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Show 334 • DlSSE.RT. . v. • ~V'""-1 H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C ~. pa11io1a, tee American~, , on~ 0.£ yvhich 4ied on the p.affitge, .thre~ r~· majned fick in PaloS, a ·port of A11dalufia, where, as he 1magmes, they died foon afrer, and the other fix ca~e to Barce~ona, wher~ ~he court was then helg, that they were well mfl:rutled m the Chrdban doCtrines and baptifcd : Peter Martyr, of Aighera, who was alfo in Spain when Columbus arrived, makes mention of the Indians (k) which that famou• admiral brought with him; but does not fay a word about their madnefs : on the contrary, he relates, that when Cortes returned to Hifpaniola, he carried back three of the Indians with him, as ~11. the others had died by that time, from change of air aud food(/); and that he employed one of them to gain information of the {bte of the Spaniards whom he had left in that ifiand. Ferdinand Colombus, a l~arncd and diligent writer of the life of Chrifi:opher Columbus his father, who happened alfo to be in Sp<tin at that time, makes a minute detail of the voyages and aCtions of his glorious parent, fpeaks of the Indians whom he had feen, and relates nothing more of them than P. Martyr. The.: account given by Dappers, therefore, is fa][e, or at leafi: we w~ll •fay, that madmen ]earned the SpaniOl language, that the Catholic kings chofe madrpen to be with them, to amu{e them with their horrib~e howl~; · ~md laftly, that Columbus, the prudent Columb~s, made u[c of one qf thefe madmen, to gain information of al~ t!1at had happened to the Sp~11iards in Hifpaniola while he I1ad been abfent. The anecdote of milk in the breafi:s of the Americans is one of the mofi: curious which we read in the Philofophical Rcfcarches, and mo~ worthy to excite our fmiles, and the mirth of all the Americans: but ( ~·) Sommar. della Stor. delle Tnc.l. Occid. cap. 4• (I) To the caufce of the dnuh of thofc Americans, me11tioncd by P. Martyr, may be added the extraordinary hard01ips they fulfercd in that horrid voyugc, the circum!lnnccs of which art! to be found iu the letters of Columbus, publi!hed by his fon. From the number of thofc who died, mentioned by Martyr, an exception ought to be made of that American whom the prince Don John retained with him, as he did nqt die till two years after, according to the tc11imony of Oviedo. But although they had all died on the voyage, or become fr:1ntic nnd mad, it ihould not caufe any wonder, confidcring what is recited by M. de Paw himfclf, in Part iii. feel:, 2. of his Refearchcs: '' Lcs ucadcmicicns Francois," he C.1ys, cnlevcr~ nt au de ]a de " Tornco deux LappoM, qui, obfcd~s et mnrtyriscs par ces philofoplu:s, moururent de de· "fcfpoir en route." Neither the country which the Laplanders lcfr, nor the voyage which they h~d w make, can be compared with the country and the voyage of thoro Americ:ms ; nor can " 'C imagine the ~panilh failors, of the fiftc~nth century, fo humane as the French acadcmicinlls of the cightrenth· .. . ·. it H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. it is neceffary to confefs, that Mr. de Paw h:ls OleWn more moderation than many others whom he has quoted. The celebrated naruralifl: Johnfion, affirms, in his 'I'haumatographia, on the faith of we know not what travellers, that in the new world almoft all th~ men abound with milk in their breafi:s. In all Brafil, fays the author of the Hiftorical Refearches, the men alone fuckle children, for the women have hardly any milk. We do not know whether moil: to admire the effrontery and impudence of thofe travellers who invent and publifh fuch fable~, or the excefs of fimplicity in thofe who repeat them. If there had ever been a natidn of the new world, in which fuch a phenomenon had been obferved (which M. de P.tw cannot prove), that certainly would not have been fufficient to fay, that in many places of America milk abounds in the bn:afis of men; and much lefs to affirm, as Johnfton does, of almoft all the men in the new world. Thofc fingularities, which Mr. de P.tw remarks in the Americ.:an women, would be moil: acceptable to them if they were true; for nothing certainly could be more defirable to them, than to be freed from the .pains and difficulties of child-bearing, to abound with that liquor which nourifhes their children, and to be fpared the inconveniencies which are occafioned by thoie periodical and di.li.lgreeablc evacuations ? But that which would be efi:eerned by them a circumfrance of happinefs, is reported by M. d"' P:~w as a proof of their de:generacy; for that eafe of delivery, he ii.lys, !hews the expanfion .of the vaginal pa!fage, and the relaxation of the mufcles of the matnx, on account of the fluids being too copious : their abumlance can only proteed from the humidity of their confl:itntions, and .that,. otherwife, they do not conform with the women of the old contJllent; whereas they, according to M. de Paw's legiOntion, are the model of all the world. Surely it mufl: excite the wonder of every 0ne, that W~lereas the author of the Hit1:orical Refearchcs remarks fuch a fcarctty of milk in the American women, that the men are obliged to fuckle their own children; the author of the Philofophical Refearches on the contrary, !hould attribute to them fuch an extraordinary abundance. of ~t; and who i~ there, that in reading theie and other fimi.lar con tra.dJctions and ta]es publilhed in Europe, particularly a few years b;~ck , will not difcover that the travellers, hiftoriaus, naturalifl:s, and phllo-fophers 335 .D.._IS_S,v.E... R__T,• , / |