But Tarya is but a representative of an exceedingly
small minority.
The Arabs, the Banyans, and the Mohammedan Hindis, represent the
higher and the middle classes. These classes own the estates,
the ships, and the trade. To these classes bow the half-caste
and the negro.
The next most important people who go to make up the mixed
population of this island are the negroes. They consist of the
aborigines, Wasawahili, Somalis, Comorines, Wanyamwezi, and a host
of tribal representatives of Inner Africa.
To a white stranger about penetrating Africa, it is a most
interesting walk through the negro quarters of the Wanyamwezi and
the Wasawahili. For here he begins to learn the necessity of
admitting that negroes are men, like himself, though of a different
colour; that they have passions and prejudices, likes and
dislikes, sympathies and antipathies, tastes and feelings, in
common with all human nature. The sooner he perceives this fact,
and adapts himself accordingly, the easier will be his journey
among the several races of the interior. The more plastic his
nature, the more prosperous will be his travels.
Though I had lived some time among the negroes of our Southern
States, my education was Northern, and I had met in the United
States black men whom I was proud to call friends.
