e forest and dangers of the desert, this remarkable
people have not been blotted out. They still live, and are multiplying
in the earth. Certainly they have been preserved for some wise
purpose, in the future to be unfolded.

But, again, what was the cause of the Negro's fall from his high state
of civilization? It was forgetfulness of God, idolatry! "Righteousness
exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people."

The Negro tribes of Africa are as widely separated by mental, moral,
physical, and social qualities as the Irish, Huns, Copts, and Druids
are. Their location on the Dark Continent, their surroundings, and the
amount of light that has come to them from the outside world, are the
thermometer of their civilization. It is as manifestly improper to
call all Africans Negroes as to call, Americans Indians.

"The Negro nations of Africa differ widely as to their
manner of life and their characters, both of mind and body,
in different parts of that continent, according as they have
existed under different moral and physical conditions.
Foreign culture, though not of a high degree, has been
introduced among the population of some regions; while from
others it has been shut out by almost impenetrable barriers,
beyond which the aboriginal people remain secluded amid
their mountains and forests, in a state of instinctive
existence,--a state from which, history informs us, that
human races have hardly emerged, until moved by some impulse
from without. Neither Phoenician nor Roman culture seems to
have penetrated into Africa beyond the Atlantic region and
the desert. The activity and enthusiasm of the propagators
of Islam have reached farther. In the fertile low countries
beyond the Sahara, watered by rivers which descend northward
from the central highlands, Africa has contained for
centuries several Negro empires, originally founded by
Mohammedans. The Negroes of this part of Africa are people
of a very different description from the black pagan
nations farther towards the South. They have adopted many of
the arts of civilized society, and have subjected themselves
to governments and political institutions. They practise
agriculture, and have learned the necessary, and even some
of the ornamental, arts of life, and dwell in towns of
considerable extent; many of which are said to cont