17.  Columbus had made three voyages as admiral and viceroy, five years before Americas Vespusius had made one as a geographer, under the command of admiral Ojeda; but the latter, writing to his friends at Florence, that he had discovered a new world, they believed him on his word, and the citizens of Florence decreed, that a grand illumination should be made before the door of his house every three years, on the feast of All Saints.  And yet, could this man be said to deserve any honours, for happening to be on board a fleet that, in 1489; sailed along the coast of Brazil, when Columbus had, five years before, pointed out the way to the rest of the world?

18.  There has lately appeared at Florence, a life of this Americus Vespusius, which seems to be written with very little regard to truth, and without any conclusive reasoning.  Several French authors are there complained of, who have done justice to Columbus’s merit; but the writer should not have fallen upon the French authors, but on the Spanish, who were the first that did this justice.  This writer says, “that he will confound the vanity of the French nation, who have always attacked with impunity the honour and success of the Italian nation.”

19.  What vanity can there be in saying, that it was a Genoese that first discovered America? or how is the honour of the Italian nation injured in owning, that it was to an Italian born in Genoa, that we are indebted for the new world?  I purposely remark this want of equity, good breeding, and good sense, as we have too many examples of it; and I must say, that the good French writers have in general been the least guilty of this insufferable fault; and one great reason of their being so universally read throughout Europe, is their doing justice to all nations.

20.  The inhabitants of these islands, and of the continent, were a new race of men.  They were all without beards, and were as much astonished at the faces of the Spaniards, as they were at their ships and artillery:  they at first looked upon these new visitors as monsters or gods, who had come out of the sky or the sea.

21.  These voyages, and those of the Portuguese, had now taught us how inconsiderable a spot of the globe our Europe was, and what an astonishing variety reigns in the world.  Indostan was known to be inhabited by a race of men whose complexions were yellow.  In Africa and Asia, at some distance from the equator, there had been found several kinds of black men; and after travellers had penetrated into America, as far as the line, they met with a race of people who were tolerably white.  The natives of Brazil are of the colour of bronze.  The Chinese still appear to differ entirely from the rest of mankind, in the make of their eyes and noses.  But what is still to be remarked is, that into whatsoever regions these various races are transplanted, their complexions never change, unless they mingle with the natives of the country.  The mucous membrane of the negroes, which is known to be of a black colour, is a manifest proof, that there is a differential principle in each species of men, as well as plants.