i8o 
HISTORY OF THE [book iv. 
common to all the tribes that go under the appel¬ 
lation of Papaws, I know not. It is practised uni¬ 
versally by the Nagoes; a people that speak the 
Whidah language; but I have met with negroes 
from this part of the coast that disavow the prac¬ 
tice. 
We are now come to the Bight of Benin, com¬ 
prehending an extent of coast of near 300 English 
leagues, of which the interior countries are un¬ 
known, even by name, to the people of Europe. 
All the negroes imported from these vast and un¬ 
explored regions, except a tribe which are distin¬ 
guished by the name of Mocoes , are called in the 
West Indies Eboes ; and in general they appear to 
be the lowest and most wretched of all the nations 
of Africa. In complexion they are much yellower 
than the Gold coast and Whidah negroes; but it 
is a sickly hue, and their eyes appear as if suffused 
with bile, even when they are in perfect health, 
I cannot help observing too, that the conformation 
of the face, in a great majority of them, very much 
resembles that ot a baboon. I believe indeed there 
is, in most of the nations of Africa, a greater 
elongation of the lower jaw, than among the peo¬ 
ple of Europe ; but this distinction I think is more 
visible among the Eboes, than in any other Afri¬ 
cans. I mean not however to draw any conclusion 
of natural inferiority in these people to the rest of 
the human race, from a circumstance which per¬ 
haps is purely accidental, and no more to be consi¬ 
dered as a proof of degradation, than the red liair 
