i64 TRAVELS IN AFRICA, 
ourfelves. Befides, what antient writer has defcribed the inha- 
bitants of Colchis ? Was Medea, the Love of the Grecian he- 
roes, a negrefs ? 
Vohiey has offered as a general remark on the Mamluks of 
Egypt, that they are eafily diftinguifhable from the natives by 
having light hair. It is certain that dark hair, eyes, and com- 
plexion, do not obtain fo univerfally among them as among 
the native Egyptians or Arabs ; yet in fadt, their eyes and hair 
may be obferved much more commonly of a dark than light 
hue. If then the fondnefs for generalizing his remarks have 
operated to deprive this author of the knowlege which hourly 
experience, continued for feveral months, could not fail to have 
given him, what may not be credited as to the effe(3: of his 
prejudices in matters of remote and doubtful hiftory, where 
truth is to be drawn out only by patient inquiry, and the fre- 
quency of error is exadly proportioned to that of conjecture I 
But if all the arguments to confute this new theory fhould 
fail, one fa£i: remains which is invincible. The perfons of the 
antient Egyptians, preferved as it were entire by the prefcience 
of that people concerning the errors into which pofterity might 
fall, exhibit an irrefragable proof of their features and of the 
colour of their fkin, which is now, by the quantity of mummies 
that have been imported into Europe, fubje£t to the infpedion 
of the curious almoft throughout that quarter of the globe. 
This refurredtion of witnefTes alfo evinces, that the Copts are 
their genuine defcendants, and preferve the family likenefs 
in 
