Of the negroes. 291 



countries, and fo ufeful in preventing the eye from being in- 

 jured in cafes of expofure to flrong light."* This artlcfs 

 traveller does not flop here. The idea of this peculiarity 

 in the color and features of thefe people being a difeafe, and 

 even its fpecific nature did not efcape him, hence he adds 

 " Thefe people rendered unfortunate by the prejudices of 

 their countrymen, are born of black parents ; they have 

 all the features of other inhabitants, but differ from them 

 only in the above circumftances. The difference of color 

 cannot arife from the intercourfe of whites and blacks, 

 for the whites are very rarely among them, and the re- 

 fult of this union is well known to be the yellow color, 

 or mulatto. Many of the natives aflert that they are 

 produced by the women being debauched in the woods 

 by the large baboon, ourang-outang, and by that fpecies 

 in particular called the guaga mooroos. No fatisfacitory 

 difcovery has been made to account for fuch fingular, but 

 not unfrequent phsenomena in the fpecies. It may per- 

 haps be afcribed to difeafe^ and that of the leprous kind, 

 with more reafon than to any other caufe that has been 

 yet afrigned."f Mr. Bernardin concurs with Mr. Haw- 

 kins in afcribing this morbid whitenefs in the fkins of the 

 Africans wholly to the leprofy.| However oppofed it 

 may be to their morbid blacknefs, it is in ftridt conformi- 

 ty to the operations of nature in other difeafes. The 

 fame flate of malignant fever is often marked by oppofite 

 colors in the ffools, by an oppofite temperature of the 

 Ikin, and by oppofite ftates of the alimentary canal. 



The original connection of the black color of the ne- 

 groes with the leprofy is further fuggefted by the following 

 fa£t taken from Bougainville's voyage round the world.§ 



* P. 11 6. 117. 



t P. 117. 118. 



X Studies of Nature, vol. ii. p. 2. 



j Page 294. 



Q^q a He 



