PREFACE. 
Vil 
extraordinary adventures, or unparalleled dangers, which 
frequently give such interest to accounts of distant regions ; 
mine, on the contrary, will shew that the climate is the enemy 
most to be dreaded in the countries which I have visited. My 
statements will serve at the same time to prove that the Blacks, 
whom we consider as barbarians, so far from being wholly 
destitute of intelligence, are very little behind the generality 
of the peasantry of Europe. The Mahometan religion, pro- 
fessed by almost all the African nations that I have visited, 
has enlightened their minds, softened their manners and 
abolished those cruel customs which are retained by man in a 
savage state. 
