14 The Natural Hiftory of the Book L 
their Heads often; and, by expofing them to the different Viciffitudes of 
Wind and Weather, their Skulls grew to an extreme Hardnels. @ 
~The former Indians, and the prefent Englfb Inhabitants, being confi- 
dered, it will not te here improper to take fome Notice of the Bee 
and Difpofition of our Negroes, or black Inhabitants, employed ie cu os 
The Num- vating our Land :'Thefe are between Sixty-five and Seventy thoufand, tho 
ber of Ne- £.merly we had a greater Number: Yet we are obliged, in order to keep 
groes in the Vi g . 
Wand. yp a -neceffary Number, to have a yearly Supply from Africa. 
~The hard’ Labour, and often the Want of Neceflaries, which thefe 
unhappy Creatures are obliged to undergo, deftroy a greater Number 
than are bred up here: Thefe new Slaves are chiefly brought from the 
Their dif Kingdoms of (16) Coromantee, Angola, (17) Whiddaw, Ebo, and Anamabw. 
tiveCoun- The farft of thefe, in general, are looked upon to be the beft for Labour, 
Kien keing, in fome meafure, inured to it in their own Country. _ 
We have had likewife formerly fome Slaves brought hither from the 
Tfland of Madagafcar : Thefe differ fomething from the Africans in the 
Colour of their Skins, being not of a Coal-black, but fomewhat inclined 
to the Tawny ; yet ftill a Degree blacker than the Indians. 
It hath perplexed the Learned to find out fome natural Caufe of the 
Negroes Complexion, fo remarkably differing from the reft of Mankind. 
The black Some have endeavoured to account for it, from the intenfe Heat of 
Colour of the Sun in thefe and fuch-like hot Climates: But this is fo far from being 
Negroes 
proved to true, that I have always obferved, that the Hair of thofe who are ex- 
é no . 
owing tothe pofed. to the Sun’s Heat, turns from a true black, to a brown reddifh 
Heat of the Colour. As to the Blacknefs of the Negroes Skin, this reaches no deeper 
than the outward Curis ; for, when this peels off by being fcalded, or by 
any other Accident, the Part ever after remains white. 
Neither can the extraordinary Curling of their Hair be owing to the 
Heat of the Sun; for the (18) Indians have always lank Hair, tho’ gene- 
rally expofed to its Heat. 
As to the Stature and Make of Negroes, excepting that a greater 
Number of them have their Nofes fhorter, and Lips thicker, than the 
Whites, 1 never could find out any extraordinary Difference: They are 
shape and generally ftrait-limb’d, which is occafioned, in fome meafure, by their 
Stature of § i" i 6 
Negroes. not lacing with Bandages their Children when young, according to the 
too 
_ €:6)° This Nation of Negroes, above all others, deprecate the divine Vengeance when it thunders. 
_ (17) The Whiddaw and Angola Negroes are generally circumcifed. 
«© (18) The Jndians, tho’ they refemble A4u/attces in Colour, yet they are a diftinct Race, and far from 
deriving their Origin from a Mixture between a white Man and a black Woman ; for fuch a Mixture,which 
are called Adu/atioes, hath always very curled Hair, the Indians always lank and ftrong. A AMulatto Woman 
cohabiting with a d/ack Man, and the Children of thefe with Blacks likewife, their Defcendents, in three or 
four Generations, will gradually lofe their Copper-colour Complexion, and Length of Hair ; the former 
being almoft abforbed in the natural Blacknefs of the Negro Hue, and the latter lofes its borrowed Length, 
becoming weak, fhort, curled, and woolly : Likewife, on the contrary, if a Mulatto Woman is married 
to a white Man, and their Children continue to marry white People, their Complexion will be fo far bleached 
in about fix or feven Generations, as to terminate in what we call in England a Nut-brown Complexion. A 
| few Generations further will lofe all Diftinctions in Colour, and the Quality of their Hair ; fo that the Whites 
the Tndians, and the Blacks, differ not accidentally, but originally and really: And therefore, as thofe 
Men who pretend to account for the Origin of the Blacks, or Indians, -bring neither Proof nor Authority 
to ftrengthen their Opinions, thefe muft be looked upon at beft but uncertain Conjectures. 
