Page:Last of the tasmanians.djvu/355

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THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS.

Mr. Warren wrote: "The half-caste of India comes to a premature end, generally without reproduction; and if there are any offspring, they are always wretched and miserable." Volney was struck with the paucity of remains in Egypt of the light Mameluke blood, though those brave warriors held concubines of the country. Graf Gortz, cited by Professor Waitz, declares the cross of Dutch and Malay to be weak both in body and mind. The same has been said of the offspring of Arabs and Negresses. Kohl records the deficiency of vitality in the cross of French and Indians. Boudin agrees with Dr. Yvan that Mulattoes are not productive after the third generation. The same thing has been said of the Mulattoes of Java. At the third stage, girls only are produced, who are almost always sterile. The Lipplappen race of Java, a cross of Dutch and Malay, form a distinct class in Batavia, but are remarked as dying out Dr. Gutzlaff, referring to Cambodia, observes: "The marriages of native females with the Chinese are productive at the first generation, but gradually become sterile, and completely so at the fifth generation."

Some other authorities are more hopeful Professor Quatrefages contends that weakness is not such a quality of the mixed races. The Paulistras of Brazil, from the union of Portuguese and Indian, though much condemned by the Jesuits, are thought by others a powerful and energetic race. Dr. Rufz asserts, "We are warranted in concluding that the interbreeding of the White and the Black races has exercised a favourable rather than unfavourable influence upon the resultant race." M. Thevenôt, in his enthusiasm, exclaims, "The Mulatto may be all that the white man is. His intelligence is equal to ours." M. de Gobineau regards the crossing as a cause of degradation; but Quatrefages triumphantly holds up the European, "the hybrid crossed a thousand times from the Allophyllic and the Aryan races."

There are, however, some remarkable evidences of the persistency of race, a subject ably treated by Sir William Denison. It is observed that in four generations Mulattoes will become white, or black in five, according to the character of marriage. Many are of opinion that the intermarriage of Mulattoes produces a sickly offspring, and that hence the women of that race prefer a connexion with the Whites. The Indian stiff hair is preserved in the mixed people to the third generation. Castelnau