BOOK ir. CHAP. XIII. 335 



with them hiviolate : and, at the fame time, awing tliera into the 

 confervation of it on their part by fuch a powerful etjuipoife, com- 

 pofed of men diflimilar from them in complexion and manners, 

 but equal in hardinefs and vigour. 



The Mulattos are, in general, well-fliaped, and the women well- 

 featured. They feem to partake more of the white than the black. - 

 Their hair has a natural curl; in fome it rcfembles the Negroe 

 fleece; but, in general, it is of a tolerable length. The girls ar- 

 rive very early at the age of puberty ; and, from the time of their 

 being about twenty-five, they decline very faft, till at length thev 

 grow horribly ugly. They are lafcivious ; yet, confidering their 

 want of intT:ru6liou, their behaviour in public is remarkably de- 

 cent ; and they afteef a modefty which they do not feel. They arc- 

 lively and Icnfible, and pay religious attention to the cleanlinefs of 

 their perfons : at the lame time, they are ridiculoufly vain, haugh- 

 ty, and irafcible. They poffefs, for the moil: part, a tendernefs of 

 difpolition, which leads them to do many charitable a61:ions, efpe- 

 cially to poor white perfons, and makes them excellent nurfes to 

 the fick. They are fond of finery, and lavifh almoft all the motiey 

 they get in ornaments, and the moll: expenfive forts of linen. Some 

 few of them have intermarried here with thofe of their own com- 

 plexion ; but fuch matches have generally been defe6live and bar- 

 ren. They feem in this refpetl to be adually of the mule-kind, 

 and not fo capable of producing from one another as from a com- 

 merce with a diftindl White or Black. Monfieur Buffbn obferves, 

 that it is nothing ftrange that two individuals flnould not be able to 

 propagate their fpecies, becaufe nothing more is required than fbmc 

 flight oppofition in their temperaments, or fome accidental fault in 

 .the genital organs of either of thefe two individuals : nor is it 

 furprifing, that two individuals, of different fpecies, fliould produce 

 other individuals, which, being unlike either of their progenitors, 

 bear no refemblance to any thing fixed, and confequently cannot 

 produce any thing refembling themlelves, becaufe all that is requi- 

 fite in this produdion is a certain degree of conformity between 

 the form of the body and the genital organs of thefe different ani- 

 mals. Yet it feems extraordinary, that two Mulattos, having In- 

 tercourfe together, fliould be unable to continue their fpecies, the 



woman 



