Distance, fome Matter of 800 Leagues off from the Bay of Perfia, Befides, Pliny fays, that this Ifland could not be come to by Way of the Red Sea, by reafon of the exceffive Heat among the fmall Islands: So that it is plain, they coafted round Africk to come at Cerne; which if it be Ceylon, or Sumatra, as 'twas probably one of them, what a prodigious Voyage was this for the Infancy of Navigation? For we do little more, in one of our longeft Eaft-India Voyages. Upon the Whole therefore it is no Argument, that America was not peopled from the other Parts of the World, because the latter Ages wanted Skill to fail thither, or because History fays nothing of it. For all our History comes from the Greeks and Romans; and they were too ignorant in Navigation, to mention or to credit fuch a Relation, tho' they might have it from other Nations. And yet that Account of Ariftotle and Diodorus, concerning the Carthaginians going to a vast desert Island, in the Atlantick Ocean with navigable Rivers, wondrously fertile, many Days Sail from the Gades, or Cadiz, can hardly agree to any Thing but America; for no Ifland between Cadiz and America, has any Thing like a navigable River. But fetting afide all this, and fuppofing there was never any fettled Navigation to America before Colum bus; one or two cafual Veffels drove thither by Storm in the earlier Ages of the World, might have well peopled that Continent, before Columbus's Discovery. For if thefe three Parts of the World could be ftocked fo full, with the Progeny of but two Perfons, in less than four thousand Years; the other fourth Part might be peopled from as fmall a Stock, in a fhorter Time. Befides, it feems to me a plain Argument, that the Americans are but a later Drain from the Inhabitants of the other Parts of the World, because America is thinner peopled than the reft; to mention nothing of the Tradition they have in common with other Nations of a Deluge, which is a very clear Proof of their Defcent from Noah. *Diod Sic. Lib. 5. Arift. de Reb. Mir. Blacks 3. Nor do I fee any Reason, why you reckon it im- How the poffible for a Black to be produced from a White; per might dehaps the ufual faying, Lavare Athiopem; and that of the scend from Prophet, Can the Ethiopian change his Skin? has made a white you hale in this for an Impoffibility too. I own with Parentage. you, it is a natural Impoffibility for a Bull to beget a Boar, or a Lion a Wolf; for though, by unnatural Commixtures, we may produce feveral hybridous Kinds for one Generation, yet after that Nature recoils upon her felf and starts back, fhe never lets them fructify again, and go on with the monftrous Breed; which is the Reason Mules are always barren. But Blacks and. Whites breed as genuinely, as either of thefe with themselves; nay, the Colour of each will be absorbed and loft in a Genera tion or two. The Pofterity of a white Woman, in Ethiopia, will in a Generation or two be all Negro; and the great Grand-children of a black Man and a white Woman with us, will hardly be diftinguished from other Europeans. So that from hence it does appear, that Blacks may beget Whites, and Whites Blacks. But then this, you will fay, fuppofes a Commixture of both Sorts; but how could it come to pafs, that, when all the World was Whites, any fuch Thing as a Black could come into the World? Why, if I may philofophife in this Matter, and call in fecond Caufes, I think there is fome Reafon for it. You know, Philologus, the Complexion of Mankind does ftrangely diverfify according to the Nature of the Climate; the Hair and Skin of the Inhabitants of the diverfe Parts of the World alter, as they are farther or nearer from the Sun; the Danes and Swedes, English and Scotch, being much Northern, have generally a brown, white, or yellowish Hair, and fomewhat lank; the Spaniards, Italians, Greeks, Arabians, &c. have black Hair fomewhat curled, and fo proportionably all other more fouthern Nations; the Europeans generally have a clear white Skin, the Afiaticks a more tawny one, as being much nigher the Sun. But the Ethiopians living in a This BlackCountry where the Sun is more fcorching than in any nefs caused Place of the World; it is neceffary, they fhould be more of the Sun. by the Heat black black than any Nation. For they live not only directly under the Line, but in the midft of a mighty Continent, where they are refreshed by no cool Breezes from the Sea, where the Air is continually heated by fweeping along over fiery Sands, where the Sun receives a double Force. by being reflected from fuch prodigious Mountains: Now if the Warmth of Afia is of Efficacy enough to make the Skin of its Inhabitants tawny, and to curl their Hair; we may eafily fuppofe, the intense Heat of Ethiopia is fufficient to make its Inhabitants much blacker in their Complexion; and to crifp their Hair into a fort of Frizze. Therefore we may very well conclude, that the first Colony, which fettled in a Country of that extraordinay Heat, received a very great Change in their Skins proportionably to the Heat of their Country, and became mighty tawny, much beyond the Arabians, and inclinable to Blackness, as the Sun was more intense upon them. Hence, in a Generation or two, that high Degree of Tawninefs became the Nature, and from thence the Pride of the Inhabitants; the Men began to value themselves chiefly upon this Complexion, and the Women to affect them the better for it; from thence by the Love to the Male fo complexioned, the daily Converfation with him, and the Affectation of his Hiew, there was caufed a confiderable Influence upon the Fœtus, which the Females were pregnant with; fo that, upon this Account the Children in Ethiopia became more and more black, according to the Fancy of the Mother. Thus we find Jacob multiplied the fpotted Kind in Laban's Herd; and thus Heliodorus in his Æthiopicks, makes his fair Chariclea to be born of Blackamore Parents, only by her Mother's contemplating the Picture of Andromede, in her Bed-Chamber. The Children thus produced muft be fuppofed to come nigher and nigher to an abfolute Blacknefs; but when the tender Bodies of fuch Children were expofed to the fcorching Heat of the African Sun, and naked too, as is the Cuftom of the Country, their thin Skins muft needs be more than ordinarily burnt by fo great a Heat, and be made more black than their Parents. Cham. Parents. And fo by thefe Degrees they might very well come to be fuch perfect Negroes as we find them. Thus. far we may philofophife upon the Point, by pure natural, Reafon. But the Holy Scripture gives us a farther Light into this Matter. This Curfe which God laid upon Cham By the• and his Pofterity is manifest from Gen. ix. 25. Curfed be Curfe of Canaan, a Servant of Servants fhall he be unto his Brethren. Whence there is no Reason to think with many Interpreters, that God defigned by this Curfe only to punish. one Branch of Cham's Family, namely Chanaan, the Progenitor of that Country, which bore his Name; but 'tis most probable, that Canaan was but another Name of Ham, which was common in Antiquity, as, Gideon was called Ferubbaal; Daniel, Beltefhazzar; Afcanius, Iulus, &c. and there is a good Reafon to be affign'd why Mofes fhould call him here by the Name of Chanaan, and not Cham, namely to keep the Ifraelites in Heart against the Canaanites, when they faw, he, from whom their Coun try receiv'd its Origin and Name, was fo efpecially accurfed. But there is the fame Reafon to believe, that the other Sons of Cham fhared his Misfortunes as well as Chanaan, and other Branches of his Pofterity underwent Part of his Curfe, of which were chiefly the Athi opians, which were doubtless the Progeny of that undutiful Son. So that the unnatural Blackness was proba bly the Curfe upon Cham's Pofterity, as the leprous Whiteness was upon Gehazi's. That this Colour was a great Curfe upon thefe Countries, and the Ground of a very great Averfion, is manifeft from the common Experience of Mankind, and the Remarks of all Ages. For the Prophet, when he would defcribe how hated the Jews had become to God by their Sins, expreffes it thus; Are ye not as Children of the Ethiopians unto me, O Children of Ifrael? Amos ix. 7. So were other Nations used to exprefs any Thing hateful and evil by Blackness. Niger eft, hunc, tu Romane, caveto. Hor. Ser. Sat. 4• Now as it is unreasonable to think, that God Almighty fhould create a Race of Men, without any previous Demerit, to be the Scorn and Averfion of their FellowCreatures; fo it is highly rational to believe, that this People are the unhappy Race of that accurfed Cham. For unless we affert this, there is no tolerable Reason to be given, of the Names of thofe Places, and that famous Deity, which was anciently worshiped in Africa. There was the City Ammonis upon the Banks of the African River Cinyphus, in the Ifland Meroe, the Temple of Hammon. In Marmarica the City * Ammonia, otherways named Paretonium. There was the Ammoniaca Regio, fo famous throughout all the World, for the Temple of Jupiter Hammon. And † Stephanus quotes the Authority of Alexander Polyhiftor, that all Africk was called Ammonia from Hammon their chief Deity. Now it being thought by most learned Men, that the three Sons of Noah were the three famous Deities of the Heathens, and more particularly, that Ham was Jupiter; it is not improbable that Africk was the original Seat of Ham, by reafon that he is chiefly worshiped there, and fo many Places are called in honour of his Name; nor is it any Objection against this, that Africk is fo remote from the firft fettling of Noah; because in all probability Ham, after the Curfe, being out of Favour with his Father and Brethren, would remove as far out of the Way as he could. Phil. This Difcourfe of yours, concerning the Origin of thefe Nations, is fine plaufible Talk; but I can never be brought to believe, that the Americans (especially) are defcended from any other Part of the World; becaufe their Language and Cuftoms are fo perfectly different from any Thing we obferve among the reft. The Cuftoms of the Europeans and Afiaticks are pretty conformable; the modern northern Languages are very nigh the fame, and fo are the Spanish, Italian, and French: And as for the ancient caftern Tongues, they feem to be but different DiaPlin. Lib. 6. Cap. 29. + Steph. de Urb. Verb. 'Auuería. lects |