and inasmuch, as there are abundant arguments to prove that the
habitat of Negro races anciently, as at this day, never approximated
to Egypt closer than, if as near as, the northern limit of the Tropical
Rains, we can ascend without hesitation to the age of Sesourtesen I.;
and confidently assert that, in the twenty-third century B. c., the knowledge
possessed by the Pharaonic Egytians concerning the upper
regions of the Nile extended to points as austral as that derived between
a . d . 1820 and 1885, by civilized Europe, from the G-hàzwas, or
slave-hunts, of Mohammed-Ali.221 Time has transplanted some of these
upper Nilotic families, over a few miles, from one district to another ;
hut that such movements have entailed no physical mutations of
race, we shall perceive hereinafter.
We have already stated, that Senegamhia, on the west of Central
Africa, like the eastern extremity at Abyssinia,222 rises into mountains
and elevated table-lands — physical characters which usually accompany
higher grades of humanity than those of the burning plains
below. It is here that we find sundry of the superior (so-called) Negro
races of A frica. : viz., the Mandingos, the Eulahs, and the Iolofs.
The Mandingos, a veiy numerous and powerful nation, are remarkable
among the African races for their industry and energy ; and, of the
genuine Negro tribes, have perhaps manifested the greatest aptitude
for mental improvement. They are the most zealous and rigid Mohammedans
on the continent. Agriculturists, cattle-breeders, cloth-
manufacturers, living in towns, they possess schools, engage in extensive
commerce, and use Arabic writing. Goldberry, Park, Laing,
Durand, and other travellers, coincide in the statement that these
Mandingos are less black, and have better features, than Negroes ;
indeed, Goldberry, who is good authority, says they resemble dark
Hindoos more than Negroes.
The Fulahs223 are a still more peculiar people, whose history is
involved in much obscurity. They are supposed, by many authorities,
to he a mixed race. Their type and language are totally distinct
from all surrounding Africans. According to Park and others, they
rank themselves among white people, and look down upon their
neighbors as inferiors ; at the same time, they are always the dominating
families, wherever found. The contradictory descriptions of
travellers lead us to suspect some diversity of physical characters
among these Eulahs, or Eellatahs. They are not black, hut of a
mahogany color, with good features, and hair more or less straight,
and often veiy fine. They are commercial, intelligent, and, for Africans,
considerably advanced in the civilization they owe to Islamism
and the Arabs. ,
The Iolofs, between the Senegal and Gambia, the most northerly
Negro nations on the West coast, are represented to be the comeliest
of all Negro tribes.
“ They are always well made [says Goldberry]; their features are regular, and like
those of Europeans, except that their nose is rather round, and their lips thick. They are
said to he remarkably handsome — their women beautiful. The complexion of the race is
a fine transparent deep black ; their hair crisp and woolly.”
Here, again, is a combination of physical characters which contradicts
the alleged influence of climate; because the Iolofs, and some
other races north, are jet-black, while the Eulahs, and others, under
and south of the Equator, are comparatively fair.
We shall show, in another place, that history affords no evidence
that education, or any influence of civilization that may he brought
to hear on races of inferior organization, can radically change their
physical, nor, consequently, their moral, characters. That the brain,
for example, which is the organ of intellect, cannot he expanded or
altered in form, is now admitted by every anatomist; and Prichard,
in recapitulating his results as to the races of Central Africa, makes
the following important admission: —
“ On reviewing the descriptions of all the races enumerated, we may observe a relation
between their physical character and moral condition. Tribes having what is called the Negro
character in the most striking degree are the least civilized. The Papels, Bisagos, Ibos, who are
in the greatest degree remarkable for deformed countenances, projecting jaws, flat foreheads,
and for other Negro peculiarities, are the most savage and morally degraded of the
nations hitherto described. The converse of this remark is applicable to all the most civilized
races. The Ftilahs, Mandingos, and some of the Dahomeh and Inta nations have, as far as
form is concerned, nearly European countenances, and a corresponding configuration of the
head. . . . In general, the tribes inhabiting elevated countries, in the interior, are very
superior to those who dwell on low tracts on the the seacoast, and this superiority is manifest
both in mental and bodily qualities.” 224
The truth of these observations is sustained by all past history,
backed by every monument. Much as the success of the infant
colony at Liberia is to be desired by every true philanthropist, it
is with regret that, whilst wishing well to the Negroes, we cannot
divest our minds of melancholy forebodings. Dr. Morton, quoted in
another chapter, has proven, that the Negro races possess about nine
cubic inches less of brain than the Teuton; and, unless there were
really some facts in history, something beyond hare hypotheses, to
teach us how these deficient inches could be artificially added, it
would seem that the Negroes in Africa must remain substantially in
that same benighted state wherein Nature has placed them, and in
which they have stood, according to Egyptian monuments, for at
least 5000 years.
Prichard’s herculean work is so replete with interesting facts and
valuable deductions; that we are tempted, almost at every page, to