dittin dion 
£796-} 
fiances to defpair of the common- 
wealth,” 
Dr. Robertfon conjectures, from the 
in character between the 
Caribs and the inhabitants of the larger 
iflands, and trom an obfcure tradition 
among themfelves, that the former are 
quite a feparate race, that they were 
defcended from fome continental con- 
querors (probably from Florida, as there 
is an affinity between the language and 
hardy manners of thofe two countries) ; 
that the original iflanders were extermi- 
nated, and that their lands and women 
were taken poffetlion of by the victorious 
invaders *. 
Indeed, it can hardly be difputed, that 
the warmer regions hve naturally a 
tendency to enfeeble the frame of body +, 
and with an enfeebled frame of body, the 
ipirit is‘languid, and every effort of the 
mind proportionably weak. ‘This confi- 
deration led me to fufpect that the moral 
caufes, fuch as government, religion, &c. 
which Mr. Hume confiders as alone 
influencing the national charaéter, were - 
themfelves but effeéts flowing from the 
phyfical ones of air and climate. Where 
thefe are of a nature to induce on the 
favage “fuch exceflive lallitude, fuch 
beaftly indolence, that he will lie day 
after day ftretched under the fhade of his 
lofty trees, like alog of wood, is it to be 
expected that he will trouble himfelf to 
curtail the authority of his cazique, or 
oppofe the ambition of any one more 
alive and aétive than himfelf? If he is fo 
unconquerably ftupid, fo grofsly carelels, 
about tuturity, that in the morning he 
will fell the hammoc which he has juft 
flept in, forgetting he fhall want it again 
at night, is it to be wondered at that he 
fhould not anticipate the confequences of 
an encroaching ufurpation; or that the 
furceries and incantations of his prieft 
(for even among favages there are priefts 
and governors to fupport each other) 
fhould be regarded with moft religious 
and unfearching credulity? This {tate 
of mind, then, may furely be confidered 

* See Note LXIX to Vol. IL of Robertfon’s 
America. 
+ Climate has a confiderable effect on the 
duration of life. In fultry regions, people 
rapidly arrivé at maturity, and with equal 
rapidity decay, 
vated countries are more old people than in low 
- ones; the mountains of Scotland, Wales, Au- 
yergne, Switzerland, abound with witances 
of {uch extreme longevity, as are rarely fur- 
nifhed-by the inhabitants of Holland, Flanders, 
éscrmany, or Poland. 
MontTHLy Mag. No. VII. 
On the Influence of Climate. 
Buffon obferves, that in ele- 
529 
as phyfically arifing from the ftate and 
temperature of the climate, and may 
rather be efteemed the caufe of a moral 
effect;*than the effeét of any moral caufe. 
But it is unneceflary to wander over 
the vaft regions of America, for inflances 
illuftrative of the influence of climate 
on the nature and character of man in an 
vuncivilized ftate. “A moft curious and 
interefting account has lately been pub- 
lifhed by fr Richard Clayton,*, of a fet 
of beings who innabit a fpot of ground 
(comprifing about thirty miles in Jength, 
and about eight in breadth) of the Pays 
“de Vallais, in the fouth-weft of Swit- 
zerland. ‘Che Cretins, by which name | 
they- are denominated, feem to be an 
intermediate fort of animals between the 
Ouran Outang and the Man; their fia- 
ture is about four feet and ahalf in 
height, and every mark of mental imbe- 
cility which a vacant eye and the dullett 
‘phyfiognomy can betray, is printed on 
their countenance. Some, indeed, have 
a voice, but the deaf and dumb are ex- 
tremely numerous ; they die very young, 
and during their exiftence, one appetite 
only rages among them with uncommon 
fury, that for the propagation of their 
fpecies; there have been feveral gene-~ 
rations of them, ‘* and what proves to 
a degree almoft of mathematical certi- 
tude,” fays fir Richard Clayton, in the 
Memoir befere alluded to, ‘* that there 
is fome phyfical reafon for the dreadful 
fingularity, is the fingle circumftance 
that a family coming from a diftance to . 
refide within the diftrict, has, in a few 
years, occafion to lament, on its increafe, 
that idiocy it was before a ftranger to.” 
The Cretins alfo, on removing from the 
Pays de Vallais, in a few generations, lofe 
the melancholy diftinétion of their race. 
Gevernment is now taking every pre- 
caution to prevent the diffufion of Cre- 
tinage, which feclufion from fociety, 
and the prohibition of fexual intercourfe 
can effect; andan hofpital is appropriated 
to the care and maintenance of them at 
Sion, fora more particular account of 
thefe people, I refer my readers to’ fir 
Richard Clayton’s Paper on the fubjeét, 
and fhall content myfelf with obferving, 
in the words of the ‘ingenious baronet, 
re{fpecting ‘their climate, that ‘* they 
refide'in a fort of vaft bafin, full of ex- 
ceflive exhalations from the Rhone, and 
the marfhes on its fides;-and the re- 
fieétrons of the fun from the furrounding 
ln 

* In the Memoirs of the Manchefter Tranf- 
actions, Vol, ILL. 
3%, mountains, 
4 

