and arched legs, their foot is large, and their whole body BOOK squat and thick set.* Anatomy likewise enables us to as- LXXV. certain that in the cranium, the superciliary arches are more strongly marked; the orbits of the eye deeper; the cheek-bones more rounded, and better defined; the temporal bones more level; the branches of the lower jaw less diverging; the occipital bone not so convex; and the facial line more inclined than among the Mongol race, with whom it has been sometimes attempted to confound them. The shape of the forehead and of the vertex most frequently depends on the employment of artificial means; but, independently of the custom of disfiguring the heads of infants, there is no other people in the world in whom the frontal bone is so much flattened above; generally speaking, the skull is light.

Such are the general and distinguishing characteristics Anomalies of all the American nations, with the exception, perhaps, of those who occupy the polar regions at its two extremities. The Hyperborean Esquimaux, as well as the Southern Puelches, are below the middle stature, and in their features and figure present the greatest resemblance to the Samoides. The Abipones, and still more especially, the Patagonians, attain a gigantic height. This strong and muscular constitution of body, together with a tall figure, is in a certain degree met with among the natives of Chili, as well as among the Carribbeans who inhabit the plains of the Delta of the Orinoco, as far as the sources of the Rio-Blanco,¶ and amongst the Arkansas,

* Blumenbach, p. 146. 183. 194. 283. Humboldt, Essai pol. sur la Nouvelle Espagne, tom. I. p. 381; ed. in 8vo. Felix de Beaujour Aperçu des Etats-Unis, P. 173.

+ Blumenbach, p. 218.

A. de Humboldt, tom. I. p. 397, 398.

G. Forster's Voyage to the North-West Coast of America, III. 65. Ulloa's Historical and Physical Notice on South America, II. Vater on the population of America, 62 and 63.

Hearne's Voyage to the North Sea, 157. Charlevoix, 45.

A. de Humboldt, I. 384.

who are esteemed among the handsomest savages of this LXXV. continent.*

Colours of the skin.

All reasoning upon the causes of the variety of colours of the human skin, are here at variance with observation; because the same copper or bronze hue is, with some slight exceptions, common to almost all the nations of America, without the climate, the situation, or the mode of living, appearing to exercise the slightest influence. Will the Zambos, formerly denominated Carribbeans, of the Island of St. Vincent, be cited in opposition to this opinion? They exhaled, in fact, that strong and disagreeable odour which seems to belong peculiarly to the negro. Their black skin presented that silky softness to the touch, which is so particularly observed among the Caffres; but they were descended from a mixture of the natives with a race of Africans.‡ The true Carribbeans are red.

The colour of the natives of Brazil and of California, is deep, although the former inhabit the temperate zone, and the latter live near the tropic. The natives of New Spain, says M. de Humboldt,|| are darker coloured than the Indians of Quito and of New Granada, who inhabit a precisely analogous climate. We even find that the nations dispersed to the north of the Rio Gala, are browner than those that border on the kingdom of Guatimala. The people of Rio Negro are darker than those of the Lower Orinoco, yet the banks of the former of these two rivers enjoy a cooler climate. In the forests of Guiana, especially near the sources of the Orinoco, there exist several tribes of a whitish complexion, who never have mingled with Europeans, and are surrounded by other nations of a dark brown. The Indians who, in the torrid

* Charlevoix, VI. 165.

+ Thibault de Chanvalon, Voyage à la Martinique, p. 44. Biot, Voyage de la France equinoxiale, 352. Blumenbach, p. 180 and 181.

Leblond, Voyage aux Antilles. tom. I. chap. 9.

Blumenbach, 147.

Humboldt, 1. c. I. p. 386.

L. c. II. chap. VI. passim.

zone, inhabit the most elevated table land of the Cordil- BOOK leras of the Andes; those who, under the 45° of south lati- LXXV. tude, live upon fish in the islands of the Archipelago of Chonos, have a complexion as much copper-coloured as they who cultivate under a burning sun the banana in the narrowest and deepest valleys of the equinoctial regions. To this it must be added, that the Indians who inhabit the mountains are clothed, and were so long before the conquest, while the aborigines that wander on the plains are perfectly naked, and, consequently, are always exposed to the perpendicular rays of the sun. Every where, in short, it is found that the colour of the American depends very little on the local situation which he actually occupies; and never, in the same individual, are those parts of the body that are constantly covered, of a fairer colour than those that are in contact with a hot and humid air. Their infants are never white when they are born; and the Indian Caziques, who enjoy a considerable degree of luxury, and who keep themselves constantly dressed in the interior of their habitations, have all the parts of their body, with the exception of the palms of their hands and the soles of their feet, of the same brownish red, or copper colour.

tions.

This deep tint continues to be met with as far as the Excepremotest coast that borders on Asia. It is only under the 54° 10′ north latitude, at Cloak bay, in the midst of Indians with a copper-coloured skin, small and very long eyes, that a tribe is thought to have been distinguished, who have large eyes, European features, and skin of a lighter colour than that of even our own peasants. Michikinakou, the chief of the Miamis, spoke to M. Volney* of Indians in Canada, who only become brown by exposure to the sun, and by rubbing their skin with fat and the juices of herbs. According to Major Pike, the intrepid Menomenes are distinguished for the beauty of their + Voyage, I. 151.

Tableau des Etats-Unis, t. II. p. 435.

LXXV.

BOOK features, by their large and expressive eyes, and by a complexion of a clearer tint than any of the other hordes of the Chippeways. The expression of their countenance at once breathes sweetness, and a noble independence. They are all of them finely formed, and are of a middle stature. The Li-Panis,* who, to the number of about 800 warriors, wander from the banks of the Rio-Grande to the interior of the province of Texas, in New Mexico, have light hair, and, in general, are fine looking men. According to Adolphus Decker,† who, in 1664, accompanied the Dutch admiral Ermite round Cape Horn, people are likewise met with at Terra del Fuego, who are born white, but who paint their bodies red and other colours. These trifling anomalies, however well authenticated, would only tend still more strongly to prove, that, not withstanding the variety of climate and elevation inhabited by the different races of mankind, nature never deviates from the laws under which she has acted for many thousand years.

Beard of the Ame

ricans.

The beard, which travellers formerly refused to the Americans, is at last restored and confirmed to them in the present day. The Indians who inhabit the torrid zone and South America, have generally a small beard, which becomes larger by shaving. Still, however, there are many individuals who have neither beard nor hair on any part of their person except their head. Galeno informs us, that among the Patagonians there are many old men who have beards, although they are short and thin. Almost all the Indians in the environs of Mexico, wear small mustachios, which modern travellers have likewise discovered among the inhabitants of the north-west coast of America. When we collect together, and compare all these different facts, it appears a conclusive inference that the Indians have a larger quantity of beard, in proportion to their distance from the equator. Besides, this apparent want of beard is a distinguishing feature which does not + Laborde, Hist. des Navig. I. 244, bis.

* Idem. II. 145.

Viaje al Estrecho de Magellanes, p. 331.

exclusively belong to the Americans. Many hordes of BOOK eastern Asia, the Aleutians, and, especially, some nations LXXV. of African negroes, have so very little beard that one might almost be tempted to deny altogether its existence. The negroes of Congo and the Caribs, two remarkably robust races of men, who are often of a colossal size, prove that it is nothing more than a physiological dream to look upon a beardless chin as a certain indication of degeneracy and physical weakness in the human species.

ricans are

tion.

These physiological characters undoubtedly establish a The Ameclose affinity between the Americans and the Mongol race, all of the that inhabits the northern and eastern parts of Asia; as same nawell as the Malays, or the fairest of the natives of Polynesia, and of the other archipelagos of Oceanica. This resemblance, however, which does not extend beyond the mere colour, cannot apply to the more essential parts,-the cranium, the hair, and the profile. If, in the system of the unity of the human species, the Americans be considered as a branch of the Mongol race, it must be supposed that, during an almost countless succession of ages, it has been separated from its parent trunk, and subjected to the gradual influence of a peculiar climate.

Next to physiological characters, language is the most Inquiry respecting indisputable proof of the common origin of different nations. its languaIt is from the languages of America that the most positive ges. indications have been supposed to be derived of that emigration of the people of Asia, to which the population of the new world has been ascribed. Mr. Smith Barton was the first who gave any thing like consistence to this hypothesis, by comparing together a great number of different American and Asiatic idioms. These analogies, as well as those which had been collected by the Abbé Hervas, and M. Vater, are, no doubt, too numerous to be looked upon as the mere result of chance; and yet, after all, as M. Vater