BERBERS AND NEGROES. 159 



gress : Egypt by instructing Greece ; Carthage by 

 drawing forth Rome to the conquest of the world. 



But these countries did little for Africa itself. The 

 ambition of Egypt was with good reason turned to- 

 wards Asia : that of Carthage towards Europe. The 

 influence of Carthage on the regions of the Niger was 

 similar to that of Egypt on the negro regions of the 

 Nile. In each case it became the fashion for the 

 native chiefs to wear Egyptian linen, or the Tyrian 

 purple, and to decorate their wives with beads, which are 

 often discovered by the negroes of the present day in 

 ancient and forgotten graves. Elephants were hunted, 

 and gold pits were dug, in Central Africa, that these 

 luxuries might be procured ; but the chief article of 

 export was the slave ; and this commodity was obtained 

 by means of war. The negroes have often been ac- 

 cused of rejecting the civilization of the Egyptians and 

 Carthaginians, but they were never brought into con- 

 tact with those people. The intercourse between them 

 was conducted by the intermediate Berber tribes. 



Those Berber tribes who inhabited the regions ad- 

 joining Egypt and Cyrene, appear to have been in 

 some degree improved. But they were a roving 

 people, and civilisation can never ripen under tents. 

 Something, however, was accomplished among those 

 who were settled in cities or the regions of the coast. 

 That the Berber race possesses a remarkable capacity 

 for culture has been amply proved. It is probable 

 that Terence was a Moor. It is certain that Juba, 

 whose works have been unfortunately lost, was of un- 

 mixed Berber blood. Reading and writing were com- 

 mon among them, and they used a character of their 

 own. "When the Romans took Carthage they gave the 

 public library and archives to the Berber chiefs. At 



