500 MORAL AND POLITICAL STATE, 
Although the character and state of society 
now sketched be very general among the negro 
tribes, it cannot, I apprehend, be supposed to 
arise from any peculiarity of their race, but merely 
from the state of knowledge, government, facility 
of subsistence, and other causes, which act on the 
moral nature of man. Divisions of them are found 
in various parts of the continent, which present 
an entirely different aspect. The semi-Mahome- 
tan tribes, the Jalofs, Foulahs, and Houssanians, 
appear to display a superiority in external figure, 
as well as a character more energetic and intelli- 
gent. Other tribes display not the smallest vestige 
of that gentleness, which forms the usual charac- 
teristic of the Negro race. Admitting the picture 
which has been drawn of the Giagas, the Gallas, 
and the Dahomeys, to be deformed by some fea- 
tures of exaggeration, still it seems impossible 
to doubt, that, in rudeness and ferocity, they 
equal the most savage tribes in other quarters of 
the globe. The similarity, therefore, observable 
among the great mass of the Negro population, 
appears to be rather owing to their being placed 
in the same stage of civilization, and the same 
external circumstances of soil and climate, than 
to any original character stamped upon the race. 
As we proceed to the southward, the negro 
complexion fades gradually into the same brown 
or copper colour, which distinguishes the inhabi- 
