SUMATRA.^ 
Laplanders, and the Hottentots, who exhibit a pidlurc of mankind m 
it's radeft and moft humiliating afpe£t,* 
Few improre- mankind are by nature fo prone to imitation, it may feem fur- 
ments adopted j t * / 
from the prizing that thefe people have not derived a greater ihare of improve- 
ment, in manuers and arts, from their long connexion with Europeans, 
particularly with the Englifli, who have now been fettled among them 
for an hundred years. Though ftrongly attached to their own habits, 
they are neverthelefs fenCible of their inferiority, and readily admit the 
preference which our attainments in fcience, and efpecially in mechanics, 
iotitle us to, I have heard a man exclaim, after contemplating the- 
ftrudure and ufes of a houfe cbck, " Is it not fitting that fuch as we^ 
fliould be flaves to people who have the ingenuity to invent, and tha 
Ikill to conftrudt, fo wonderful a machine as this?" The fun,'* he 
added, ** is a machine of this nature. But who winds it up, faid hia 
companion? Who but JHah, replied he'V 
Caufes of ihi*. Some probable canfes of this backwardnefs may be fuggefted. We 
carry on few or no fpecies of manufacture at our fetrlements ; every 
thing is imported ready wrought to it's high eft perfection : the natives 
have no opportunity of examining the fir ft procefs, or die progrefs of 
the work. Abundantly fup plied with every article of convenience from 
Europe, and prejudiced ia their favor becaufe from thence^ we make 
but little ufe of the raw materials Sumatra affords. We do not fpin 
it's cottony we do not rear it's filk-worms ; we do not fmelt it*s metals ; 
we do not even hew it's ftone: negkaing thefe, it is in vain we would 
exhibit to the people for their improvement in the arts, our rich bro- 
cades, our tkie- pieces,, or difplay to them, in drawings, the elegance 
There arc three fcaits, pointed out by different writer? (Lc Poivre, Robertfon, and Kichardr 
fbn) by wliichto mcafure and afcertsm the ftatc of dviluatidn any people have arrived at: th« 
one ii the degree of perfection of thdr agrSculturoi another, their progrefs in tlie art of nume- 
ral ion; and a third the number of abftraft terms ia their language. Forming a judgment by 
thefs lefts, the readct will hq. abicto detomine with what Ihaie of gropHeiy I have affigned the 
abore ranki to the Stimatrans* 
of 
