The women of these countries are generally handsome, gentle, modest, tender, and faithful; they have in their looks a certain degree of innocence, and in their language a timidity which adds to their charms. They have an invincible inclination for love and voluptuousness, and they express their wishes in this respect with such an attractive voice, as their organs alone seem capable of uttering. Their skin is as black as ebony. Nothing can be more agreeable than their physiognomy; their nose is well formed, and generally aquiline; their eyebrows are finely arched; their lips thin, and of a beautiful vermillion red; they have the finest teeth in the world; the shape of their body is uncommonly elegant; in short, they combine every perfection which constitutes beauty. At Goree the men and women are also handsome; but there the Mulattoes of both sexes, who have descended from Europeans, are distinguishable in point of appearance, as they possess the grace of their fathers, and dress in the European manner. I may add, that the people of Goree are uncommonly cheerful; and a love of pleasure and gaiety prevails amongst them to a greater extent, than in any other part of the coast of Africa. To the south and east of the Senegal, the Africans degenerate in a wonderful manner. Their colour is no longer the fine black just described, but an olive. Their form is indeed still robust, but aukward; their limbs are stiff, and the lineaments of their face are so gross, as to defy the judgment of the physiognomist. The figures which they paint on their foreheads and cheeks add to their ugliness. They are useful in all labour which requires exertion, but they possess no ingenuity. Their women are ugly and sallow; and they are, to those who were lately described, what the most barbarous ignorance is to a polished education. Their vivacity is so violent as to resemble anger. All the governments of Africa are more or less absolute and despotic. Whether the kings be entitled to the throne by birth, or be called to it by voluntary election, the people are equally subjected to the arbitrary will of the prince, who disposes of their liberty and even of their lives, according to his pleasure; but he cannot destroy more than one at a time: he may do any thing to an individual, but nothing to a body of people. There are a few small states or rather families in this part of Africa, who live together and are governed by elders whom they deem worthy of confidence; these are not the masters who have been described; and the people who live in perfect liberty, would be happy, were they not disturbed by their neighbours. They are often, however, attacked, and being too weak to defend themselves, are taken and sold as slaves; so that even the most peaceable inhabitants of this unfortunate country seem destined to wear chains.