606 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



playful, sensual, imitative, subservient, good- 

 natured, versatile, unsteady in their purpose, 

 devoted and affectionate. From this picture 

 I exclude the character of the half-breeds, 

 who have, more or less, the character of their 

 white parents. Originally found in Africa, 

 the negroes seem at all times to have pre- 

 sented the same characteristics wherever they 

 have been brought into contact with the 

 white race ; as in Upper Egypt, along the bor- 

 ders of the Carthaginian and Koman settle- 

 ments in Africa, in Senegal in juxtaposition 

 with the French, in Congo in juxtaposition 

 with the Portuguese, about the Cape and on 

 the eastern coast of Africa in juxtaposition 

 with the Dutch and the English. While 

 Egypt and Carthage grew into powerful em- 

 pires and attained a high degree of civiliza- 

 tion ; while in Babylon, Syria, and Greece were 

 developed the highest culture of antiquity, 

 the negro race groped in barbarism and never 

 originated a regular organization among 

 themselves. This is important to keep in 

 mind, and to urge upon the attention of 

 those who ascribe the condition of the modern 

 negro wholly to the influence of slavery. I 

 do not mean to say that slavery is a necessary 

 condition for the organization of the negro 



