458 CAUSES OF THE VARIETIES 



ported there, continue in the last instance as perfectly black 

 as in the original stock/^ 



The foregoing statements authorize us in concluding, 

 that in Asia, where we have countries with every variety of 

 situation and temperature, at every distance from the equa- 

 tor, mountains, valleys, plains, islands, and continents, no 

 effect of climate can be traced on the colour, or on any 

 other characters of the human race. 



On the hypothesis, which assigns the varieties of mankind 

 to the operation of climate as their cause, we should expect 

 to find in Africa all tribes under the equator of the most 

 intensely black colour ; the tinge should become lighter and 

 lighter as we proceed thence towards the south, and the 

 complexion ought to be white when we arrive at regions 

 which enjoy an European climate. This, however, is by no 

 means the case. The Abyssinians, on the east, with dark- 

 olive colour and long hair, are placed near the equator, and 

 surrounded by Negroes. In the same part also, the Gallas, 

 a great and barbarous nation, having, according to Bruce, 

 long black hair, and white skin verging to brown, occupy 

 extensive regions under the equator itself. On the other 

 hand, as we proceed from the equator towards the south, 

 through tribes of Negroes, we find the black colour conti- 

 nued with undiminished intensity. It is known in the West 

 Indies, that the Congo Negroes, in the blackness of their 

 skin and woolly hair, equal any race of Africans. Patter- 

 son assures us that the KafFers, within a few degrees of the 

 Cape of Good Hope, where the climate is so far from being 

 intolerably hot, that the eorn is often hurt by the winter 

 frost, are of the deepest colour ; and the same fact is fami- 

 liarly known of the surrounding tribes. 



The island of Madagascar, which is cooled by the mild 

 breezes of the Indian Ocean, and ought, therefore, to con- 

 tain a white race, has two kinds of natives : one of olive 

 colour with dark hair ; the other, true Negroes. 



The Hottentots, at one or two degrees from the deep 

 black KafFers, are of a brownish-yellow colour: this dis- 

 tance can hardly account for the difference 



