government was well regulated. At bis death, in the year of
the Hegira, 1232, (1816,) jG&ber, Zamfra, a part of Kashna,
and Zegzeg threw off the yoke of the Felatahs; .bat the
present, chieftain of ;Sp@eatoo, Meftamwed Bello, has succeeded
in reducing a great part of the country under his
dominion.
Similar accounts of the progress of the Felatahs were given
to Mr. Lander, who, in his passage through different Negro
states, has collected many additional. particulars relative to
the conquests and dispersion of that people. He says that the
Felatahs in former times never resided in towns, but wandered
with their flocks and herds, in small companies. “ They
stole into Hausa” imperceptibly, and were at length so nm
merous in fhat country as to be enabled to form a powerful
combination for its conquest, and the establishment of their
own empire ofSoccatoo.* Most of the Felatahs are Moslemin,
but many hordes are still Pagans: both Clapperton and
Lander declare that these are precisely the same people in
other respects, that they have exactly the same language,
and the same features^ and complexion. Lander sfys that
they have been dispersed over the Borgho territory from time
immemorial. The Felatahs in Borgho maintain no intercourse
with people of their own kindred?in Hausa, where
they are the dominant race, nor have they the slightest idea
or tradition of their origin. They are generally termed Fom
lanie, and speak, as Lander say s, the same'language, and
follow the same pursuits as the Fhlahs nehr Sierra Leone.
We have not obtained much additional information as to
the physical history of the Felatah or Fulah race from the
English travellers who have met with them in the interior of
Sudan. Captain Clapperton says merely, that all the Fe*-
latah hordes which he met with between Boussa and the
sea, had the same features and colour. “ Their complexion
is as fair as that of the lower class of Portuguese and Spaniards.”
All variations from this he attributes to intermixture
of race with the Negroes. If we were to form our opinion
from this account, we should suppose the principal body
Lander’s FirstJoumey, vol. i. p. 25.
of the Felatah nation to be merely a tribes of Mulattoes.
But they are very differently.'deBetibêd' by other writers who
hafe' had dpp'ortubiti^l^of observing them. By Mr. Lander
they are ©aid to bear a near rèsentblaficewö'itKe* red or.clip-*
per-colóuréd Kahr^of^-, Sou them Africa; a; resemblance so
stte r^ ith a t bn it the writer) wllb?; had previously'beert
am©ngst/-the Kafirs mean Graham’s Town, was lèd to fóünd
an opinion which he confi^|ntlwj#xptesses| that the Kafirs
and the Felatahs- are .the same race.#j
Thé description given by M. M. Golbep^ afid; |§|>ilien, .©fit lie.
Red Poules, is the moét ^accurate account that we*,have yet obtained
of the physical characters ofthis^cei,' On reference to
this description there .seems to be no doubt that the Fulah
or Felatah race may be |^^Oiiedl'y|i|th' propriety among - the
African tribes whose physical-, eharaetë^jdiffers,from the
European as well as from the Negfö/apef'conktifutes them a
third class of nations distinct from both. To^this class we
shall have occasion to refer manyiOf^te hativ^yapes of Ethio-
pia or Eastern Africa.
T shall conclude this chapter and the survey of the natiohs',
of the Western and Middle divisions of Africa, with a short
comparative vocabulary of the principal families of s
already mentioned ; .the materials ,of which are taken from
the collections of Oldendorp, Seetzen, Vater, Mrs. Kilham,
Clapperton, Lander, and the vocabularies'4given in the. Annals
of Oriental Literature. The five, first families of languages,
the idioms of Senegambia and Guinea,l^l^eariy thds
same as those of which the numerals were inserted at the end
of the fourth chapter, and the analogy in-other parts of the
vocabulary bears out the relation there ©bseïVedXbetween. the
numerals in the several dialects. The five languages of the
interior are those belonging to the nations mentioned in the
present chapter. It may he seen that they are all perfectly
distinct. Thus we may infer that the races of men inhabiting
the three principal divisions of Sudan, as well as those«
* He describes the Felatahs of Borgho as differing little either in features or
colour from the Negroes, but as having much longer hair, which they weave on
both sides of the head into queue, and tie under the chin. >;*