622 THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



covered with impervious woods, impede the progress of the 

 traveller, and separate one nation from the other. 



Along with its unfavourable geograpliical formation, the 

 political condition of Africa has likewise tended to maintain its 

 ancient barbarism. As far as history reaches into the past, 

 slavery has been its curse, nor has it ever enjoyed the advantages 

 of a strong and permanent government. Thus, to cite but one 

 example, the Manganja were all formerly united imder the 

 government of their great chief Undi, whose rule extended 

 from Lake Shirwa to the river Loangwa, but after Undi's death 

 it fell to pieces. This has been the inevitable fate of every 

 African empire from time immemorial. A chief of more than 

 ordinary ability arises, and subduing all his less powerful 

 neighbours, founds a kingdom which he governs more or less 

 wisely, till he dies. His successor not having the talents of the 

 conqueror cannot retain the dominion, and some of the abler 

 or more ambitious under-chiefs set up for themselves, and in a 

 few years the remembrance only of the empire remains. This, 

 which may be considered as the normal state of African society, 

 gives rise to frequent and desolating wars, and perpetuates a 

 state of general insecurity which paralyses improvement and 

 prevents the accumulation of wealth, that great lever of 

 civilisation. Ignorance, superstition, intolerance are the 

 natural consequences of the misgovernment under which Africa 

 suffers, and contribute in their turn to maintain it. Even the 

 most gifted nations must eventually sink under such a load 

 of adverse circumstances, and when we recollect for how many 

 centuries the genius of Europe languished after the fall of the 

 Roman empire, we must not be too hasty in depreciating the 

 natural abilities of the Negro. 



A black, soft, and unctuous skin, woolly hair, thick lips, a 

 flat nose, a retiring forehead, and a projecting maxilla, are his 

 well-known physical characters ; but both his colour and his 

 features are considerably modified both by the climate of the 

 land which he inhabits and the degree of civilisation he has 

 attained. Considerable elevations of surface, as they produce 

 a cooler temperature of the air, are also productive of a lighter- 

 coloured skin. Thus, in the high parts of Senegambia, which 

 fronting the Atlantic Ocean are cooled by westerly winds, we 

 find the light copper-coloured Felatas surrounded on every 



