Part 14 (1/2)

”Many ages after these settlements, there was another eruption of the _Cus.h.i.+tes_ into these parts, under the name of _Saracens_ and _Moors_, who over-ran _Africa_, to the very extremity of Mount Atlas. They pa.s.sed over and conquered _Spain_ to the north, and they extended themselves southward, as I said in my treatise, to the rivers _Senegal_ and _Gambia_, and as low as the _Gold Coast_. I mentioned this, because I do not think that they proceeded much farther: most of the nations to the _south_ being, as I imagine, of the race of _Phut_. The very country upon the river _Gambia_ on one side, is at this day called _Phuta_, of which _Bluet_, in his history of _Juba Ben Solomon_, gives an account.”]

[Footnote 077: When America was first discovered, it was thought by some, that the scripture account of the creation was false, and that there were different species of men, because they could never suppose that people, in so rude a state as the Americans, could have transported themselves to that continent from any parts of the known world. This opinion however was refuted by the celebrated Captain Cooke, who shewed that the traject between the continents of Asia and America, was as short as some, which people in as rude a state have been actually known to pa.s.s. This affords an excellent caution against an ill-judged and hasty censure of the divine writings, because every difficulty which may be started, cannot be instantly cleared up.]

[Footnote 078: The divine writings, which a.s.sert that all men were derived from the _same stock_, shew also, in the same instance of _Cush_, (Footnote 075), that some of them had changed their original complexion.]

[Footnote 079: The following are the grand colours discernible in mankind, between which there are many shades;

White } { Copper }--Olive--{ Brown } { Black ]

[Footnote 080: See note, (Footnote 075). To this we may add, that the rest of the descendants of _Ham_, as far as they can be traced, are now also black, at well as many of the descendants of _Shem_.]

[Footnote 081: Diseases have a great effect upon the _mucosum corpus_, but particularly the jaundice, which turns it yellow. Hence, being transmitted through the cuticle, the yellow appearance of the whole body. But this, even as a matter of ocular demonstration, is not confined solely to white people; negroes themselves, while affected with these or other disorders, changing their black colour for that which the disease has conveyed to the _mucous_ substance.]

[Footnote 082: The cutaneous pores are so excessively small, that one grain of sand, (according to Dr. Lewenhoeck's calculations) would cover many hundreds of them.]

[Footnote 083: We do not mean to insinuate that the same people have their _corpus mucosum_ sensibly vary, as often as they go into another lat.i.tude, but that the fact is true only of different people, who have been long established in different lat.i.tudes.]

[Footnote 084: We beg leave to return our thanks here to a gentleman, eminent in the medical line, who furnished us with the above-mentioned facts.]

[Footnote 085: Suppose we were to see two nations, contiguous to each other, of black and white inhabitants in the same parallel, even this would be no objection, for many circ.u.mstances are to be considered. A black people may have wandered into a white, and a white people into a black lat.i.tude, and they may not have been settled there a sufficient length of time for such a change to have been accomplished in their complexion, as that they should be like the old established inhabitants of the parallel, into which they have lately come.]

[Footnote 086: Justamond's Abbe Raynal, v. 5. p. 193.]

[Footnote 087: The author of this Essay made it his business to inquire of the most intelligent of those, whom he could meet with in London, as to the authenticity of the fact. All those from _America_ a.s.sured him that it was strictly true; those from the West-Indies, that they had never observed it there; but that they had found a sensible difference in themselves since they came to England.]

[Footnote 088: This circ.u.mstance, which always happens, shews that they are descended from the same parents as ourselves; for had they been a distinct species of men, and the blackness entirely ingrafted in their const.i.tution and frame, there is great reason to presume, that their children would have been born _black_.]

[Footnote 089: This observation was communicated to us by the gentleman in the medical line, to whom we returned our thanks for certain anatomical facts.]

[Footnote 090: Philos. Trans. No. 476. sect. 4.]

[Footnote 091: Treatise upon the Trade from Great Britain to Africa, by an African merchant.]

[Footnote 092: We mean such only as are _natives_ of the countries which we mention, and whose ancestors have been settled there for a certain period of time.]

[Footnote 093: Herodotus. Euterpe. p. 80. Editio Stephani, printed 1570.]

[Footnote 094: This circ.u.mstance confirms what we said in a former note, (Footnote 085), that even if two nations were to be found in the same parallel, one of whom was black, and the other white, it would form no objection against the hypothesis of climate, as one of them might have been new settlers from a distant country.]

[Footnote 095: Suppose, without the knowledge of any historian, they had made such considerable conquests, as to have settled themselves at the distance of 1000 miles in any one direction from _Colchis_, still they must have changed their colour. For had they gone in an Eastern or Western direction, they must have been of the same colour as the _Circa.s.sians_; if to the north, whiter; if to the south, of a copper.