THE HUMAN SPECIES. 203 



and honest Menas or Kroomen of Western Africa, who 

 all become in some degree sailors ; and colonial Negroes, 

 who are often seamen in the merchant service. 



In what manner the black Caribs of St. Vincent first 

 reached the Western Hemisphere is narrated upon 

 questionable evidence. Those said to be remains of this 

 adventitious race, are still excellent boatmen ; and if 

 Peter Martyr (Decads) may be credited, there was a 

 Negro population already established on the coast of 

 America* before the arrival of the Spaniards. 



On the west coast of Africa the most energetic tribes 

 are Coromantees, very black, and marked on the cheeks 

 with tribal scars. They are a daring and martial 

 people ; when enslaved, often rebellious. The Eboes, 

 on the contrary, are less vigorous, paler in colour, with 

 a more slender form and elongated features. They 

 are a gentler race, yet more truly savages ; and, though 

 addicted to despondency and suicide, they were for- 

 merly sought for house servants. The Widahs or 

 Fidahs are of the stem usually called Papaws and Nagas 

 in Africa; they resemble the Papuas of the Indian 

 Ocean more than any other race ; and they assimilate 

 likewise with the Eboes, but are still more submissive 

 as slaves. They have a baboon-like expression, and 



by a merchant ship, when they had already drifted far out 

 to the south-west, and were nearly dead from exhaustion. 



* Peter Martyr, who wrote from the manuscript docu- 

 ments of the first discoverers then still living, cites Vasco 

 Nunez meeting with a colony of Negroes at Quariqua, in 

 the Gulf of Darien. This, it should be remarked, is anterior 

 to the introduction of black slaves. 



