2. Mulattoes—Negro and white.
3. Quadroons—Mulatto and white.
4. Mestis—Quadroon and white.
Such is what I find in Mr. Martin's valuable work on the Colonies, and it is, undoubtedly, a convenient and practical classification. Yet for the purposes of ethnology, it is deficient in detail. Without even guessing at the proportion of American slaves which the different parts of the western coast of Africa may have supplied, I subjoin a brief notice of tract between the Senegal and Benguela.
1. First come the Wolof, between the Senegal and Cape Verde. To the back of these lie—
2. The Serawolli—and around Cape Verde—
3. The Sereres—none of these are truly Mandingo; nor is it certain that many slaves have come from them; such as do, however, are probably Mandingos in the current classification.
4. The Fulahs of Fouta-Torro and Fouta-Jallo possess the higher part of the Senegambian system. Imperfect Mahometans, they are lighter-coloured than either the Wolof or the Mandingo. Notwithstanding the great Fulah conquests—for under a leader named Danfodio this has been one of the encroaching and subjugating families of Africa—there are still American slaves of Fulah blood—though, perhaps, but few. Mr. Hodgson procured his vocabulary from a Fulah slave of Virginia; and what we find in the[89] United States, we may find in the British possessions also.
5. The Mandingos Proper are the Negroes of the Gambia; but the following Africans, all within the range of the old slave trade, belong to the same class.