270 On the Cretins of the Vallais. 



grave ; and a violation of the rights of fepulturc 

 would be ftill confidered as the firft of crimes. 



Little can be gleaned up, I am apprehenfive, 

 from the hiftory of the human fpecies, relative 

 to the quedion j but amidft its varieties, we find 

 the Dondos, or African white negroes; the Ka- 

 kerlaks, or Chacrelas of Afia; and the Blafard, 

 or White Indian of the Ifthmus of Darien ; all 

 of whom have fome peculiarities correfponding 

 with thofe by which the Cretin is diftinguilhed. 

 The Dondos are mod common at Congo, 

 Loango, and Angola, and the Kakerlaks, or 

 Chacrelas, in the Java iflands; but as they are 

 not very numerous, they have been confidered 

 as a Lufus Naturse, and her accidental produc- 

 tions*. Of the white Indians of Darien little 

 was known in Europe before 1680, though 

 Cortezf had given a long and minute defcrip- 



tion 



* It is remarkable, however, this Lufus Naturae in the 

 Java iflands has been extended even to the monkey. The 

 governor of Batavia had one or two white ones in 1785, 

 brought from thofe iflands, though they are in all that 

 part of the world univerfally black or brown. Mynheer 

 Butterkoper, and Mynheer Meffa the Water-FifcaJ, fliewed 

 them to a friend of mine. The face was of a milky white, 

 the eyes red, and they were between two and three feet 

 high. 



f Las Cartas de Don. Hernando Cortez de la Con- 

 qulfta de Mexico al Eniperador. They have been tranfla- 

 ted into Latin, and are in the coUeftion of Hervagius, un- 

 der 



