838 
NATIVE WHITE RACES 
sco the inhabitants of Paria, and those of the, island of 
Trinidad, better made, more civilized (de bnena conver- 
sation), and whiter than the natives whom he had previously 
seen.”* This certainly did not mean that the Pariagotos 
are white. The lighter colour of the skin of the natives, 
and the great coolness of the mornings on the coast o' 
Paria, seemed to confirm the fantastic hypothesis which that 
great man had framed, respecting the irregularity of the 
curvature of the earth, and the height of the plains in this 
region, which he regarded as the effect of an extraordinary 
swelling of the globe in the direction of the parallels of 
latitude. Amerigo Vespucci (in his pretended first voyage, 
apparently written from the narratives of other navigators) 
compares the natives to .the Tartar nations, t not in regard 
to their colour, but ou account of the breadth of their faces, 
and the general expression of their physiognomy. 
But if it be certain, that at tbe end of tbe fifteenth cen- 
tury there were ou the coast of Cumana a few men with 
white skins, as there are in our days, it must not thence be 
concluded, that the natives of the New World exhibit every- 
where a similar organization of the dermoidal system. It 
is not less inaccurate to say, that they are all copper- 
coloured, than to affirm that they would not have a tawny 
hue, if they were not exposed to the heat of the sun, 
or tanned by the action of the air. The natives may- 
be divided into two very unequal portions with respect 
to numbers ; to the first belong the Esquimaux of Green- 
land, of Labrador, and the northern coast of Hudson’s 
Bay, the inhabitants of Behring’s Straits, of the peninsula 
* Churchill's Collection, vol. ii. Herrera, pp. 80, 83, 84. Munoz, 
Hist, del Nuevo Mundo, vol. i., “ El color era baxo como es regular e» 
[os Indios, pero mas claro que en las islas reconocidas.” (Their colour 
was dark, as is usual among the Indians ; but lighter than that of the 
people of the islands previously known. 1 ) The missionaries are accustomed 
to call those Indians who are less black, less tawny, whitish, and even 
almost white. — Gumilla, Hist, de l’Orenoque, vol. i., chap, v., § 2. 
Such incorrect expressions may mislead those who are not accustomed to 
the exaggerations in which travellers often indulge. 
•f Vultu non multum speeiosi sunt, quoniam latas facies Tartariis adsi- 
milatas habent. (Their countenances are not handsome, their cheek- 
bones being broad like those of the Tartars.) — Amcric-i Vespntii Nav’- 
(a V> Priina, in Gryn’s Orbis Novns. 1.555. 
