not, like that produc'd by ordinary
Ink, be readily Wash'd off, but requir'd many Hours, and part of it some
dayes to its Obliteration. And with the same White _Calx_ and a little Fair
Water we likewise Stain'd the White Hafts of Knives, with a lasting Black
in those parts where the _Calx_ was Plentifully enough laid on, for where
it was laid on but very Thinly, the Stain was not quite of so Deep a
Colour.

_EXPERIMENT XI_

The Cause of the Blackness of those many Nations, which by one common Name
we are wont to call _Negroes_, has been long since Disputed of by Learned
Men, who possibly had not done amiss, if they had also taken into
Consideration, why some whole races of other Animals besides Men, as Foxes
and Hares, are Distinguish'd by a Blackness not familiar to the Generality
of Animals of the same Species; The General Opinion (to be mention'd a
little lower) has been rejected even by some of the Antient Geographers,
and among our Moderns _Ortelius_ and divers other Learned Men have
Question'd it. But this is no place to mention what thoughts I have had to
and fro about these Matters: Only as I shall freely Acknowledge, that to me
the inquiry seems more Abstruse than it does to many others, and that
because consulting with Authors, and with Books of Voyages, and with
Travellers, to satisfie my self in matters of Fact, I have met with some
things among them, which seem not to agree very well with the Notions of
the most Classick Authors concerning these things; for it being my Present
Work to deliver rather matters Historical than Theorys, I shall Annex Some
few of my Collections, instead of a Solemn Disputation. It is commonly
presum'd that the Heat of the Climate wherein they live, is the reason, why
so many Inhabitants of the Scorching Regions of _Africa_ are Black; and
there is this familiar Observation to Countenance this Conjecture, That we
plainly see that Mowers, Reapers, and other Countrey-people, who spend the
most part of the Hot Summer dayes expos'd to the Sun, have the skin of
their Hands and Faces, which are the parts immediately Expos'd to the Sun
and Air, made of a Darker Colour than before, and consequently tending to
Blackness; And Contrarywise we observe that the _Danes_ and some other
people that Inhabit Cold Climates, and even the _English_ who feel not so
Rigorous a Cold, have usually Whiter faces than the _Spaniards_,
_Portugalls_ and other European Inhabitants of Hotter Climates. But this