[192] See Comptes rendus de l’Académie des Sciences, meeting of July 20, 1857.
[193] “I maintain,” says Courtet de l’Isle (Tableau Ethnographique du genre humain, p. 89, 8vo, Paris, 1849), “that human races are unequal in intellectual power, that they are, consequently, not susceptible of the same degree of development, and that each of them is called upon to fill, in unequal conditions, a mission marked out by Providence.”
[194] Doctor Martius is a curious example of the extravagances to which monogenist ideas may lead. In order to explain the moral character of the Americans, he is obliged to suppose a frightful cataclysm [great inundation] which happened, he cannot say when, and adds, “Is it the profound terror felt by those unhappy people who escaped from this awful calamity which, being transmitted without a diminished intensity to following generations, has troubled their reason, obscured their intelligence, and hardened their heart?” Compare Morel, Traité des Dégénérescences de l’espèce humaine, 1857, and Discours Inaugural à l’Académie de Rouen, 1857.
[195] D’Orbigny saw the Charruas continue a war against the Spaniards (who decimated them) rather than renounce their much-valued independence. (Voyage dans l’Amérique Méridionale, vol. iv, Introduction p. 4.) [Our author ought not to compare the northern Americans with the southern aborigines, giving to both of them, apparently, the same characteristics. The northerners are whites, and (supposing the Canadians and the north-western settlers are spoken of) worthy of his praise. We put the present Northern States on one side altogether, as the character given by our author cannot possibly apply to them. The Charruas, who are mentioned in the above note, are Indians, inhabiting the banks of the Uruguay in South America, and therefore, whatever may be their courage and love of liberty as aborigines, they cannot properly be classed with white inhabitants, who are merely settlers.—Editor.]
[196] Compare D’Escayrac de Lauture, Le Désert et le Soudan; Mémoire sur le Soudan, etc. [These people are not so very peculiar in this respect. Even in our own land, there is sometimes a good deal of difficulty in obtaining information about routes; and agricultural labourers especially are much given to scratching their heads and chewing the cud of meditation, ending with an indecision quite delightful to the tired traveller.—Editor.]
[197] See Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, pp. 482, 483, 4to, Amstelodami, 1723.
[198] See Essai Politique sur le royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne, Paris, 1811.
[199] Voyage dans l’Amérique Méridionale.
[200] Crania Americana, Introduction.
[201] Mémoire on the preceding work.