DISCOVERY OF THE VICTORIA N'YANZA. 81 



nature I accoxinted for their cruel destiny in being 

 the slaves of all men, I related the history of Xoah, 

 and the disposition of his sons on the face of the 

 globe ; and showed him that he was of the black or 

 Hametic stock, and by the common order of nature 

 they, being the weakest, had to succumb to their 

 superiors, the Japhetic and Semitic branches of the 

 family ; and, moreover, they were likely to remain 

 so subject until such time as the state of man, soar- 

 ing far above the beast, woiild be imbued by a better 

 sense of sympathy and good feeling, and would then 

 leave all such ungenerous appliances of superior force 

 to the brute alone. Bombay, on being created a 

 Mussulman by his Arab master, had been taught a 

 very different way of accounting for the degradation 

 of his race, and narrated his story as follows : " The 

 Arabs say that Mahomet, whilst on the road from 

 Medina to Mecca, one day happened to see a widow 

 woman sitting before her house, and asked her how 

 she and her three sons were ; upon which the troubled 

 woman (for she had concealed one of her sons on 

 seeing Mahomet's approach, lest he, as is customary 

 when there are three males of a family present, should 

 seize one and make him do porterage) said, 'Very 

 well; but I've only two sons.' Mahomet, hearing 

 this, said to the woman reprovingly, ' Woman, thou 

 liest ; thou hast three sons, and for trying to conceal 

 this matter from me, henceforth remember that this 

 is my decree that the two boys which thou hast 

 VOL. i. ' F 



