66 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK i, 



L 



That a people who possessed the means of gratify- 

 ing every inclination without labour, should sometimes 

 incline to be indolent, is a circumstance not very ex- 

 traordinary. As the wants of nature were supplied 

 almost spontaneously, and no covering was absolutely 

 requisite but the shade, that necessity which urges 

 men to action, and, by exercise, invigorates the fibres, 

 was here wholly unknown. It is probable therefore 

 that in muscular strength the natives were inferior to 

 their invaders, and being less accustomed to labour, 

 they might also require less nourishment. These con- 

 clusions may be admitted without supposing any de- 

 gradation of their nature, and with no very unfavour- 

 able impression of the climate. Their limbs however 

 were pliant and active, and in their motions they dis- 

 played both gracefulness and ease. Their agility was 

 eminently conspicuous in their dances; wherein they 

 delighted and excelled; devoting the cool hours of 

 night to this employment.* It was their custom, 



ly into this subject ; neither does the full investigation of it come within 

 the design of my work. I therefore refer such of my readers as are de- 

 sirous of forming a decided opinion on the question, to the Philos. Trans, 

 vol. xxvii. and vol. xxxi. (No. 365, and No. n), also to two learned 

 treatises on the subject by Mr. Sanches, published at Paris 1772 and 1774, 

 and to the authorities referred to by Mr. Foster in his " Observations 

 made during a Voyage round the World," p. 492. (t^ 3 In Stovv's Sur 

 vey of London, vol. ii, p. 7, is preserved a copy of the rules or regula- 

 tions established by Parliament in the eighth year of Henry the Second, 

 for the government of the licensed stews in Southwark, among which I 

 find the following, " No stewholder to keep any woman that hath the 

 perilous infirmity of burning." This was 530 years before the voyage 

 of Columbus. 



* P. Martyr, decad. Hi. c. vii. 



