226 TRAVELS THROUGH LOWER CAM ABA ! 
gard to Indian children being white on their 
first coming into the world, it ought by no 
means to be concluded from thence, that they 
would remain so if their mothers did not be¬ 
daub them with grease, herbs, &c. as it is well 
known that negro children are not perfectly 
black when born, nor indeed for many months 
afterwards, but that they acquire their jetty 
hue gradually, on being exposed to the air 
and sun, just as in the vegetable world the 
tender blade, on first peeping above ground, 
turns from white to a pale greenish colour, and 
afterwards to a deeper green. 
Though I remarked to you in a former letter, 
that the Mississaguis, who live about Lake On¬ 
tario, were of a much darker cast than any 
other tribe of Indians I met with, yet I do 
not think that the different shades of complexion 
observed amongst the Indians are so much eon- 
lined to particular tribes as to particular fa¬ 
milies ; for even amongst the Mississaguis I 
saw several men that were comparatively of a 
Very light colour. Judging of the Cheeks, 
Cherokee*, and other southern Indians, from 
what I have seen of them at Philadelphia, and 
at other towns in the States, whither they often 
come in large parties, led either by business or 
curiosity, it appears to me that their skin has 
a redder tinge, and more Warmth of Colouring 
ia it, if I may use the expression, than that 1 of 
