IO STUDIES OF NATURE. 



The more that the multiplied confonances of 

 the human figure are agreeable, the more difguft- 

 ing are it's diffbnances. This is the reafon that, 



on 



own fervice, in the Ifle of France, and who were at perfect li- 

 berty to tell what they really thought, efpecially on a fubjecT: fo 

 indifferent to (laves, as the beauty of the whites. I fometimes 

 afked them whether of the two they would prefer, a black wife, 

 or a white ? They never hefitated an inftant in declaring their 

 preference of the white woman. Nay, I have feen a Negro, 

 who had been almoft flead alive by the whip, in one of our plan- 

 tations, exprefs the higheft delight when the fears of his fores 

 began to whiten, becaufe it fuggefted the hope, that he was 

 thereby going to change colour, and to be negro no longer. 

 The poor wretch would gladly have parted with his whole hide 

 to become white. This preference, we mall be told, is, in that 

 cafe, the effect of the fuperiority which they are obliged to 

 afcribe to the Europeans. But the tyranny of their mafters 

 ought rather to infpire abhorrence of the colour. Befides, the 

 black men and women, of our colonies, exprefs the fame taftes 

 that our peafantry at home do, for fluffs of lively and glaring 

 colours. Their fupreme luxury in drefs is a red handkerchief 

 tied round their head. Nature has beftowed no other tints on 

 the rofes of Africa than upon thofe of Europe. 



If the judgment of black flaves is confidered as a fufpicious 

 authority on the fubjeel, we may refer the decifion to the tafte 

 of the Sovereigns of Africa, who are under no temptation to 

 diifemble. They fairly acknowledge that in this, as well as in 

 many other reipects, they have been more hardly dealt with than 

 the Europeans. African Princes have made frequent applica- 

 tion to the Governors of the Englifh, Dutch, and French fet- 

 tlements on the coaft, for white women, under a promife of 

 very ample privileges in return. Lamb, an Englifh agent at 



Ardra, 



