EXPERIMENT XI
The Cauſe of the Blackneſs of thoſe many Nations, which by one common Name we are wont to call Negroes, has been long ſince Diſputed of by Learned Men, who poſſibly had not done amiſs, if they had alſo taken into Conſideration, why ſome whole races of other Animals beſides Men, as
Foxes and Hares, are Diſtinguiſh'd by a Blackneſs not familiar to the Generality of Animals of the ſame Species; The General Opinion (to be mention'd a little lower) has been rejected even by ſome of the Antient Geographers, and among our Moderns Ortelius and divers other Learned Men have Queſtion'd it. But this is no place to mention what thoughts I have had to and fro about theſe Matters: Only as I ſhall freely Acknowledge, that to me the inquiry ſeems more Abſtruſe than it does to many others, and that becauſe conſulting with Authors, and with Books of Voyages, and with Travellers, to ſatisfie my ſelf in matters of Fact, I have met with ſome things among them, which ſeem not to agree very well with the Notions of the moſt Claſſick Authors concerning theſe things; for it being my Preſent Work to deliver rather matters Hiſtorical than Theorys, I ſhall Annex Some few of my Collections, inſtead of a Solemn Diſputation. It is commonly preſum'd that the Heat of the Climate wherein they live, is the reaſon, why ſo many Inhabitants of the Scorching Regions of Africa are Black; and there is this familiar Obſervation to Countenance this Conjecture, That we plainly ſee that Mowers, Reapers, and other Countrey-people,
who ſpend the moſt part of the Hot Summer dayes expos'd to the Sun, have the skin of their Hands and Faces, which are the parts immediately Expos'd to the Sun and Air, made of a Darker Colour than before, and conſequently tending to Blackneſs; And Contrarywiſe we obſerve that the Danes and ſome other people that Inhabit Cold Climates, and even the Engliſh who feel not ſo Rigorous a Cold, have uſually Whiter faces than the Spaniards, Portugalls and other European Inhabitants of Hotter Climates. But this Argument I take to be far more Specious than Convincing; for though the Heat of the Sun may Darken the Colour of the Skin, by that Operation, which we in Engliſh call Sun-burning, yet Experience doth not Evince, that I remember, That that Heat alone can produce a Diſcolouring that ſhall amount to a true Blackneſs, like that of Negroes, and we ſhall ſee by and by that even the Children of ſome Negroes not yet 10. dayes Old (perhaps not ſo much by three quarters of that time) will notwithſtanding their Infancy be of the ſame Hue with their Parents. Beſides, there is this ſtrong Argument to be alleg'd againſt the Vulgar Opinion, that in divers places in Aſia under the ſame Parallel, or even of the ſame
Degree of Latitude with the African Regions Inhabited by Blacks, the People are at moſt but Tawny;[a]10] And in Africa it ſelf divers Nations in the Empire of Ethiopia are not Negroes, though Situated in the Torrid Zone, and as neer the Æquinoctial, as other Nations that are ſo (as the Black Inhabitants of Zeylan and Malabar are not in our Globes plac'd ſo near the Line as Amara the Famouſeſt place in Ethiopia.) Moreover, (that which is of no ſmall Moment in our preſent Diſquiſition) I find not by the beſt Navigators and Travellers to the Weſt-Indies, whoſe Books or themſelves I have conſulted on this Subject, that excepting perhaps one place or two of ſmall extent, there are any Blacks Originally Natives of any part of America (for the Blacks now there have been by the Europeans long Tranſplanted thither) though the New World contain in it ſo great a Variety of Climates, and particularly reach quite Croſs the Torri'd Zone from one Tropick to another. And enough it be true that the Danes be a Whiter People than the Spaniards, yet that may proceed rather from other cauſes (not here to be enquired into) than from the Coldneſs of the Climate, ſince not onely the
Swedes and other Inhabitants of thoſe Cold Countreys, are not uſually ſo White as the Danes, nor Whiter than other Nations in proportion to their Vicinity to the Pole. [And ſince the Writing of the former part of this Eſſay, having an opportunity on a Solemn occaſion to take Notice of the Numerous Train of Some Extraordinary Embaſſadours ſent from the Ruſſian Emperour to a great Monarch, obſerv'd, that (though it were then Winter) the Colour of their Hair and Skin was far leſs Whitiſh than the Danes who Inhabit a milder Region is wont to be, but rather for the moſt part of a Darkiſh Brown; And the Phyſician to the Embaſſadour with whom thoſe Ruſſes came, being ask'd by me whether in Muſcovy it ſelf the Generality of the People were more inclin'd to have Dark-colour'd Hair than Flaxen, he anſwer'd Affirmatively; but ſeem'd to ſuſpect that the True and Antient Ruſſians, a Sept of whom he told me he had met with in one of the Provinces of that vaſt Empire, were rather White like the Danes, than any thing near ſo Brown as the preſent Muſcovites whom he gueſſes to be deſcended of the Tartars, and to have inherited their Colour from them.] But to Proſecute our former Diſcourſe, I ſhall add for further Proof of the Conjecture I was
countenancing that good Authors inform us that there are Negroes in Africa not far from the Cape of good Hope, and conſequently beyond the Southern Tropick, and without the Torrid Zone, much about the ſame Northern Latitude (or very little more) wherein there are divers American Nations that are not Negroes, and wherein the Inhabitants of Candia, ſome parts of Sicily, and even of Spain are not ſo much as Tawny-Mores. But (which is a freſh and ſtrong Argument againſt the common Opinion,) I find by our recent Relations of Greenland (our Accounts whereof we owe to the Curioſity of that Royal Virtuoſo the preſent King of Denmark,) that the Inhabitants are Olive-colour'd, or rather of a Darker Hiew. But if the Caſe were the ſame with Men, and thoſe other kinds of Animals I formerly nam'd, I ſhould offer ſomething as a conſiderable proof, That, Cold may do much towards the making Men White or Black, and however I ſhall let down the Obſervation as I have met with it, as worthy to come into the Hiſtory of Whiteneſs and Blackneſs, and it is, that in ſome parts of Ruſſia and of Livonia it is affirm'd by Olaus Magnus and others, that Hares and Foxes (ſome add Partridges) which before were Black, or Red, or
Gray, do in the depth of Winter become White by reaſon of the great Cold; (for that it ſhould be, as ſome conceive, by Looking upon the Snow, ſeems improbable upon divers accounts) And I remember that having purpoſely enquir'd of a Virtuoſo who lately Travell'd through Livonia to Moſco concerning the Truth of this Tradition, he both told me, he believ'd it, and added, that he ſaw divers of thoſe lately nam'd Animals either in Ruſſia or Livonia, (for I do not very well remember whether of the two) which, though White when he ſaw them in Winter, they aſſur'd him had been Black, or of other Colours before the Winter began, and would be ſo again when it was over. But for further ſatisfaction, I alſo conſulted one that had for ſome years been an Eminent Phyſician in Ruſſia, who though he rejected ſome other Traditions that are generally enough believ'd concerning that Countrey, told me nevertheleſs, that he ſaw no cauſe to doubt of this Tradition of Olaus Magnus as to Foxes and Hares, not onely becauſe 'tis the common and uncontroul'd Aſſertion of the Natives, but alſo becauſe he himſelf in the Winter could never that he remember'd ſee Foxes and Hares of any other Colour than White; And I my ſelf having ſeen a ſmall White
Fox brought out of Ruſſia into England towards the latter end of Winter, foretold thoſe that ſhew'd him me, that he would change Colour in Summer, and accordingly coming to look upon him again in July, I found that the Back and Sides, together with the upper part of the Head and Tayl were already grown of a Dark Colour, the lower part of the Head and Belly containing as yet a Whiteneſs. Let me add, that were it not for ſome ſcruple I have, I ſhould think more than what Olaus relates, confirm'd by the judicious Olearius, who was twice employ'd into thoſe parts as a Publick Miniſter, who in his Account of Moſcovy has this Paſſage: The Hares there are Gray; but in ſome Provinces they grow white in the Winter. And within ſome few Lines after: It is not very Difficult to find the Cauſe of this Change, which certainly proceeds only from the Outward Cold, ſince I know that even in Summer, Hares will change Colour, if they be kept a competent time in a Cellar; I ſay, were it not for Some Scruple, becauſe I take notice, that in the ſame Page the Author Affirms, that the like change of Colour that happens to Hares in ſome Provinces of Muſcovy, happens to them alſo in Livonia, and yet immediately ſubjoyns, that in Curland the Hares vary not their Colour in Winter,
though theſe two laſt named Countries be contiguous, (that is) ſever'd only by the River of Dugna; For it is ſcarce conceivable how Cold alone ſhould have, in Countries ſo near, ſo ſtrangely differing an operation, though no leſs ſtrange a thing is confeſs'd by many, that aſcribe the Complexion of Negroes to the Heat of the Sun, when they would have the River of Cenega ſo to bound the Moors, that though on the North-ſide they are but Tawny, on the other ſide they are Black.