54 NEGRO NATIONS.
southward ©f the equator, and especially in parts approaching
the?is@uthem tropic,Nwherorwesascetaceustomedto distin-
gidSh the woollydiaired raecstiby ithe ;appellation*?of Kafirs.
But the iiatiyes'pf^outbern Africa will hse described as a
separate division of African ethnography. At present, I confine
nay survey to.-the regions" of Negroland lyangmorthward
■of the equator. In ;thefoll owing,chapter, I proceed to the
native population of Senegambia and Guinea, where the
mountain-chains and the highlands of Central Africa .advance
towards the north-west,* and appear to project towsuds-tlbe
Atlantic ocean. I shall then survey the inland region or the
empires of Sudan or Mohammedan Nigritia, and afterwards
the countries bordering on Abyssinia and the Nile andr4lM
Indian ocean, which are sometimes comprehended.under the
vague designation of Ethiopia.
55
CÏIÀÊTER IV.
ETHNOGRAPHY OIF- CENTRAL ARRI6A TO THE NORTHWARD OF
r THE - EQ'UATOR CONTI NTKE-I^-WESTER N DI YTSIQN-^-N A TI O NS
OF SE ï® d l;lI.B IA AN© ’ W IN ® A/M*i
S e c t io n I Outline of the Physical Geography of Sene-'
gamfnà.
T h e J'mdhntaindus région in -which the- Senegal -and the
Gambia take their'figé, teaching from thèSth to fhè-14th degree
of northern latitude, forms an appendâge-tô the central highland
©^Africa, from?which.it^'pToje'ctS nörthw'ards, like a vast
protódhtory, into the great Sahara. It has been observed by
Ritter, that mountains, Which, in the inteïtfópfcaf'climate,
ate capable of giving origin to such rivërS as the Niger and- the
Senegal, must hâve a very considerabtefelevatron. In Africa,
indeed'-,îas welbas in Asia, rivèrS, which coûteÿ-'gifeàt masses
of Water into low countries, are never known tô .descend- from
â Single chain Of hilts ; ,0my have always for .their nürséWës
high plains, which can alone afford a. constant supply- of
abundant streams. It may, therefore, be inferred, that the
great regioh of -Africa which lies to the northward óf the fepast
of Guinea, and between it and the Sahara; consists, in great
^art, of a high table-land. It contains fhie éourefes of many
rivets, which désêënd from it on every side* The Senegal,
the Gambia, the Rio Grande, the Mesiirado, the Rio Nunez*
the Sherbro, and ptber channels,' collect the waters of numberless
contributary streams ; some of which, as the Falëmé,*
the Bafing, the COcOra, the Woollima, and the Nerico, are
themselvès rivers of considerable width, while the waters
Which flow frohi the same highland towards thèeast dischargé
themselves into the Joliba or Niger. The mountains from
Which the western rivers descend fbrm aSêmitircukr range from
8.to-10 degrees in extent^ At the Cape of Sierra Leone, this
* See M. Durand’s description of the Fïdéftié. Voy. au‘Sénégal, tom. ii. c. 7-