?3C A HISTORY OF 



differs mois widely, he has made gi eater deviations from his original 

 form. 



That we have all sprung from one common parent, we are taught, 

 both by reason and religion, to believe ; and we have good reason also 

 to think that the Europeans resemble him more than any of the rest of 

 his children. However, it must not be concealed that the olive-colour- 

 ed Asiatic, and even the jet-black negro, claim this honour of here 

 ditary resemblance ; and assert, that white men are mere deviations 

 from original perfection. Odd as this opinion may seem, they have 

 Linnaeus, the celebrated naturalist, on their side, who supposes man a 

 native of the tropical climates, and only a sojourner more to the 

 north. But, not to enter into a controversy upon a matter of a very 

 remote speculation, I think one argument alone will suffice to prove 

 the contrary, and show that the white man is the original source from 

 whence the other varieties have sprung. We have frequently seen 

 white children produced from black parents, but have never seen a 

 black offspring the production of two whites. From hence we may 

 conclude, that whiteness is the colour to which mankind naturally 

 tends : for, as in the tulip, the parent stock is known by all the arti- 

 ficial varieties breaking into it ; so in man, that colour must be origi- 

 nal which never alters, and to which all the frest are accidentally seen 

 to change. I have seen in London, at different times, two white ne- 

 groes, the issue of black parents, that served to convince me of the 

 truth of this theory. I had before been taught to believe that the 

 whiteness of the negro's skin was a disease, a kind of milky whiteness, 

 that might be called rather a leprous crust than a natural complexion. 

 I was taught to suppose, that the numberless white negroes,- found in 

 various parts of Africa, the white men that go by the name of Chac- 

 relas, in the East-Indies, and the white Americans, near the Isthmus 

 of Darien, in the West-Indies, were all as so many diseased persons, 

 and even more deformed than the blackest of the natives. But, upon 

 examining that negro which was last shown in London, I found the 

 colour to be exactly like that of an European ; the visage white 

 and ruddy, and the lips of the proper redness. However, there 

 were sufficient marks to convince me of its descent. The hair was 

 white and woolly, and very unlike any thing I had seen before. The 

 iris of the eye was yellow, inclining to red ; the nose was flat, exactly 

 resembling that of a negro ; and the lips thick and prominent. No 

 doubt, therefore, remained of the child's having been born of negro 

 parents : and the person who showed it had attestations to convince 

 the most incredulous. From this, then, we see that the variations of 

 the negro colour is into whiteness, whereas the white are never found 

 to have a race of negro children. Upon the whole, therefore, all those 

 changes which the African, the Asiatic, or the American, undergo, 

 are but accidental deformities, which a kinder climate, better nourish- 

 ment, or more civilized manners, would, in a course of centuries, ver/ 

 probabl" remove. 



