50 LETTER X. 



The Negroes are not more remarkable for the 

 sable colour, than for the delicate smoothess of their 

 skins.- Their eyes are of a deep hazel ; their noses 

 flat and short, their lips thick, their teeth of a beau- 

 tiful whiteness, like ivory, and their hair soft, short, 

 and woolly. Those of Guinea are reckoned the most 

 ugly, and those of Mosambique the handsomest. 

 The Negroes have often been represented as indo- 

 lent, mischievous, and revengeful ; but these vices 

 are not found to characterise them in their own coun- 

 try, nor, indeed, in any country where they enjoy 

 liberty and good treatment. On the contrary, if we 

 form an unprejudiced judgment of their character 

 from the most authentic and impartial information, 

 they appear to be a remarkably innocent and inoffen- 

 sive people. To their children, their friends, and 

 their country, they have the tenderest attachment, 

 and are ever ready to give a part of what little they 

 possess to those who are in necessity or distress. 

 .Let us not view the Negro character through the me- 

 dium of interest or prejudice ; let us contemplate it 

 as exhibited by our illustrious countryman, Mr. 

 Park, who travelled defenceless, unattended, and 

 alone, to the distance of many hundred miles in the 

 interior of Africa ; and during the whole of his pere- 

 grination in those unknown regions, where no white 

 man had ever been seen before, found the unpolished 

 inhabitants uniformly inoffensive, compassionate, and 

 kind. Can we refrain from lamenting their hard 

 fate, in being torn from their native country, and car- 

 ried into perpetual slavery ? Their sufferings certainly 

 demand a tear. 



The aboriginal Americans form a fifth race of men, 

 not less different in colour, than distinct in habitation, 

 from the rest of mankind. All these savage tribes, 

 except the Esquimaux, who resemble the Lapland- 

 ers, and other hyperborean nations of the old conti- 

 nent, are of a red or copper colour. In the whole 

 world, diversity of climate never fails to produce dif- 

 ference of complexion; but among the original tribes 

 of America that effect isn ot perceptible ; and among 



