at an obfervation made by the writers o f the Critical Review
“ that the foetus o f the Hottentots may referable the Chinefe, as
“ the entrails o f a pig refemble thofe o f a man; but on this,
“ topic our ingenious author feems to wander beyond the circle
“ o f his knowledge.” I hope thefe gentlemen will not be offended
at my taking this occafion to allure them that the com-
parifon was not even then made on loofe grounds, although no
inference was drawn from it, and that on a clofer examination,
I am- the more convinced o f their near refemblance in
mental as well as phyfical qualities. The aptitude o f a Hottentot
in acquiring and combining ideas is not lefs than o f a Chi—
nefe, and their powers o f imitation are equally great, allowances
being made for the difference o f education ; the one being continually
from his infancy brought up in a fociety where all the-
arts and conveniencies o f life are in common u fe ; the other,
among a miferable race o f beings in conftant want even o f the.
common neceffaries o f life.
But as affertions and opinions prove nothing, I have annexed
the portrait o f a real Hottentot, drawn from the life by Mr. S .
Daniell, in order to compare it with one o f a Chinefe, taken alfo
from the life by Mr. Alexander; and I have no doubt that a,
clofe comparifon o f thefe portraits will convince the reader, as
well as the reviewer, that the refemblance I remarked to have
found was not altogether fanciful.
Indeed the people that have derived their origin from the
fame ftock with the Chinefe, are more widely fcattered over
the Afiatie continent and the oriental iflands than is generally
imagined;