The Tribute They Pay Is Considerable; And They Manifest Towards Their Moorish Superiors The Most Unlimited Obedience And Submission, And Are Treated By Them With The Utmost Indignity And Contempt.

The Moors of this, and the other states adjoining the country of the Negroes, resemble in their persons the

Mulattoes of the West Indies to so great a degree, as not easily to be distinguished from them; and in truth, the present generation seem to be a mixed race between the Moors (properly so called) of the North, and the Negroes of the South, possessing many of the worst qualities of both nations.

Of the origin of these Moorish tribes, as distinguished from the inhabitants of Barbary, from whom they are divided by the Great Desert, nothing farther seems to be known than what is related by John Leo, the African; whose account may be abridged as follows.

Before the Arabian Conquest, about the middle of the seventh century, all the inhabitants of Africa, whether they were descended from Numidians, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, or Goths, were comprehended under the general name of _Mauri_ or Moors. All these nations were converted to the religion of Mahomet, during the Arabian empire under the Caliphs. About this time many of the Numidian tribes, who led a wandering life in the Desert, and supported themselves upon the produce of their cattle, retired southward across the Great Desert, to avoid the fury of the Arabians: and by one of those tribes, says Leo, (that of Zanhaga,) were discovered and conquered the Negro nations on the Niger.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 134 of 546
Words from 36200 to 36461 of 148366