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A NEW ACCOUNT OF SAMOIEDIA, AND THE SAMOIEDES, 523
attachment to that favourite and commonly received principie, that men are every
where the fame; the ideas, the virtues, and the vices which are met with in polifhed
fociety, aud which, like fpeech, are conceived inherentin the human {pecies, are granted
them. Obfervers of too fhort fight to diftinguifh the diftance between man in an un-
cultivated and favage ftate, bordering on the primitive condition of nature, and man in
a civilized ftate, who diverges from the former in proportion to the civilization and
cultivation which he has expericnced: they confound together two various beings,
and exhibit to us at the extremity of the globe, in midft of the moft horrid deferts,
the image of themfelves a prey to all the paflions by which they are confumed.
Tt would neverthelefs be very important for the natural hiftory of man, to have fome
more precife information refpecting all thofe individuals, who as yet retain fome original
features of man ifluing from the hands of nature; by examination it would afford us
the means of afcertaining what has been gained or loft by fociety and education. But
how can we expect to obtain fuch intelligence, while all we know of thefe people is
derived from the accounts of navigators and merchants, occupied by views of a diffe.
rent nature, or by their intereft alone?
That which remains then as the beft we can do to fupply this defalcation, is to fa-
thom, as often as occafion may offer, the truth of the narratives we meet with re-
fpecting diftant nations, to rectify the errors they may contain, and by fuch means to
enable the learned to form juft and well grounded ideas, fo as at leaft to fpare them
the unpleafantnels of feeing their fyftem melt away, from its being founded on chis
merical and falfe circumftances, taken from narratives little to be depended on, or
totally untrue.
What has been generally obferved of the imperfe&t knowledge we poflefs of the
greater part of the barbarous nations, is found to be fully true in refpect of the Sa-
moiedes and the Laplanders, fubjects of the empire of Ruffia.
Scarcely a century has paft fince the name of a Samoiede was unknown in Europe.
Since then Olearius, Yfbrand Ydes, the celebrated Witzen, and Cornelius de Bruyn,
have applied themfelves to the {tudy of the manners and genius of thefe people; and
they have given to the public the refult of their inquiries ; but their accounts are ve
defective and erroneous, and their errors confirmed by obfervations on the Samoiedes,
publifhed at Peterfburg in 1732, have become eftablifhed for want of better informa-
tion. It is not then aftonifhing, that every thing which has fucceffively appeared on the
fame fubject fhould as well be ftamped with the feal of ignorance and falfehood, fince
it has been merely the copy of what has appeared from travellers themfelves but badly
informed.
It falling to my lot to refide for fometime at Archangel in the neighbourhood of the
Samoiedes, I confidered that a part of my leifure could not be better employed than in
a clofe examination into their cuftoms and manners. After having perufed whatever
has been publifhed on this fubje&t, I have made an abridged collection of the circum-
{tances which 1 met with that were interefting, taking care to feparate the true
from the falfe, and adding the particular ideas which I formed of the character and
nature of thefe barbarous nations, after contemplating them with an impartial and at-
tentive eye.
Without aflumption to the title of a fkilful obferver, I fhall congratulate myfelf
upon having accomplifhed my defign, if I fhould fucceed in undeceiving the public for
once upon the uncertainty and falfehood of what has heretofore been related ; and
fhall meet with a moft flattering reward in the fatisfaGtion I fhall experience, at having
contributed what was in my power to the developing of fome hiftorical truths.
3%2 When
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