THE HUMAN KINGDOM. J 7 



who are almost idiotic."* MM. Quoy and Gaimard, whom no 

 one will accuse of polygenist tendencies, give the following 

 account of their interview with these miserable people. " Our 

 presence seemed to cause them a sort of pleasure ; and they 

 endeavoured to explain their sensations on the subject with a 

 loquacity to which we could not respond, seeing we did not 

 understand their language. After this meeting they used to 

 come to us, gesticulating and talking rapidly ; they gave shrill 

 screams, and if we answered in the same way, their delight 

 was immense. Soon there was a change, and they did not 

 hesitate to ask for something to eat, by the simple mode of 

 hitting themselves on the belty."-f The spectacle these travel- 

 lers had before them is so sad and touching that they after- 

 wards add, as , if to satisfy their own consciences, " however, 

 they are not stupid." Doubtless, they are not ; but they do 

 not seem to deserve the epithet which the world gives to these 

 beings, who appear so completely inferior to others. " Mali- 

 cious as a monkey." They are not stupid, and that is all.J 

 The Australians are not exceptional in this ; Bory de Saint 

 Vincent has drawn for us a picture of the inhabitants of South 

 Africa, a beautiful and fertile land, which is almost as sad. 

 At the other end of the world, upon that ice-continent which 

 surrounds the north pole, we find the same abjection. 



Sir John Ross, lost among the ice, found himself among a race 

 of people who had never seen an European ; this English sailor, 

 a strictly religious man, was peculiarly adapted to behold with 

 indulgence the only beings who were near him, but although he 

 was an attentive and scrupulous observer, and above all, a truly 

 sincere man, he seemed to despair of finding in their minds the 

 living spark for which he was searching. " The Esquimaux," he 



* Hale, Natives of Australia, etc. See American Journal of Science, second 

 series, vol. i, p. 302, May 1846 ; extract from the account of C. Wilkes' Expe- 

 dition : Narrative of the U. 8. Exploring Expedition during the years 1838-1842, 

 vol. vi, " Ethnography and Philology." 



f Voyage de I' Astrolabe : Zoologie, vol. i, p. 43. 



j Even after the assertions of M. de Quatrefages in the Unite des Races 

 Humaines, p. 162, and following, we have not thought ourselves justified in 

 changing our opinions on the subject of the Australians, which have lately 

 been confirmed at the Anthropological Society; a Mr. O'Rourke, an eye- 

 witness, having answered M. de Quatrefages (Bulletins de la Socitte d'An- 

 thropologie, 21 June, 1860). 



