Cornelius de Pauw

Cornelius Franciscus de Pauw or Cornelis de Pauw (Corneille de Pauw in French; 18 August 1739 — 5 July 1799) was a Dutch philosopher, geographer and diplomat at the court of Frederick the Great of Prussia.

Although born in Amsterdam, son of Antonius Pauw and Quirina van Heijningen, he spent most of his life in Kleve. Working for the clergy, he nonetheless became familiar with the ideas of the Enlightenment. During his lifetime he was considered to be the greatest expert on the Americas, although he never visited the continent; he also wrote at length on the origins of ancient peoples, rejecting the popular idea of the time that China was originally a colony of Ancient Egypt.

He was a specialist in ethnologic studies as well, publishing a study of American Indians in French in 1768. Daniel Webb, an English scholar and translator, translated portions of de Pauw’s work into English for a public that was hungry for information regarding the new continent of America. De Paauw had no hesitation in rejecting the observations of those with personal experience of the Americas if they differed from his preconceptions, as can be seen from his comments on the Aztec calendar. Despite this, he was reputed in his lifetime to be Europe’s foremost authority on the Americas. He read the accounts of Buffon and other scientists, naturalists, and explorers, and drew his own conclusions. De Pauw was of the opinion (shared with other European scientists of that time) that the American natives were inferior to natives of northern and western Europe, and that this inferiority was partly due to American climate and geography.

Some quotes from his works:

The American [native], strictly speaking, is neither virtuous nor vicious. What motive has he to be either? The timidity of his soul, the weakness of his intellects, the necessity of providing for his subsistence, the powers of superstition, the influences of climate, all lead him far wide of the possibility of improvement; but he perceives it not; his happiness is, not to think; to remain in perfect inaction; to sleep a great deal; to wish for nothing, when his hunger is appeased; and to be concerned about nothing but the means of procuring food when hunger torments him. He would not build a cabin, did not cold and the inclemency of the atmosphere force him to it, nor ever quit that cabin, did not necessity thrust him out. In his understanding there is no gradation, he continues an infant to the last hour of his life. By his nature sluggish in the extreme, he is revengeful through weakness, and atrocious in his vengeance...

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