568 



The whole of these phenomena are so much 

 the more worthy of attention, as they are dis- 

 played in that great branch of the American 

 nations, that is generally opposed to the circum- 

 polar branch, to that of the Tschougaz-Eski- 



degree than the tribes I have just named. We may add to 

 this Jist (which the researches of Sommering, Blumenbach, 

 and Prichard, on the varieties of the human species, have 

 rendered so interesting) the Ojes of the Cuchivero, the Boanes 

 (now almost destroyed) of the interior of Brazil, and in the 

 north of America, far from the north-west coast, the Man- 

 dans and the Akansas (Walkenaer Geogr., p. 645. Gili, vol. 

 ii, p. 34. Valer, Amerikan, SpracJien, p. 81. Southey, vol. i, 

 p. 603.) The most tawny, we might almost say the black- 

 est of the American race, are the Otomacs and the Guamoes. 

 These have perhaps given rise to the confused notions of 

 American Negroes, spread through Europe in the first ages 

 of the conquest. (Herera, Dec. i, lib. 3, cap. 9, vol.i, p. 79. 

 Garcia, Origen de los Americanos, p. 259.) Who are those 

 Ncgros de Quareca, placed by Gomara, p. 277, in that very 

 isthmus of Panama, whence we received the first absurd 

 tales of an American people of Albinoes? In reading with 

 attention the authors of the beginning of the 16th century, 

 we sec, that the discovery of America, which was that of a 

 new race of men, had singularly awakened the interest tra- 

 vellers took respecting the varieties of our species. Now, if 

 a black race had been mingled with copper coloured men, 

 as in the South-sea Islands, the conquistadores would not 

 have failed to speak of it in a precise manner. Besides, the 

 religious traditions of the Americans relate the appearance, 

 in the heroic times, of white and bearded men as priests and 

 legislators ; but none of these traditions make mention of a 

 black race. 



