l6o TRAVELS IN THE 
knowledge of letters, they are at once the vainest and proudest, 
and, perhaps, the most bigotted, ferocious, and intolerant of all 
the nations on the earth : combining in their character, the bhnd 
superstition of the Negro, with the savage cruelty and treachery 
of the Arab. 
It is probable that many of them had never beheld a white 
man, before my arrival at Benowm : but they had all been 
taught to regard the Christian name with inconceivable abhor- 
rence, and to consider it nearly as lawful to murder a European, 
as it would be to kill a dog. The melancholy fate of Major 
Houghton, and the treatment I experienced during my confine- 
ment among them, will, I trust, serve as a warning to future 
travellers to avoid this inhospitable district. 
The reader may probably have expected from me a more de- 
tailed and copious account of the manners, customs, superstitions, 
and prejudices, of this secluded and singular people ; but it must 
not be forgotten, that the wretchedness of my situation among 
them, afforded me but few opportunities of collecting informa- 
tion. Some particulars, however, might be added in this place ; 
but being equally applicable to the Negroes to the southward, 
they v/ill appear in a subsequent page. 
