HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



263 



elongation renders thofe Afiatics fully as irregular as if it 

 was a real tail. 



If we were, ffi like manner, to go through the nations 

 of Afia and Africa, we fliould hardly find any extenfive 

 country where the colour of men is not darker, where 

 there are not ftronger irregularities obferved, and groffer 

 defe&s to be found in them, than M. de Paw finds fault 

 with in the Americans. The colour of the latter is a 

 good deal clearer than that of almoft all the Africans, 

 and the inhabitants of fouthern Afia. The fcantinefs of 

 beard is common to the inhabitants of the Philippine 

 Elands, and of all the Indian Archipelago, to the famous 

 Chinefe, Japanefe, Tartars, and many other nations of 

 the old continent. The imperfections of the Americans, 

 however great they may be reprefented to be, are cer- 

 tainly not comparable with the defe&s of that immenfe 

 people, whofe character we have iketched, and others 

 whom we omit. All thefe circumftances might have re- 

 ftrained the pen of M. de Paw, but they flipped his 

 memory, or he fliut out the recollection of them. 



M. de Paw reprefents the Americans to be a feeble 

 and difeafed fet of nations : Ulloa, on the contrary af- 

 firms, that they are healthy, robuft, and ftrong. Which 

 of the two merits the greater credit ? M. de Paw, who 

 undertook at Berlin to review the Americans without 

 knowing them ; or Ulloa, who refided amongfl: them for 

 fome years, and converfed with them in different countries 

 of South America ; M. de Paw, who employed .Jiimfelf 

 to degrade and debafe them, in order to eflablifli his ab- 

 furd fyftem of degeneracy, or Ulloa, who, though by 

 no means favourable in general to the Indians, was not 

 bent on forming any fyftem, but only on writing what he 



judged 



