ve the highest deference, adopt this as an indisputable matter
of fact. May we not be permitted to request those who espouse their
sentiments, to reconsider the question, when we can produce Captain
Cook's evidence on the opposite side, at least so far as relates to
the American tribe, whom he had intercourse with at Nootka? Nor is
Captain Cook singular in his report. What he saw on the sea coast,
Captain Carver also met with amongst the American Indians far up in
the country. His words are as follow:--"From minute enquiries, and a
curious inspection, I am able to declare (however respectable I may
hold the authority of these historians in other points), that their
assertions are erroneous, and proceeding from a want of a thorough
knowledge of the customs of the Indians. After the age of puberty,
their bodies, in their natural state, are covered in the same manner
as those of the Europeans. The men, indeed, esteem a beard very
unbecoming, and take great pains to get rid of it, nor is there any
ever to be perceived on their faces, except when they grow old, and
become inattentive to appearances.--The Naudowesses, and the remote
nations, pluck them out with bent pieces of hard wood, formed into a
kind of nippers, whilst those who have communication with Europeans,
procure from them wire, which they twist into a screw or worm;
applying this to the part, they press the rings together, and with
a sudden twitch, draw out all the hairs that are inclosed in
them."--_Carver's Travels_, p. 224, 225. The remark made by Mr
Marsden, who also quotes Carver, is worth attending to, that the visor
or mask of Montezuma's armour, preserved at Brussels, has remarkably
large whiskers; and that those Americans could not have imitated
this ornament, unless nature had presented them with the model.
From Captain Cook's observation on the west coast of North America,
combined with Carver's in the inland parts of that continent, and
confirmed by the Mexican vizor as above, there seems abundant reason
to agree with Mr Marsden, who thus modestly expresses himself: "Were
it not for the numerous and very respectable authorities, from which
we are assured that the natives of America are naturally beardless, I
should think that the common opinion on that subject had been hastily
adopted; and that their appearing thus at a mature age, was only the
consequence of an early practice, similar to that observed among the
Sumatrans. Even now, I must confess, th