On the peopling of America. 2 1 1 



improve under the influence of our happy soil and climate, we 

 might quote an author of great reputation, who lived in Europe, 

 in favour of that position*. Speaking of C^hili in South Ame- 

 rica, he says, " Tlie animals of our hemisphere not only multi- 

 ply, but improve in this delightful region. The horned cattle 

 are of a larger size than those of Spain. Its breed of horses 

 surpass, both in beauty and spirit, the famous Andalusian race 

 from which, tliey sprang." 



Does the huinan race degenerate in America ? We are much 

 interested iu this question, whatever the fate of quadrupeds may 

 be. The want of beard, in the American savage, has commonly 

 been mentioned a< a proof that he is of an inferior race of ani- 

 mals ; or that he is srreatly degenerated. "The beardless coun- 

 tenance and smooth skin of the American seem to indicate a de- 

 fect of vigour, occa'iioned by some vice in his frame. He is 

 destitute of one sign of manhood and strength f." From the 

 Indian's supposed want of heard, philosophers seem to have in- 

 ferred hi:^ v/ant of strength, courage, and atfection for the other 

 sex. The Indians, like the Tartars and other Asiatics from whom 

 they are chiefly descended, have thin beards ; but writers who 

 urge their want of beard, in proof that they are a new race of 

 men, do not consider that th.ere are numerous tribes or nations iu 

 the ea<;tcrn parts of the old continent, who, like the Indians, 

 appear to be without any beard. They constantly pluck it out. 

 The islanders in the South Sea have beards, as we are toid by 

 .Captain Cook ; but many of them pluck it out, or the greater 

 part of it, as well as the hair from under their arms. Whoever 

 takes the trouble to make himself acquainted with the subject, 

 must think it strange that an opinion destitute of truth, without 

 other foundation than distant and hasty observation, should have 

 obtained so general a credit in Europe. At a meeting of In- 

 dians from different tribes, in the year 1796, I examined near 

 fifty of them, and there was not, in that number, a single Indian 

 without a beard. Tliere were Indians of the Chocktaw, the 

 Chickesaw, tht' Cherokee, the Creek, the Chipawa, and the 

 Shawanese nations. Their beards in general were shaved, but 

 some of the chiefs had suffered whiskers to remain on the upper 

 lip, o-r thev suffered a small portion on the chin to grow to a 

 considerable length |, One of the Shawanese chiefs had strong 

 whiskers upon his upper lip, and so had a Chickesaw and a 



* Iloliertson's History of America. t Ibid. 



I Lawson, speaking of tlic rndians on a branch of Clarendon river, in 

 Nordi Carolinii, in the year 1706, says, " Most of those Indians wear nius- 

 tachioi, or \vhi^ker^, uliich is rare, by reason the Indians are a people that 

 comiuoiily pluck the hair of their faces, and other parts, up hy itic lOot, 

 and suffer none to {jrow," — Lawson's History of Carolina, 



O 2 Cherokee 



