186 HISTORY OF 



therefore, that prohibits the exportation of the 

 mares ; and such stallions as are brought into 

 England are generally purchased on the eastern 

 shores of Africa, and come round to us by the 

 Cape of Good Hope. They are in general less in 

 stature than our own, being not above fourteen, 

 or fourteen hands and a half high ; their motions 

 are much more graceful and swifter than of our 

 own horses ; but nevertheless their speed is far 

 from being equal : they run higher from the 

 ground j their stroke is not so long and close ; 

 and they are far inferior in bottom. Still, how- 

 ever, they must be considered as the first and 

 finest breed in the world, and that from which all 

 others have derived their principal qualifications. 

 It is even probable that Arabia is the original 

 country of horses ; since there, instead of cross- 

 ing the breed, they take every precaution to keep 

 it entire. In other countries they must continu- 

 ally change the races, or their horses would soon 

 degenerate ; but there the same blood has passed 

 down through a long succession, without any di- 

 minution either of force or beauty. 



The race of Arabian horses has spread itself 

 into Barbary among the Moors, and has even 

 extended across that extensive continent to the 

 western shores of Africa. Among the Negroes 

 of Gambia and Senegal, the chiefs of the country 

 are possessed of horses, which, though little, are 

 very beautiful, and extremely manageable. In- 

 stead of barley, they are fed in those countries 

 with maize, bruised and reduced into meal, and 

 mixed up with milk, when they design to fatten 



