4S ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



There is another fa£t, which I have likewife learned fince the pu- 

 blication of the Origin and Progrefs of Language, from a friend of 

 mine, whofe veracity I can entirely depend upon. He fays that, 

 when he was in Batavia, where he refided feveral years, he faw two 

 human creatures that had been brought from New Holland, both 

 males. Neither of them had any ufe of fpeech ; and the one of 

 them being elderly, would not, or could not, learn that or any 

 thing elfe, and was altogether wild and untradable : But the other, 

 being young, was at laft tamed, and taught to fpeak ; and, when he 

 got the ufe of language, he faid that the people of the country from 

 whence he came, had not the faculty of fpeech, neverthelefs they 

 lived together in fociety, and communicated their wants to each o- 

 ther by figns and wild cries. 



Thofe 



rture who had not the ufe of fpeech. This Animal was found by the ciew of a French 

 fhip, in a fmall defert ifland in the Indian Sea, called by the Spaniards Diego Gar- 

 cia. He was the only human creature upon the ifland. His fubCftence was upon 

 turtle ; of the fliells of which he had made himfelf a hut. He ran away from the 

 •Frenchmen atfirft ; and, being much fwifter of foot than any of them, they could not 

 .catch him : But they lay in wait for him at his hut, and there laid hold of him. He 

 was not. fierce, nor very wild, butfoon grew familiar with them, and followed thera 

 willingly aboard their fliip. The gentleman faw him in the ifland of Bouibon, after 

 he had been four months there. He h.ul not then learned the ufe of fpeech, but he 

 made figns, and appeared to be a fenfible man. He was judged to be about twenty 

 years of age, and was not an Eaft Indian, a Mallayfe, nor an European ; but, from 

 liis complexion, the gentleman conj(i£lured him to be a native of the Maldiva I- 

 flards, which are not far from the Ifland where he was found. He had the ufe of 

 Fire, which he made by turning round a flick in a hole bored in another flick, which 

 is commonly pra£liftd in barbarous nations. But I think it is impoflible this could 

 have been invented by him- And therefore I think it is clear evidence that he muft 

 have come from a country where the arts of life mufl have made fome progrefs, 

 and at an a;je too when he had learned fome of them. And, accordingly he fjgni- 

 ficd by figns, that he was about the height of a boy often or twelve years of age 

 when he came to the ifland. If fo, he mufl. have had the ufe of fpeech, but which 

 he had altogether lolt by difufe fur ten or twelve years ; and it will be with no fmaU 

 diGculty that he will recover the ufe of it. 



