Africa.

Arts in a

of the slave trade, at times gives rise to much dissension, and to wars which resemble, in some measure, the sanguinary contests which existed in various countries in Europe, during the feudal times, between the villains and their lords. Thus, in 1785, a general insurrection took place in many districts on the western coast: the slaves attacked their masters, massacred great numbers of them, set fire to the ripe rice, blockaded the towns, and obliged them to sue for peace. Few arts have been brought to much perfection by rude state. the Negroes, because the division of labour has been little known among them. The same individual spins, weaves, sews, hunts, fishes; forms baskets, fishing-tackle, instruments of agriculture; makes soap, dyes cloth with indigo, and makes canoes. In all these, the neatness of the work excites the astonishment of strangers who know the diversity of occupations in which the same individuals engage, and the imperfection of the tools with which they labour. They are no strangers, however, to that ordinary division of labour, to which nature herself seems to have given rise in consequence of the distinction of the sexes. The women spin, and the men weave the cotton cloth of which their dresses are

Weaving.

Dyeing,

composed. The cotton is prepared for spinning by rolling it with an iron spindle upon a smooth stone or board. The thread is well twisted though coarse, but the loom is so narrow that the web is only about four inches broad. The women dye this cloth with the leaves of indigo, pounded fresh, and mixed with a strong alkaline ley, formed by the lixiviation of wood ashes. The colour thus produced is a rich and durable blue with a purple gloss.

The workers in metals, and the manufacturers of leather, appear to be almost the only instances of what may be called a separate profession existing among the Tanning. Negroes. The manufacturers of leather separate the hair by steeping the hides in a mixture of wood ashes and water, and use the pounded leaves of a tree called goo, as we do the oak bark, for the purpose of tanning. They dye the skins of sheep and goats red with powdered millet stalks, and yellow with a root which abounds in their country. The manufacturers of iron smelt that metal in some of the interior districts; but it is generally hard and brittle. They form their weapons and tools of it, however, with considerable ingenuity. In smelting gold they use fixed alkaline salt, obtained by washing with water the ashes of burned corn stalks, and evaporating the ley to dryness. It must also be remarked, that, in the interior of the country, Mungo Park found a negro who manufactured gunpowder from nitre collected from the reservoirs of water frequented by the cattle, and sulphur supplied by the Moors, who obtain it from the Mediterranean. He pounded the ingredients in a wooden mortar, and granulated it; but the grains were unequal, and the strength of the gunpowder was very inferior to that of Europe.

Gunpow.

der.

The only necessary of life in which the country of the Negroes appears to be extremely deficient is salt, which is the more wanted among them in consequence of their subsisting chiefly upon vegetable food. A child cries for a piece of salt as for a great delicacy; and it is a proverbial expression of a man's riches, to say, that he eats salt to his food. This important article they receive from the great desert by caravans of

Africt.

trading Moors. They also receive arms; hardware, Affies. glasses, and trinkets of all sorts, on the western coast from the Europeans, and, in the interior, from the ca- Trâde, ravans of Cairo, Fezzan, and Morocco. For these they give in return, gold, ivory and slaves. With regard to the ivory, the Negroes cannot comprehend for what reason it is so much valued by strangers. It is in vain to tell them that ships are built, and long voyages undertaken, to procure it to make handles for knives. They are satisfied that a piece of wood might serve the purpose as well, and imagine that it is applied to some important use which is concealed from the Negroes, lest they should raise the price of it. The trade of the Negroes is conducted by barter; and to Medium of adjust the value of their different articles of commerce, commerce. they appeal to a nominal standard, consisting of a certain quantity of any commodity for which there is a great demand. Thus on the Gambia, that quantity of ivory or of gold-dust which is estimated as equal in value to a bar of iron, is denominated a bar of ivory, or a bur of gold-dust.

A marvellous story has, in all ages, been told of a Singular strange mode of conducting commerce that exists mode of among certain African tribes who live in the wildest trading. mountainous districts: they are said to engage annually in trade, but at the same time to seclude themselves from all personal intercourse with the traders who visit them: They traffic chiefly in gold-dust, which they bring to particular places, and there leave it upon the approach of the traders, who deposit quantities of goods which they are willing to give for the gold-dust, and thereafter retire. The natives then approach, and carry off the goods, or the gold dust, according as they think fit to accept or reject the bargain. From the days of Herodotus down to our own times, this story has been repeated by various writers, and in particular by Wadstrom, upon the authority of the chevalier de la Touch, vice-governor of Goree, in 1788, who is said to have visited the districts inhabited by these in

visible traders.

of the Ne

The knowledge of the Negroes with regard to all Knowledge speculative subjects, is extremely limited. Their notions of geography and astronomy, like those of other rese tremely li rude nations, are altogether puerile. They regard the mited. earth as a vast plain, the boundaries of which are covered with clouds and darkness. The sea is a great river of salt water; beyond which is the land of the white people; and at a still greater distance, is the land to which the slaves are carried, which is inhabited by giants, who are cannibals. Eclipses are ascribed to enchantment, or to the interposition of a great cat, which puts its paw between the moon and the earth. They divide the year by moons, and calculate the years by the number of rainy seasons. They Religious seem to believe in one God, who has power over all opinions. things; but their religious opinions are extremely undefined, so that it is in vain to expect to find among them any system of belief that is either universally received, or even consistently adhered to by the same individuals. They in general seem to think, that the god of the blacks or Negroes is different from the god of the whites: When they are pleased with their own condition and their country, they represent the black deity as a good being, and the white deity as a kind of devil, who sends the white people to make slaves of

the

a future state.

From this loose and inaccurate mode of reasoning, the religion of the Negroes sits very light upon them. They seem to have a sort of priests, who perform some ceremonies at the new moons, and on certain occasions, such as, at marriages, or on giving names to young children; but these priests having no settled system of doctrine, and not being united into a disciplined body, possess very little influence. Hence it is extremely easy to induce the Negroes to adopt the religion of any more intelligent people. Accordingly, the Moors have made many converts among them; and some of the most considerable Negro states upon the northern frontier, that is, upon the Senegal and the Niger, are Mahometan.

Africa. the Negroes: But when they are in ill humour, they complain of their black deity as mischievous and cruel; while they say that the white deity gives his people the Europeans brandy and fine clothes, and other good Notions of things which are denied to the Negroes. Their notions of a future state are of the same fluctuating nature. They have a confused idea that the existence of the human mind does not terminate with this life; and they seem to venerate the spirits of the dead, regarding them as protectors, and placing victuals at the graves of their ancestors upon stated occasions. In general, however, they regard death with great horror; and in Whidah it was a law, that no person, on pain of death, should mention it in presence of the king. Some of them have a notion of a future state as connected with rewards and punishments of their conduct in this life. They imagine that the deceased are conveyed to a mighty river in the interior regions of Africa, where God judges of their past lives, and particularly of the regularity with which they have celebrated the new moons, which among the Negroes are kept as festivals; and of the fidelity with which they have adhered to their oaths. If the judgment is in their favour, they are gently wafted over the great river to a happy country, resembling in description the paradise of Mahomet, where they enjoy plenty of all those things which they were accustomed to value in this world: But if the judgment is unfavourable, they are plunged into the river, and never heard of more. They also believe, like the vulgar of most other countries, that the ghosts of persons who have been guilty of great and unexpiated crimes, find no rest after death, but haunt or wander about those places in which their crimes were committed. The Asiatic doctrine of the transmigration of the souls of men after death into the bodies of other animals, is also entertained by some of them.

Of the creation of

The opinions of the Negroes concerning the creation of man are not more fixed or definite than their ideas of his future existence. In general, they ascribe his original creation to the deity; but some of them pretend that he emerged, they know not how, from the caves and holes of the earth, or was produced by a monstrous spider. A curious fiction upon this subject is also said to prevail in some of the Negro states:-That God originally created both black men and white men; that he meant to bestow one gift upon each of them, gold or wisdom; that he gave the black men their choice, and that they preferred gold, and left wisdom or ingenuity to the whites; that God was offended with them on account of this improper choice, and ordained them to be slaves for ever to the white men.

They also believe in a divine providence, which sends rain to give fertility to the earth and the trees, and to wash down gold from the mountains. Accordingly, they pray fervently to God to give them those things upon which they set the greatest value, such as rice and yams, and gold, and slaves, and health, and activity. At the same time, from their inaccuracy of thinking upon this subject, they readily say, when conversed with, that it is not God but the earth that gives them rice; that their cattle produce young without the assistance of God; and that, if they did not labour for themselves, they might starve before God would help them.

Africa.

But though the Negroes have little speculative reli- Superstigion, they have much superstition, as appears from the tion. great use which they make of what are called fetiches, or charms termed obi by the Africans in our West-India islands. The fetiche consists of any natural object, which chances to catch hold of the fancy of a Negro. One selects the tooth of a dog, of a tiger, or of a cat, or the bone of a bird; while another fixes on the head of a goat, a monkey, or parrot, or even upon a piece of red or yellow wood, or a thorn branch. The fetiche, thus chosen, becomes to its owner a kind of divinity, which he worships, and from which he expects assistance on all occasions. In honour of his fetiche, it is common for a Negro to deprive himself of some pleasure, by abstaining from a particular kind of meat or drink. Thus one man eats no goats flesh, another tastes no beef, and a third no brandy or palm wine. By a continual attention to his fetiche, a Negro so far imposes upon himself, as to represent it to his imagination as an intelligent being, or ruling power, inspecting his actions, rewarding his virtues, and punishing his crimes. Hence he covers it up carefully whenever he performs any action that he accounts improper. The importance or value of a fetiche is always estimated according to the success of its owner, and the remarkable prosperity of an individual brings his fetiche so much into fashion, as to induce others to adopt it. On the contrary, when a Negro suffers any great misfortunes, he infallibly attributes it to the weakness of his fetiche, which he relinquishes, and adopts another that he hopes will prove more powerful. A fortunate fetiche is usually adopted by the whole family of its possessor, to which it becomes an object of reverence, or a guardian like the household gods, dii lares and penates, of the ancient Romans. Sometimes a whole tribe or a large district has its fetiche, which is regarded as a kind of palladium upon which the safety of their country depends. Thus at Acra the national fetiche was a lake, which the people accounted sacred. This lake was converted into a salt pit by the Portuguese, and the natives regarded this profanation as the cause of the conquest of their country by a neighbouring tribe called the Aquamboans. Thus also at Whidah, although the people believe in one supreme god, they worship as their national fetiche a kind of serpent of monstrous size, which they call the grandfather of the snakes. They say that it formerly deserted some other country, on account of its wickedness, and came to them, bringing good fortune and prosperity along with it. From this account of the fetiches of the Negroes, the intelligent reader will 'naturally remark, that even idolatry itself remains in an L12

imperfect

Africa. imperfect state among the people; and he will observe the difference between the polished superstition of ancient Greece and Rome, and the vulgar and unadorned credulity of these rude and artless tribes. In the vicinity of their settlements, the Moors have prevailed with the illiterate Negroes, to adopt as fetiches or charms, certain sentences of the Koran, which they write out and sell to them, under the name of saphies. Mungo Park, when travelling among them, sometimes sold saphies, which usually consisted of the Lord's prayer.

Singular

customs.

Secret societies of nen.

Of women.

Among the Negroes some singular customs prevail, which are not unworthy of notice, on account of their having some similarity to certain practices that have subsisted among other nations. Persons accused of any crime, more especially of poisoning, are frequently required to prove their innocence, by drinking what is called the red water. This is a poisonous liquor formed from the roots of certain plants, and the barks of trees, of a very narcotic quality. The accused is placed on a high chair, and stript of his clothes, having only a quantity of plantain leaves wrapt round his waist. He then, in presence of the whole village, eats a little rice, and drinks about an English gallon of the red water, which is extremely apt to find the accused person guilty. If he escape unhurt, however, and without vomiting, he is judged innocent. Much dancing and singing takes place on account of his escape, and he is allowed to demand that some punishment be inflicted on his accusers on account of the defamation. Among the superstitious customs of the Negroes, may be mentioned the practice of circumcision, which is universal among them. It is not regarded as a religious rite, but as a kind of charm for preventing barrenness. It is not performed till the age of puberty.

In several Negro states certain secret societies or fraternities exist, which possess great political influence, and in some places absolute power. One of these societies, called the society of the Belli, is appropriated to men, to the exclusion of women. It supports itself by the use of mystical symbols, a pretence to the knowledge of important secrets, and by subjection to an imaginary being, called the Belli, who is said to be capable of changing his form at pleasure. This society monopolizes all public offices, to the exclusion of the uninitiated. The young men are introduced into it by a noviciate which lasts some years. A space is marked out of eight or nine miles in circumference in a fertile spot, in which huts are built, and provisions raised. The young men resort thither, and are taught by instructors pitched upon by the society, to fight, to fish, to hunt, and to sing certain songs peculiar to the fraternity; they also receive new names as a mark of their new birth, and certain scars are imprinted on their bodies, with heated instruments of iron, to point them out as belonging to the fraternity. On returning home after their initiation, they are received with great ceremony by their relations, as persons now introduced into public life.

There is a kind of counterpart of this association, though of less political importance, called the society of the Nessoge or Sandi, which is confined to females. In a remote wood, which men are prohibited to approach, a number of huts are constructed, and the young marriageable girls are conducted thither during the night. They remain in this solitude, under the

care of certain matrons, during four months, and are Africa taught a variety of religious customs and superstitions. When their noviciate is expired, they return by night to their villages, where they are received by all the women both old and young quite naked, who parade about with them, playing upon some rude musical instruments till daybreak. If any man should approach this procession, he would suffer death, or be compelled to redeem himself by a very heavy fine.

It

There is a third kind of society, which is much more Strange universal than those now mentioned, and seems to exist mysteries. in all the Negro states. This society does not appear to have any special name, but it conducts the mysteries of a strange imaginary being, called Mumbo Jumbo. As the practice of polygamy exists very universally among the Negroes, they often find great difficulty in preserving the peace of their families amidst a variety of rival wives. When the husband finds his authority altogether contemned, he has recourse to the assistance of Mumbo Jumbo. The dress of this strange minister of justice usually hangs upon a tree in a forest in the neighbourhood of every Negro village. is made of bark, and forms a figure of about eight or nine feet bigh, with a tuft of straw on his head. When Mumbo is about to appear, he announces his approach in the evening by dismal screams from the adjacent woods, and as soon as it is dark he enters the village, and proceeds immediately to the public place, where all the inhabitants both male and female are obliged to assemble at his call; for this phantom bas absolute power. Nobody must appear covered in its presence, and every person is bound implicitly to execute its commands. As the women know that the visit is intended against some of them, they can have no great relish for the solemnity, but they dare not refuse to attend. The ceremony commences with songs and dances. These continue till midnight, when Mumbo Jumbo fixes upon the individual on whose account he comes. She is immediately seized by his command, stripped naked, tied to a post, and scourged with Mumbo's rod, to the great entertainment of the whole assembly, and especially of the rest of the women, who are always loudest in their derision and censure of the culprit. The society that conducts the appearance of this mysterious personage make use of a peculiar or cant language, which is not understood by the uninitiated. They pretend that Mumbo Jumbo is a wild man, or some strange being that knows every body's thoughts. They bind themselves by oaths never to reveal their secrets to a woman or boy. The fraternity is so powerful, that when one of the Negro kings was weak enough to reveal the secret of Mumbo Jumbo's character to a favourite wife, who communicated it to the other females of the household, he and his whole family were immediately assassinated, in the presence, and by the command of Mumbo Jumbo; and nobody dared to dispute the propriety of their punish

ment.

Like all rude nations, the different tribes of NeMagic and groes are implicit believers in witchcraft and magic, soreery, and in the existence of various kinds of sorcerers. These sorcerers they regard with the utmost terror and abhorrence. They believe that some of them have power to controul the seasons, and to prevent the rice from arriving at maturity. Others of them are supposed to

the Negroes, it may be observed, that their houses Africa. consist usually of a circular wall, built of mud, or of clay and stone, about four feet high, with a conical Houses. roof of bamboos, covered or thatched with hay. As houses of this structure cannot well be divided into separate apartments; where there is a plurality of wives, each has a hut appropriated to herself, and the whole huts belonging to a family are surrounded by a fence of bamboos formed into a kind of wicker work. A number of these enclosures, with intermediate passages or streets, which have no regular arrangement, form a town or village. The furniture of their houses usually consists of a bed, formed of a frame of canes, covered with a bullock's skin or with a mat, and of one or two wooden stools, and a few wooden dishes and pots for dressing food. The dress of both sexes is formed Dress. of cotton cloth; that of the men usually consists of a loose shirt or frock with wide sleeves, together with drawers or trowsers, which reach to the middle of the leg. Some of the Negroes add to these a cap and sandals. The dress of the women consists of two pieces of cloth, each of which is about six feet long, and three feet broad. The one is wrapt round the waist and bangs down to the ankles, and the other is negligently thrown over the shoulders.

Africa. suck the blood of men and beasts, and to occasion all kinds of diseases. When they suspect a person to have died in consequence of sorcery, they interrogate the corpse, which they believe gives answers in the affirmative, by forcibly impelling forward the persons who bear it, and in the negative by a rolling motion. If an answer is given in the affirmative, they inquire concerning the murderer, beginning with the relations of the deceased, and naming the suspected persons. When the guilty person is named, they say that the corpse impels the bearers forward; and upon the authority of this evidence, the person accused is seized and sold into slavery, and sometimes his whole family. It is evident that a trial of this kind may be so managed, as on all occasions to secure the condemnation of the accused person. Accordingly, in proportion to the demand for slaves, accusations of sorcery are more frequently brought forward against their subjects by the Negro chiefs. These accusations, however, are sometimes also brought against persons of importance, who cannot be sold on account of their rank, or against aged persons, whom nobody will purchase. In these cases, the person convicted is compelled to dig his own grave; and being placed at the foot of it, one from behind strikes him a violent blow upon the back of the head or neck, which causes him to fall upon his face into the grave. Some loose earth is then thrown upon him; a stake of hard wood is driven through his body, and the grave is filled up.

Tenacious of their customs.

Of these and all their other customs, the Negroes are extremely tenacious; and this tenacity of their customs, down to the minutest trifles, forms the principal obstacle to their civilization or improvement. Thus it is the custom to cut the rice six or eight inches below the ear, by two or three stalks at a time, according as they can be grasped between the thumb of the right hand and a knife, which is held in the same hand. The stalks are leisurely transferred to the left hand, and when it is almost full, they are tied like a nosegay and put into a basket. A negro chief who had seen the English mode of reaping, said, that it would cost an African his life, should he attempt to introduce it into his country, as he would be accused of intending to overturn the ancient customs, and would be compelled to drink the red water. By means of their cu stoms, also, property is rendered less valuable than in other countries, which operates as a discouragement to industry. Their agriculture is carried on in concert bours of the by the inhabitants of every district, who share in comfield permon the products of their harvest. Hence the idea of formed in exclusive property is rendered very vague, while the unlimited exercise of the law or custom of hospitality, Hospitality unlimited. renders the possession of it uncertain; as the industrious are forced to share their wealth with the indolent. Begging is not reckoned disgraceful; and if a person Encourages has been negligent in providing the necessaries of life, indolence, he has only to discover where provisions are to be found, and he must obtain a share; for if he enter a house during a repast, the master, by custom, cannot avoid inviting him to partake. As domestic slavery, however, and the traffic in slaves, constitutes a most profitable branch of the African customs, it is not wonderful that their chiefs adhere to them with peculiar obstinacy.

The la

common.

With regard to the private or domestic economy of

The state of the women, as among other barbarous State of nations, is by no means favourable. It is in general women.. accounted altogether unnecessary for a lover to make proposals to his intended bride. She is considered as the property of her father, from whom he purchases her, and to whom he generally pays a price equal to the value of about two slaves. When he has agreed with the parents, therefore, with whom he eats a few nuts to ratify the contract, the proposed bride must give her consent, or remain for ever unmarried;, for if she is given to another, the lover is entitled to seize her for a slave. On the day of marriage the bride is con- Marriages.. ducted with great ceremony to the house of the bridegroom, who must furnish abundance of liquor and refreshments to her attendants. On approaching the house, the bride is covered all over with a robe of white cotton, and is carried on the back of a woman to the house of her husband. She is then placed amidst a circle of matrons, who give her many instructions about her future life. The day is concluded with dances, songs, and feasting, and the validity of the marriage is confirmed by exhibiting tokens of virginity according to the Mosaic law.

A man is allowed to bave as many wives as he can Polygamy.. afford to purchase, and they are treated in a great measure as slaves, being in general compelled to take the whole charge of the agriculture abroad, as well as of the preparation of food for the family at home. When the husbands, however, are contented with one or two wives, instances of conjugal infidelity are uncommon; but when they have a greater number, they are often under the necessity of overlooking the ac-. cidental gallantries of their wives, in consequence of the impossibility of subjecting them to rigid confinement in the simple state of society in which they live. The Negro women suckle their children till they are able to walk, and sometimes till they are three years old, and during that period have no connection with their husbands.

After this account of the Negroes in general, we shall:

tribes. Mandingoes.

their particular study, are frequently retained in causes, Afries. as professional pleaders, and they are said to exhibit great dexterity in perplexing the judges.

The Pagan Mandingoes believe in one God, the Religion. creator of all things; but they consider him as of a nature too much exalted above human affairs, to give much attention to their prayers. They address him, however, at the new moons, and imagine every new moon to be a new creation. They fancy that certain subordinate spirits rule the world, and that these spirits are influenced by enchantments and fetiches. They believe in a future state, but most of them admit that they know nothing about it. Their funerals consist of a tumultuous procession, in which they make dismal howlings; and after burying the body beside some large tree, the solemnity terminates in a revel of drinking, and at last of dancing and singing.

Africa. shall proceed to take notice of some of the more remarkable tribes into which they are divided, and with Particular which we have been made acquainted by the latest travellers. Of these the tribe of Mandingoes is the most important. They derive their name from a district in the interior of Africa, called Manding. This territory is situated in the most elevated northern tract of the country of the Negroes, near the sources of the rivers Senegal and Gambia, which flow into the Atlantic on the west, and of the Niger, which proceeds towards the east. Kamaliah, which is one of its towns, and was visited by Mr Park, lies in 12° 46′ N. Lat. Though Manding is in so high a level, and abounds in gold, it is not mountainous or barren. The tribe that has issued from it, and assumes the name of Mandingoes, forms by far the most numerous race of Negroes through the whole western quarter of the continent of Africa. Their territories intermingle in various situations with the possessions of other states, and they even form the bulk of the population where other tribes enjoy the Language sovereign power. Their language is by far the most polished, universally understood of all the Negro tongues, and and extensively it appears to be more polished than any other. The known. Mandingoes are a tall slender race, of a colour moderately black. Their eyes are remarkably small, and they wear their beards. They are more industrious, and engage more extensively in commerce than the other Negroes, so that they are frequently employed as agents in making bargains by persons of other tribes. In the character of travelling merchants, and instructors of youth, they have insinuated themselves into all the Negro countries, where they are distinguished by wearing more regularly than others a red or white cotton cap, and sandals. Some of them who have learned to read and write Arabic, and who profess Mahoand instruc-metanism, erect schools in the Pagan villages, and instruct the youth gratis. They assume a great appearance of sanctity, abstain from strong liquors, and pretend to the power of counteracting magic. Thus they Thus they acquire a most extensive influence, and few affairs of importance are transacted without their advice. In almost every district, troops of Mandingo merchants are to be met with; and as their intellectual powers are more developed than those of the other Negroes, they have been able to extend their language, as a kind of learned tongue, second only to the Arabic, along the Senegal and the Niger.

Industrious

a mer

@hants,

tors of youth.

Courts of

justice.

In most of the Mandingo towns there are two pubfic buildings; a mosque for public prayers, and what is called the bentang, which is a large stage formed of interwoven bamboos erected under a spreading tree. At the bentang all public affairs are transacted, and idle persons assemble to smoke tobacco, and hear news. In every village there is a magistrate, who preserves public order, levies the duties on merchants, and presides at the palavers or courts held by the old men, where justice is administered. At these courts civil questions between parties are debated. In the Pagan states the decisions are pronounced according to the customs of their fathers; but where Mahometanism is more generally received, which is usually the case among the Mandingoes, the Koran is the rule of judgement, or the Sharra, which contains a digest of Mahometan laws both civil and criminal. Certain Mahometan Negroes, who make the laws of the prophet

Next to the Mandingoes, the Foulahs are the most Foulahe. numerous race of Negroes on the western quarter of the continent of Africa. Their original country is called Fooladoo. It is a small state, situated near the sources of the Senegal and the Niger. From thence they have emigrated in powerful clans, and have acquired extensive territories, especially along these rivers, and along the Gambia. The Foulahs also possess the sovereignty of various insulated tracts southwards, towards Sierra Leona. Besides the fixed settlements in which they enjoy the sovereignty, they have introduced themselves in many places along the banks of the Gambia, and to the southward along what is called the gulf of Guinea, to a great distance, into the greater part of the Negro states, in the character of shepherds and cultivators of the ground. They obtain admission by paying a tax or rent to the chief of the territory for whatever lands they occupy, and emigrate at pleasure. In consequence of this mode of life, the sovereignty frequently fluctuates in the small states, between them and the Mandingoes, and other tribes, according to the proportion of the population, which often alters, from the emigrations of the Foulahs.

The features of the Foulahs are very different from Features. those of the other Negroes. They have a Roman nose, a thin face, and small features, with long glossy soft bair, so as to resemble in a great degree the East Indian lascars. Their complexion is by no means of the permanent jetty colour of the other Negroes, but varies with the districts they inhabit, approaching to yellow in the vicinity of the Moors, and deepening into a moderate black towards the equator. Their stature is of the middle size, their form graceful, and their air insinuating. Their women are well shaped, and have regular features; but neither men nor women are so robust in their make as the other Negroes. Hence, they are accounted by the Negroes an intermediate race between themselves and the Moors; but the Foulahs consider themselves as superior to the Negroes, and class themselves among white nations. Their natural disposition is mild and humane, and they are Character extremely hospitable where the Mahometan religion has not taught them to treat infidels with reserve. They support with great care the aged and infirm of their own tribe, and frequently relieve the necessities of persons of other tribes. There are few instances of one Foulah being insulted by another, and they never sell their countrymen for slaves; on the contrary, if a

Foulah