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
The negroes of Guinea are well qualified for the office of tillage,
and other laborious employments; those of Senegal are less vigorous,
yet are good domestic servants, and very ingenious. Father Charlevoix
says, that of all negroes the Senegal ones are the most shapely,
most tractable, and as domestic the most useful; that the Bambaras
are the tallest, but they are all idle and knavish; that the Aradas
best understand the culture of the earth; that the Congos are the
smallest, but most expert swimmers; that the Nagos are the most humane,
the Mondongos the most cruel; the Mimes the most resolute, the most
capricious, and the most subject to despair; that the Creole-negroes,
from whatever nation they derive their origin, inherit nothing from
their parents but the spirit of servitude and colour; they are more
ingenious, rational, and adroit, but more idle and debauched than
those of Africa. He adds, that the understanding of the negroes is
exceedingly contracted; that numbers of them seem to be even entirely
stupid, and can never be made to count more than three; that they
have no memory, and are as ignorant of what is past, as of what is to
come; that the most sprightly ridicule the others with a tolerable
grace; that they are full of dissimulation, and would sooner perish
than divulge a secret; that they are commonly mild, humane, tractable,
simple, credulous, and even superstitious; that they possess fidelity
and courage, and might with proper discipline make a tolerable figure
in the field.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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