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Show H I s T 0 R~ Y, 0 F : M B' X I C a. grounds to impute f~ch· inhumanity to the reft of the Americans; for 1 that it has not been tne pra'Cl:ice, at leafl: with t!he far greater part of thofe nations, is to be demonfirated from the atteftations· of the authors the befi acquainteci wi~h their cu!l:oms. }3efides~ in aU the countries of Mexico', or New Spain, whith make at lea!l: one fourth of the new world, the Indians lived in fodeties together, and affembled in cities, towns, and village~, under the care of Spanifh or Creole magi!l:rates and governors, and no fuch in!l:ances of cruelty towards their infants are ever feen or heard of; yet deformed. people are fo uncommon, that all the Spaniards and Creoles, who came from: Mexico to Italy, , in the= year 1768., were then, and are fl:ill much furpt·ifed to obferve the great number of blind, hunch-backed, lame,. ,Jand otherwife deformed people, in the dties of that cultivated peninfnla. The caufe of this phenomenon, which fo many writers have obferved among the Americans, mu!l: tl~crefore be different from that <to which DlSS RT. v. \.- .. the above mentioned authors would impute it. · J • • ' No argument againll: the new worfd can be drawn from the colom· of the Americans·; becaufe their colour is lefs di!l:ant frorn the white ~f the Europe·ms than it is from the black of the Africans, and a great part of the Afiatics. The hair of the Mexicans, and of the ·greater part of the Indians, is, as we have already {aid, · co;\rfe and thick; on their face ·they have little, 1and· in ge\1eral (b) none on their arms and legs: but it is an error to fay, as M. de P aw does, that they are entire1y defl:itute of hair in all-the other parts of their body. This is one of the many pal1agcs of the Philo!ophical Refearches, at which the Mexicans, and all the other nations, mufi fmile to firia an European philofopher fQ eager to divell: 1thetn of the drefs they had from nature. He read, without doubt, that'ignominious defcription, which Ulloa gives of fome people of South America (c), and from this ftngle prcmife, according to his logic, he deduces his general c'onclufion. (h) We f:~y, in general, beca 1fc there arc Americans in Mexico who are bearded, and have hair on their arms and limbs. (c) l Jlloa, in the defcription which he gives of the Indians of ~i to, fay s, that hair nei· ther groll's upon the men n!Jr upon the women when they arrive at puberty, as it d •cs on the re!l ot' mankind; hut whatever fing!ll:trlity may :lttend the ~itan s, or occafion this circum· fl11n~e, t~ere is n? doubt that among t~e . Ame rican s )t\ general, the period of puberty is :tccom.• pamcd Wtth the !au e fymptom.s us it n among other natiullS of the world. The H I S T 0 R Y 0 F · M E X" I• C p. The very .afpetl: of an Angolan, Mandingan·; or <;ongan, would have !hocked Mr. de Paw, and made him recall that cenfure which he pa!les '?n t~e colo~'r, the ma~c, and. hnir of the Americans. What c.a11 ~c 1magmed more contrary· to the idea;we have of beauty, and the perf~ctiotl · of the human f1ime; than a man whofe bocly emits a ra11I~ f.. m.. e-ll.. , whofe /kin is as black as ink, who{e' h~ad and face arc covered with black w9ol, inO:ead of hair, whofe eyes are ydlow and blo~dy, whofe lips are thick and bJacki{h, and whof~ nofe ,is flat? Such are the inhabitf!. lltS .of a v~ry large portion r of Africa, and 9f r 1any iOands ~f Atia. What men can be more imperfea th:t~ thofe who u)eafure no more than four feet ip .ib· ~ure, r :wbofe. fi~ce~ are. long and f:iat, tl.Je ,note ·compreffed, the,,z'rides 'Yellowi{h ,bJack, the eyelids turned back to,.. wavds the temples, • the cheeks extraordinarily elevated, their mouth~ monfl:rouily large, their lips ~hick . and . WQL,l.linent, aud tb t; lower ~11-rt o£. ~ their vifages extremely narrow(? Suc.h, according to coupt de' Huffon' (d), are the Laplanders, tpe ·zemblans, the Bortmdi,;e.r, · ihe Sa- • .. ; J ) mojeds, arid Tartars in the Eaft. What objects more deformed thau men whofe faces are too long and wrinkl ~d even in their youth, their ~1ofes thic~ and compre1fcd, their eyes fmall and funk, their cheeks pery much raifed, the:upper jaw low, their\ teeth 1ong and difunited, ·their eye-brows fo thick, that they {hade thc:ir eyes; the eye-lids thick, fome brifUes on their faces infl:ead of beard, large thighs and fmalllcgs ? Such is the picture count de Buffon gives of the Tartars, that is of thoic people who, as he fays, inhabit a tratl: of land in Afia, twelve hundred leagues long and upwards, and more than feven hundred and fifty broad. AmongO: thefe the Calmucks are the moil: remarkable for their deformity, which is [o great, that, according to Tavernier, th~y are the moil: brutal men of all the univerfe. Their faces are fo broad that there is a fpace of five or fix inches between their eyes, according as count de Buffon b.imfelf affirms. In Calicut, in Ceylon, and other countries of India, there is, £1y Pyrard and other writers 011 thofe regions, a race of men who hav,e one or both of their legs as thick as the body of a man ; and that this deformity among them is almo.O: here .. ditary. The Hottentots, befides other grois imperfeCtions, have that (d) Hift. Nat. tom. vi. ' ; a t u u 2 mon- . , 33 1 DISSE~'J;'. v. ~ |