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Show DISSERT. v. '--v--J .. • H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. gi·V en way t o m· terell: or paffion ' we would ra.t her have undebrt aken the defence of the Creoles, which, bcfides that 1t would have een more r.. 11..... ld naturally have mterell:ed s 1ea1y, 1qvU mor, e. We are d, efcended of • Spanilh parents, we have no affinity or r.elatt~n to the lndtan.s, n~r can we hope for any recompence fr~m their mtfery: our motive 1s the love of ·lPUth, aaJ, the ~:\ufe ot• hlilmanity. • . . . s E C' ' 4', • j )j (.. ' . OJ t!ic· Oo;po,:tcr! 1s;j)a(ltie ·of· the ·Md-:icd1~s. .. -~~ ' "'I t ~ ' l f ,( ,I • ' ,, - MR. de P~w, who finds fault with the fiature, the fot•mation, and the fuppofed .hregul~rities of th~ animals o~ America, has not ~cen more indulgent to~rds its meh,2 lf ltl\e mmal~ appeared to htm a fi'xth part lefs' in fize th4n I thofe of Buropc,l 'the 11Jlen, as he1rep'orts, are alfo fmaller than the Call:ilians. Irf in the animals lle remarked the want of tail, in the men he complains of the want of hair. If in the animals he found many -.ftriking deformities, in the men he abnfes the com ,Plexion ana iliape. If he believed that the a~imals there, were not fo {hong as thofe of the old continent,, he affirms, in like .manner, that the men are feeble in extreme, and fubjeCl to a thoufand dtfl:empers occafioned by the corruption of the air and the french of the foil. Concerning the ftature of the Americans he fays, in general, that although ir is not equal to the ll:ature of the Caftilians, th~r~ is but. little difference between them. But we are confident, and 1t 1s notonous through the whole of New Spain, that the Indians who inh bit.thofe countries, lying between nine and forty degrees of north lat1tude, which are the limits of the difcoveries of the Spaniards, are more than five Parifian feet in height, and that thofe who do not reach that ftature are as few in number amongft the Indians as they are amongft the Spaniards . . We are certain befides, that many of thofe nations, as the .Apaches, the HitJquife, the Pim'!ft, and Cochimie-s, are at leaft as tall as the talleft Europeans; and we are not confcious, that in all the vall: extent of the new world, a race of people has been found, except the EfquimaU'X, fo·diminutive in ftat\Jre- as the Laplanders, die SamC()edJ, · and .... ' .H { 9 'f Q t Y · 0 F M B X I C 0. ami Tart~s, in, tht3 npr·t~ 4 the. ol.d ~.9,ntincnt. In this refpecr, therefore, th~· ~Jilhabitants of the t\YO contiraents. are upon an equality. In regard to the regul~1:ity a,nd p ·oportion of the lit1lhs of the Mc~icans, we do. n.ot nee~ ;to fay m0rc ~ha~ we have already faid in our firfb book. We are pe~funclec.i, that among all thofe who may read this work iu America, np one will contradiC.l: the defcri ption we have given of the {bape and character of tnc Indians, unlc[s he views them with the eye of a prejudiced mind. It is true, that Ulloa f.1.ys, ia {peaking of the Indians of ~ito, he had obferved, "tha~ imperfect peo" ple abounded among them, that they were either irregularly diminutive, " or monfi:rous in fome other refpect, that th~y became either jn(<.;n:lJblc, "dumb,·~ or blind, or wanted fome limb of their body:" but having ourfelves made fome enquiry relpecl:ing this fingularity of the ~itans, we were informed by perfons deferving of credit, and ac,quainted with thofe countries, that fuch defects were neither caufed by bad humours, nor by the climate, but by the mifi:aken and blipd humanity of their parents, who, in order to free their children from the hardG1ips and toils to which the healthy Indians are fubjeCl:ed 9Y the Spaniards, fi~ fome deformity or weaknefs upon them, that they may become ufdcfs; a circumil:ance of mifery which does not happen in other countries of , America, nor in thofc places of the £1me kingdom of ~ito, where the Indians are under no fuch oppreffion. M. de Paw, and, in agreement with him, Dr. Robertfon, f.1ys, that no d~formed perfons are to be found among the favages of America; becaufe, like the ancient Lacedemonians, they put to death thofe children which arc born hunch~ backed, blind, or defective in any limb ; but that in thofe countries where they are formed into foeietics, and the vigilance of their rulers prevent the murder of fuch infants, the number of their deformed and irregular individuals is greater than it is in any other country of Europe. This would make an exceeding good folution of the difl1- culty if it were true: but if, poflibly, there ha~ been in Amt:rica a tribe of favages who have imitated the barbarous example (a) of the celebrated Lacedemonians, it is certain that thoft! authors have no (n) Thnt inhuman pra:.ice of killing children which were horn deformed, wua nnt only per · mittcd in Rome, but was pr·cfct-ibod by the lnws of the Twelve Tables . Prmt· i"Ji.tJnUm (ld tit· formitat em put•t·um cito II(Ctlfll, VoL. Il. U u grounds DI S~ ERT. y, ~ |