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.
There is another Opinion concerning the Complexion of Negroes, that is not only embrac'd by many of the more Vulgar Writers, but likewise by that ingenious Traveller Mr. Sandys, and by a late most learned Critick, besides other men of Note, and these would have the Blackness of Negroes an effect of Noah's Curse ratify'd by God's, upon Cham; But though I think that even a Naturalist may without disparagement believe all the Miracles attested by the Holy Scriptures, yet in this case to flye to a Supernatural Cause, will, I fear, look like Shifting off the Difficulty, instead of Resolving it; for we enquire not the First and Universal, but the Proper, Immediate, and Physical Cause of the Jetty Colour of Negroes; And not only we do not find expressed in the
Scripture, that the Curse meant by Noah to Cham, was the Blackness of his Posterity, but we do find plainly enough there that the Curse was quite another thing, namely that he should be a Servant of Servants, that is by an Ebraism, a very Abject Servant to his Brethren, which accordingly did in part come to pass, when the Israelites of the posterity of Sem, subdued the Canaanites, that descended from Cham, and kept them in great Subjection. Nor is it evident that Blackness is a Curse, for Navigators tell us of Black Nations, who think so much otherwise of their own condition, that they paint the Devil White. Nor is Blackness inconsistent with Beauty, which even to our European Eyes consists not so much in Colour, as an Advantageous Stature, a Comely Symmetry of the parts of the Body, and Good Features in the Face. So that I see not why Blackness should be thought such a Curse to the Negroes, unless perhaps it be, that being wont to go Naked in those Hot Climates, the Colour of their Skin does probably, according to the Doctrine above deliver'd, make the Sun-beams more Scorching to them, than they would prove to a people of a White Complexion.
Greater probability there is, That the Principal Cause (for I would not exclude
all concurrent ones) of the Blackness of Negroes is some Peculiar and Seminal Impression, for not onely we see that Blackmore boyes brought over into these Colder Climates lose not their Colour; But good Authors inform us, That the Off-spring of Negroes Transplanted out of Africa, above a hundred years ago, retain still the Complexion of their Progenitors, though possibly in Tract of time it will decay; As on the other side, the White people removing into very Hot Climates, have their Skins by the Heat of the Sun scorch'd into Dark Colours; yet neither they, nor their Children have been observ'd, even in the Countreys of Negroes, to descend to a Colour amounting to that of the Natives; whereas I remember I have Read in Pisos[11] excellent account of Brasile, that betwixt the Americans and Negroes are generated a distinct sort of Men, which they call Cabocles, and betwixt Portugalls and Æthiopian women, He tells us, he has sometimes seen Twins, whereof one had a White skin, the other a Black; not to mention here some other instances, he gives, that the productions of the mixtures of differing people, that is (indeed,) the effects of Seminal Impressions which they
consequently argue to have been their Causes; and we shall not much scruple at this, if we consider, that even Organical parts may receive great Differences from such peculiar Impressions, upon what account soever they came to be setled in the first Individual persons, from whom they are Propogated to Posterity, as we see in the Blobber-Lips and Flat-Noses of most Nations of Negroes. And if we may Credit what Learned men deliver concerning the Little Feet of the Chinesses, the Macrocephali taken notice of by Hippocrates, will not be the only Instance we might apply to our present purpose. And on this occasion it will not perchance be Impertinent to add something of what I have observ'd in other Animals, as that there is a sort of Hens that want Rumps; And that (not to mention that in several places there is a sort of Crows or Daws that are not Cole-black as ours, but partly of a Whitish Colour) in spight of Porphyries examples of Inseparable Accidents, I have seen a perfectly White Raven, as to Bill as well as Feathers, which I attentively considered, for fear of being impos'd upon. And this recalls into my Memory, what a very Ingenious Physician has divers times related to me of a young Lady, to whom being call'd, he found that though
she much complain'd of want of Health, yet there appear'd so little cause either in her Body, or her Condition to Guess that She did any more than fancy her self Sick, that scrupling to give her Physick, he perswaded her Friends rather to divert her Mind by little Journeys of Pleasure, in one of which going to Visit St. Winifrids Well, this Lady, who was a Catholick, and devout in her Religion, and a pretty while in the Water to perform some Devotions, and had occasion to fix her Eyes very attentively upon the Red pipple-stones, which in a scatter'd order made up a good part of those that appear'd through the water, and a while after growing Bigg, she was deliver'd of a Child, whose White Skin was Copiously speckl'd with spots of the Colour and Bignesss of those Stones, and though now this Child have already liv'd several years, yet she still retains them. I have but two things to add concerning the Blackness of Negroes, the one is, that the Seat of that Colour seems to be but the thin Epidermes, or outward Skin, for I knew a young Negroe, who having been lightly Sick of the Small Pox or Measles, (for it was doubted which of the two was his Disease) I found by enquiry of a person that was concern'd for him, that in those places
where the little Tumors
had broke their passage through the Skin, when they were gone, they left Within specks behind them; And the lately commended Piso assures us, that having the opportunity in Brasil to Dissect many Negroes, he cleerly found that their Blackness went no deeper than the very outward Skin, which Cuticula or Epidermis