The Africans were formerly renowned for their industry in cultivating
the ground, for their trade, navigation, caravans and useful arts.--At
present they are remarkable for their idleness, ignorance, superstition,
treachery, and, above all, for their lawless methods of robbing and
murdering all the other inhabitants of the globe.
Though they still retain some sense of their infamous character, yet
they do not choose to reform. Their priests, therefore, endeavor to
justify them, by the following story: "Noah," say they, "was no sooner
dead, than his three sons, the first of whom was _white_, the second
_tawny_, and the third _black_, having agreed upon dividing among them
his goods and possessions, spent the greatest part of the day in sorting
them; so that they were obliged to adjourn the division till the next
morning. Having supped and smoked a friendly pipe together, they all
went to rest, each in his own tent. After a few hours sleep, the white
brother got up, seized on the gold, silver, precious stones, and other
things of the greatest value, loaded the best horses with them, and rode
away to that country where his white posterity have been settled ever
since. The tawny, awaking soon after, and with the same criminal
intention, was surprised when he came to the store house to find that
his brother had been beforehand with him. Upon which he hastily secured
the rest of the horses and camels, and loading them with the best
carpets, clothes, and other remaining goods, directed his route to
another part of the world, leaving behind him, only a few of the
coarsest goods, and some provisions of little value.
When the third, or black brother, came next morning in the simplicity of
his heart to make the proposed division, and could neither find his
brethren, nor any of the valuable commodities, he easily judged they had
tricked him, and were by that time fled beyond any possibility of
discovery.
In this most afflicted situation, he took his _pipe_, and begun to
consider the most effectual means of retrieving his loss, and being
revenged on his perfidious brothers.
After revolving a variety of schemes in his mind, he at last fixed upon
watching every opportunity of making reprisals on them, and laying hold
of and carrying away their property, as often as it should fall in his
way, in revenge for that patrimony of which they had so unjustly
deprived him.
Having come to this resolution, he not only continued in the practice of
it all his life, but on his death laid the strongest injunctions on his
descendants to do so, to the end of the world."
Some tribes of the Africans, however, when they have engaged themselves
in the protection of a stranger, are remarkable for fidelity. Many of
them are conspicuous for their temperance, hospitality, and several
other virtues.
Their women, upon the whole, are far from being indelicate or unchaste.
On the banks of the Niger, they are tolerably industrious, have a
considerable share of vivacity, and at the same time a female reserve,
which would do no discredit to a politer country. They are modest,
affable, and faithful; an air of innocence appears in their looks and in
their language, which gives a beauty to their whole deportment.
When, from the Niger, we approach toward the East, the African women
degenerate in stature, complexion, sensibility, and chastity. Even their
language, like their features, and the soil they inhabit, is harsh and
disagreeable. Their pleasures resemble more the transports of fury, than
the gentle emotions communicated by agreeable sensations.