IN THE HUMAN SPECIES. 253 



islands, in North America, or in Europe. From a refine- 

 ment of vanity, the inhabitants of the Spanish colonies in 

 America have enriched their language with terms for the 

 finest shades, which result from the degeneration of the 

 primitive colour ; and have also distinguished the offspring 

 of the various dark-coloured races with the whites. 



In the first generation, the offspring of Europeans and 

 Negroes are called Mulattoes {miildtre, Fr.) The word 

 Creole (criollo) has been frequently confounded with this, 

 even by good writers; but that name, originally applied by 

 the first Negroes conveyed to America in the sixteenth cen- 

 tury, to their children born in that country, and borrowed by 

 the Spaniards from them to denote their own offspring in 

 the New World *, belongs properly to the children of Euro- 

 pean or Negro parents born in the East or West Indies. 



In colour, figure, and moral qualities, the Mulatto is a 

 medium between the European and African. The colour 

 is more or less yellow, brown, or tawny, according as the 

 European father may have been fair or dark; and the coun- 

 tenance has the middle form between that of both parents f. 

 There is no redness of the cheek. The hair is curled and 

 black, but much longer than that of the Negro: and the 

 iris is dark. In cleanliness, capacity, activity, and courage, 

 they are decidedly superior to the Negroes. 



Europeans and Mulattoes produce Tercerons (sometimes 

 also called Quarterons, Moriscos, and Mestizos). The hair 

 and countenance of these resemble the European ; the 



• Garcilasso del Origen de los Incas, p. 255. We can easily understand 

 how the use of the word may have been extended in the West Indies to the 

 animals which have been produced from stocks imported from the Old 

 World. 



+ Whether either colour or sex affects the offspring more strongly than the 

 other, is an interesting question, which we have not the means of answering 

 tatisfactorily. I find an opinion expressed, that in the union of the European 

 and Negress the nobler blood predominates. Estwick, History of Jamaica; 

 ii. 335. There is the same authority for an opinion that male and female 

 Mulattoes do not produce so many children together, as if they were united 

 respectively to Negresses and Europeans, Mr. Long, in his History of 

 Jamaica, gives a similar testimony on this point, and that in strong terms. 



