2 
SLAVE TRADE OF THE COPTS. 
to search into the contents of the naysterious volume, 
but a few scanty pages only, have with difficulty, and 
at long intervals been deciphered. 
We have thought it desirable to put together the 
information thus sparingly gleaned ; and therefore pro- 
pose to give a succinct account of the discoveries of 
our precursors, in order that the reader may be able to 
connect them with the following Narrative of the late 
Government Expedition ; confining our chain of intro- 
duction to such facts as relate to its peculiar object — 
the River Niger and the nations on its banks. 
In commencing at the earliest possible period, we 
have good precedent in the case of the Venetian Senator; 
who, wishing to give a brief sketch of the revolutions of 
empires, began his oration with an investigation into the 
causes of the Fall of the Angels. 
Among the representations of contemporaneous events, 
&c., on the walls of ancient temples and tombs in Upper 
Egypt, fettered groups of black figures, bearing appa- 
rently the peculiar characteristics of the Negro, ^ lead to 
the belief not only that the Copts, as far back as 3,400 
years, had some acquaintance with the interior of their 
continent, but that this devoted race was even at that 
remote periodf victims of the oppression and rapine 
* Rossellini, vol. i. pi. 64, 85, 86, &c. 
t The traffic in slaves was tolerated in Egypt ; and it is reasonable 
to suppose that many persons were engaged, as at present, in bringing 
them to Egypt for public sale, independent of those who were sent as 
part of the tribute , — Sir G, Wilkinson, vol. i. p. 404. 
