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.
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