(from Americus Vespuccius, falsely said to be the first discoverer of the continent; one of the four quarters of the world, probably the largest of the whole, and, from its late discovery, frequently denominated the New World.

This vast country is bounded, on the east, by the Atlantic ocean, which separates it from Europe and Africa; on the west, by the Pacific ocean, or great South sea, by which it is separated from Asia. On the south, it is bounded by the Frozen ocean. But its boundaries towards the north have never been ascertained; nor is it known whether the northern parts of America join to those of Europe and Asia or not. As far as it is known, America extends from Lat. 80° N. to 56° S. and from 35° to 136° Long. W. from London; its length being between 8000 and 9000 miles, and its greatest breadth 3690.

eans of equal breadth throughout its whole extent; but is divided into two great continents, called North and South America, by an Isthmus 1500 miles long, and which at Darien, about Lat. 9° N. is only 60 miles over. This isthmus forms, with the northern and southern continents, a vast gulf, in which lie a great number of islands, called the West Indies, in contradiction to the eastern parts of Asia, which are called the East Indies.

Between the New World and the Old, there are several very striking differences; but the most remarkable is the general predominance of cold throughout the whole extent of America. Though we cannot, in any country, determine the precise degree of heat, merely by the distance from the equator; because the elevation above the sea, the nature of the soil, &c. affect the climate; yet, in the ancient continent, the heat is much more in proportion to the vicinity to the equator, than in any part of America. Here the rigour of the frigid zone extends over half that which should be temperate by its position. Even in those latitudes where the winter is scarcely felt on the old continent, it reigns with great severity in America, tho' during a short period. Nor does this cold, prevalent in the New World, confine itself to the temperate zones; but extends its influence to the torrid zone also, considerably mitigating the excess of its heat.—Along the eastern coast, the climate, tho' more similar to that of the torrid zone in other parts of the earth, is nevertheless considerably milder than in those countries of Asia and Africa which lie in the same latitude. From the southern tropic, to the extremity of the American continent, the cold is said to be much greater than in parallel northern latitudes even of America itself.

For this so remarkable difference between the climate of the New continent and the Old, various causes have been assigned by different authors. The following is the opinion of the learned Dr Robertsoa on this subject. "Though the utmost extent of America towards the north be not yet discovered, we know that it advances nearer to the pole than either Europe or Asia. The latter have large seas to the north, which are open during part of the year; and, even when covered with ice, the wind that blows over them is less intensely cold than that which blows over land in the same latitudes. But, in America, the land stretches from the river St Lawrence towards the pole, and spreads out immensely to the west. A chain of enormous mountains, covered with snow and ice, runs through all this dreary region. The wind passing over such an extent of high and frozen land, becomes so impregnated with cold, that it acquires a piercing keenness, which it retains in its progress through warmer climates; and is not entirely mitigated until it reach the Gulph of Mexico. Over all the continent of North America, a north-westerly wind and excessive cold, are synonymous terms. Even in the most sultry weather, the moment that the wind veers to that quarter, its penetrating influence is felt in a transition from heat to cold, no less violent than sudden. To this powerful cause we may ascribe the extraordinary dominion of cold, and its violent inroads into the southern provinces in that part of the globe.

"Other causes, no less remarkable, diminish the active power of heat in those parts of the American continent which lie between the tropics. In all that portion of the globe, the wind blows in an invariable direction from east to west. As this wind holds its course across the ancient continent, it arrives at the countries which stretch along the western shore of Africa, inflamed with all the fiery particles which it hath collected from the sultry plains of Asia, and the burning sands in the African deserts. The coast of Africa is, accordingly, the region of the earth which feels the most fervent heat, and is exposed to the unmitigated ardour of the torrid zone. But this same wind, which brings such an accession of warmth to the countries lying between the river of Senegal and Cafraria, traverses the Atlantic ocean before it reaches the American shore. It is cooled in its passage over this vast body of water; and is felt as a refreshing gale along the coasts of Brazil and Guiana, rendering those countries, tho' amongst the warmest in America, temperate, when compared with those which lie opposite to them in Africa. As this wind advances in its course across America, it meets with immense plains, covered with impenetrable forests; or occupied by large rivers, marshes, and stagnating waters, where it can recover no considerable degree of heat. At length it arrives at the Andes, which run from north to south thro' the whole continent. In passing over their elevated and frozen summits, it is so thoroughly cooled, that the greater part of the countries beyond them hardly feel the ardour to which they've been exposed by their situation. In the other provinces of America, from Terra Firma westward, to the Mexican empire, the heat of the climate is tempered, in some places, by the elevation of the land above the sea; in others, by their extraordinary humidity; and in all, by the enormous mountains scattered over this tract. The islands of America in the torrid zone are either small or mountainous, and are fanned alternately by refreshing sea and land breezes.

"The causes of the extraordinary cold towards the southern limits of America, and in the seas beyond it, cannot be ascertained in a manner equally satisfying. It was long supposed, that a vast continent, distinguished by the name of Terra Australis Incognita, lay between the southern extremity of America and the antarctic pole. The same principles which account for the extraordinary degree of cold in the northern regions of America, were employed in order to explain that which is felt at Cape Horn and the adjacent countries. The immense extent of the southern continent, and the rivers which it poured into the ocean, were mentioned..." and admitted by philosophers as causes sufficient to occasion the unusual sensation of cold, and the still more uncommon appearances of frozen seas in that region of the globe. But the imaginary continent to which such influence was ascribed having been searched for in vain, and the space which it was supposed to occupy having been found to be an open sea; new conjectures must be formed with respect to the causes of a temperature of climate, so extremely different from that which we experience in countries removed at the same distance from the opposite pole.

"The most obvious and probable cause of this superior degree of cold, towards the southern extremity of America, seems to be the form of the continent there. Its breadth gradually decreases as it stretches from St Antonio southwards, and from the bay of St Julian to the straits of Magellan its dimensions are much contracted. On the east and west sides, it is washed by the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. From its southern point, it is probable, that an open sea stretches to the antarctic pole. In which ever of these directions the wind blows, it is cooled before it approaches the Magellanic regions, by passing over a vast body of water; nor is the land there of such extent, that it can recover any considerable degree of heat in its progress over it. These circumstances concur in rendering the temperature of the air in this district of America, more similar to that of an insular, than to that of a continental climate; and hinder it from acquiring the same degree of summer-heat, with places in Europe and Asia, in a corresponding northern latitude. The north wind is the only one that reaches this part of America, after blowing over a great continent. But, from an attentive survey of its position, this will be found to have a tendency rather to diminish than augment the degree of heat. The southern extremity of America, is properly the termination of the immense ridge of the Andes, which stretches nearly in a direct line from north to south, through the whole extent of the continent. The most sultry regions in South America, Guiana, Brazil, Paraguay, and Tucuman, lie many degrees to the east of the Magellanic regions. The level country of Peru, which enjoys the tropical heats, is situated considerably to the west of them. The north wind, then, though it blows over land, does not bring to the southern extremity of America an increase of heat collected in its passage over torrid regions; but, before it arrives there, it must have swept along the summit of the Andes, and come impregnated with the cold of that frozen region."

Was the southern part of America only moderately cool, no doubt the above reasons would be entirely satisfactory; but it must be remembered, that the cold at the southern extremity of America is not only much greater than in those parts of Europe or Asia lying under equal parallels of north latitude, but even the places in North America itself which lie in the same latitudes. We must even observe, with all due deference to the abilities of our learned and eloquent historian, that the reasons he gives, as a philosopher, for the extreme cold in North and South America, contain a direct contradiction.—The wind which blows over frozen land, he tells us, p. 253, is colder than that which blows over frozen sea. This of itself is somewhat problematical; however, we shall accept of it without dispute. North America, then, is colder than Europe or Asia, because the continent is larger than the northern parts of Europe and Asia put together. This hath never been proved, and is not far from being incredible; but still we shall not dispute. North America is excessively cold because it is a large continent; but why is South America still colder?—Because it is a small one.

We are now led into a discussion of the philosophical question concerning the reason why cold predominates more in large continents than in islands; and if we determine this question in the common way, namely, that the vicinity of the sea keeps the cold from becoming so violent in the latter as in the former, it is plain, we shall then run into the same difficulty which we have just now observed Dr Robertson unsuccessfully endeavouring to solve. It will be proper, however, before entering upon either of these questions, to consider the general causes by which different degrees of heat are produced in different parts of the world; and then to examine the state of facts with regard to the different degrees of cold in North and South America.

Though the sun is the prime agent in nature by which every degree of sensible heat is produced, and to the presence or absence of his rays heat and cold are to be ultimately ascribed; yet so many circumstances concur in augmenting or diminishing the effect of his light, that some philosophers have not scrupled to assert, that this luminary does not produce heat, but only regulate that which is produced from other causes.*

*See Heat.

The determination of this question we reckon to be of no importance at present; for if the sun produces heat, why does he not produce it equally in countries equally exposed to his action? If he only regulates it, why does he not regulate the heat equally in similar parallels of northern or southern latitude? Whether, therefore, we allow the sun to be the original fountain, or only the regulator of heat, we must own that there are certain circumstances peculiar to different countries, which tend very much to supercede his action.

It is certain, that there are some kinds of bodies of such a nature, that, though they are exposed to equal degrees of heat, one of them will become much hotter to the touch than the other, in the same time. All solid bodies will become hot much sooner than water, and will be also sooner susceptible of a violent degree of cold. Earth is therefore always disposed to be sooner affected than water by the influence of the sun's rays; consequently to become much hotter in summer, as well as more violently cold in winter, than that element. The great quantity of moisture with which the earth is always impregnated, can be no objection to the truth of this observation: for it is certain, that moist earth will be affected by frost much sooner than an equal surface of water; and it is a well known fact, that water can by no means be made to evaporate by heat so fast as when it is mixed with earth, or some other solid substance in powder, so as to form a kind of paste; provided that paste is not suffered to harden in such a manner as to detain the aqueous moisture in the middle of it.

This fugitive principle, therefore, namely, that water is less susceptible of heat than earth, will in a great measure determine what must be the difference of climate between a large tract of land, and an equal one of sea.—In summer, the land, being exposed to the sun's rays acting more powerfully than at other times, must necessarily... necessarily acquire a great degree of heat, as long as their operation continues with much force. But as solid bodies are apt to part readily with their heat, the superfluous quantity will be daily discharged into the atmosphere; and the earth will have lost so much heat during the night, as will enable it to receive a fresh quantity next day without injury to plants or animals. In consequence of this, the air will gradually come to be very hot; and if there was not some cause whereby this continual increase of heat is limited, it might certainly become intolerable.

Where there is a vast tract of sea, the case must be widely different. Water is an element in itself not so easily heated as earth. By reason of its fluidity, also, the heat will penetrate deeper into it than into the earth; hence, in the course of one summer, equal tracts of land and sea will be very unequally heated. The warmth of the latter will be much less, but it will extend much deeper, and will be more durable; and having less heat to communicate to the atmosphere than earth, the climate, even in summer, must be much colder than on an equal tract of land.—On the approach of winter, the atmosphere is first cooled by reason of its wanting the usual influence of the sun's rays. The surface of the earth then communicates part of its heat to the air, which absorbs it with avidity; but as the heat could not penetrate far into the earth, neither can the cold, and consequently the dry land is exposed to the action of heat or cold only for a small space downwards.—In water, the case is different: that element becomes specifically heavier by cold; in consequence of which, its uppermost surface is no sooner cooled, ever so little beyond that which lies immediately below, than it sinks down, and presents a new surface to the action of the air; and, it is plain, that this must be repeated, till the whole body of water is reduced to the same temperature. In the instant of freezing, water discharges a great quantity of heat, as has been observed by Dr Black and others*. This affords a new supply to the atmosphere; so that all the time water is freezing, the cold of the atmosphere will be considerably moderated by the heat discharged from the newly formed ice. When the ice is once formed, indeed, the atmosphere still continues to act upon it, and to cool it still more; but as it is now a solid body, this action will be confined to its surface, the under parts remaining pretty much inactive either as to the production of heat or cold beyond the freezing point.

On the return of summer, the ice, which has been formed during the winter, will require as much heat merely to melt it, as would be sufficient to heat a solid body of an equal bulk almost to $175^\circ$ of Fahrenheit, as Dr Black's experiments have undeniably proved†; and tho' the snow and ice on land will require the same degree of heat to melt them as on sea, yet their quantity at land must always be much less than at sea, because of the small quantity of water on the land.—When the snow, with which the ground was covered, is totally melted, the sun has then liberty to act upon the ground itself, and will heat it accordingly. Thus, on account of the much greater quantity of ice on sea than on land, a great part of the summer will be spent before the water can be reduced to a temperature barely above the freezing point; while the land will have received as much heat as to communicate a very considerable degree to the atmosphere.

From what we have just now said, it must be easy to discover, what will be the difference between the corresponding seasons on sea and on land.—On sea, where there is much ice, the heat of the summer is in a manner totally absorbed in a latent state*, so as scarcely to be perceived. In winter, the extreme cold is moderated by the emission of the latent heat formerly absorbed on the melting of the ice, but now again discharged on its second freezing. The whole year, therefore, on a large tract of sea, will be in a manner one continued winter. On a continent, as the land does not absorb much heat, the greatest part will be reverberated into the atmosphere, so that the summer must be extremely hot; and, in winter, as the ground has not absorbed much heat, so it can communicate little to moderate the cold, which, of consequence, will be excessive.—We may conclude, therefore, that, in a large continent, the winter will be excessively cold, and the summer excessively hot; but, on the ocean, or in islands at a considerable distance from the continent, the summer will neither be so hot nor the winter so cold as in the corresponding places on the continent; and if the heat of summer is not sufficient to thaw the ice collected during the winter, there must be afterwards a perpetual absence of summer without any violent degree of winter.

What we have here advanced is supported by the testimonies of all respectable authors who have treated of the different degrees of heat found in different parts of the world.—In Lapland, the most northerly part of the continent of Europe, the winters are so severe, that it is not unusual for people's lips to be frozen to the cup while they are attempting to drink, the limbs of the inhabitants very often mortify with cold, and the ground is covered with snow to the depth of several feet; but, in summer, the heat is excessive for a short time. The heats of summer in Norway, also, are very great, according to the bishop of Pontopiddan's account. The same thing is likewise related of Sweden, where, though the winter is extremely severe, the summer's heat is said to be so great as sometimes to set forets on fire; but this is undoubtedly an exaggeration. Certain it is, however, that in these northern countries, where the summer is very short, it must be proportionally hotter than in this country; otherwise no kind of grain could be brought to perfection. In Siberia, the winter cold is excessive beyond what in this country we can have any notion of: and it may be well supposed to be so; as being environed by land on all sides except the north, where it is probably bounded by the frozen ocean. According to some observations communicated to the Royal Academy of Sciences by M. de Lisle of Petersburg, the mercury in Fahrenheit's thermometer, in the winter 1737, fell to $118^\circ$ below $0^\circ$; and this at Kirenga, a place lying only in N. Lat. $58^\circ 10'$, scarce so far to the northward as the shire of Caithness in Scotland. Yet even in Siberia, much farther north, within the arctic circle itself, we find several towns marked on our maps; and were not such excessive cold balanced in some degree by a warm summer, it is utterly impossible that human creatures could support the climate. At Petersburg, lying in Lat. $60^\circ$, the cold was lately so intense, as to sink the thermometer $40^\circ$ below $0^\circ$, when the remarkable experiment concerning the freezing of quicksilver was tried*; but even then, this... this extreme cold was far short of that just now mentioned at Kirenga; probably owing to the latter being more to the eastward, and farther in the continent, than Petersburg. The cold at Kirenga was only 22° below what is sufficient to freeze quicksilver, as Dr Black hath rendered very probable; and in some places of Siberia, lying near the polar circle, it is not improbable that mercury might freeze naturally without the help of artificial cold.

Though the climate of North America certainly appears colder to those who have visited it, than the corresponding places of Europe, yet we have no proof that the colds in that part of the world are absolutely superior to those on the eastern continent; indeed we cannot well suppose any degree of cold superior to what we have already mentioned. At Albany-fort, on Hudson's-bay, situated in Lat. 53° 20' N. the thermometer in winter 1775 stood at 28° below c. This was certainly very great, but far inferior to the above-mentioned Siberian cold in Lat. 58° 10' N.; and it cannot be thought, that the small difference in latitude would occasion such an enormous difference in the degree of cold.

In a strict sense, then, we must allow the climate of North America to be warmer than that of the eastern continent; for no experiments made with the thermometer have hitherto shewn such a degree of cold to exist in North America as in Asia. It is colder, however, in this respect, that the winter is, as it were, mixed with the summer; and this undoubtedly is owing to the continent being smaller, not larger as Dr Robertson affirms, than Europe and Asia put together.—It is certain, that where any country is so situated that great part of it is covered with snow throughout the whole year, those places which lie near the snowy regions will be sensible of winter even in the midst of summer. From the principles already laid down, if the summer heat is insufficient to melt the snow, the air will continue almost as cold in summer as in winter, because whatever quantity of heat is sent forth by the sun, it is all absorbed and in a latent state.—Here we cannot help remarking, that notwithstanding the learned Doctor's assertion, it is utterly impossible that a tract of land covered with snow, and a tract of sea covered with snow, can affect the temperature of the atmosphere differently. The reason is plain; because it is only the snow or ice, and neither the land below it nor the sea below it, that affects the atmosphere. The vicinity of a tract of land covered with snow, or a tract of sea covered with snow, must therefore prodigiously affect the summer of countries adjacent to them, and will undoubtedly produce chilling blasts as often as the wind blows from that quarter; and this is the case with North America, as already mentioned.

The reason why such large tracts in North America are constantly covered with snow, is probably the prodigious number and size of its mountains, greatly exceeding what are to be found on the eastern continent. The tops of high mountains are always excessively cold, even in the warmest regions; and they necessarily keep off the warmth of the sun in summer from large tracts of ground. For this reason, they naturally produce cold summers; but they also afford shelter to the trees and other vegetables in winter; so that wood is found in America much farther north than in Asia. This, which is a very strong proof of the greater cold of the Asiatic winters than the North American, will appear from the following account* of the climate of North America, contrasted with that of the eastern coast of Asia.

"The American land is in a much better state, with regard to climate, than the farthermost eastern part of Asia, though it lies near the sea, and has everywhere high mountains, some of which are covered with perpetual snows; for that country, when its qualities are compared with those of Asia, has by far the advantage. The mountains of that part of Asia are everywhere ruinous and cleft; from whence they have, long since, lost their consistence, and likewise their inward warmth; upon which account, they have no good metal of any kind; no wood nor herbs grow there, except in the valleys, where is seen small brushwood and stiff herbs. On the contrary, the mountains of America are firm, and covered on the surface, not with moss, but with fruitful earth or mold; and therefore, from the foot to the very top, they are decked with thick and very fine trees. At the foot of them, grow herbs proper to dry places, and not to marshy ones; besides that, for the most part, those plants are of the same largeness and appearance both on the lower grounds and on the very tops of the mountains, by reason that there is everywhere the same inward heat and moisture. But, in Asia, there is so great a difference between them, that of one kind of plants growing there, one would be apt to make several kinds, if one did not observe a rule, which holds generally with regard to those places, viz. That, in lower grounds, herbs grow twice as large as on the mountains.

"In America, even the sea-shores, at 60° latitude, are woody; but in Kamchatka, at 51° lat. no place set with small willows and alder-trees is found nearer than 20 veriles from the sea: plantations or woods of birch-trees are, for the most part, at the distance of 30 veriles; and with regard to pitch-trees, on the river Kamchatka, they are at the distance of 50 veriles, or more, from its mouth. At 62°, there is no wood at Kamchatka.

"In Steller's opinion, from the aforementioned latitude of America, the land extends as far as 70°, and farther; and the chief cause of the aforesaid growth of woods in that country, is the cover and shelter it has from the west. On the other hand, the want of wood on the Kamchadalian shores, especially on the shore of the Penhilian sea, doubtless comes from a sharp north wind, to which it is much exposed. That those parts which lie from the Lopatka, farther to the north, are more woody and fruitful, is owing to cape Tchikotkki, and the land that has been observed over against it, by which those parts are sheltered from the sharp winds.

"For this reason, also, fish come up the rivers of America earlier than those of Kamchatka. The 20th of July, there has been observed a great plenty of fish in those rivers; whilst at Kamchatka, it is then but the beginning of an abundant fishery."

In the southern hemisphere the water bears a much larger proportion to the land than in the northern. From the chart prefixed to Mr Forster's account of Cap Cook's voyages in 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775, it appears, that the whole space contained between the south pole, and 30° of lat. all round the globe, is entirely occupied. plied by the ocean, except a small part of South America, a still smaller part of Africa, the islands of New Zealand, and a very inconsiderable portion of New Holland.

Here, according to what we have advanced, a perpetual winter ought to take place; and for a great part of the space it actually does so. In 1766, Oct. 30th, Commodore Byron, while in lat. 35° 50' S., found the weather as cold as in the same month in England. In 1766, Nov. 12, Captain Wallis found it very cold in Lat. 30° S., though the month of November in that climate corresponds to that of May with us.—In 1769, January 3, Captain Cook's people complained of cold in lat. 47° 17' S., and were clothed in their winter garments; though this was the month which corresponds to July with us, and consequently the warmest in the whole year; say, on the 16th of this month, Dr Banks and Dr Solander having gone ashore on Tierra del Fuego, lying in a south latitude corresponding to that of England, they were overtaken by a violent storm of snow, and the cold was so excessive as to kill two of their attendants. In 1770, March 18th, corresponding to the same day of September with us, the whole country of New-Zealand, in lat. 43° 4' S., was covered with snow. In November 1772, Captain Cook's people put on their winter-dress in lat. 42° S., and on December 5th, corresponding to the same day of June in this country, the thermometer sunk to 38° during the night; and some snow fell next morning. Five days after, having advanced as far as lat. 49° 45' S., the thermometer sunk to 32°, and fresh water began to freeze aboard their ship. The next morning, they fell in with ice floating on the sea. Proceeding still to the southward, they were stopped in lat. 67° 15' S., by field ice, such as is met with in the high northern latitudes, only much thicker.

When they had once fallen in with the ice, it does not appear that the cold had greatly increased; for though they afterwards proceeded as far as 71° 10' S., the weather was far from being intolerable; for at that latitude, on January 30th 1774, the thermometer stood only at 32°.

We shall conclude this subject with some observations made by Mr Forster, on the climate of different places in the southern hemisphere. The following is an account of the climate of New Zealand in Nov. 1773.—"Scarce a day passed without heavy squalls of wind, which hurried down with redoubled velocity from the mountains; and strong showers of rain, which retarded all our occupations. The air commonly was cold and raw, vegetation made slow advances, and the birds were only found in the valleys sheltered from the chilling southern blast. This kind of weather, in all likelihood, prevails throughout the winter; and likewise, far into the middle of summer, without a much greater degree of cold in the former, or of warmth in the latter season. Islands far from any continent, or at least not situated near a cold one, seem in general to have an uniform temperature of air; owing, perhaps, to the ocean which everywhere surrounds them. It appears from the meteorological journals kept at Port Egmont, on the Falkland Islands; that the extremes of the greatest cold and the greatest heat observed there throughout the year, do not exceed 30° on Fahrenheit's scale. The latitude of that port is 51° 25' S., and that of Ship-cove, in Queen Charlotte's sound, only 41° 5'. This considerable difference of site, will naturally make the climate infinitely milder than that of Falkland's Islands, but cannot affect the general hypothesis concerning the temperature of all islands; and the immense height of the mountains in New Zealand, some of which are covered with snow throughout the year, doubtless contributes to refrigerate the air, so as to assimilate it to that of the Falkland's Isles, which are not so high."

Tierra del Fuego, the southern extremity of America, is thus described. "On the 2nd of December 1774, after a short calm, we had a fresh breeze, which continued to blow without intermission, but with different degrees of velocity, till the 18th, when we made the land, a little after midnight, near Cape Defensa, on one of the westernmost islands of Tierra del Fuego. The part of the world which was now in sight, had a very unfavourable aspect. About 3 o'clock in the morning, we ran along it, and found it for the greatest part hid in a thick haze. The parts near us seemed to be small islands, which, though not very high, were, however, very black, and almost entirely barren. Beyond them we saw some broken high lands, which were covered with snow, almost to the water's edge.—In the afternoon, we passed the island upon which cape Noir is situated, mentioned by M. Frezier.—We found many separate islands, from the place where we made the coast, to Cape Noir; and should perhaps have seen many more, if the weather had not been very hazy.

"We found the land to all appearance much more compact after passing Cape Noir; and the next morning, December 19th, in particular, the coast seemed to be entirely connected; the mountains rose to a much greater height, immediately from the sea-side, and were covered with snow in every part. The wind gradually lessened, and towards noon we were entirely becalmed, having the finest sunshine and mild weather.—It was very amusing to us to meet with mild weather in the neighbourhood of that tempestuous cape, of which the name alone has affrighted the mariners ever since Lord Anson's voyage. The destruction of vulgar prejudices is of so much service to science, and to mankind in general, that it cannot fail of giving pleasure to every one feasible of its benefits. We had this day the thermometer at 48°; which, considering the neighbourhood of the huge heaps of snow on shore, was very moderate. This part of the world has been called the Coast of Desolation by the navigators who first visited it, and seems fully to deserve the appellation. Here we discovered nothing but vast mountains, of which the spiny summits were everywhere covered with eternal snow. Along the sea, the nearest rocks were clear of snow; but black, and destitute of grasses and shrubbery. Some inlets appeared in different parts, where a few islands seemed to have a covering of green. We stood in one of these in the evening, having obtained an easterly breeze. A huge perpendicular wall of rock formed its western entrance, and Captain Cook called it the York Minster; having discovered a strong resemblance between that Gothic building, and this dreary chaotic rock. It lies in 55° 30' S. and 70° 28' W. Along the coast we found regular soundings; but, in the mouth of the inlet, we could not reach the bottom with 150 fathom of line. This circumstance had already happened to us before, at Dusky Bay (New-Zealand); but, as we saw a very spacious sound before us, we ventured to stand on, amidst different rude islands; on which the summits of the hills were sometimes capped with snow.—After being much retarded by calms, we arrived about 9 o'clock in a small cove, indifferently sheltered either from wind or sea, but a welcome place of refuge on account of the approach of night.

"The next morning Captain Cook, &c. went in a boat in quest of a more safe and convenient anchorage. We only rowed round a single point of the island under which our ship lay, and immediately found a fine cove sheltered from all winds, and perfectly land-locked, with a little rill of water, and a shrubbery. The weather was mild, considering the climate; and several birds were heard on shore. We found many little cliffs, which cannot properly be called valleys, where a few shrubs of different species sprung up in a thin layer of swampy soil, being defended against the violence of storms, and exposed to the genial influence of reverberated sunbeams. The rock, of which the whole island consisted, is a coarse granite, composed of feld-spar, quartz, and black mica or glimmer. This rock is in most places entirely naked, without the smallest vegetable particle; but wherever the rains or melted snows have washed together some little rubbish, and other particles in decay, it is covered with a coating of minute plants, in growth like mosses, which forming a kind of turf not more than an inch or more in thickness, very easily slip away under the foot, having no firm hold on the rock. In sheltered places, a few other plants thrive among these mossy species, and there at last form a sufficient quantity of soil for the nutriment of shrubs, especially in such spots as I have mentioned before.—Barren as these rocks appeared, yet almost every plant we gathered on them was new to us; and some species were remarkable for the beauty of their flowers, or their smell.

"Early the next morning, Captain Cook set out to take bearings in the sound, and we took that opportunity to examine its natural productions. The sound is very spacious, and surrounded to the north and east by several ranges of high mountains, which seem covered with permanent snow and ice.—On entering this sound, and taking notice of its dreary desolate appearance, we had supposed that the natives of Tierra del Fuego never touch upon this inhospitable part, but confine themselves to the neighbourhood of the straits of Magallanes, and to the eastern side of Tierra del Fuego; but it seems that human nature is capable of withstanding the greatest inclemencies of weather, and of supporting its existence alike in the burning lands of Africa, and in the frozen extremities of the globe. We landed on several other islands, from whence we had a most extensive prospect across the sound, which looked wild and horrid in its wintry dress. This was, however, the first summer month of these regions; most of the plants we saw were in flower, and the birds were everywhere bringing up their young. From thence we may easily form an adequate idea of the torpid state of these regions, where the sun-beams cannot melt the snow, at a season when their influence is the strongest. The farther we advanced from the sea, the more snow appeared on the mountains. In some places, we saw cascades, and streams, gushing down over the snow, especially where the rays of the sun took effect by being frequently reflected. We found a most beautiful cove on this coast, which formed a circular basin, where the water was smooth and transparent as a mirror. All the lower parts were fringed with trees, which we had nowhere seen so tall in the neighbourhood, and many streams gushed down with great impetuosity between their roots, making a most convenient watering place. A prodigious number of small birds sat on every branch, and twittered around us in the sun-shine. They were of many different species; but, unacquainted with men, hopped so near us, that it was impossible to shoot them, especially as we had no other than coarse shot left, and that in very small quantity. Abundance of mosses, ferns, and climbers, grew up between the trees, and were no small impediment to us in walking. Various flowers enlivened these woods, and increased our collection with new species. Here, then, there was the appearance of summer; but if we looked up to the monstrous cloud-capt mountains which formed almost perpendicular walls on all sides of the harbour, and beheld them covered with snow and ice, which had sometimes a blue, and sometimes a yellowish tinge, we thought ourselves transported to the Glaciers of Switzerland, where the seasons seem likewise to be lost and confounded in each other. The height of these mountains was very considerable, tho' not equal to the Alps; and their summits were divided into many sharp and craggy points, between which the interval was filled with snow. We landed here; and walked along the shore to another port, formed by a number of low islands, which entirely sheltered it from all winds.—We were fortunate enough to meet with an island entirely covered with the shrubs of a species of arbutus, loaded with red fruit, of the size of small cherries, which were very well tasted, and combined an agreeable tartness with a sweet and a bitter flavour. The rocks of the same island, at the water's edge, were covered with large mussel-shells, of which we found the fish more delicious than oysters.—To add to our good fortune, we met with several islands on our return, covered with excellent celery, which, tho' much smaller than that of New Zealand, was much higher flavoured, its juices being probably more concentrated. We loaded our boat with it, and returned late on board, after being overtaken by several smart showers. On our return, we found that the neighbourhood of the ship was very sensibly warmer than the northern parts of the sound, where the air was refrigerated by the abundance of snow on the mountains.

December 25th. "During our absence, some of the state of the natives, in four small canoes, had visited the ship: they were described to us as wretched and poor; but innocent, and ready to part with their spears, seal-skins, and the like. We now regretted that we had lost the opportunity of seeing them; but fortunately they returned the next morning, tho' the weather was rainy. The four canoes in which they came were made of the bark of trees, which could hardly have grown in this sound, on account of their size. Several small sticks are the ribs which defend this bark, and another stick forms the gunwale, over which they have wrapped the extremity of the bark and sewed it on. A few stones, with a small quantity of earth, are laid in the bottom of each canoe, and on this the natives keep a constant fire. Their paddles are small, and rudely formed, and they work very slowly with them. Each canoe contained from five to eight persons, including children, who, contrary to the custom of all the nations in the south sea, were very silent in their approach to the ship, and when aboard hardly pronounced any other word than Pefferery. Tho' whom M. Bougainville saw in the strait of Magalhaens, not far from hence, used the same word, from whence he gave them the general name of Pecherarii. We beckoned to them to come into the ship; and some accepted the invitation, tho' without the least sign of being pleased, and seemingly without the smallest degree of curiosity. Their persons were short, not exceeding five feet six inches at most, their heads large, the face broad, the cheek-bones very prominent, and the nose very flat. They had little brown eyes without life; their hair was black and lank, hanging about their heads in disorder, and besmeared with tar-oil. On the chin they had a few straggling short hairs instead of a beard, and from their nose there was a constant discharge of mucus into their ugly open mouth. The whole assemblage of their features formed the most loathsome picture of misery and wretchedness to which human nature can possibly be reduced.—The shoulders and chest were broad and bony; but the rest of the figure was so lean and shrivelled, that to have seen it separate, we could not have believed that it belonged to the same person. Their legs were lean and bowed, and their knees disproportionally large. They had no other clothing than a small piece of old seal-skin, which hung from their shoulders to the middle of the back, being fastened round the neck with a string. The rest of their body was perfectly naked, not the least regard being paid to what Europeans would term decency. Their natural colour appeared to be an olive-brown, with a kind of gloss, which has really some resemblance to that of copper; but many of them had disguised themselves with streaks of red paint, and sometimes, tho' seldom, with white.—The women were nearly formed as the men, though somewhat less in stature; their features were not less uncouth and ugly, and their dress exactly the same. They had only added a small piece of seal-skin, not so large as the palm of the hand, which hung down before, fixed to a string which was tied about the waist. Round their necks they wore leather strings, on which they had hung a number of shells; and on their heads they had a kind of bonnet, consisting of a few white quill-feathers of geese, which they occasionally placed upright on the head, by that means giving them a resemblance to the French head-dresses of the last century. There was but one single person among them, who had a small piece of a guanaco's skin sewed on his seal-skin, to lengthen it. The children were perfectly naked; and, like their mothers, huddled continually about the fire, in each canoe, shivering continually with cold, and rarely uttering any other word than Pefferery, which sometimes sounded like a word of endearment, and sometimes seemed to be the expression of complaint. Those of the men who had come on deck, spoke a few other words, which contained many consonants and gutturals, particularly the ll of the Welsh; and all seemed to lip very strongly, which contributed to make them wholly unintelligible. They accepted trifles, such as beads, without seeming to value them; but, at the same time, they also gave away their own arms, or even their ragged seal-skins, without the least concern; their whole character being the strangest compound of stupidity, indifference, and inactivity.

From this description of the country and inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego, we might reasonably enough conclude that no spot on earth can be in a more wretched state, unless it lies much nearer the south-pole: but had this country been, it appears to profit considerably by the neighbourhood of the continent of South America; for small islands lying at a great distance from the continent, and nearly in the same latitude with Tierra del Fuego, are in a much worse state; as evidently appears from the description given by our author of South Georgia, and the southern Thule.

1774, January 16th.—We had very cold weather all this time, the thermometer being at 34°, and great falls of snow covering our decks. This morning we had sight of the land again, and found its mountains of a vast height, covered with loads of snow and ice, in most places down to the water's edge. The only parts which were clear of snow were a few black and barren cliffs, and particularly some huge hollow rocks, that—over their wave-worn basis bowed.

"Towards the south end of this land we saw several low islands, like the New-year's islands, which appeared to have some verdure upon them, and were therefore called the Green Islands. As it had been the main object of our voyage to explore the high southern latitudes, my father suggested to Captain Cook, that it would be proper to name this land after the monarch who had set on foot our expedition, solely for the improvement of science, and whose name ought therefore to be celebrated in both hemispheres.—It was accordingly honoured with the name of Southern Georgia, which will give it importance, and continue to spread a lustre over it, which it cannot derive from its barrenness and dreary appearance.

"In the afternoon we saw two rocky islands at the north end of Georgia, which lay about a league astern, and were of a dull black colour. We steered towards them, and about five o'clock passed in the middle between them. The northernmost was a craggy cliff, nearly perpendicular, which contained the nests of many thousand flags, and was named Willir's Island; it is situated in 54° S. and 38° 25° W. The southernmost sloped gradually to the westward, being covered on that side with some grass, and with innumerable flocks of birds of all sorts, from the largest albatrosses down to the least petrels; for which reason, it was named Bird Island. Great numbers of flags, penguins, divers, and other birds, played about, and settled in the water around us, this cold climate seeming to be perfectly agreeable to them. Several porpoises were likewise noticed, and many seals, which probably came to breed on these inhospitable shores.

"We ran along the north-east coast of the land, till it was dark, when we brought to, and did not resume our course till the next morning at three o'clock. The aspect of the land was extremely unpromising; the mountains were the most craggy we had ever seen, and formed many sharp points, between which the intervals were filled with snow. We passed a bay, which, from the numbers of low green islands in it, was named the Bay of Islands; and opened another towards which we stood with the ship, having soundings at the distance of two or three miles.—Upon advancing into the furthest recess of the bay, we soon observed a solid mass of ice, such as is found in the harbours of Spitzbergen (N. Lat. 79° 30'). This mass of ice bore a great resemblance to those detached islands of which we saw such numbers floating upon the ocean in the high southern latitudes. The shores of the bay nearer the sea were clear of snow, but excessively dreary, and almost perpendicular. We landed in a spot which was perfectly sheltered from the swell, and where the land formed a long projecting point. Here we saw a number of seals assembled on a stony beach; and among them a huge animal, which we had taken to be a rock at a distance, but which proved to be exactly the same animal with Lord Anson's sea-lion.—The seals which we found here, were more fierce than any we had seen on the New-year's Isles, and did not run out of our way. The youngest cubs barked at us; and ran after our heels when we passed by them, trying to bite our legs.—We climbed upon a little hummock, about eight yards high, where we found two species of plants; one was the grass which grows plentifully on the New-year's Isles (*dactylis glomerata*), and the other a kind of burnet (*Languiflorum*). Here Captain Cook displayed the British flag, and performed the ceremony of taking possession of these barren rocks, "in the name of his Britannic Majesty, and his heirs for ever." A volley of two or three musquets was fired into the air, to give greater weight to this affront; and the barren rocks re-echoed with the sound, to the utter amazement of the seals and penguins, the inhabitants of these newly discovered dominions. The rocks consisted of a bluish grey slate, in horizontal strata, of which many fragments everywhere covered the beaches. As far as we were able to examine them, they contained no other minerals of any kind; the whole country being useless, and frightfully barren, in every respect. During our stay on shore, we saw some small fragments of ice floating out to sea, and heard the huge masses in the farther part of the bay crack very loud from time to time. We continued to coast the land during the two following days, and discovered several bays and headlands upon it.—The appearance of the land was always nearly the same; its mountains towards the south were excessively high; and divided into innumerable ragged points, like the flames in a raging fire.—On the 19th, we reached the S. E. extremity of southern Georgia, which we now discovered to be an island, between 50 and 60 leagues in length.

"It has been supposed, that all parts of this globe, including those which are barren and dreary in the highest degree, are fit to become the abode of men. Before we arrived at this island of Georgia, we had nothing to oppose to this opinion, since even the wintry shores of Tierra del Fuego were inhabited by human beings, who were still one step removed from brutes. But the climate of Tierra del Fuego is mild with respect to that of Georgia, the difference in the thermometer which we observed being at least ten degrees. It has besides the advantage of producing a quantity of flaxberry and wood sufficient to supply the wants of the natives, who are by that means enabled to rest sheltered from the inclemencies of the air, and to light fires, which give them warmth, and may serve to make their food eatable and wholesome. As New Georgia is wholly destitute of wood, and of any other combustible to serve as a succedaneum, I apprehend it would be impossible for any race of men to live upon it, though they should, instead of the stupidity of the Pelegrins, be possessed of the ingenuity of the Europeans. The summers of this new island are rigorously cold, the thermometer having never risen ten degrees above the freezing point during our stay on the coast; and though we have reason to suppose, that the winters are not colder in the same proportion as in our hemisphere, yet it is probable there will be at least a difference of 20 or 30 degrees. This I think is sufficient to kill any men who may survive the summer there, supposing them provided with no other defence than that which the country affords. But South Georgia, besides being uninhabitable, does not appear to contain any single article for which it might be occasionally visited by European ships. Seals and sea-lions, of which the blubber is accounted an article of commerce, are much more numerous on the distant coasts of South America, the Falkland and the New-Year's islands, where they may likewise be obtained at a much smaller risk."

We can hardly expect an account of a country where winter prevails more perfectly than in New Georgia; yet even this island appears to have been greatly superior to that named the southern *Thule*, of which we have the following account.

"The discovery of this land happened on the 31st Southern of January, at seven in the morning, when the weather was so hazy, that we could not see four or five miles around us. We ran towards it near an hour, when we were within half a mile of the rocks, which were black, cavernous, and perpendicular to a vast height, inhabited by flocks of flocks, and beaten by dreadful breakers. Thick clouds veiled the upper parts of the mountains; but one immense peak appeared towering beyond them, covered with snow. It was agreed by all present, that the perpendicular height of this mountain could not be far short of two miles. We founded with 170 fathom close inshore; and then put about, standing to the south, in order to weather the western point, which we had now discovered. We had not run above an hour on this tack, when we saw high mountains to the S. S. E. about five or six leagues distant; which, from the course we had kept, we must have narrowly escaped about midnight. This being the southernmost extremity of the land, my father named it the Southern *Thule*, a name which Captain Cook has preserved. It is situated in 59° 30' S. and 27° 30' W.—Captain Cook, however, did not venture to lose any time in the investigation of this coast, where he was exposed to imminent danger from the violence of westerly winds. He chose rather to explore its northern extremities, which besides were doubtless the most likely to be of importance to navigators. We kept at the distance of two or three leagues from the land, having little winds, and seeing the coast everywhere steep and inaccessible. The mountains appeared to be of vast height, their summits being constantly wrapped in clouds, and the lower part covered with snow down to the water's edge, in such a manner, that we should have found it difficult to pronounce whether we saw land or ice, if some hollow rocks had not shown their black and naked caverns in several places.

Feb. 1. "We found ourselves abreast of another projecting point in the morning, which Captain Cook has since named Cape Montague. Beyond it we disco..." vered another point to the north, which, upon our nearer approach, was discovered to be a separate island, and named Saunders's Island. It was not inferior in height to the mountainous coast to the south of it, and was covered with snow and ice in the same manner. It is situated in 57° 48' S. and 26° 35' W.

"We had little wind during the night; but, with the return of day-light, flood to the eastward, in order to weather Saunders's Island.—We could not accomplish our point with a flagpole board; but, the wind being contrary, tacked all the afternoon, in order to double the northern extremity of Saunders's island. We came very near it several times, and observed a flat point or beach running out to the northward, covered with heaps of shingle, which were piled up in the wildest manner, and offered nothing but sharp points and ridges to the eye. The whole country had the most delapidated and horrid appearance which can possibly be conceived; not a single grass could be discerned upon it, and it seemed to be forsaken even by the amphibious and lum-pish animals which dwelt on Southern Georgia. In short, we could not help applying to it that remarkable expression of Pliny,

Pars mundi damota a rerum natura, et densa meris caliginis.

H[8]. Nat. lib. xii. c. 36.

We have now abundant reason to conclude, that all islands are colder than continents lying in the same parallels of latitude; and that the vicinity of the ocean by no means contributes to produce warmth, but the contrary: and though water, by its property of absorbing heat in a latent state, and then discharging it in a sensible one, may be said to regulate the cold, so as to prevent its going to great extremes at any season; yet, by this very property, the dilution of seas is lost, so that an island situated at a great distance from land may be uninhabitable by reason of the cold, while parts of a continent much nearer the pole than that island might furnish mankind with a comfortable abode.

From its shape, America may almost be considered as consisting of two islands; for only a narrow isthmus prevents the southern continent from being entirely surrounded with water. These, though very large, are far from equalling the bulk of Europe, Asia, and Africa, put together. The southern continent is not so big as Africa, and it is doubtful whether Asia does not equal the bulk of both North and South America, especially if we take in the newly-discovered island of New Holland, which is very little if at all inferior in bulk to Europe.—The three old continents are connected with one another, and are no doubt considerably warmer on that account. America is at a vast distance; and cannot profit by the warmth either of Africa or Asia, let it be ever so great. It is impossible, then, that the climate of New-York, New-England, and New-Scotland, can be so mild as that of France and Spain; because the winter in them is moderated by their having the Mediterranean sea to the south, and the Atlantic ocean to the west and north, at the same time that the vicinity of Africa prevents this vast quantity of water from absorbing much of their summer-heat.

The American countries just now mentioned, have indeed the Atlantic Ocean on one side, but are surrounded with land on every other, nor have they any warm continent so near them as Asia and Africa are to the southern parts of Europe; and hence they are subject to violent extremes of heat and cold; so that, in the streets of Boston, the capital of New-England, the ice frequently lies a foot thick, for several months in winter; while the summer-heats are very great. In like manner is South America colder than Africa, because of its inferiority in size, and its distance from any other continent; while the small islands in the southern ocean lying in latitudes corresponding to that of Britain, are utterly uninhabitable, and covered with perpetual snow and ice.

Another particularity in the climate of America is its excessive moisture in general. In some places, indeed, on the western coast, rain is not known; but, in all other parts, the moistness of the climate is as remarkable as the cold; and this moisture undoubtedly contributes to render America in general very unhealthy.—The forests wherewith it is everywhere covered, no doubt, partly occasion the moisture of its climate; but the most prevalent cause is the vast quantity of water in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans with which America is environed on all sides. Hence those places where the continent is narrowest are drenched with almost perpetual rains, accompanied with violent thunder and lightning, by which some of them, particularly Porto Bello, are rendered in a manner uninhabitable.

This extreme moisture of the American climate is productive of much larger rivers there, than in any other part of the world. The Danube, the Nile, the Indus, or the Ganges, are not comparable to the Mississippi, the River St Lawrence, or that of the Amazons; nor are there such large lakes to be found anywhere as those which North America affords.—To the same cause we are also partly to ascribe the excessive luxuriance of all kinds of vegetables in almost all parts of this country. In the southern provinces, where the moisture of the climate is aided by the warmth of the sun, the woods are almost impervious, and the surface of the ground is hid from the eye, under a thick covering of shrubs, herbs, and weeds.—In the northern provinces, the forests are not encumbered with the same luxuriance of vegetation; nevertheless, they afford trees much larger of their kind than what are to be found anywhere else.

The same moisture which is so favourable to vegetation, is found to be very unfavourable to animal life. The brute creatures of America are generally of a small size when compared with those of Europe, Asia, or Africa; nay, those which have been imported by the Europeans, though they multiplied excessively, have never failed to degenerate in size, as well as in strength and vigour. We may with the more certainty ascribe this to the pernicious influence of the moisture, as it is observed, that black cattle brought from other parts of the continent to Porto Bello, where the moisture is exceedingly great, lose their flesh to fall, as to become in a few weeks' time scarce eatable.—To this, however, there is one exception; for America produces a species of ravenous birds called condors, superior both in size and strength to any that are to be found in other parts of the world.

The same causes which check the growth and vigour of the more noble animals, are friendly to the propagation and increase of insects. Accordingly, these, especially such as delight in taking up their habitation in moist earth, are to be found in immense quantities throughout... Throughout the continent. At Porto Bello, toads are found in such multitudes that they hide the surface of the earth. At Guayaquil, snakes and vipers are hardly less numerous. It doth not appear, however, that serpents abound more, or even so much, in America, as in some places of Africa; for there, according to the accounts given by Mr. Adanson, large plains are to be met with entirely covered with them. Nor have we any accounts of the locusts, which sometimes commit such devastations on the eastern continent, being ever found in America. Instead of these, they have a kind of ants, which, in some of the islands, have frequently consumed every vegetable production, and left the earth entirely bare, as if it had been burnt with fire. In Dec. 1768, Captain Cook found the air at Rio Janeiro loaded with butterflies. They were chiefly of one sort; but in such numbers, that thousands might be seen in every direction, and the most of them flew above the mast head.

At the time America was discovered, it was found inhabited by a race of men no less different from those in the other parts of the world, than the climate and natural productions of this continent are different from those of Europe, Asia, or Africa.—One great peculiarity in the native Americans is their colour, and the indentity of it throughout the whole extent of the continent. In Europe and Asia, the people who inhabit the northern countries are of a fairer complexion than those who dwell more to the southward. In the torrid zone, both in Africa and Asia, the natives are entirely black, or the next thing to it. This, however, must be understood with some limitation. The people of Lapland, who inhabit the most northerly part of Europe, are by no means so fair as the inhabitants of Britain; nor are the Tartars so fair as the inhabitants of Europe, who lie under the same parallels of latitude. Nevertheless, a Laplander is fair when compared with an Abyssinian, and a Tartar if compared with a native of the Molucca islands.—In America, this distinction of colour was not to be found. In the torrid zone there were no negroes, and in the temperate and frigid zones there were no white people. All of them were of a kind of red copper-colour, which Mr. Forster observed, in the Pellerays of Terra del Fuego, to have something of a gloss resembling that metal. It doth not appear, however, that this matter hath ever been inquired into with sufficient accuracy. The inhabitants of the inland parts of South America, where the continent is widest, and consequently the influence of the sun the most powerful, have never been compared with those of Canada, or more northerly parts, at least by any person of credit. Yet this ought to have been done, and that in many instances too, before it could be asserted so positively as most authors do, that there is not the least difference of complexion among the natives of America. Indeed, so many systems have been formed concerning them, that it is very difficult to obtain a true knowledge of the most simple facts.—If we may believe the Abbé Raynal, the Californians are swarthier than the Mexicans; and so positive is he in this opinion, that he gives a reason for it. “This difference of colour,” says he, “proves, that the civilized life of society subverts, or totally changes, the order and laws of nature, since we find, under the temperate zone, a savage people that are blacker than the civilized nations of the torrid zone.”

—On the other hand, Dr. Robertson classes all the inhabitants of Spanish America together with regard to colour, whether they are civilized or uncivilized; and when he speaks of California, takes no notice of any peculiarity in their colour more than others.—Certain it is, however, that the northern inhabitants of America are of a colour very different from the Europeans, or even the Asiatics, in the same latitudes; nor are those who dwell under the line so black as negroes.—The Robertson’s general appearance of the Americans in various districts is thus described by Don Antonio Ulloa. They have a very small fore-head, covered with hair towards its extremities, as far as the middle of the eye-brows; little eyes; a thin nose, small, and bending towards the upper lip; the countenance broad; the ears large; the hair very black, lank, and coarse; the limbs well turned; the feet small; the body of just proportion, and altogether smooth and free from hair, until old age, when they acquire some beard, but never on the cheeks.”

—The chevalier Pinto gives the following account of them. “They are all of a copper colour, with some diversity of shade, not in proportion to their distance from the Equator, but according to the degree of elevation of the territory in which they reside. Those who live in a high country are fairer than those in the marshy low lands on the coast. Their face is round; farther removed, perhaps, than that of any people, from an oval shape. Their fore-head is small; the extremity of their ears far from the face; their lips thick; their nose flat; their eyes black, or of a chestnut colour, small, but capable of discerning objects at a great distance. Their hair is always thick and sleek, and without any tendency to curl. They have no hair on any part of their body but the head. At the first aspect, a South-American appears to be mild and innocent; but, on a more attentive view, one discovers in his countenance something wild, distrustful, and sullen.”

The Americans were also remarkable for their debility of body. They were not only averse to toil, but incapable of it; and when rousted by force from their native indolence, and compelled to work, they funk under tasks which people of the other continent would have performed with ease. On the continent, however, where many tribes employed themselves in hunting, they acquired greater firmness; but still they were more remarkable for agility than strength. Of their swiftness, indeed, surprising accounts are given. Adair relates the adventures of a Chikafah warrior, who ran America, through woods and over mountains, 300 computed miles in a day and an half and two nights.

Another particularity in these people is the smallness of their appetite for food. This was so remarkable, that the Spaniards considered the constitutional temperance of the Americans, not only in the islands, but in several parts of the continent, as far exceeding the abstinence of the most mortified hermits. On the other hand, the appetite of the Spaniards appeared to them to be infatuably voracious. They affirmed, that one Spaniard devoured more food in a day than was sufficient for ten Americans. Nay, they even imagined, that the Spaniards had left their own country because they could not find provisions in sufficient quantity to satisfy their ravenous appetites.

Nor were the Americans less singular in their mental than their corporeal qualities. The understandings of many nations seemed to be so limited, that they were neither... neither capable of forming an arrangement for futurity, nor did their solicitude or foresight extend so far. They set no value upon those things of which they were not in some immediate want. In the evening, when a Caribbee is going to rest, no consideration will tempt him to sell his hammock; but in the morning, he will part with it for the slightest trifle. At the close of winter, a North-American, mindful of what he has suffered from the cold, sets himself with vigour to prepare materials for erecting a comfortable hut to protect him against the inclemency of the succeeding season; but as soon as the weather becomes mild, he abandons his work, and never thinks of it more, till the return of the cold compels him to resume it.—In short, to be free from labour, seems to be the utmost wish of an American. They will continue whole days stretched in their hammocks, or seated on the earth, without changing their posture, raising their eyes, or uttering a single word. The men seem to be possessed of a degree of infatibility towards the women which is not to be found in any other part of the world; but it was not so with the women at the arrival of the Spaniards among them. Their passions in this respect seemed to be so strong as to swallow up every other consideration, inasmuch that they would have trampled over heaps of their countrymen, in order to give themselves up to the embraces of the barbarians who had deprived them of life; nor would they hesitate at betraying their country, their nearest relations not excepted, into the hands of these strangers.

Notwithstanding the seeming imbecility of their minds in most respects, there is one pursuit in which the Americans are indefatigable beyond what is recorded of any race of men either ancient or modern; and that is revenge. This they carry such a length as we could scarce think would be done by any other than infernal spirits themselves.—Among these savages the forgiveness of enemies is never heard of. They will not attack enemies who are prepared for them; but watch their opportunity to murder them when asleep or incapable of making any resistance. If they find it impossible to revenge themselves when the injury is committed, they will dissemble their resentment, but no length of time is sufficient to eradicate that passion from their breasts; and whenever an opportunity offers, they will revenge themselves with the same hellish fury as if the offence was but just then committed. A single warrior has been known to march several hundred miles to surprise and cut off a straggling enemy. If a quarrel is once begun, these wretches are not satisfied with the destruction of the person who gave the offence; nor will their revenge be satiated with the death of all his family or relations, nothing less is aimed at than the extermination of the whole tribe or nation to which he belongs.—Accordingly to this principle their wars are carried on; and by acting upon this principle the Iroquois actually exterminated a nation called the Eries, from which one of the lakes of Canada took its name, so that now there is not the least trace of their existence. When two nations, at war, make peace with one another, it is not because they are weary of slaughter, or that they think they have had revenge enough; but because they find themselves unable to carry on the war any longer. Hence the peace which the savage nations make with one another, may be considered only as a kind of truce, till both parties have recovered strength enough to renew their hostilities.

As the Indian nations are not populous, and many of them lie at a great distance from one another, it is impossible there could be any animosities between them was the desire of revenge to abate.—For declaring war, against a nation no new provocation is necessary, nor is it even pretended that any has been received. It is the memory of past quarrels only, which are thought not to be sufficiently revenged, that incites them to war.—Private chiefs sometimes invade their neighbours territories without consulting the rulers of the community; nay, often single persons will take the field; and these expeditions are connived at by the elders, as tending to cherish a martial spirit, and to accustom their people to enterprise and danger. If a chief wishes to allure a band of warriors to follow him in invading an enemy's country, his persuasions are addressed to their favourite passion revenge. "The bones of our country-men," says he, "lie uncovered, their bloody bed has not been washed clean. Their spirits cry against us; they must be appeased. Let us go and devour the people by whom they were slain. Sit no longer inactive upon your mats; lift the hatchet; console the spirits of the dead, and tell them that they shall be avenged."—Animated by such exhortations as these, the young men seize their arms, and fall forth against their enemies, firing the war-song, which may be expressed in the following words. "I go to war to revenge the death of my brothers; I shall kill, I shall exterminate, I shall burn my enemies; I shall bring away slaves; I shall devour their heart, dry their flesh, and drink their blood. I shall tear off their scalps, and make cups of their skulls."

Such is the implacable nature of these savages, that they will go, for the purpose of revenge, 1000 miles in pathless woods, over hills and mountains, through huge swamps, exposed to the extremities of heat and cold, the vicissitude of seasons, and to hunger and thirst. All these difficulties they despise as trifles, provided they can obtain the scalps of their enemies.—A remarkable instance of their innate desire of blood we have in the following anecdote of an Algonquin woman.

That nation being at war with the Iroquois, she happened to be taken prisoner, and was carried to one of the villages belonging to them. Here she was stripped naked, and her hands and feet bound with ropes in one of their cabins. In this condition she remained ten days, the savages sleeping round her every night. The eleventh night, while they were asleep, she found means to disengage one of her hands, with which she immediately freed herself from the ropes, and went to the door. Tho' she had now an opportunity of escaping unperceived, her revengeful temper could not let slip so favourable an opportunity of killing one of her enemies. The attempt was manifestly at the hazard of her own life; yet, clutching up a hatchet, she killed the savage that lay next her, and, springing out of the cabin, concealed herself in a hollow tree which she had observed the day before. The groans of the dying person soon alarmed the other savages, and the young ones immediately fell out in pursuit of her.—Perceiving from her tree, that they all directed their course one way, and that no savage was near her, she left her sanctuary, and, flying by an opposite direction, ran into a forest with- without being perceived. The second day after this happened, her footsteps were discovered; and they pursued her with such expedition, that the third day she discovered her enemies at her heels. Upon this she threw herself into a pond of water, and, diving among some weeds and bulrushes, she could just breathe above water without being perceived. Her pursuers, after making the most diligent search, were forced to return.

For 35 days this woman held on her course through woods and deserts, without any other sustenance than roots and wild berries. When she came to the river St Lawrence, she made with her own hands a kind of wicker raft, on which she crossed it. As she went by the French fort Trois Rivieres, without well knowing where she was, she perceived a canoe full of savages; and fearing they might be Iroquois, ran again into the woods, where she remained till sunset.—Continuing her course soon after, she saw Trois Rivieres, and was then discovered by a party whom she knew to be Hurons, a nation in alliance with the Algonquins. She then squatted down behind a bush, calling out to them that she was not in a condition to be seen, because she was naked. They immediately threw her a blanket, and then conducted her to the fort, where she recounted her story.

The desire of revenge being so excessively prevalent among the Americans, we can scarce expect that their wars should be anything else than a series of the most deliberate and diabolical murders that can be conceived. If the war is national, and undertaken by public authority, all their determinations are formal and slow. The elders assemble, and deliver their opinions in solemn speeches. They express themselves in a bold figurative style, with violent gestures. After this, if they happen to be well provided with food, they appoint a feast, of which almost the whole nation partakes. This feast is accompanied with dancing, and songs, in which the real or fabulous exploits of their forefathers are recounted. A leader offers himself to conduct the expedition; but no one is compelled to follow him contrary to his own inclination. All the young men, who are disposed to go to war, give a bit of wood to the chief, as a token of their design. The leader lasts several days, during which he converses with nobody, and is peculiarly careful to observe his dreams, which are generally as favourable as he could wish. A number of other ceremonies are made use of, such as setting the war-kettle on the fire, as an emblem of their going out to devour their enemies; and a large shell is dispatched to their allies, inviting them to come and drink their blood. Having finished all the ceremonies previous to the war, they issue forth with their faces blackened with charcoal, intermixed with streaks of vermilion, which gives them a most horrid appearance. Then they exchange their cloaths with their friends, and dispose of their ornaments to the women, who generally accompany them to a considerable distance.

As the intention of the Americans in going to war, is, not to conquer, but to destroy, they watch for their enemies in the same manner as they would do for wild beasts.—Being accustomed to perpetual wandering in the forests, their senses are sharpened to a degree inconceivable by us. They can trace out their enemies by the smoke of their fires, which they smell at an immense distance. They can distinguish the tracks of their feet on the ground, which would be imperceptible to an European eye. They can even, in these traces, distinguish the footsteps of the different nations with which they are acquainted, and determine the precise time when they passed. But these precautions avail them little, as their enemies are no less quick-fighting than they. When they go out, therefore, they take care to make use of nothing which might endanger discovery. They light no fire to warm themselves, or to prepare their victuals; they lie close to the ground all day, and travel only in the night. They march along in files; and he that closes the rear, diligently covers their track with leaves.—As war is begun without provocation, and no declaration of it made, the nation they attack is very often entirely ignorant of their designs, and not at all on their guard. In this case, they follow their track through the forest. They endeavour to become acquainted with their haunts. They lurk in some thicket near them, with the patience of a sportsman waiting for game; and will continue their station day after day, till they can rush upon their prey when most secure, and least able to resist them. If they meet with no straggling party of the enemy, they advance towards their villages; but with such solicitude to conceal their approach, that they often creep on their hands and feet through the wood, and paint their skins of the same colour with the withered leaves, in order to avoid detection. If they are so fortunate as to remain unobserved, they set on fire the huts in the dead of the night, and massacre the inhabitants as they fly naked and defenceless from the flames. If they hope to effect a retreat without being pursued, they carry off some prisoners, either to adopt them in place of those who may be lost in the war, or to wreak their vengeance upon them to the utmost.

After they are all returned home, the elders appoint a distribution of the captives; upon which, every person, who has taken a prisoner, presents him where the chiefs direct. If those to whom he is presented receive him, he is immediately adopted, and becomes from that time forward a member of the community; but if he is refused, from whatever motive, his death is unavoidable.—Was it simply death, which was now to be inflicted, the same thing has often been practised by other nations on their prisoners; but here a scene of cruelty is displayed, which, though the invention of those who in other respects seem scarce a degree above brutes, is sufficient to make even an inquisitor tremble.

All the captives who are sentenced to death, being collected together, the whole nation is assembled at the execution, as for some great solemnity. A scaffold is erected, and the prisoners are tied to the stake, where they begin their death-song, and prepare for their torments with the greatest resolution. The conquerors, on the other hand, resolve to put the constancy of the captive to the most severe trial. They begin at the extremity of his body, and gradually approach the more vital parts. One plucks out his nails by the roots, one by one; another takes a finger into his mouth, and tears off the flesh with his teeth; a third thrusts the finger, mangled as it is, into the bowl of a pipe made red hot, which he smokes like tobacco; then they pound his toes and fingers to pieces between two stones; they pull off the flesh with their teeth, cut circles about his joints, and make gashes in the fleshy parts of his limbs, which which they fear immediately with red-hot irons, cutting, burning, and pinching them alternately; they pull off his flesh, thus mangled and roasted, bit by bit, devouring it with greediness, and smearing their faces with the blood in an enthusiasm of horror and fury. When they have thus torn off the flesh, they twist the bare nerves and tendons about an iron, tearing and snapping them, whilst others are employed in pulling and extending the limbs in every way that can increase the torment. This continues often five or six hours, and sometimes days together. Then they frequently unbind him to give a breathing to their fury, to think what new torments they shall inflict, and to refresh the strength of the sufferer, who, wearied out with such a variety of unheard-of torments, often falls into so profound a sleep, that they are obliged to apply the fire to awake him and renew his sufferings. He is again fastened to the stake, and again they renew their cruelty; they stick him all over with small matches of wood, that easily take fire, but burn slowly; they continually run sharp reeds into every part of his body; they drag out his teeth with pincers, and thrust out his eyes; and, lastly, after having burned his flesh from the bones with slow fires; after having mangled the body that it is all but one wound; after having mutilated the face in such a manner as to carry nothing human in it; after having peeled the skin from the head, and poured a heap of red-hot coals, or boiling water, on the naked skull; they once more unbind the wretch, who, blind, and staggering with pain and weakness, assaulted and pelted upon every side with clubs and stones, now up, now down, falling into their fires at every step, runs hither and thither, until one of the chiefs, whether out of compassion, or weary of cruelty, puts an end to his life with a club or a dagger. The body is then put into a kettle, and this barbarous employment is succeeded by a feast as barbarous.

The same infernal spirit which prompts the conquerors to inflict these tortures, prompts the sufferer to bear them without a single complaint. In the midst of the most excruciating torments, he informs his enemies what cruelties he has inflicted on their countrymen, and threatens them with the revenge that will attend his death. Though his reproaches exasperate them to madness, yet he continues his insults; even telling them that they are ignorant of the art of tormenting; and pointing out to them more exquisite methods than what they use, and more sensible parts of the body to be afflicted.

If we take a view of the Americans in their domestic capacities, we shall find their character no better than what we have described. We have already taken notice of the uncommon indifference of the men towards the women. This, of itself, causes them treat their wives with contempt. Among these savages, also, the man properly buys his wife. In some places, he devotes his service for a certain time to the parents of the maid whom he courts; in others, he hunts for them occasionally, or assists in cultivating their fields and forming their canoes; in others, he offers such presents as are deemed most valuable on account of their usefulness or rarity. In return for these, he receives his wife; and this circumstance, added to the low estimation of women among savages, leads him to consider her as a female servant, whom he has a title to treat as an inferior. In all unpolished nations, the women must bear more than their share of the common burden; but in America, their condition is peculiarly grievous, and their depression is so complete, that furtiveness is a name too mild to describe their wretched state. A wife, among most tribes, is no better than a beast of burden, destined to every office of labour and fatigue. While the men loiter out the day in sloth, or spend it in amusement, the women are condemned to incessant toil. Tasks are imposed upon them without pity, and services are received without complacence or gratitude. They must approach their lords with reverence; they must regard them as more exalted beings; and are not permitted to eat in their presence. There are districts in America where this dominion is so grievous, and so sensibly felt, that some women, in a wild emotion of maternal tenderness, have destroyed their female children in their infancy, in order to deliver them from that intolerable bondage to which they knew they were doomed.

It is not to be expected, that such husbands will incalculately upon their children any kind of filial duty towards their mothers. Indeed, with the American children, neither their fathers nor mothers are objects of greater regard than other persons. They treat them always with neglect; and often with such harshness and insolence, as to fill those with horror who have been witnesses of their conduct. The only piece of education which the savages take care to give their children is, to revenge themselves on their enemies. For this purpose, they teach them to suffer pain in the most extreme degree without uttering the least complaint; that, in case they fall into the hands of their enemies, they may die like men, as they term it; and to such an extraordinary length do they go in this respect, that an American boy and girl will often, by way of amusement, hold a burning coal between their naked hands or arms, to try who will soonest shrink, or utter a complaint.

As this horrid, implacable desire of revenge is the only mental qualification which the Americans endeavour to cherish, the above-mentioned passive kind of courage becomes the only test of their capacity for any public office. Among the tribes on the banks of the Oronooko, if a warrior aspires to the post of captain, his probation begins with a long fast, more rigid than any ever observed by the most abstemious hermit. At the close of this, the chiefs assemble; and each gives him three lashes with a large whip, applied to vigorously, that his body is almost flayed. If he betrays the least symptom of impatience, or even of sensibility, he is disgraced for ever, and rejected as unworthy of the honour. After some interval, his constancy is proved by a more excruciating trial. He is laid in his hammock with his hands bound fast; and an innumerable multitude of venomous ants, whose bite occasions a violent pain and inflammation, are thrown upon him. The judges of his merit stand around the hammock; and whilst these cruel insects fasten upon the most sensible parts of his body, a sigh, a groan, or an involuntary motion expressive of what he suffers, would exclude him from the dignity of which he is ambitious. Even after this evidence, his fortitude is not deemed to be sufficiently ascertained, till he has stood another test more severe, if possible, than the former. He is again suspended in his hammock, and covered with the leaves of the palmetto. A fire of flanking herbs is kindled underneath, so as he may feel its heat, and be involved in smoke. Though scorched and almost suffocated, he must continue to endure this with the same patient insensibility. Many perish in this essay of their firmness and courage; but such as go through it with applause, receive the ensigns of their new dignity with much solemnity, and are ever after regarded as leaders of approved resolution, whose behaviour, in the most trying situations, will do honour to their country. In North America, the previous trial of a warrior is neither so formal, nor so severe: Though, even there, before a youth is permitted to bear arms, his patience and fortitude are proved by blows; by fire; and by insults, more intolerable to a haughty spirit than either.

Thus we have given a particular account of the most remarkable differences between the natives of America, and those of other countries. In their character, we wish, indeed, it were in our power to balance the bad qualities we have mentioned, with some good ones; but we are sorry to say, that in all the different accounts of the native Americans which have fallen into our hands, the virtuous part of their character hath constantly been invisible. Their constancy in bearing the most horrid tortures without a complaint, hath been extolled as the greatest heroism and magnanimity; but we cannot help thinking, it very naturally flows from their inconceivably cruel and blood-thirsty disposition, along with their infatiable desire of revenge, the meanest as well as the most diabolical passion in the human nature. Personal courage they have not; as appears from the following incidents, quoted from Charlevoix, by Lord Kames, in his Sketches of the History of Man.*

* B. I. Sk. I. Man. "The fort de Vercheres in Canada, belonging to the French, was, in the year 1690, attacked by some Iroquois: they approached silently, preparing to assail the place, when some musket-shot made them retire. Advancing a second time, they were again repulsed, wondering that they could discover none but a woman, who was seen everywhere. This was Madame de Vercheres, who appeared as resolute as if supported by a numerous garrison. The hopes of storming a place without men to defend it, occasioned reiterated attacks. After two days siege, they retired, fearing to be intercepted in their retreat. Two years after, a party of the same nation appeared before the fort so unexpectedly, that a girl of fourteen, daughter of the proprietor, had but time to shut the gate. With the young woman, there was not a soul but one raw folder. She shewed herself with her assistant, sometimes in one place, and sometimes in another; changing her dress frequently, in order to give some appearance of a garrison; and always fired opportunely. The faint-hearted Iroquois decamped without success."

We are sensible, that, in denying personal courage to the Americans, we differ from the learned Dr Robertson; who attributes their method of making war to a policy adapted to the smallness of their number, and urges their desperate valour on some extraordinary occasions as a proof of their courage. To this it might easily be replied, that none will fight so desperately as cowards, when they are prevented from running away; and, therefore, it was a maxim among the Spartans, never to pursue a flying enemy too closely, "lest he should think it better to fight, than run away." Besides, savage cruelty hath in all ages been reckoned a sign of cowardice: and we believe there are but few, (in which number we would not with to include the Doctor) that will not flingmatize, as the most infamous cowards, those who will not face their enemies in the open field, but murder them, together with their helpless women and infants, when asleep. But as it is for whether our purpose to enter into disputes of this kind, we shall now proceed to consider whether these peculiarities in the Americans give sufficient grounds for species of determining them, as some authors have done, to be a men race of men specifically distinct from all others.

In this question, to avoid being tedious, we shall confine ourselves to what hath been advanced by Lord Kames; who is of opinion, that there are many different species of men, as well as of other animals; and gives an hypothesis, whereby his opinion may be maintained in a consistency with Revelation. "If (says he) the only rule afforded by nature for classing animals can be depended on, there are different races of men as well as of dogs: a mastiff differs not more from a spaniel, than a white man from a negro, or a Laplander from a Dane. And, if we have any faith in Providence, it ought to be so. Plants were created of different kinds, to fit them for different climates; and so were brute animals. Certain it is, that all men are not fitted equally for every climate. There is scarce a climate but what is natural to some men, where they prosper and flourish; and there is not a climate but where some men degenerate. Doth not then analogy lead us to conclude, that, as there are different climates on the face of this globe, so there are different races of men fitted for these different climates?

"M. Buffon, from the rule, That animals which can procreate together, and whose progeny can also procreate, are of one species; concludes, that all men are of one race or species; and endeavours to support that favourite opinion, by ascribing to the climate, to food, or to other accidental causes, all the varieties that are found among men. But is he seriously of opinion, that any operation of climate, or of other accidental cause, can account for the copper-colour and smooth chin universal among the Americans; the prominence of the pudenda universal among the Hottentot women, or the black nipple no less universal among the female Samoiedes?—It is in vain to ascribe to the climate, the low stature of the Esquimaux, the smallness of their feet, or the overgrown size of their heads. It is equally in vain to ascribe to climate, the low stature of the Laplanders, or their ugly visage. The black colour of negroes, thick lips, flat nose, crisp woolly hair, and rank smell, distinguish them from every other race of men. The Abyssinians, on the contrary, are tall and well made, their complexion a brown olive, features well proportioned, eyes large and of a sparkling black, thin lips, a nose rather high than flat. There is no such difference of climate between Abyssinia and Negroland, as to produce these striking differences.

"Nor shall our author's ingenious hypothesis concerning the extremities of heat and cold, purchase him impunity with respect to the fellow complexions of the Samoiedes, Laplanders, and Greenlanders. The Finns, and northern Norwegians, live in a climate not less cold than that of the people mentioned; and yet are fair beyond other Europeans. I say more, there..." there are many instances of races of people preserving their original colour, in climates very different from their own; but not a single instance of the contrary, as far as I can learn. There have been four complete generations of negroes in Pennsylvania, without any visible change of colour; they continue jet black, as originally. Those who ascribe all to the sun, ought to consider how little probable it is, that the colour it impinges on the parents should be communicated to their infant children, who never saw the sun: I should be as soon induced to believe with a German naturalist, whose name has escaped me, that the negro colour is owing to an ancient custom in Africa, of dying the skin black.

Let a European, for years, expose himself to the sun in a hot climate, till he be quite brown; his children will nevertheless have the same complexion with those in Europe. From the action of the sun, is it possible to explain, why a negro, like a European, is born with a roddy skin, which turns jet black the eighth or ninth day."

Our author next proceeds to draw some arguments for the existence of different species of men, from the various tempers and dispositions of different nations; which he reckons to be specific differences, as well as those of colour, stature, &c.; and having summed up his evidence, he concludes thus: "Upon summing up the whole particulars mentioned above, would one hesitate a moment to adopt the following opinion, were there no counterbalancing evidence, viz. That God created many pairs of the human race, differing from each other, both externally and internally; that he fitted those pairs for different climates, and placed each pair in its proper climate; that the peculiarities of the original pairs were preserved entire in their descendants; who, having no assistance but their natural talents, were left to gather knowledge from experience; and, in particular, were left (each tribe) to form a language for itself; that signs were sufficient for the original pairs, without any language but what nature suggests; and that a language was formed gradually, as a tribe increased in numbers, and in different occupations, to make speech necessary?" But this opinion, however plausible, we are not permitted to adopt; being taught a different lesson by Revelation, viz. That God created but a single pair of the human species. Though we cannot doubt of the authority of Moses, yet his account of the creation of man is not a little puzzling, as it seems to contradict every one of the facts mentioned above. According to that account, different races of men were not formed, nor were men formed originally for different climates. All men must have spoken the same language, viz. That of our first parents. And what of all seems the most contradictory to that account, is the savage state: Adam, as Moses informs us, was ended by his Maker with an eminent degree of knowledge; and he certainly was an excellent preceptor to his children and their progeny, among whom he lived many generations. Whence then the degeneracy of all men unto the savage state? To account for that dismal catastrophe, mankind must have suffered some terrible convulsion. That terrible convulsion is revealed to us in the history of the tower of Babel, contained in the 11th chapter of Genesis, which is, 'That, for many centuries after the deluge, the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech; that they united to build a city on a plain in the land of Shinar, with a tower, whose top might reach unto heaven; that the Lord, beholding the people to be one, and to have all one language, and that nothing would be restrained from them which they imagined to do, confounded their language that they might not understand one another, and scattered them abroad upon the face of all the earth.' Here light breaks forth in the midst of darkness. By confounding the language of men, and scattering them abroad upon the face of all the earth, they were rendered savages. And to harden them for their new habitations, it was necessary that they should be divided into different kinds, fitted for different climates. Without an immediate change of constitution, the builders of Babel could not possibly have subsisted in the burning region of Guinea, nor in the frozen region of Lapland; houses not being prepared, nor any other convenience to protect them against a destructive climate."

We shall first remark, on his Lordship's hypothesis, that it is evidently incomplete: for, allowing the human race to have been divided into different species at the confusion of languages, and that each species was adapted to a particular climate; by what means were they to get to the climates proper for them, or how were they to know that such climates existed? How was an American, for instance, when languishing in an improper climate at Babel, to get to the land of the Amazons, or the banks of the Oronooko, in his own country? or how was he to know that these places were more proper for him than others?—If, indeed, we take the scripture-phrase, "The Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of all the earth," in a certain sense, we may account for it. If we suppose that the different species were immediately carried off by a whirlwind, or other supernatural means, to their proper countries, the difficulty will vanish: but if this is his Lordship's interpretation, it is certainly a very singular one.

Before entering upon a consideration of the particular arguments used by our author for proving the diversity of species in the human race; it will be proper to lay down the following general principles, which may serve as axioms. (1.) When we assert a multiplicity of species in the human race, we bring in a supernatural cause to solve a natural phenomenon: for these species are supposed to be the immediate work of the Deity. (2.) No person has a right to call anything the immediate effect of omnipotence, unless by express revelation from the Deity, or from a certainty that no natural cause is sufficient to produce the effect. The reason is plain. The Deity is invisible, and so are many natural causes: when we see an effect therefore, of which the cause does not manifest itself, we cannot know whether the immediate cause is the Deity, or an invisible natural power. An example of this we have in the phenomena of thunder and earthquakes, which were often ascribed immediately to the Deity, but are now discovered to be the effects of electricity. (3.) No person can assert natural causes to be insufficient to produce such and such effects, unless he perfectly knows all these causes, and the limits of their power in all possible cases: and this no man has ever known, or can know.

By keeping in view these principles, which we hope are self-evident, we will easily see Lord Kaimes's arguments to consist entirely in a petitio principii.—In substance they are all reduced to this single sentence: "Natural philosophers have been hitherto unsuccessful in their endeavours to account for the differences observed among mankind, therefore these differences cannot be accounted for from natural causes."

But, besides this negative evidence against his Lordship, we have positive proofs against him, and those of the most unexceptionable kind.—The first evidence we shall produce is himself. He tells us in the passages already quoted, that, "a mastiff differs not more from a spaniel, than a Laplander from a Dane;" that "it is vain to ascribe to climate the low stature of the Laplanders, or their ugly visage."—These last words are scarce out of his mouth, when he tells us, in a note on the word Laplanders, that "by late accounts it appears, that the Laplanders are only degenerated Tartars; and that they and the Hungarians originally sprung from the same breed of men, and from the same country."—The Hungarians are generally handsome and well made, like Danes, or like other people. The Laplanders, he tells us, differ as much from them as a mastiff from a spaniel. Natural causes, therefore, according to Lord Kaimes himself, may cause two individuals of the same species of mankind differ from each other as much as a mastiff does from a spaniel.

While we are treating this subject of colour, it may not be amiss to observe, that a very remarkable difference of colour may accidentally happen to individuals of the same species. In the isthmus of Darien, a singular race of men have been discovered.—They are of low stature, of a feeble make, and incapable of enduring fatigue. Their colour is a dead milk white; not resembling that of fair people among Europeans, but without any blush or sanguine complexion. Their skin is covered with a fine hairy down of a chalky white; the hair of their heads, their eye-brows, and eye-lashes, are of the same hue. Their eyes are of a singular form; and so weak, that they can hardly bear the light of the sun; but they see clearly by moon-light, and are most active and gay in the night. Among the negroes of Africa, as well as the natives of the Indian islands, a small number of these people are produced. They are called Albinoes by the Portuguese, and Kackerlakes by the Dutch.

This race of men is not indeed permanent; but it is sufficient to show, that mere colour is by no means the characteristic of a certain species of mankind. The difference of colour in these individuals is undoubtedly owing to a natural cause. To constitute, then, a race of men of this colour, it would only be necessary that this cause, which at present is merely accidental, should become permanent, and we cannot know but it may be so in some parts of the world.

If a difference in colour is no characteristic of a different species of mankind; much less can a difference in stature be thought so.—In the southern parts of America, there are said to be a race of men exceeding the common size in height and strength*. This account, however, is doubted by some; but be that as it will, it is certain that the Esquimaux are as much under the common size, as the Patagonians are said to be above it. Nevertheless we are not to imagine, that either of these are specific differences; seeing the Laplanders and Hungarians are both of the same species, and yet the former are generally almost a foot shorter than the latter; and if a difference of climate, or other accidental causes, can make the people of one country a foot shorter than the common size of mankind, undoubtedly accidental causes of a contrary nature may make those of another country a foot taller than other men.

Though the sun has undoubtedly a share in the production of the fleshy colour of those nations which are most exposed to his influence; yet the manner of living to which people are accustomed, their victuals, their employment, &c. must contribute very much to a difference of complexion. There are some kinds of colouring roots, which, if mixed with the food of certain animals, will tinge even their bones of a yellow colour.—It cannot be thought any great degree of credulity to infer from this, that if these roots were mixed with the food of a white man, they might, without a miracle, tinge his skin of a yellow colour. If a man and woman were both to use food of this kind for a length of time, till they became as it were radically dyed, it is impossible, without the intervention of divine power, or of some extraordinary natural cause, but their children must be of the same colour; and was the same kind of food to be continued for several generations, it is more than probable that this colour might resist the continued use of any kind of food whatever.

Of this indeed we have no examples, but we have an example of changes much more wonderful.—It is allowed on all hands, that it is more easy to work a change upon the body of a man, or any other animal, than upon his mind. A man that is naturally choleric may indeed learn to prevent the bad effects of his passion by reason, but the passion itself will remain as immutable as his colour.—But, to reason in a manner similar to Lord Kaimes; though a man should be naturally choleric, or subject to any other passion, why should his children be so?—This way of reasoning, however plausible, is by no means conclusive, as will appear from the following passage in Mr Forster's Voyage.

June 9th. "The officers who could not yet relish their salt provisions after the refreshments of New Zealand, had ordered their black dog, mentioned p. 135, Vol. I.p.234, to be killed: this day, therefore, we dined for the first time on a leg of it roasted; which tasted so exactly like mutton, that it was absolutely undistinguishable. In our cold countries, where animal-food is so much used, and where to be carnivorous perhaps lies in the nature of men, or is indispensably necessary to the preservation of their health and strength, it is strange that there should exist a Jewish aversion to dogs-flesh; when hogs, the most uncleanly of all animals, are eaten without scruple. Nature seems expressly to have intended them for this use, by making their offspring so very numerous, and their increase so quick and frequent. It may be objected, that the exalted degree of instinct, which we observe in our dogs, inspires us with great unwillingness to kill and eat them. But it is owing to the time we spend on the education of dogs, that they acquire those eminent qualities which attach them so much to us. The natural qualities of our dogs may receive a wonderful improvement; but education must give its assistance, without which the human mind itself, though capable of an immense expansion, remains in a very contracted state." In New Zealand, and (according to former accounts of voyages) in the tropical isles of the south sea, the dogs are the most stupid, dull animals imaginable, and do not seem to have the least advantage in point of sagacity over our sheep, which are commonly made the emblems of filthiness. In the former country they are fed upon fish, in the latter on vegetables, and both these diets may have served to alter their disposition. Education may perhaps likewise graft new instincts: the New Zealand dogs are fed on the remains of their master's meals; they eat the bones of other dogs; and the puppies become true canibals from their birth. We had a young New Zealand puppy on board, which had certainly had no opportunity of tasting any thing but the mother's milk before we purchased it: however, it eagerly devoured a portion of the flesh and bones of the dog on which we dined to-day; while several others of the European breed, taken on board at the Cape, turned from it without touching it.

"On the 4th of August, a young bitch, of the terrier breed, taken on board at the Cape of Good Hope, and covered by a spaniel, brought ten young ones, one of which was dead. The New Zealand dog mentioned above, which devoured the bones of the roasted dog, now fell upon the dead puppy, and ate of it with a ravenous appetite. This is a proof how far education may go in producing and propagating new instincts in animals. European dogs are never fed on the meat of their own species, but rather seem to abhor it. The New Zealand dogs, in all likelihood, are trained up from their earliest age to eat the remains of their master's meals: they are therefore used to feed upon fish; their own species; and perhaps human flesh; and what was only owing to habit at first, may have become instinct by length of time. This was remarkable in our cannibal-dog; for he came on board too young, that he could not have been weaned long enough to have acquired a habit of devouring his own species, and much less of eating human flesh; however, one of our seamen having cut his finger, held it out to the dog, who fell to greedily licked it, and then began to bite it."

From this account it appears, that even the instincts of animals are not unchangeable by natural causes; and if these causes are powerful enough to change the dispositions of succeeding generations, much more may we suppose them capable of making any possible alteration in the external appearance.

We are not here necessitated to confine ourselves to observations made on brute animals. The Franks are an example of the production of one general character, formed by some natural cause from a mixture of many different nations.—They were a motley multitude, consisting of various German nations dwelling beyond the Rhine; who, uniting in defence of their common liberty, took thence the name of Franks; the word frank signifying in their language, as it still does in ours, free. Among them the following nations were mentioned, viz. the Aetuarii, Chamavi, Bruuteri, Salii, Frisi, Chauci, Amfiaraii, and Catti. We cannot suppose one character to belong to so many different nations; yet it is certain that the Franks were nationally characterized as treacherous; and so deeply seems this quality to have been rooted in their nature, that their descendents have not got quite free of it in 1500 years. It is in vain, then, to talk of different species of men, either from their colour, size, or prevailing dispositions, seeing we have undeniable proofs that all these may be changed, in the most remarkable manner, by natural causes, without any miraculous interposition of the Deity.

Having thus, we hope, sufficiently shewn, that there are no good reasons for supposing the Americans to be specifically different from other nations, we must now consider from what part of the old world America has most probably been peopled. This subject hath been very much canvassed; and many conjectures, derived from the similarity of words, customs, &c. have been advanced. All these are very clearly refuted by Dr Robertson; who hath convinced, to the satisfaction of every rational inquirer, that proofs of that kind are entirely fanciful, and may be made to serve any purpose. He himself is of opinion, that it was peopled Dr Robertson from the north-eastern part of Asia, on account of the vicinity of the two continents to each other. His reasons we shall give in his own words.

"The actual vicinity of the two continents is so clearly established by modern discoveries, as removes the chief difficulty with respect to the peopling of America. While those immense regions which stretched eastward from the river Obi to the sea of Kamchatka were unknown, or imperfectly explored, the north-east extremities of our hemisphere were supposed to be so far distant from any part of the New World, that it was not easy to conceive how any communication should have been carried on between them. But the Russians, having subjected the western part of Siberia to their empire, gradually extended their knowledge of that vast country, by advancing towards the east into unknown provinces. These were discovered by hunters in their excursions after game, or by soldiers employed in levying the taxes; and the court of Moscow estimated the importance of those countries only by the small addition which they made to its revenue. At length, Peter the Great ascended the Russian throne: His enlightened, comprehensive mind, intent upon every circumstance that could aggrandize his empire, or render his reign illustrious, discerned consequences of those discoveries, which had escaped the observation of his ignorant predecessors. He perceived, that, in proportion as the regions of Asia extended towards the east, they must approach nearer to America; that the communication between the two continents, which had long been searched for in vain, would probably be found in this quarter; and that, by opening this intercourse, some part of the wealth and commerce of the western world might be made to flow into his dominions by a new channel. Such an object suited a genius that delighted in grand schemes. Peter drew up instructions with his own hand for prosecuting this design, and gave orders for carrying it into execution.

"His successors adopted his ideas, and pursued his plan. The officers whom the Russian court employed in this service, had to struggle with so many difficulties, that their progress was extremely slow. Encouraged by some faint traditions among the people of Siberia concerning a successful voyage in the year 1648 round the north-east promontory of Asia, they attempted to follow the same course. Vessels were fitted out, with this view, at different times, from the rivers Lena and Kolyma; but in a frozen ocean, which nature seems not to have destined for navigation, they were exposed..." to many disasters, without being able to accomplish their purpose. No vessel fitted out by the Russian court ever doubled this formidable cape; we are indebted for what is known of those extreme regions of Asia, to the discoveries made in excursions by land. In all those provinces, an opinion prevails, that countries of great extent and fertility lie at no considerable distance from their own coasts. These the Russians imagined to be part of America; and several circumstances concurred not only in confirming them in this belief, but in persuading them that some portion of that continent could not be very remote. Trees of various kinds, unknown in those naked regions of Asia, are driven upon the coast by an easterly wind. By the same wind, floating ice is brought thither in a few days; flights of birds arrive annually from the same quarter; and a tradition obtains among the inhabitants, of an intercourse formerly carried on with some countries situated to the east.

"After weighing all these particulars, and comparing the position of the countries in Asia which they had discovered, with such parts in the north-west of America as were already known; the Russian court formed a plan, which would have hardly occurred to any nation less accustomed to engage in arduous undertakings and to contend with great difficulties. Orders were issued to build two vessels at Ochotz, in the sea of Kamchatka, to sail on a voyage of discovery. Though that dreary uncultivated region furnished nothing that could be of use in constructing them, but some larch-trees; though not only the iron, the cordage, the sails, and all the numerous articles requisite for their equipment, but the provisions for victualling them, were to be carried through the immense deserts of Siberia, along rivers of difficult navigation, and roads almost impassable, the mandate of the sovereign, and the perseverance of the people, at last surmounted every obstacle. Two vessels were finished; and, under the command of the captains Behring and Tschirikow, sailed from Kamchatka in quest of the New World, in a quarter where it had never been approached. They shaped their course towards the east; and though a storm soon separated the vessels, which never rejoined, and many disasters befell them, the expectations from the voyage were not altogether frustrated. Each of the commanders discovered land, which to them appeared to be part of the American continent; and, according to their observations, it seems to be situated within a few degrees of the north-west coast of California. Each set some of his people ashore: but in one place the inhabitants fled as the Russians approached; in another, they carried off those who landed, and destroyed their boats. The violence of the weather, and the distresses of their crews, obliged both to quit this inhospitable coast. In their return they touched at several islands, which stretch in a chain from east to west between the country which they had discovered and the coast of Asia. They had some intercourse with the natives, who seemed to them to resemble the North Americans. They presented to the Russians the calumet, or pipe of peace, which is a symbol of friendship universal among the people of North America, and an usage of arbitrary institution peculiar to them.

That America may have been peopled from the north-eastern part of Asia, is certainly possible; though that it actually was so, can by no means be evinced. Indeed, we are led into great difficulties, from whatever place we suppose its inhabitants to have come: for the whole continent, from north to south, was peopled with tribes almost equally savage; and it is not easy to imagine how a few individuals, for we cannot suppose many to have come from these frozen parts of Asia, could have formed themselves into so many different tribes, each having the most ineradicable malice against the others. Their colour, too, would incline us to think that their progenitors had been negroes rather than Tartars.

It is certain, that there is a possibility of this continent having been peopled from the East Indies. We do not suppose that any nation ever sent a colony thither. If they had done so, the characteristic marks of that nation would have remained in some degree; but the most savage tribes we have ever heard of on the ancient continent, were civilized nations, when compared with the Americans. So low, indeed, is their capacity said to be, that the very African negroes despise them as a race of men inferior to themselves.

We have already had occasion to observe *, that the general character of a nation depends in a considerable degree upon that of the first founders of it. It is also a certain fact, that living in society will improve the most barbarous nations. Had America, then, been peopled at once, or only received one colony of men into it, it is impossible but the nations must have begun some improvements through length of time.—We shall suppose a colony of Tartars had been by some accident driven on the coast of North America. They would have remembered their ancient customs, and transmitted them to their posterity. These people, we know, have the art of taming animals; and though they could not find animals of the same kind with those they left in their own country, they would undoubtedly have endeavoured to render such as they found in America subservient to them; and the great utility of this practice would infallibly have preferred it when once begun. It is very probable, therefore, that as the Americans had not this art, neither had their ancestors; whom, for that reason, we can scarce suppose to have been any nation in the northern parts of Asia, where that art has been always known.

The excessively savage state of the Americans we may account for by supposing them to have come originally from the southern parts of Asia. From these places of the old continent lie a chain of islands with but very moderate distances between them, till we come to the Marquesas and Society Islands, lying between $138^\circ$ and $155^\circ$ of W. long. and between $10^\circ$ and $20^\circ$ S. lat. Then, indeed, the connection is in a great measure broken off; but not so much that we can suppose an impossibility of some of the inhabitants of those islands reaching the continent of America. The solitary Island of Easter or S. Carlos lies at a very considerable distance from the Society Isles in lat. $27^\circ 4'$ S. long. $109^\circ 46'$ W. and yet the inhabitants are manifestly of the same race, as they speak almost the same language. Here they have very few domestic animals, and consequently must be very deficient in the art of taming them, as they must likewise be in all the fourth-sea islands for the same reason.

The prodigious inclination the natives of America have have for war and cruelty, would also lead us to suspect that its first inhabitants have been very soon harried by others, who might have arrived shortly after. Being extremely deficient in the necessary arts of life when they arrived, and prevented by the attacks of invaders from paying attention to any thing but their own defense, and having so much room in the immense continent of America to separate, and thereby grow daily more and more savage, they might at last degenerate into a state below what is to be found in any other part of the globe.

That the immense extent of their country conduces very considerably to their extreme savageness, is evident; because in the empires of Mexico and Peru, where the inhabitants were reduced under one governor, and obliged to live in society, they had made a considerable progress in civilization.

Thus have we, as well as others, made a possible conjecture concerning the origin of the Americans. Perhaps it may be thought the more probable, because the countries lying under or near the equator were better peopled than those much to the southward or northward, and we may always suppose those places of a country to be the most populous near which the first inhabitants have arrived. Add to this, that the colour of the natives of the south-sea islands corresponds much better with the general colour of the Americans than that of any other people who are yet known.—We do not here mean to include the Equinax, who inhabit the eastern coast of Hudson's bay, as they are evidently a distinct race, and probably the same with the Greenlanders.—But we must now leave these regions of conjecture, to give some account of the discovery of this vast continent.

It is believed by many, that the ancients had some imperfect notion of a new world, and several ancient authors are quoted in confirmation of this.—In a book ascribed to the philosopher Aristotle, we are told that the Carthaginians discovered an island far beyond the pillars of Hercules, large, fertile, and finely watered with navigable rivers, but uninhabited. This island was distant a few days sailing from the continent; its beauty induced the discoverers to settle there; but the policy of Carthage dislodged the colony, and laid strict prohibition on all the subjects of the state not to attempt any future establishment. This account is also confirmed by an historian of no mean credit, who relates, that the Tyrians would have settled a colony on the newly-discovered island, but were opposed by the Carthaginians for state reasons. The following passage has also been quoted from Seneca's Medea, in confirmation of this notion.

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Other authors are also quoted in support of this belief: but, however this may be, nobody ever believed the existence of this continent so firmly as to go in quest of it; and the discovery of America was by no means owing to any previous knowledge of its existence, but to the following circumstances.—Towards the close of the 15th century, Venice and Genoa being rivals in commerce, in which the former had greatly the superiority; Christopher Columbus, a native of Genoa, whose knowledge of the true figure of the earth, however attained, was much superior to the general notions of the age in which he lived, conceived a project of sailing to the East-Indies by directing his course westward. This design was founded upon a mistake of the geographers of those days, who placed the eastern parts of Asia immensely too far to the eastward; so that, had they been in the right, the shortest way would have been to sail directly westward.—He applied first to his own countrymen; but being rejected by them, he applied to France, where he was laughed at and ridiculed. He next applied to Henry VII. of England; but meeting with a disappointment there, he made an application to Portugal, where he met with the same mortifying reception. Spain was his next resource; where, after eight years attendance, he obtained, in 1492, a fleet of three ships, with which he set sail in quest of the East Indies. He quitted Spain on the 3rd of August 1492; and after a tedious navigation, during which his sailors often mutinied, arrived at Guiana, one of the Lucayo islands, on the 12th of October.

In Columbus's first voyage he contented himself with discovering several of the Lucayo or Bahama islands, with those of Cuba and Hispaniola. On his return to Spain, he found himself as much caressed as he had before been mortified and disappointed. His success immediately produced a crowd of adventurers from all nations, who embarked in hopes of making themselves rich by new discoveries; but it was not till 1519, that the extremity of the continent was discovered by a celebrated Portuguese navigator, whose true name was Fernando Magalhaens, by the Spaniards called Hernando Magalhaens, and by the French Magellan, from whom the straits between the southern point of the continent and the island of Terra del Fuego take their name.

Notwithstanding the many settlements of the Europeans in this continent, great part of America remains still unknown. The northern continent contains the British colonies of Hudson's bay, Canada, Nova Scotia, New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida. It contains also the Spanish territories of Louisiana, New Mexico, California, and Mexico. Besides these, there are immense regions to the west and north, the boundaries of which have never yet been discovered. In such as are in any degree known, dwell the Equinax, the Algonquins, the Hurons, the Iroquois, the Cherokees, the Chickasaws, and many other tribes of Indians.—In the southern continent lie the Spanish provinces of Terra Firme, Guiana, Peru, Paraguay, and Chili; together with that of Brazil, belonging to the Portuguese; and the country of Surinam, belonging to the Dutch. Vast tracts, however, in the inland parts, are unknown, being comprehended under the general name of Amazonia. A large district also, said to be the residence of a gigantic race of men, lies on the east side of the continent, between the straits of Magellan and the province of Paraguay.

The acquisition of these countries was not effected without the most horrid devastations, and massacres &c. from its discovery, the inhabitants, by the Spaniards. The riches they afford have also been the occasion of much bloodshed among mong the Europeans themselves; and indeed, were the advantages which the Europeans have gained from their conquests in America, duly contrasted with the losses they have sustained from them, it is doubtful whether the latter would not preponderate. — It is undeniable, however, that many real and solid advantages have accrued to the Europeans by their connections with this continent. Gold and silver have been rendered more plentiful in the European regions than ever they were before. The Materia Medica hath been enriched by the acquisition of the Peruvian bark and Ipecacuanha; medicines of so great efficacy, that their good effects may justly be supposed to balance the bad consequences of the venereal disease said to be imported from thence. But of the riches of America, as well as the history of its different provinces, their inhabitants, manners and customs, &c. we shall treat particularly under the names of each, as they occur in alphabetical order. — [Erratum, in marginal note, n° 11. For cool, write moderate.]