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with hair towards its extremities, as far as the middle of the eyebrows ; 

 small eyes ; a thin nose, small, and bending toward the upper lip ; the 

 countenance broad ; the ears large ; the hair very black, lank, and 

 coarse ; the limbs well turned ; the feet small ; the body of just propor- 

 tion, and altogether free from hair, until old age, when they acquire some 

 beard, but never on their cheeks. M. le Chevalier de Pinto, in a manu- 

 script in the possession of the late Dr. Robertson, well delineates the 

 general characters of the tribes with which he was acquainted : he describes 

 them as being of a copper colpur, with some diversity of shade, not in 

 proportion to their distance from the equator, but according to the degree 

 of elevation of the territory which they inhabit. Those who live in a high 

 country are fairer than those in the marshy lowlands on the coast. Their 

 face is round, farther removed, perhaps, than that of any people from an oval 

 shape ; their forehead is small ; the extremities of their ears are far from 

 the face ; their lips are thick ; their nose is flat ; their eyes are black, or of 

 a chestnut colour small, but capable of discerning objects at a great 

 distance ; their hair is always thick and sleek, and without any tendency to 

 curl : they have no hair on any part of the body but the head. At the 

 first aspect, a South American appears to be mild and innocent ; but, on a 

 more attentive view, one discovers, in his countenance, something wild, 

 distrustful, and sullen. 



The Americans, then, as all accounts tend to prove, are distinguished 

 from other nations by a certain combination of features, and other physical 

 peculiarities, entitling them to a rank as distinct from the European or 

 Indian as the Mongole or the Negro. They constitute a distinct stem of 

 the human race ; but to what extent they subdivide into clearly-marked 

 ramifications, analogous to the Celtic, Teutonic, or Arabic branches of the 

 Japetic stock, it is almost impossible to determine. Our acquaint- 

 ance with them is only of recent date, and their multitudinous languages 

 have engaged, comparatively speaking, but little attention. A rigid 

 analysis of these languages is, indeed, a task, to which few would devote 

 themselves, and the undertaking is, moreover, almost impracticable. 



The traditions of the indigenes, when gleaned, are found to be 

 meagre, vague, and dateless. Among a wild, unlettered people, sunk in 

 barbarism, and roused from a state of habitual apathy, only by the desire 

 of vengeance, or the calls of hunger, the most important events make but 

 little impression : they are forgotten in a few generations, or, if preserved, 

 are distorted, and referred to an indefinite epoch of remote antiquity. 



