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SPECIES 



nious 



It rriuft likewife be acknowledged, tliat feveral learned and irrge- human 



works on tlie human fpecies, have, appeared in the prefent. 

 age, wTittenby philofophers^ whofe names alone, fhould feem to be, 

 a fufFicient recom^mendation. I have,, however, early obferved, 

 that, being miiled by the vague reports of unphilofophical travel- 



r 



lers, which they have fometirnes wilfully changed and moulded, to • 

 fuit their: own opinions 3 their fyflems, though ever fo ingenious, 

 are feldom agreeable to nature,. It appears indeed, to be the gQwt- 

 ral fault of thefe v/riters, to iludy mankind only in their cabinets ; 

 or, at befl, to obferve no other than highly civilized nations, who^ 



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have over-run all parts of the world by the help of navigation, and. 



from commercial views y and are more or lefs degenerate and taints- 

 ed with vices.. 



As we met with many tribes in the courfe of our expedition^ 

 who had never feen any European or other polifhed nation^ I thought : 

 it my duty to attend to this branch of the great fcudy of nature, a§ 

 much as my other occupations would permit. I collected fa6ts, and. 

 now communicate, them to the impartial and learned world, 

 few inferences, as an imperfe(5l'eiTay., 



with a: 



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