293 



we meet with tribes among whom the children 

 are white, and at the age of virility acquire the 

 bronze colour of the natives of Mexico and 

 Peru. Michikinakoua, the chief of the Miamis, 

 had the arms, and the parts of the body not ex- 

 posed to the sun, almost white. This difference 

 of hue between the parts covered and not co- 

 vered is never observed among the natives of 

 Peru and Mexico, even in families that live 

 much at their ease, and remain almost con- 

 stantly within doors. To the west of the Mi- 

 amis, on the coast opposite to Asia, among the 

 Kolouches and Tchinkitans * of Norfolk Sound, 

 the grown-up girls, when they are forced to 

 wash their skin, display the white hue of the Eu- 

 ropeans. This whiteness is found also, accord- 

 ing to some accounts -j-, among the mountaineers 

 of Chili. 



These facts are very remarkable, and con- 

 trary to the opinion so generally spread of 

 the extreme conformity of organization among 



* Between 54° and 58° of latitude. These white nations 

 have been visited successively by Portlock, Marchand, Ba- 

 ranoff, and Davidoff. The Tchinkitans, or Schinkit, are the 

 inhabitants of the Island of Sitka. Vater, Mithrid., vol. iii, 

 P. fi, p. 218. Marchand, Voy. f V. ii, p. 167—170. 



+ Molina, Saggio sulla Storia Nat, del Chili, edit. 2, p. 

 293. Must we believe the existence of those blue eyes of 

 the Boroas of Chili and Guayanas of Uruguay, represented 

 to us as nations of the race of Odin ? Azara, Voy, torn, ii, 

 p. 76. 



