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Show • 332 D1SSERT. v. ~ , \ II 1 S T 0 R. Y 0 1~ M E X I C 0. monftrous irregularity attending them, 'of n callous appendage exte)lding from the os pubis downwards, according to the tefri~ony df the hifiorians of the Cape of Good Hope. Struys, Gemelh, and other ·travellers affirm, that in the kingdom of Larnbry, in the irflands of Fornllofil, ..and of Mindoro, men have beo'n found with tails. Bomare lfays U ), that a thin-g of this kind in men is nothin.g el(e than a(l. elongation of the oJ coccygt's; but what is a tail in quadrupeds but the elongation of that bone, though clivieled into dillinCl: articula. tions (j)? However it mRy be, it is certain,, that that elongation rencler·s thofe A:iiatics fult] y ns irregular as if it 1 was a real tail. 1f We were, in like manner, to 1g0 through 'the nat.ions of Afia an<:! Africa, we ihould hardly find any leoctenfive 'couratliy ·w11ere the co1G:>t1r of men is not darker, where -there arc not !honger irregularities obferved, and gro1Ter defeCts to be fbuhd in them, than M. de Paw finds fault with in the Americans. The colour of'the 1 1ttei11is a good deal clearer thari that ofalmull: all the Afrrcnns, and the inhabitants of fouthern Afia. The fcantinefs bf beard is common to the 'inhabitants 0f the Phillippine Iilands, and of all the Indian Ar 11ipclago, to the famous Chinefe, Ja. panefe, Tartars, and rnanJ other nations of the old continent. The imperfections of the Americans, however great they may be teprcfented to be, are certainly not comparable wirh die •defe61:s tof ·that immenfe people, whofe character we have fketclred, ~nd others whom we omit. All th fe circumftances might have refirained the pen of M. de Paw, but they !lipped his memory, or he !hut out the recollection cf them. M. de Paw reprefents the Americans to be :1 feeble and difeafed fet of nations : Ulloa, oh the contrary affirms, · that they are healthy, robufi; and fl:rong. Vv'hich of the two merits the greater ·credit? M. de Paw, who , undertook at Berlin to review the Americans without knowing them; or Ulloa, who refided amongft them for fome years, and converfed with them in di~rent countries of South America; !vi. de Paw, who emeloyedhimfelf to degrade and debafe them, in orde1· to eftabli!h his abfurd fyftem of degeneracy, or · Ulloa, who, though (t) DitHon. de Hifioire. Nat. v. Homme, ~/) See Hcirtcr. Anat. ue Ojilw tnmri. by tlf I S T 0 R· Y ~ F M E X I C .0. by no 'tnc.U1s favourable in general to the [ndians, was 'IJlot bent on forming al1y fyftem, but only ·On wr.iting what he judged to be true? The 1tnpartinl reader will decide ·this queftion. M. de Paw, in 'order to demonfhate the weaknefs and diforder of the phyfica] conftitution of the Americans, adduces feveral proof.q, which we ought ·not to omit. Thefe at•e, 'I. That the firft Americans who were brought to Europe went mad during their voyage, and their madnefs continued till death. 2. That grown men in many parts of 'America have miJk in their breafis. 3· That the American women ·are delivered with great facility, have an extraordinary plenty of milk, and the periodical evacuation of blood is fcanty and irregular. 4· That the 1eafi vigorous. Eut'Opean conquered in wreftling any American whatever. 5· That the Americans could not bear the weight of a light burden. 6. That they were fubjeCl: to the venereal diftemper, nnd other endemic difeafes. With regard to the fidl: proof, we deny it as being altogether falfe and inconfiftent. Mr. de Paw fays, on the faith of the Fleming Dappers, that the firft Americans whom Columbus brought with him in. 1493, were going to kill themfelves during the voyage, but that having been bound in order'to prevent them from doing [o, they run mad, and th~ir madnefs !ailed while they lived; that when they entered into Barcelona, they frightened the citizens to fuch a degree with t11eir howls, their contorfions,, and their convulfive motions, that they were thought to be delirious. We have never feen the work ofDaP'pers, but we have no doubt that his account is a {l:ring of fables; for we do not find, that either :.1ny of his cotemporary authors, nor thofe who wrote in the years immediately following, make any mention of fuch an event; ba.t, on the contmry, from what they fay, it is eafy to demonfi:rate the fal11ty of his fi:ory. Gonzalez .Hern·andez Ovied9, who was in Barcelona when olumbus arrived, law, and knew thofe Americans, and was an eye- witnefs of what happened, .f.1ys nothing of their madncfs, their howls, and contorfions, which he would not naturally have omittecl had they been true, as he was rather unfavourable- to the Indians, as. we have h1id before, particularly when he was minutely relating their entry into that city, their baptifm, their names, and in part their end He fays, that Columbus brought with him, from the· i!land. of Hif .. vaniola,, • 33J DISSERT. v .. ~ I •• |