Buffon's Natural History. Volume 04 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &cBuffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
History
Buffon's Natural History. Volume 04 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c
Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
Natural history
When we come particularly to examine the different people of which
these races are composed, we shall perceive as many varieties among the
blacks as the whites; and all the shades from brown to black, as we
have already remarked from brown to fair in the white races.
Let us begin, then, with the countries northward of Senegal, and,
in proceeding along the coasts, take a view of all the different
tribes which travellers have discovered and described. In the first
place it is certain that the natives of the Canary islands are not
Negroes; since from authentic information it appears, that the ancient
inhabitants were tall, well-made, and of a becoming complexion; that
the women were handsome, and had remarkable fine hair; and that those
who occupied the southern parts were more of an olive colour than those
in the northern. In the relation of his voyage to Lima, Duret remarks,
that the ancient inhabitants of the island of Teneriffe were tall and
vigorous, though meagre and tawny, and that most of them had flat
noses. Excepting the flat nose, therefore, these people had nothing in
common with the Negroes. The natives of Africa in the same latitude
with these islands, are Moors, and very tawny, but who belong, as well
as the islanders, to the race of whites.
The inhabitants of Cape-Blanc are Moors, who follow the law of Mahomet,
and who wander about, like the Arabians, in quest of pasture for their
horses, camels, oxen, goats, and sheep. The Negroes, with whom they
traffic, give them eight or ten slaves for a horse, and two or three
for a camel. It is from these Moors, that we procure gum-arabic, which
they dissolve in their milk. They scarcely ever eat any meat, and
never destroy their cattle, unless dying of sickness, or old age.
The Moors are separated from the Negroes by the river Senegal; they
live on the north-side, and are only tawny; but the Negroes who reside
on the south, are absolutely black. The Moors lead an erratic life,
while the Negroes occupy villages; the former are free and independent;
the latter have tyrants who hold them in slavery; the Moors are short,
meagre, of a disagreeable aspect, but ingenious and subtle; the
Negroes are tall, bulky, and well made, but simple and stupid. The
country inhabited by Moors is sandy and sterile, where verdue is to
be seen in a very few places; that inhabited by the Negroes, is rich,
abounding in pasturage, in millet, and in trees always green, though
few bear any fruit fit for food.
In some places both to the north and south of the river we find a
species of men called _Foulies_, who seem to form a shade between the
Moors and Negroes, and whom, it is possible, are Mulattoes produced
by a coalition of the two nations. These _Foulies_ are not black like
the Negroes, yet darker than the Moors; they are also more civilized
than the former; they follow the laws of Mahomet, and are hospitable to
strangers.
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