On the Intellectual Character of the Esquimauz. 307 
restless, and always inclined to do mischief to the stranger ; 
and that they have little intercourse and commerce with 
their nearest neighbours.”* 
Such are the authorities upheld by Dr Prichard in the 
present day, and such are the materials used by Dr Beke 
for establishing this hypothesis: “That the origin of the 
numerous and widely differing races of man is to be re- 
ferred to a single parent stock, possessed of a high de- 
gree of cultivation, the following principle presents itself. 
That the culture, or the degradation of an aboriginal race, 
will be in proportion to the geographical distance of its re- 
sidence from the common centre of dispersion. For in- 
stance, if we take the primitive residence of the post-di- 
luvian race to have been in the north-west portion of Meso- 
potamia, it will be seen that the countries more immediately 
surrounding that central point, viz., Assyria, Chaldea, Egypt, 
Pheenicia, and Asia Minor, are those whose inhabitants were, 
in the earliest ages, possessed of the highest degree of cul- 
ture; whilst, on the other hand, at the points most distant 
from the same centre, the Papuans, the Hottentots, the Es- 
quimaux, and other savage races, have degenerated almost 
to the lowest state compatible with the retention of rational 
endowments.’’t 
In order to test the correctness of the data, as far as the 
Esquimaux are concerned, upon which Dr Beke has estab- 
lished his hypothesis ; and upon which Kames, Herder, and 
Prichard, have wasted considerable learning and ingenious 
reasoning, I refer to the papers laid before the Society on 
the physical character, and arts and manufactures of the 
Esquimaux. It will be found that I have added six inches 
to the stature assigned to them by the authors mentioned ; 
that I have proved they did not, could not, dig subterraneous 
abodes; and that from the same cause they were obliged, 
although not the only known savages who eat raw flesh, 
sometimes to eat their provision raw ; and I adduced the evi- 
dence of Cook, Kotzebue, Parry, Franklin, Lyon, Ross, and 
* Quoted by Prichard, p. 502. 
t Chas."F. Beke, in an article in the Edinburgh New Philosophical 
Journal. 
