a dialect of the language of the Tuaryk, but this opinion
appears to be unfounded. A vocabulary collected by Capt.
Lyon indicates their language to be entirely distinct. I
shall havé occasion to return to the consideration of this
subject.
-The Tuaryk are. a far more extensive and important nation.
Tribes of this- race have established themselves at Sokna, in
the territory of .Fezzan, and further to the eastward at Siwah
and Angela, but their principal abode is in the western region
of Sahara from Fezzan to Kashna and Sudan and do the Atlantic
ocean. They are the Nomades of all the westérn parts
of northern Africa, and possess all the oases and trading
settlements between the states of Mauretania to. the northward,
and the Negro countries in the region of thoj Niger.
They border towards the south on the Negro nations of Bomy,
Ilausa, Guber, and Tombuktu: the countries of the Moza-
bies, Engousal, and Ghadames are tfyeir northern limits,*
beyond which they are never found.
According to Captain Lyon, the Tuaryk term their, language
Ertana. Their designation Tuaryk, properly Tuerga>is
the plural of terga, meaning tribe, or horde, as does qabdil
in Arabic, whence Kabyles.
Mr. Hodgson, who has collected much valuable and ina*
portant information respecting the Tuaryk and the , whole
Berber nation, assures us that the idiom of the Tuaryk . is
pure Berber, and that the only difference of speech between
the highlanders of Atlas, and the inhabitants of .ihe low
countries of Sahara is merely a slight one of pronunciation.
This fact has been verified by Mr. Hodgson by personal
eomunication with inhabitants of many oases and. districts in
northern Africa, particularly with the people of Dra, Tafijet,
Fighiz, Tuat, Tegoraza, Tadeekels, Wurgelah, Ghadames,
Djerbi, Gharian, among all of whom the Berber language
is radically the samel : The physical characters of different
tribes of Tuaryk vary, but this part of their history will be
considered in another Section.
S e c t io n I ^ . j— Cy the Population of the African Coast and
the States of Barbary.
It dóes,net appear likely that » e aboriginal population
of northèrn Afri,ca evér rècéiyëd%uch an admixture- of -foreign
races as would.be capable of' effecting ;é.ny material change
ini the physical constitution of the péóplêï -
The early colonies of the Phcèriibiahsiappear to have been
chiefly tradirigi settlefnénfe or stations*' established- for the
purpose of facilitating commerce with thé 'mother.' éöuntry.
We are informed, that the Tyrians didmot/tlike the Greeks of
Cybena-ica, keep themselves separate from the aborigines, so
as to preserve-their,i^&t|ëPand nation unmixed;intermarried
and blended!.'with the. nativerAfrifeans.< v This déeriis to imply
comparative fewness of numbers, and that- men wèreithe prin-
cipal settlers. /The object of the Greêks was‘colbmzatiori, that
of the Tyrian's, asit is probable, only traffic. In onesfettleinerit',
indeed, these strangle were so numerous -as to preserve thèir
language : for the Punic, as-:we know:.frdmvarious const-
derations, and particularly from the well-known passage’in
Plautus, was nearly pure Phoenician? or Helrëw.# Vetfceveh.
the people of Carthage appear to^havëfstill spoken, also, the
native language of~Africa; for I think it must be in a literal
sense that Virgil calls them “ Tyrios Bilingüéö.”
When Chrthage was conquéred, the Punic gave way to the
Homan language. New Carthage was a Roman city, and had,
doubtlèss, a population who spoke Latin in the time||ÏTe%'
tullian, Cyprian, and Augustin. Latin was,-probably.the
language of the great towns down to the f)ëriod_of the conquest
of Africa by the Moslemin.
The small population”of Yemen cb'uld never have furnished
very numerous armies. The zeal and fury of the invaders
* Notwithstanding the chimerical attempt of Vallancey to turn the Punic scene
into Gaelic, I am sure that no well-informed person can examine Bochart on this
passagfe, without being convinced that the Punic was pure Hebrew. See Bochart’s
Geog. Sacra, pi 800; see also the Rev. W. D. Conybeare’s strictures, in a very
learned note appended to his admirable -Theological Lectures. V