But to this opinion, we reply that there was never any negro blood in the veins of Adam, nor blood which produced the black or African race, naturally; whoever believes there was, will find it necessary to prove, that there were black men in the very family of Adam, and that they continued on down the course of time, as part and parcel of the antediluvian population, till the flood; which it is not possible to prove.
Should we allow that Cain's mark which was set upon him by the Divine power, was that of a black skin, this would not prove that it was derived from Adam's veins, but from a curse rather.
The mark, however, as held by the Jews, was not any affection of the skin of Cain, but an affection of the nerves, by which means he became a paralytic, or trembler; hence he was called Nod, the vagabond or the trembler, which also gave the same name to the country whither he fled, from the face of his father's family. If that mark was a black skin, yet this could not affect the children of Cain, unless, together with that mark, his nature and constitution was also changed, so that his race could partake with him of that curse. But were we to allow this, so as to make out the being of negroes before the flood, yet they could not be the progenitors of the present negroes of the earth, as all Cain's race, with all the other races were lost in the flood. On this account, we are the more confirmed in the belief, that the first negro of the earth was Ham, a son of Noah, and that Cain and his people, were no more negroes or black men than Adam was.
If then, the blood of Adam did not produce a vari-
