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

OF THE HUMAN RACE. 645 eastward of Canaan ; and as his descendants were " not to be numbered for multitude," it follows that those of some of the sons above mentioned must have migrated to a great distance.* It is likely that some of Abraham's bond-women were either black or mulatto, being descendants of Ham ; perhaps of Cush and it is hardly possible that Hagar should not have been dark, even black, considering her parentage ;•}• in which case Ishmael would have been copper-coloured, or mulatto,;]: and some, if not all of Abraham's sons by concubines, would have been of those colours. If this be assuming too much, there can be no doubt that in the next generation Esau, or Edom, was a red man, and that his descendants, the numerous Edomites, or Idumeans, were also red : now as Esau married the daughter of Ishmael, we have, in this case, distinct evidence of the origin of a race of red, or copper-coloured men. Had the common colour of the human race been at that time red, Esau's colour would not have been remarked ; had it been black, Cush would have been no distinctive appellation. It must then have been originally fair, as no colours are mentioned in the Scripture, with reference to the human race, except fair, red, and black. A rapid increase of flocks and herds, as well as population ; a consequent diminution of vegetable food ; jealousies and dis- putes between the children of bond- women and those of the free, and the comparative indifference of fathers to the off- spring of their slaves, must have stimulated migration in every direction ; and, when once begun, no doubt the love of no- velty, and desire of finding countries still better than those yet explored, increased, and eventually perpetuated that passion for wandering which we see to this day in the Arab, the migratory Malay, the roving Tartar, and the ever-restless South American Indian. * See Genesis, Chap. xiii. for evidence of the necessity there was to emijjrate in those early times. t Herodotus, lib. ii. X The Arabs, next to the Jews the most marked people on earth, who have preserved their genealogies in an unbroken line, assert that they are descended from Ishmael; their colour is the same as that of the Malays, the Polynesian islanders, and the Americans.