Paraguay is indeed near Africa, yet who would say that the inhabitants migrated from thence? In that case, the Paraguayrians would be of a black, or at any rate of a dusky leaden colour, like the Africans. The English, Spaniards, and Portugueze know that if both parents be Negroes, the children, in whatever country they are born, will be black, but that the offspring of a male and female Indian are of a whitish colour, which somewhat darkens as they grow older, from the heat of the sun, and the smoke of the fire, which they keep alive, day and night, in their huts. Moreover, the Americans have not woolly hair like the Negroes, but straight, though very black locks. The vast extent of ocean which divides Africa from the southern parts of America, renders a passage difficult, and almost incredible, at a time when navigators, then unfurnished with the magnet, dared scarcely sail out of sight of the shore. The Africans, you will say, might have been cast by a storm on the shores of America; but how could the wild beasts have got there? Opposite to the shores of Paraguay lies the Cape of Good Hope, inhabited by Hottentots which, in the savageness of their manners, resemble the Paraguayrian Indians, but are totally different in the form of their bodies, in their customs, and language. Many may, with more justice, contend that Asia was the original country of the Americans, it being connected with America by some hitherto undiscovered tie; and so they may, with my free leave; nor, were I to hear it affirmed that the Americans fell from the moon, should I offer any refutation, but having experienced the inconstancy, volubility, and changefulness of the Indians, should freely coincide in that opinion. The infinite variety of tongues amongst the innumerable nations of America baffles all conjecture in regard to their origin. You cannot discover the faintest trace of any European, African, or Asiatic language amongst them all.