The Negroes, on the contrary, are naturally good, humane, and hospitable. Those who inhabit the environs of the Senegal are large, muscular, and well-formed men; their countenance is noble; their feelings sensitive and grateful; and their spirit is courageous and indefatigable. There are no domestics more attentive or capable of sincerer attachment; their activity and information render them fit for all the arts and trades; but, as I have already said, they are not adapted for agricultural labours, their bodies not being accustomed to stoop.
The women of these countries are generally handsome, gentle, modest, tender, and faithful; they have in their looks a certain degree of innocence, and in their language a timidity which adds to their charms. They have an invincible inclination for love and voluptuousness, and they express their wishes in this respect with such an attractive voice, as their organs alone seem capable of uttering. Their skin is as black as ebony. Nothing can be more agreeable than their physiognomy; their nose is well formed, and generally aquiline; their eyebrows are finely arched; their lips thin, and of a beautiful vermillion red; they have the finest teeth in the world; the shape of their body is uncommonly elegant; in short, they combine every perfection which constitutes beauty.
At Goree the men and women are also handsome; but there the Mulattoes of both sexes, who have descended from Europeans, are distinguishable in point of appearance, as they possess the grace of their fathers, and dress in the European manner. I may add, that the people of Goree are uncommonly cheerful; and a love of pleasure and gaiety prevails amongst them to a greater extent, than in any other part of the coast of Africa.
To the south and east of the Senegal, the Africans degenerate in a wonderful manner. Their colour is no longer the fine black just described, but an olive. Their form is indeed still robust, but aukward; their limbs are stiff, and the lineaments of their face are so gross, as to defy the judgment of the physiognomist. The figures which they paint on their foreheads and cheeks add to their ugliness. They are useful in all labour which requires exertion, but they possess no ingenuity. Their women are ugly and sallow; and they are, to those who were lately described, what the most barbarous ignorance is to a polished education. Their vivacity is so violent as to resemble anger.
All the governments of Africa are more or less absolute and despotic. Whether the kings be entitled to the throne by birth, or be called to it by voluntary election, the people are equally subjected to the arbitrary will of the prince, who disposes of their liberty and even of their lives, according to his pleasure; but he cannot destroy more than one at a time: he may do any thing to an individual, but nothing to a body of people.
There are a few small states or rather families in this part of Africa, who live together and are governed by elders whom they deem worthy of confidence; these are not the masters who have been described; and the people who live in perfect liberty, would be happy, were they not disturbed by their neighbours. They are often, however, attacked, and being too weak to defend themselves, are taken and sold as slaves; so that even the most peaceable inhabitants of this unfortunate country seem destined to wear chains.
These people in general have no knowledge of the art which is so revered amongst us, under the name of politics. Though they observe state formalities, and the custom of sending ambassadors is familiar to them, either to solicit assistance against a powerful enemy, or to obtain a mediation on points of difference. These ambassadors, however, do not occupy themselves with complicated subjects, but speak only on affairs of the moment; they are every where honoured and respected, their persons are held sacred, and they generally go in bodies of five or six together, preceded by a drum, which announces them at a distance.
Their wars are not better arranged than their politics. Every free man is a soldier; but no government has troops in its pay. On the first signal, the army collects and marches; and often, hostilities which began in the morning, are finished before night. They never yield a portion of territory, but take or keep all or none. Sometimes they dethrone a king, and another takes his place; but the territory always belongs to the people at large. Thus neither the great nor small states are dismembered, as the commonalty would oppose such a proceeding, and the chiefs are too wise thus to aggrandise themselves. Besides, these people do not attach any idea of glory to their conquests. Their prisoners are slaves, except the princes, who, as has already been stated, always enjoy their liberty by unanimous consent: they are given up immediately on certain conditions, or put to death; the rest are either exchanged or sold.
The ordinary occasions for the wars which almost always prevail in these countries, are, an insult at the time of a ceremony; a violent robbery; the injury of a girl, or the attack of a banditti.
In the course of my work I have explained the religion of all these hordes, as well as their laws relative to polygamy, marriage, and burial. Polygamy is not only even permitted, but honoured amongst them, whether Mussulmans or idolaters. The Christians here, as in Europe, have only one wife. I believe that the custom which formerly prevailed, of interring several persons alive with the dead body of a man of quality, is totally abolished.