Although Africa may well be considered the home of the black man, yet we must not fail, in considering the people of the dark continent, to refer to the annals of history for many interesting facts about them.
From the days of the remotest antiquity, two Asiatic branches of the human family extended their area southwest into Africa. The emigrants called Hamites, peopled Egypt, Libya, and Numidia. They furnished us with the earliest annals of history; for they invented the hieroglyphics and the arts for which Egypt was celebrated. Their successors, the Semites, who followed them from Asia, spread all over the northern and eastern sections of the continent. Followers of Mohammed, they carried his faith with them in their journeying and laid the foundation of the Mohammedan religion as we find it in the sections along the Mediterranean Sea. As Arab traders they have extended their journeys into the very heart of the continent to carry on the traffic of ivory and slaves.
The black race is native to Africa. It is divided into three great branches, each of which is divided into numerous tribes and again subdivided into kingdoms.
The negroes, or true blacks, are native to Central Africa. They inhabit the great coasts of Guinea and Senegambia in West Africa, and also the great tract of country which extends eastward through the Soudan, the "Land of the Blacks," to the valley of the Nile. Most of the freed men of the United States are descendants of the negroes of the Guinea coast, who, having been captured as slaves, were shipped across the sea to America and sold into bondage.
The negroid branch of the African race is doubtless of mixed ancestry, descended from the true negro and from the white race inhabiting North and East Africa. It is a well-marked branch, showing plainly the mixed ancestry of the people. The various tribes occupy Nubia, the high grassy plains of East Central Africa, which include the lake region and the basin of the Upper Nile, and the vast territory which contains the watersheds of the mighty Congo and Zambesi Rivers. The various tribes known as Kaffirs, Zulus, Bechuanas, and the many tribes of Bantu in the south of Africa all belong to the negroid branch.
A third branch, the negrillos, or dwarfs, are a people of small stature. Some of the tribes are found in the thick forests that lie along the northern side of the Congo River. In South Africa we find them represented by the Bushmen, one of the lowest grades of the human family, occupying the land bordering on the Kalahari Desert. The Hottentots are somewhat larger in stature and of a higher order of intelligence. They very likely are of a mixed ancestry, having descended from a mingling of the Bushmen and some of the tribes of the negroid branch in this region.
Notwithstanding that there are but three branches of the native people of Africa, yet owing to their division into numberless tribes, each bearing its own special name, almost as much difficulty is found in tracing their origin as in trying to discover the source of any of the great rivers from their various tributaries which form a network over the country.
We shall later in our reading obtain some knowledge of the Moorish pirates who infested the Mediterranean Sea and who had their headquarters at Algiers.
It is due to the French nation that since 1830 the magnificent port of Algiers has been open to all the fleets of the world, and the coast of the Mediterranean, freed from pirates, has been accessible to all the navies of the world, should they choose to occupy it.
The attention of the French is now turned toward ridding the great sea of sand which extends between Northern Africa and Central Soudan from the fierce Tuaregs that still occupy it. They are a race as wild and barbarous—yes, as lawless—as were ever the terrible pirates of the Mediterranean Sea. They may be termed the brigands of the desert.