492 
HISTOllYOr THE TRADE TO GUINEA. 
to be a man of learning, and as such presented him to pope Leo X. 
This pope encouraging him, he embraced the Romish religion, and 
his description of Africa was published in Italian. 
From these writings we learn, that after the Mahometan religion 
had extended to Morocco, some of the promoters of it crossing the 
sandy deserts of Numidia, which separate that country from Guinea, 
found it inhabited by men, who, under no regular government, and 
destitute of that knowledge the Arabians were favoured with, lived in 
content and peace. The first author particularly remarks that they 
never made war, or travelled abroad, but employed themselves in tend- 
ing their herds, or labouring in the ground. Leo says, (p. 65.) 
that “ they lived in common, having no property in land, no tyrant 
or superior lord, but supported themselves in unequal state, upon the 
natural produce of the country, which afforded plenty of roots, game, 
and honey ; that ambition or avarice never drove them into foreign 
countries, to cheat or subdue their neighbours. Thus they lived with- 
out toil or superfluity. ^ 
“The ancient inhabitants of Morocco, who w'ore coats of mail, and 
swords and spears headed with iron, coming among these naked and 
harmless people, soon brought them under subjection, and divided 
that part of Guinea which lies on the Senegal and Gambia into fifteen 
parts; those were the fifteen kingdoms of the negroes, over w'hich the 
Moors presided, and the conmion people were negroes. These Moors 
taught the negroes the Mahometan religion, and arts of life, particu- 
larly the use of iron, before unknowm to them. 
“About the fourteenth century, a native negro, called Heli Ischia, 
expelled the Moorish conquerors ; but though the negroes threw off 
the yoke of a foreign nation, they only changed a Libyan for a negro 
master. Heli Ischia, himself becoming king, led the negroes on to 
foreign wars, and established himself in power over a very large extent 
of country.” 
Since Leo’s time, the Europeans have had very little knowledge of 
those parts of Africa, nor do they know what became of this great 
empire. It is probable that it fell in pieces, and that the natives 
resumed many of their ancient customs ; for in the account published 
bv Moore, in his Travels on the Gambia, w'e find a mixture of the 
Moorish and. Mahometan customs, joined wbli the original simplicity 
of the negroes. 
It appears by accounts of ancient voyages, collected by Hackluit, 
Purchas, and others, that it was about fifty years before the discovery 
of America, that the Portuguese attempted to sail round Cape Boja- 
dor, which lies between their country and Guinea : this, after divers 
repulses, occasioned by the violent currents, they effected ; when, 
landing on the west coasts of Africa, they soon began to make incur- 
sions into the country, and to seize and carry off the natives. 
As early as 1434, Alonzo Gonzales, the first who is recorded to 
have met with the natives, being on that coast, pursued and attacked 
a number of them, when some were wounded, as was also one of the 
Portuguese ; which the author records as the first blood spilt by 
Christians in these parts. Six years after, Gonzales again attacked 
the natives, and took twelve prisoners, with whom he returned to his 
