The Negro, more than any other human type, has been marked out by his mental and physical characteristics as the servant of other races. There are, of course, exceptions to the general rule. There are tribes like the Kruboys of the West African coast, the Mandingo, the Wolof, and the Zulu, who have always shown themselves so recalcitrant to slavery that they have generally been let alone; while the least divergence from the negro stock in an upward direction—such as in the case of the Fula, Gala and Somali—appears to produce an unconquerable love of freedom. But the Negro in a primitive state is a born slave. He is possessed of great physical strength, docility, cheerfulness of disposition, a short memory for sorrows and cruelties, and an easily aroused gratitude for kindness and just dealing. He does not suffer from home-sickness to the over-bearing extent that afflicts other peoples torn from their homes, and, provided he is well fed, he is easily made happy. Above all, he can toil hard under the hot sun and in the unhealthy climates of the torrid zone. He has little or no race-fellowships—that is to say, he has no sympathy for other negroes; he recognizes, follows and imitates his master independently of any race affinities, and, as he is usually a strong man and a good fighter, he has come into request not only as a labourer but as a soldier. Negro slaves were imported into Lower Egypt as servants in the earliest dynastic times. A few reached Carthage from time to time and many were brought to Imperial Rome; but the determined exploitation of the black races did not begin on a large scale till the Muhammadan conquest of Africa. The Arabs had swept across Northern Africa, and become directly acquainted with the Sudan[99]. Before the promulgation of Islam they traded with the East coast of Africa, and after the Islamic outburst they ruled there as sultans. The secluding of women in harims guarded by eunuchs had come into vogue during the Byzantine Empire; but it was probably a custom of Syrian, Mesopotamian, or Egyptian origin. It was adopted with emphasis among the civilized Mussulmans, and the negro eunuch proved the most efficient and faithful guardian of the gynæceum. So the slave trade developed mightily in the Muhammadan world. Household slaves and eunuchs were imported into North Africa, Arabia, Turkey, and Persia from the Sudan; while in a later century the Emperors of Morocco established their power firmly by importing fighting negroes from Nigeria. Arabia, Persia, and India obtained negroes from the Egyptian Sudan, Abyssinia, and the Zanzibar coast. Into the West coast of India negro slaves were imported from East Africa to become the guards of palaces and the fighting seamen of navies. In the Bombay Presidency these negroes became so useful or powerful that