HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



261 



doubt, that ignominious defcription, which Ulloa gives 

 of fome people of South America (V), and from this An- 

 gle premife, according to his logic, he deduces his general 

 conclulion. 



i The very afpecl: of an Angolan, Mandingan, or Con- 

 gan, would have fhocked Mr. de Paw, and made him re- 

 call that cenfure which he paflfes on the colour, the make, 

 and hair of the Americans. What can be imagined more 

 contrary to the idea we have of beauty, and the perfec- 

 tion of the human frame, than a man whofe body emits 

 a rank fmell, whofe fkin is as black as ink, whofe head 

 and face are covered with black wool, inflead of hair, 

 whofe eyes are yellow and bloody, whofe lips are thick 

 and blackifli, and whofe nofe is flat ? Such are the inhabi- 

 tants of a very large portion of Africa, and of many iflands 

 of Alia. What men can be more imperfect than thofe who 

 meafure no more than four feet in ftature, whofe faces 

 are long and flat, the nofe compreflfed, the irides yellow- 

 ifh black, the eye-lids turned back towards the temples, 

 the cheeks extraordinarily elevated, their mouths mon- 

 ftroufly large, their lips thick and prominent, and the 

 lower part of their vifages extremely narrow ? Such, 

 according to count de BufFon (<i), are the Laplanders, 

 the Zemblans, the Borandines, the Samojeds, and Tar- 

 tars in the Eaft. What objects more deformed than men 

 whofe faces are too long and wrinkled even in their 

 youth, their nofes thick and compreflfed, their eyes fmall 



and 



(c) Ulloa, in the defcription which he gives of the Indians of Quito, fays, 

 that hair neither grows upon the men nor upon the women when they arrive at 

 puberty, as it does on the reft of mankind ; but whatever Angularity may at- 

 attend the Quitans, or occafion this circumftance, there is no doubt that among 

 the Americans in general, the period of puberty is accompanied with the fame 

 fymptoms as it is among other nations of the world. 



(O Hift. Nat. torn. vi. 



