N E 
called Copper-coloured Negroes, becaufe, though they 
refemble the Negroes in their features, they are lels black, 
or rather yellowilh. They are handfome and ingenious, 
but extremely indolent and idle. They live chiefly by 
hunting and fifhing. They train their dogs to kill the 
wild goats with which the iflands abound. 
The firfl: genuine Negroes we meet with are thofe on 
the fouthern banks of the Senegal. Thefe people, as well 
as thofe who inhabit the country comprehended between 
this river and that of Gambia, call themfelves Jaloffs. 
See vol.x. p. 675. 
It is a general practice among the Negro women, when 
travelling, to carry their children on their backs. Some 
have afcribed the flat nofe and big bellies of the Negroes 
to this caufe: the mother, in railing the child by fudden 
jerks, makes the child’s note ltrikeagainft her back; and 
the child, to avoid thefe frequent blows,' keeps its head 
as far back as poflible, by pufhingits belly forward. Their 
hair is black and crilped, like curled wool. It is by the 
hair and the colour that they chiefly differ from other 
men ; for their features are not, perhaps, fo different 
from thofe of the Europeans as the Tartarian viliige differs 
from that of a Frenchmen. Father du Tertre affirms, that, 
if molt of the Negroes are flat-nofed, it is owing to a ge¬ 
neral praftice of the mothers, who deprefs the nofes of 
their children as foon as they come into the world, and 
fqueeze their lips to make them thick; and that thofe 
children, who chance to efcape thefe operations, have ele¬ 
vated nofes, thin lips, and as fine features as the Euro¬ 
peans. This remark, however, is only applicable to the 
Negroes of Senegal, who are the molt handfome and befi- 
formed of all the race. Among all the other Negroes, 
flat nofes and thick lips feem to be features bellowed on 
them by nature; thefe, inftead of deformities, are regard¬ 
ed as marks of beauty, and fupplied by art when they hap¬ 
pen to be denied by nature. 
The Negroes of the ifland of Goree, like thofe on the 
banks of the Senegal, are well made and extremely black. 
They are fo fond of a black fhining complexion, that 
they defpife fuch as want this perfection, in the fame 
manner as tawny men are defpifed by the Europeans. 
Though ftrong and robuft, they are extremely indolent, 
and cultivate neither corn, wines, nor fruits. Fifli and 
millet are their chief articles of food ; and they feldom 
eat flefli. They compare the Europeans to horfes, be¬ 
caufe they eat herbs. They believe their country to be 
the finefl in the univerfe; and that they are the hand- 
fomefl men in the world, becaufe they are the blacked. 
In the interior part of the fouth fide of Senegal, the 
country is rich and fertile, but the climate is fo extremely 
hot, that the warmefl fummers in Europe are colder than 
the winters in Senegal. Here the inhabitants lead a paf- 
toral life, and are mil found in their native fimplicity. 
They are the darkeft and bell-formed Negroes in the 
world. The males go Hark naked; but the females wear 
a fhort apron made of the bark of trees, cut into a kind of 
ornamental net-work, and tied round their middle. The 
better fort alfo wear a Ikin defcending from the wailh 
They are upon the whole a fine race of pdople, tall, and 
well-proportioned, with regular handfome features. Their 
hair is black, and finely frizzled; their eyes large, very 
black, and fparkling; their teeth beautifully white, and 
their average llature above five feet ten inches high. The 
women in general are much fmaller, but are extremely 
well made, of a pleafing afpeft, familiar, and extremely 
amorous. Their form is altogether fo round, regular, 
and pleafing, that in Europe they would be confidered 
perfect beauties, could their colour be converted to as 
delicate a white, as it is now a fine, fmooth, foft, finning, 
jet black. The weapon principally ufed by the men, is a 
majj'ue, or a flrort javelin, which they throw with amazing 
force, and with fuch expertnefs and accuracy as to be 
•certain of killing an animal, though in full fpeed, at the 
diftance of fifty orfixty yards. The figures of the Senegal 
Negro, male and female, on the annexed Plate, are taken 
Vol. XVL No. 114S. 
G R O. - 685 
from correct drawings made on the fpot, and they exhibit 
a juft delineation of the blackeft and handlomeft Negroes 
in the univerfe. 
Though the Negroes of Sierra Leone are not altogether 
fo black as thofe of Senegal, they are not, however, as 
Struys alleges, of a reddiff or tawny colour. Like the 
Guinea Negroes, they are of a black lefs deep than the 
natives of Senegal. The general cuftom among the Ne¬ 
groes of Guinea and Sierra Leone, of painting their bodies 
with red and other colours, might deceive Struys. They 
likewife paint a ring round their eyes with white, yellow, 
or red, and make rays of different colours upon their 
faces ; and, many of them cut, upon their (kins, figures 
of plants and of animals. Both men and women keep 
their heads uncovered : and they (have or cut their hair, 
which is very lliort, in various modes. They wear ear¬ 
rings made of teeth, fliells, horns, bits of wood, &c. 
which weigh three or four ounces. Some of them pierce 
their noltrils or their upper lip, for the purpofe of fufpend- 
ing fimilar ornaments. Their garments confift of a kind 
of apron made of the bark of a tree, covered with apes’ 
lkins; and to thefe lkins they fix fmall bells. They fieep 
upon bullrufii mats: they eat fifli, or flefli when they can 
procure it; but yams and bananas are their principal 
food. They have no paffion but for their women, and no 
inclination to ablivity or labour. Their houfes are wretch¬ 
ed huts. They often continue to live in wild and barren 
places, though in the neighbourhood of rich valleys, hills 
covered with trees, green and fertile fields, interfered in 
the molt delightful manner with rivers and brooks. But 
their indolence makes them infenfible to every pleafureof 
this nature. 
Though the Guinea Negroes enjoy good health, and 
have vigorous conflitutions, they feldom reach old age. 
A Negro of fifty years is a very old man. Their prema¬ 
ture commerce with the women is, perhaps, the caufe of 
the fiiortnefs of their lives. 
The iflands of St. Thomas, of Annobona, &c. are in-* 
habited by Negroes fimilar to thofe on the neighbouring 
continent; but their numbers are few; becaufe the Eu¬ 
ropeans have chafed them off, and retained only fuch as 
they reduced to flavery. Both men and women go naked, 
except a fmall apron round their middle. Mandelflo al¬ 
leges, that the Europeans, who fettled in the ifland of St. 
Thomas, which is but a degree and a half from the equa¬ 
tor, preferve their whitenefs till the third generation ; 
and he feems to infinuate that they turn black after that 
period. But it is not probable that this change can be fo 
luddenly effeiSled. 
The Negroes on the coafts of Juda and Arada are lefs 
black than thofe of Senegal, Guinea, and Congo. They 
prefer the flefli of dogs to all other meat, a roafted dog 
being generally the firfl dith prefented at their feafts. 
This tafte is not peculiar to the Negroes ; the favages of 
North America, and feme Tartarian nations, are equally 
fond of dogs’ flefli. The Tartars are even faid to cailrate 
dogs, in order to fatten them and improve their flefli. 
Pigafetla, and Drake who feems to copy him verbatim, 
inform us, that the Negroes of Congo are black, but iels 
fo than thole of Senegal. Their hair is generally black 
and crilped, though in fome it is red: the men are of a 
middle ftature; in. fome, the eyes, are brown; in others 
they are of a lea-green colour: their lips are not fo thick 
as thofe of other Negroes; and their features very much 
refemble thole of the Europeans. 
The Negroes of Senegal, of Gambia, of Cape-de-Verd, 
of Angola,, and of Congo, are of a finer black than thole 
of the coafts of Juda, Ifiigni, Arada, and the adjacent 
provinces. When in health, they are all black; but, when 
fick, they become yellowilh, or copper-coloured. In the 
French iflands, the Negroes of Angola are preferred, for 
theirftrength, to thofe of Cape-de-Verd; but, when heated, 
they fmell fo rank, that the places they pals through are 
infefted with the flench for more than a quarter of an 
hour. The Cape-de-Verd Negroes do not fmell fo ftrong : 
