210 



ON THE VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN RACE. 



of negro powers before us, is it possible to do otherwise than adopt the very 

 just observation of a very quaint orator, who has told us that the " negro, 

 like the white man, is still God's image, although carved in ebony ]" 



Nor is it to a few casual individuals among the black tribes, appearing in 

 distant countries, and at distant eras, that we have to look for the clearest 

 proofs of human intelligence. At this moment, scattered like their own 

 oases, their islands of beautiful verdure, over the eastern and western deserts 

 of Africa, multitudes of little principalities of negroes are still existing, — 

 multitudes that have, of late years, been detected and are still detecting, 

 whose national virtues would do honour to the most polished states of Europe : 

 while at Timbuctoo, stretching deepest towards the east of these princi- 

 palities, from the western coast, we meet, if we may credit the accounts we 

 have received, with one of the wealthiest, perhaps one of the most populous 

 and best governed cities in the world ; its sovereign a negro, its army 

 negroes, its people negroes ; a city which is the general mart for the com- 

 merce of western" Africa, and where trade and manufactures seem to be 

 equally esteemed and protected.* 



We know not the antiquity of this kingdom : but there can be no doubt of 

 its having a just claim to a very high origin : and it is possible that, at the very 

 period in which our own ancestors, as described by Julius Caesar, were naked 

 and smeared over with paint, or merely clothed with the skins of wild beasts, 

 living in huts, and worshipping the misletoe, the black kingdom of Bambarra, 

 of which Timbuctoo is the capital, was as completely established and flourish- 

 ing as at the present moment. 



What has produced the difference we now behold 1 What has kept the 

 Bambareens, like the Chinese, nearly in a stationary state for, perhaps, up- 

 wards of two thousand years, and has enabled the rude and painted Britons 

 to become the first people of the world — the most renowned for arts and for 

 arms — -for the best virtues of the heart and the best faculties of the under- 

 standing ? Not a difference in the colour of the skin ; — but, first, the peculiar 

 favour of the Almighty : next, a political constitution, which was sighed for 

 and in some degree prefigured, by Plato and Tully, but regarded as a master- 

 piece, beyond the power of human acccomplishment ; and, lastly, a fond and 

 fostering cultivation of science, in every ramification and department. 



Amid the uproar and ruin of the world around us, these are blessings 

 which we still possess ; and which we possess almost exclusively.f Let us 

 prize them as they deserve ; let us endeavour to be worthy of them. To the 

 great benefit resulting from literature and mental cultivation the age is, 

 indeed, thoroughly awake ; and it is consolatory to turn from the sickening 

 scenes of the Continent, and fix the eye in this point of view upon our own 

 native spot ; to behold the ingenuous minds of multitudes labouring with the 

 desire of useful knowledge ; to contemplate the numerous temples that are 

 rising all around us, devoted to taste, to genius, to learning, to the liberal 

 arts ; and to mark the generous confederacies by which they are supported 

 and embellished. 



In this little school of philosophy, surrounded by walls that were once en- 



♦ I follow Mr. Jackson's description, whicli is added to his " Account of the Empire of Morocco," as by 

 far the most circumstantial and authoritative we have hitherto received. According to him, " the city is 

 situated on a plain, surrounded by a sandy eminence, about twelve miles north of the Nile El Abeade, or 

 Nile of the blacks ; and three days' journey (erhellat) from the confines of Sahara ; about twelve miles in 

 circumference, but without walls. The tov^Ti of Kabra, situated on the banks of the river, is its commer- 

 cial depot or port. The king is the sovereign of Bambarra : the name of this potentate, in 1800, was 

 Woolo : he is a black and a native of the country he governs. His usual place of residence is Jiunie, 

 though he has three palaces in Timbuctoo, which are said to contain an immense quantity of gold." The 

 present miUtary appointments are, it seems, entirely from the negroes of Bambarra : the inhabitants are 

 also for the most part negroes, who possess much of the Arab hospitality, and pride themselves on being 

 attentive to strangers. By means of a water-carriage, east and west of Kabra, great facility is given tt 

 the trade of Timbuctoo, which is very extensive, as well in European as in Barbary manufactures. Tj^e 

 various costumes, indeed, exhibited in the market-places and in the streets, sufficiently indicate this, each 

 individual being habited in the dress of his respective country. There is a perfect toleration in matters of 

 religion, except as to Jews. The police is extolled as surpassing any thing of the kind on this side the 

 Desert: robberies and house-breaking are scarcely known. The government of the city is intmated to & 

 divan of twelve slemma or magistrates ; and the civil jurisprudence superintended by a learned i/aoi 



t The Lecttire was delivered in 1812. 



