112 TRAVELS IN THE 
be distinguished from them ; and in truth, the present gene- 
ration seem to be a mixed race between the Moors (properly 
so called) of the North, and the Negroes of the South ; pos- 
sessing many of the worst qualities of both nations. 
Of the origin of these Moorish tribes, as distinguished from 
the inhabitants of Barbary, from whom they are divided by the 
Great Desert, nothing farther seems to be known than what 
is related by John Leo, the African ; whose account may be 
abridged as follows : 
Before the Arabian Conquest, about the middle of the seventh 
century, all the inhabitants of Africa, whether they were de- 
scended from Numidians, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, 
Vandals, or Goths, were comprehended under the general name 
of Mauri, or Moors. All these nations were converted to the 
religion of Mahomet, during the Arabian empire under the 
Kaliphs. About this time many of the Numidian tribes, who 
led a wandering life in the Desert, and supported themselves 
upon the produce of their cattle, retired southward across the 
Great Desert, to avoid the fury of the Arabians ; and by one of 
those tribes, says Leo, (that ofZanhaga) were discovered and 
conquered the Negro nations on the Niger. By the Niger, is 
here undoubtedly meant the river of Senegal, which in the 
Mandingo language is called Bafing, or the Black River. 
To what extent these people are now spread over the African 
continent, it is difficult to ascertain. There is reason to believe, 
that their dominion stretches from West to East, in a narrow 
line or belt, from the mouth of the Senegal (on the northern side 
of that river) to the confines of Abyssinia. They are a subtle 
