208 On the peopling of America. 



1 was informed by the Little Turtle, who is a chief of the Miami 

 tribe of the lakes, and has an extensive acquaintance with the 

 Indians, that the northern Indians are much fairer than those 

 who live in warm climates; except that Indians, who live near 

 the lakes, and are much exposed to the sun, in fishing and 

 swimmins^, have darker skins than other northern Indians. He 

 imderstands that Indians who live northward from the sources 

 of the Mississippi, are fairer tlian those of his own nation wlio 

 live in the opposite direction. 



The Indians at Matagrassa, as we are told by Condamine, are 

 of different shades, according to the elevation of the country, 

 some of them being almost fair*. The testimony of Molina is 

 also very explicit on this subject. " The natives of Chili form 

 but one nation, that is divided into various tribes, who have a 

 similar physiognomy, and speak the same tongue, which may be 

 called the Chilese language. It is soft, harmonious, regular, 

 and abounding in words that in all cases are fit to express not 

 only physical but moral and abstract ideas. Those people are 

 of a brown coppery colour ; but tlie Boroani, who are situated 

 in the centre of the province of Arauco, in the thirty-ninth de- 

 gree of south latitude, are wliite and red, with blue eyes and 

 fair hair, like the Europeans, who are born in the middle of the 

 northern temperate zone. Their features are regular, and some 

 of them are beautiful t-" 



When South-America shall be well cultivated, the timber cut 

 down, the quantity of rain dhninished, stagnant pools dried, and 

 the rivers contained within their prop.2r banks, the easterly 

 winds being checked by the warmer surface of cultivated lands, 

 a dusky race of men, nearly black, are to be expected in Brazil, 

 about the latitude of Cape St. Roque ; for that is the only part 

 of America in which the progress of industry may darken the 

 skin, notwithstanding the effects of civilization. 



As no proof can be given, tliat the American Indians are a 

 new race of men, I shall consider the other trite allegation, that 

 *' animal nature degenerates in America." This opinion, ad- 

 vanced by the elot|uent Buffon, and siipported by many argu- 

 ments, has also been repeated by Dr. Robertson, the Abbt Ray- 

 nal, and by other writers. The most remarkable appeatance is 

 that " all animals in America, including those who have been 

 naturalized to the climate, are commonly inferior in size to those 

 of the old continent. Nature appears, in that new world, to 

 have finished her works upon a smaller scale. 



* Voyage de Condamine. 



t Compcndio de la Historia geografica natural y civil del Regno deChiie. 

 Por el Abate Don Juan Ignatio Molina.— I have not seen the Italian oii- 

 tiinal, but 1 presume llmt the Spanish translation is correct. 

 ^ ' « There 



