

Memoir of Charles Alexander Lesueur. 205 



It fortunately happened that there were at the public hospital 

 of Cape Town, two females of this extraordinary people, an adult 

 and a girl of twelve or fourteen. These were examined with all 

 that care which so interesting a matter required ; and Lesueufs 



drawings of the Tab Her, the first, probably, that had ever been 

 made by a competent artist, illustrated two Memoirs on this sub- 

 ject, which were read to the Institute of France in the year 1805. 

 These drawings, four in number, were afterwards engraved ; I 

 cannot learn whether or not they have been published. I have 

 in my possession impressions of the plates, presented to me by my 

 ever-regretted friend ; and I treasure them as memorials of one, in 

 whose society I have passed many a pleasant and instructive hour. 



A stay of twenty-one days at the Cape of Good Hope sufficed 

 for the objects of the visit ; and on 'the 24th of January the Ge- 

 ographe set sail for France. She arrived at the port of Lorient 

 on the 25th of March, 1804, after an absence of upwards of three 

 years and five months. The Naturalist had returned to Havre in 

 June, the preceding year. 



Rumors of Captain Baudin's misconduct had affected the pub- 

 lic mind, to the prejudice of the expedition ; and even the gov- 

 ernment appeared to regret that the voyage had been undertaken, 

 under the impression, that, as respects its ultimate objects, it had 



landais sous le nom de Boxrhimnans, et del Hottentot-, sous relui de Houzouanas. 



leg jeuttes filles iapportent en oaiasant, et il ae fait que eroitre avee I'&ge; il dimi- 

 nue et se perd dans lea generations succeaaivement produites par le melange dt 

 Houzouanas et des Hottentots ordinairea" 



Some three or four years after thw publication of Dr. AlardV Memoir, an adult 

 female of thk race was exhibited in Paris, where she died in December, 1815. An 

 account of her is given in the "Histoire Naturelle des Mammif&res," by the late 



Baron Cuvier, after an autoptical examination. From this account we extr. I the 



following passages. 



"Lea premieres recherchea durent avoir pour objet cet appendice extraordinaire 

 dont la nattire a fiat, dit-on, un attribut special de sa race. 



u Ou le retrouva aussitot : et tout en reconnaissant que c'&ftit «so<tf < it ce que 

 Pcron (Lesueur) av.nt dessine, il ne fut pas possible d adopter la theorie de cet 

 infetigable natural iste. 



" En effet le tablier nest point, camme il l'a pretendu, un organ particulier ; 

 plusieurs de ses predecessors avaient niieux vue : c'est un devel 



pr 

 nymphes." 



loppement d< 



It is much to be resetted, that, as this illustrious naturalist differed in an essen- 

 tial point from Peron, he did not support his opinion by figure »t the tablier 01 



the noruvnnxmf t ^ • j : A.«-« :« .»-* ,1m„U • h j> jdmitted bv Cuvier him- 



the accuracy of Lesucur's drawings tlier 



L Umt we then conclude th 

 The 



hat the question is - tied I Of « it still a moot-pom* 



B ~~ ». «.« awuswaana woman, which ace,,, my Covers essay, by 



J» means correspond with Ins description; and this is equivalent to the assertion, 

 ™ they are unnatural or no! characteristic, The head, especially, ha- scarcely a 

 '••twa of the original A work pre!'. lly scientific, should seem to reqiure men 

 attention to aocurai ' " .,,... 



Among the supplementary plat, before mentioned, there is a medallion portrait 

 «f the adult female Houswaana, who *as « mined 1 IVron and Dr. Dibhefai at 

 the Cape of Good Hop,.. This miniature was drawn by Nicola damn Petit, trom 

 nature, with that care and skillfull). which distinguish Ins works among the illus- 

 trations of the " Voyage aux Terres Auatrak ' The configuration ol the head is so 

 dissimilar to tliat of Cuvier* figures that one would be tempted to believe they 

 were taken from individuals of different races. 



