Ch. viii. Of the Checks to Population, &;c. 145 



is natural, he says, to imagine that wars fre- 

 quently originate from very frivolous provoca- 

 tions. The wars of Africa are of two kinds, one 

 called Killi, that which is openly avowed; and 

 the other, Tegria, plundering or stealing. These 

 latter are very common, particularly about the 

 beginning of the dry season, when the labours of 

 harvest are over, and provisions are plentiful. — 

 These plundering excursions always produce 

 speedy retaliation.* 



The insecurity of property arising from this 

 constant exposure to plunder, must necessa- 

 rily have a most baneful effect on industry. The 

 deserted state of all the frontier provinces suffi- 

 ciently proves to what degree it operates. The 

 nature of the climate is unfavourable to the exer- 

 tion of the negro nations; and, as there are not 

 many opportunities of turning to advantage the 

 surplus produce of their labour, we cannot be sur- 

 prised that they should in general content them- 

 selves with cultivating only so much ground as is 

 necessary for their own support.^ These causes 

 appear adequately to account for the uncultivated 

 state of the country. 



The waste of life in these constant wars and 

 predatory incursions must be considerable; and 

 Park agrees with Buffon in stating, that indepen- 

 dently of violent causes, longevity is rare among 

 the negroes. At forty, he says, most of them 

 become grey-haired and covered with wrinkles, 



* Park's Interior of Africa, c. xxii. p. 29 1 & seq. 

 f Id. c. xxi. p. 280. 

 VOL. I. L 



