zed horse. Such a one is deemed a small horse in America. The extremes must therefore be resorted to. The same anatomist* dissected a horse of 5 feet 9 inches height, French measure, equal to 6 feet 1.7 English. This is near 6 inches higher than any horse I have seen: and could it be supposed that I had seen the largest horses in America, the conclusion would be, that ours have diminished, or that we have bred from a smaller stock. In Connecticut and Rhode Island, where the climate is favourable to the production of grass, bullocks have been slaughtered which weighed 2500, 2200, and 2100lb. nett; and those of 1800lb. have been frequent. I have seen a hogt weigh 1050lb. after the blood, bowels, and hair had been taken from him. Before he was killed, an attempt was made to weigh him with a pair of steel-yards, graduated to 1200lb. but he weighed more. Yet this hog was probably not within 50 generations of the European stock. I am well informed of another which weighed 1100lb. gross. Asses have been still more neglected than any other domestic animal in America. They are neither fed nor housed in the most rigorous season of the year. Yet they are larger than those measured by Mons. D'Aubenton,‡ of 5 feet 7 inches, 3 feet 4 inches, and 3 feet 2 inches, the latter weighing only 215-81b. These sizes I suppose, have been produced by the same negligence in Europe, which has produced a like diminution here. Where care has been taken of them on that side of the water, they have *VII. 474. + In Williamsburg, April, 1769, H been raised to a size bordering on that of the horse; not by the heat and dryness of the climate, but by good food and shelter. Goats have been also much neglected in America. Yet they are very prolific here, bearing twice or three times a year, and from one to five kids at a birth. Mons. de Buffon has been sensible of a difference in this circumstance in favour of America*. But what are their greatest weights, I cannot say. A large sheep here weighs 100lb. I observe Mons. D'Aubenton calls a ram of 62lb. one of the middle sizef. But to say what are the extremes of growth in these and the other domestic animals of America, would require information of which no one individual is possessed. The weights actually known and stated in the third table preceding will suffice to show, that we may conclude, on probable grounds, that, with equal food and care, the climate of America will preserve the races of domestic animals as large as the European stock from which they are derived; and consequently that the third member of Mons. de Buffon's assertion, that the domestic animals are subject to degeneration from the climate of America, is as probably wrong as the first and second were certainly so. That the last part of it is erroneous, which affirms that the species of American quadrupeds are comparatively few, is evident from the tables taken together. By these it appears that there are an hundred species aboriginal of America. Mons. de Buffon supposes about double that number existing on the whole earth*. Of these Europe, Asia, and Africa, furnish suppose 126; that is, the 26 common to Europe and America, and about 100 which are not in America at all. The American species then are to those of the rest of the earth, as 100 to 126, or 4 to 5. But the residue of the earth being double the extent of America, the exact proportion would have been but as 4 to 8. Hitherto I have considered this hypothesis as applied to brute animals only, and not in its extension to the man of America, whether aboriginal or transplanted. It is the opinion of Mons. de Buffon that the former furnishes no exception to it. † Quoique le sauvage du nouveau monde soit a peupres de meme stature que l' homme de notre monde, cela ne suffit pas pour qu'il puiss faire une exception au fait general du rapetissement de la nature vivante dans tout ce continent: le sauvage est foible & petit par les organes de la generation; il n'a ni poil, ni barbe, & nulle ardeur pour sa femelle. Quoique plus leger que l' Europeen, parce qu'il a plus d'habitude a courir, il est cependant beaucoup moins fort de corps; il est aussi bien moins sensible, & cependant plus craintif & plus lache; il n'a nulle vivacite, nulle activite dans l'ame; celle du corps est moins un exercice, un mouvement voluntaire qu'une necessite d'action causee par le besoin; otez lui la faim & la soif, vous detruirez en meme tems le principe actif de tous ses mouvements; il demeurera stupidement en repos sur ses jambes ou couche pendant des jours entiers. Il ne faut pas aller chercher plus loin a cause de la vie dispersee des sauvages & de leur eloignement pour la societe: la plus precieuse etincelle du feu de la nature leur a ete refusee; ils manquent d'ardeur pour leur femelle, & par consequent d'amour pour leur semblables ne connoissant pas l'attachment le plus vif, le plus tendre de tous; leurs autres sentimens de ce genre, sont froids & languissans; ils aiment foiblement leurs peres & leurs enfans; la societe la plus intime di toutes, celle de la meme famille, n'a donc chez eux que de foibles liens; la societe d'une famille a l'autre n'en a point de tout des lors nulle reunion, nulle republique, nulle etat social. La physique de l' amour fait chez eux le moral des mœurs; leur cœur est glace, leur societe & leur empire dur. Ils ne regardent leurs femmes que comme des servantes de peine ou des betes de somme qu'ils chan gent, sans menagement, du fardeau de leur chasse, & qu'ils forcent, sans pitie, sans reconnoissance, a des ouvrages qui souvent sont audessus de leurs forces: ils n'ont que peu d'enfans; ils en ont peu de soin: tout se ressent de leur premier defaut; ils sont indifferents parce qu'ils sont peu puissants, & cette indifference pour le sexe est la tache originelle qui fletrit la nature, qui l'empeche de s'epanouir, & qui detruisant les germes de la vie, coupe en meme temps la racine de la societe. L'homme ne fait donc point d'exception ici. La nature en lui refusant les puissances de l'amour l'a plus maltraite & plus rapetisse qu'aucun des animaux." An afflicting picture, indeed, which for the ho nour of human nature, I am glad to belive has no original. Of the Indian of South-America I know nothing; for I would not honour with the appellation of knowledge, what I derive from the fables published of them. These I believe to bejust as true as the fables of Esop. This belief is founded on what I have seen of man, white, red, and black, and what has been written of him by authors, enlightened themselves, and writing amidst an enlightened people. The Indian of North-America being more within our reach, I can speak of him somewhat from my own knowledge, but more from the information of others better acquainted with him, and on whose truth and judgment I can rely. From these sources I am able to say, in contradiction to this representation, that he is neither more defective in ardour, nor more impotent with his female, than the white reduced to the same diet and exercise: that he is brave, when an enterprise depends on bravery; education with him making the point of honour consist in the destruction of an enemy by stratagem, and in the preservation of his own person free from injury; or perhaps this is nature; while it is education which teaches us to honour force more than finesse; that he will defend himself against an host of enemies, always choosing to be killed, rather than to surrendert, though it be to the whites, who he * Sol Rodomonte sprezza di venire Aristo. 14. 17: + In so judicious an author as Don Ulloa, and one to whom we are indebted tor the most precise information we have of South America, I did not expect to find such assertions as the following: "Los Indios vencidos son los mas cobardes y pusilanimes que se peuden vér: Se |