositions; and, like a philosopher persuaded of our profound ignorance of the origin of things, leaves the question undecided. Habitus corporum varii atque ex eo argumenta. Seu durante originis vi, seu procurrentibus in diversa terris, positio cali corporibus habitum dedit. Agricola, Cap. II.

NOTES TO THE THIRD BOOK.

NOTE A.

I will give here a list of the grammars of American languages, that I brought to Europe, and which have recently excited the interest of the learned by the investigations of Messrs. Hervas, Gili, Barton, Vater, and Schlegel.

Bernardo de Lugo, gramatica de la lengua del Nuevo Reyno de Granada o de la lengua de los Muyzcas o Mozcas. Madrid, 1619.

Diego Gonzalez Holguin, Vocabulario de la lengua general de todo el Peru, llamada lengua Qquichua o del Inca, conforme a la propriedad cortesana del Cuzco. Ciudad de los Reyes, 1608.

Gramatica de la lengua del Inca. Lima, 1753.

Al. de Molina, Vocabulario de la lengua Mexicana. Mexico, 1571.

Augustin de Vetancurt, Arte de la lengua Mexicana. Mexico, 1673.

Ant. Vasquez Gastelu y Raym. de Figueroa, arte de lengua Mexicana. Puebla de los Angeles, 1693.

L. de Neve y Molina, Reglas de ortografia, Diccionario y arte del idioma Othomi. Mexico, 1767.

Carlos de Tapia Zenteno, Noticia de la lengua Huasteca, con doctrina christiana. Mexico, 1767.

Fr. Antonio de los Reyes, Gramatica de la lengua Mixteca. Mexico, 1593.

Jose Zambrano Bonilla, cura de San Andres de Hucitlapan, arte de la lengua Totonaca, con una doctrina de la len