422 AMERICA. 
rival the firft in Europe. But it is not pofiible to make 
threat progrefs in the fciences, in the midft of a life of 
hiifery, fervitude, and oppreflion. Their ancient govern¬ 
ment, their laws, and their arts, evidently demohfirate 
that they fullered no want of genius.” 
This fame author, who appears to be a competent judge, 
deferibes the Mexicans as being of a good (fature, rather 
exceeding the middle (ize ; well-proportioned in all their 
limbs ; as having a fine olive complexion ; narrow fore¬ 
heads ; black eyes; clean, firm, regular, white teeth; 
thick, black, coarfe, gloffy hair; thin beards, and gene¬ 
rally no hair on their legs, thighs, and arms. They are 
neither very handfome nor the reverfe, but hold a middle 
place between the extremes. Some of the women are 
fair and beautiful. Deformities are fcarcely known among 
them. Their fenfes are very acute, efpecially that of 
fight, which they enjoy unimpaired to the greateft age. 
They are moderate eaters, but much addifted to intem¬ 
perance in drinking, which, as far as we know, is true 
of all the American Indians. They are patient of injuries 
and hardfhips, and grateful for benefits. Good faith is 
not fo much refpefted as it deferves to be. They are 
naturally unfocial, feriotts, and auftere, and are more 
anxious to puniffi crimes than to reward virtues. Gene- 
rofity and perfeCt difinterefiednefsare finking traits in their 
character. Their religion is blended with much fuperfti- 
tion ; and fome of the more ignorant are very prone to 
idolatry. The refpedt paid by children to their parents, 
and by the young to the old, among thofe people, is highly 
commendable. Parents are fond of their children. The 
affedtion of hulbands for their wives is lefs than the wives 
for their hufhands ; and it is very common for men to love 
their neighbours 4 wives better than they do their own. 
Courage and cowardice feem alternately to a fie ft their 
minds, and it is difficult to determine which predominates. 
They can meet dangers in war, and fuch as proceed from 
natural caufes, with great intrepidity; but are panic-firuck 
by the fiern look of a Spaniard. On the whole, their 
charafter, like that of all other nations, is a mixture of 
good and bad. Of their morality, the following exhortation 
of a Mexican to his fon may ferve as a fpecimen : “ My 
fon, who art come into the light from the womb of thy- 
niother like a chicken from the egg, and like it art pre¬ 
paring - to fly through the world, we know not how long 
heaven will grant to us the enjoyment of that precious 
.gem which we poffefs in thee ; but, however (hort the 
period, endeavour to live exaffly, praying God continually 
to affifi thee. He created thee : thou art his property. 
Pie is thy father, and loves thee (till more than I do ; re- 
pofe in him thy thoughts, and day and night direft thy 
iighs to him. Reverence and falute thy elders, and hold 
no one in contempt. To the poor and diftrefied be not 
dumb, but rather ufe words of comfort. Honour all 
perfons, particularly thy parents, to whom thou owed 
obedience, refpeft, and fervice. Guard againft imitating 
the examples of thofe wicked fons, who, like brutes that 
are deprived of reafon, neither reverence their parents, 
liften to their inftruftion, nor fifbmit to their correction ; 
becaufe whoever follows their fieps will have an unhappy 
end, will die in a defperate or hidden manner, or will be 
killed and devoured by wild beafis. 
“ Mock not, my foil, the aged or the imperfefl. Scorn 
not him whom you fee fall into fome folly or tranfgreffion, 
nor make him reproaches ; but reftrain thyfelf, and be¬ 
ware lefi thou fall into the fame error which offends thee 
in another. Go not where thou art not called, nor inter¬ 
fere in that which does not concern thee. Endeavour to 
manifeft thy good breeding in all thy words and actions. 
In converfation, do not lay thy hands upon another, nor 
fpeak too much, "nor interrupt nor difturb another’s dif- 
courfe. When any one difeourfes with thee, hear him 
attentively, and hold thyfelf in an eafy attitude, neither 
playing with thy feet, nor putting thy mantle to thy 
mouth, nor fpitting too often, nor looking.about you here 
and there, nor riling up frequently if thou art fittings 
for fuch aflions are indications of levity and low breeff- 
ing.” He proceeds to mention feveral particular vices 
which are to be avoided, and concludes : “ Steal not, nor 
give thyfelf to gaming; otherwife thou wilt be a difgrace 
to thy parents, whom thou oughteft rather to honour for 
the education they have given thee. If thou wilt be vir¬ 
tuous, thy example will put the wicked to fhame. No- 
more, my fon; enough hath been faid in difeharge of the 
duties of a father. With thefe counfels I with to fortify 
thy mind. Refufe them not, nor adt in contradiction to 
them ; for on them thy life and all thy happinefs depend.” 
Although fo much cannot be faid with truth, perhaps, 
in favour of the more northern Indians, whom we have 
included in the fecond elafs, owing to the inferiority of 
their advantages, yet we are far from thinking them in¬ 
ferior, in point of corporeal or mental endowments, to the 
Mexicans. In their complexion, fize, and form, they are 
not in general unlike the Mexicans. In focial and do- 
mefiic virtues, in agriculture, arts, and manufactures, 
they are far behind the Mexicans; in their hofpitality, 
equal ; and in their eloquence in council, and bravery in 
war, perhaps fuperior. Their mode of life, and the fiate 
of fociety among them, afford few objects for the difplay 
either of their literary or political abilities. 
M. Buffon has given an humiliating piCturp of the Abo¬ 
rigines of North America, in the following words : “ In 
the American favage, the organs of generation are fmall 
and feeble. He has no hair, no beard, no ardour for the 
female. Though nimbler than the European, beeaufe 
more accuftomed to running, his firength is not fo o- rcats 
His fenfations are lefs acute ; and yet he is more °timid 
and cowardly. He has no vivacity, no activity of mind. 
The activity of his body is not fo much an exercife or 
fpontaneous motion, as a neceffary adtion produced by 
want. Defiroy his appetite for victuals and drink, and 
you will at once annihilate the active principle of all his 
movements : he remains in fiupid repofe, on his limbs or 
couch, for whole days. It is eafy to difeover the caufe of 
the fcattered life of thefe favages, and of their eftrange- 
ment from fociety. They have been refufed the molt 
precious fpark of nature’s fire : they have no ardour for 
women, and, of courfe, no love to mankind. Unacquainted 
with the mofi lively and mofi tender of all attachments, 
their other fenfations of this nature are cold and languid. 
Their love to parents and children is extremely weak. 
The bonds of the mofi intimate of all focieties, that of the 
fame family, are feeble ; and one family has no attachment 
to another. Hence no union, no republic, no focial fiate, 
can take place among them. The phyfical caufe of love 
gives rife to the morality of their manners. Their heart 
is frozen, their fociety cold, and their empire cruel. 
They regard their females as fervants defiined to labour, 
or as beads of burden, whom they load unmercifully with 
the produce of their hunting, and oblige, without.pity 
or gratitude, to perform labours which often exceed their 
firength. They have few children, and pay little atten¬ 
tion to them. Every thing muft be referred to the firft 
caufe : they are indifferent, becaufe they are weak ; and 
this indifference to the fex is the original ftain which dif- 
graces nature, prevents her from expanding, and, by de- 
firoying the germs of life, cuts the root of fociety. Hence 
man makes no exception to what has been advanced. Na¬ 
ture, by denying him the faculty of love, has abufed and 
contracted him more than any other animal.” Mr. Jef- 
ferfon’s anfvver to M. Buffon, is fo full of the mofi va¬ 
luable information on this IhbjeCt, that it mult not be 
omitted in this place. “ Of the Indians of South Ame¬ 
rica,” fays Mr. Jefferfon, “I know nothing; for I would 
not honour with the appellation of knowledge, what I de¬ 
rive from the fables publilhed of them. Thefe I believe 
to be juft as true as the fables'of EEIbp. This belief is 
founded on what I have feen of man, white, red, and 
black, and what has been written of him by authors, 
enlightened theinfelves, and writing amidft an enlightened 
people. The Indian of North America being more within 
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