Chap.LVII. progress of tribe from the west. 149 
it is impossible for us with our faint knowledge of the 
migration of tribes in general, and of African tribes 
in particular, to explain how this tribe came to settle 
in the region along the lower course of the Senegal, 
as their type is distinguished in so very remarkable 
a manner from the character of the other tribes 
settled in that neighbourhood, and evidently bears 
more resemblance to some nations whose dwellino;- 
places are in the far east, such as the Malays, with 
whom M. Eichwaldt, in his ingenious but hypotheti- 
cal essay on the Fiila* has endeavoured to connect 
them by way of Meroe. I myself am of opinion that 
their origin is to be sought for in the direction of 
the east ; but this refers to an age which for us is 
enveloped in impenetrable darkness, while what I 
have said about the progress of their conquest from 
west to east relates to historical times, comprising 
the period from the fourteenth century downwards. f 
* Eichwaldt in Journal de la Societe Ethnologique, 1841, vol. i. 
p. 2, et seq. Among all the arguments brought forward by this 
gentleman in order to show a relation of the Fulbe with the Malays, 
there is none of any consequence ; and all his specimens of words 
brought forward with this object are either taken from bad sources 
or prove nothing, the only striking similarities in the language of 
these two nations being the words for fish and spear. I speak here 
of a special and direct relationship of the Fulbe with the Malays, 
without taking into consideration the vestiges of the general 
relationship of the whole human race, which have lately been 
pursued and demonstrated with such industry by Mr. Logan. 
f There may be some remote affinity between the Fulbe and the 
South African tribes, but this refers to an age probably not later 
than the rule of the Pharaohs ; and the idea that the Fulbe pro- 
l 3 
