The Treachery And Malevolence Of Their
Character Are Manifest In Their Plundering Excursions Against The
Negro Villages.
Oftentimes without the smallest provocation, and
sometimes under the fairest professions of friendship, they will
suddenly seize upon the negroes' cattle, and even on the inhabitants
themselves.
The negroes very seldom retaliate.
Like the roving Arabs, the Moors frequently remove from one place to
another, according to the season of the year or the convenience of
pasturage. In the month of February, when the heat of the sun
scorches up every sort of vegetation in the desert, they strike
their tents and approach the negro country to the south, where they
reside until the rains commence, in the month of July. At this
time, having purchased corn and other necessaries from the negroes,
in exchange for salt, they again depart to the northward, and
continue in the desert until the rains are over, and that part of
the country becomes burnt up and barren.
This wandering and restless way of life, while it inures them to
hardships, strengthens at the same time the bonds of their little
society, and creates in them an aversion towards strangers which is
almost insurmountable. Cut off from all intercourse with civilised
nations, and boasting an advantage over the negroes, by possessing,
though in a very limited degree, the knowledge of letters, they are
at once the vainest and proudest, and perhaps the most bigoted,
ferocious, and intolerant of all the nations on the earth - combining
in their character the blind superstition of the negro with the
savage cruelty and treachery of the Arab.
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