Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

640 CHAPTER XXVir. REMARKS ON THE EARLY MIGRATIONS OF THE HTMAN RACE. Having ended my narrative of the Beagle's voyage, I might lay down the pen : but there are some reflections, arising out of circumstances witnessed by myself, and enquiries since made respecting them, that I feel anxious to lay before those who take interest in such subjects ; and who will detect fallacies which I, in a purblind search after truth, may have over- looked. A few of these reflections bear on the origin and migration of the human race : and, deeply feeling the difficulty of the subject, as well as my comparative ignorance and inability, I would beg that my remarks may be viewed solely as those of a sailor who writes for the younger members of his profession — not as the scheme of a theorist. Before mentioning the particular facts which have fallen under my own observation, and made most impression on me, in connexion with this subject, it may be well to defend myself from any imputation of indulging hastily formed or capricious ideas, by saying that from boyhood I have always taken in- terest in observing the various countenances, heads, shapes, sizes, colours, and other peculiarities of the human race ; especi- ally of those varieties in which education has not masked the mind, by teaching man to restrain or conceal his emotions. The result of this attention to outward tokens, occasionally retained more distinctly in my recollection by sketches, has been a con- viction that external form, especially of the head and features, is exceedingly dependent upon mind ; and that as the human being is more or less educated, accustomed to better or worse