- 3 84 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



and feafons, were what necefTarily employed the part of the 

 colony eflablifhed at Sofala moll to the fouthward. 



The very nature of the Cufhites commerce, the collect- 

 ing of gold, the gathering and preparing his fpices, necef- 

 farily fixed him perpetually at home ; but his profit lay in 

 the difperfing of thefe fpices through the continent, other- 

 wife his mines, and the trade produced by the pofTemon of 

 them, were to him of little avail. 



A carrier was abfolutely neceffary to the Cufhite, and 

 Providence had provided him one in a nation which were 

 his neighbours. Thefe were in moll refpects different, as 

 they had long hair, European features, very dufky and dark 

 complexion, but nothing like the black-moor or negro ; they 

 lived in plains, having moveable huts or habitations, attend- 

 ed their numerous cattle, and wandered from the necef- 

 fities and particular circumftances of their ..country. Thefe 

 people were in the Hebrew called Phut, and, in all other 

 languages, Shepherds; they are fo flill, for they flill exifl ; 

 they fubfifl by the fame occupation, never had another, 

 and therefore cannot be miflaken ; they are called Balous, 

 Bagla, Belowee, Berberi, Barabra, Zilla and Habab *, which 

 all fignify but one thing, namely that of Shepherd. From 

 their place of habitation, the territory has been called Bar- 

 barla by the Greeks and Romans, from Berber, in the origi- 

 al fignifying jhephcrd. The authors that fpeak of the Shep- 

 herds feem to know little of thofe of the Thebaid, and flill 



lefs 



* It is very probable, fome of thefe words fignified different degrees among them, as we 

 thall fee in the fequcl. 



