ain ten
thousand, and even thirty thousand inhabitants,--a
circumstance which implies a considerable advancement in
industry and the resources of subsistence. All these
improvements were introduced into the interior of Africa
three or four centuries ago; and we have historical
testimony, that in the region where trade and agriculture
now prevail the population consisted, previous to the
introduction of Islam, of savages as wild and fierce as the
natives farther towards the south, whither the missionaries
of that religion have never penetrated. It hence appears
that human society has not been in all parts of Africa
stationary and unprogressive from age to age. The first
impulse to civilization was late in reaching the interior of
that continent, owing to local circumstances which are
easily understood; but, when it had once taken place, an
improvement has resulted which is, perhaps, proportional to
the early progress of human culture in other more favored
regions of the world."[58]

But in our examination of African tribes we shall not confine
ourselves to that class of people known as Negroes, but call attention
to other tribes as well. And while, in this country, all persons with
a visible admixture of Negro blood in them are considered Negroes, it
is technically incorrect. For the real Negro was not the sole subject
sold into slavery: very many of the noblest types of mankind in Africa
have, through the uncertainties of war, found their way to the horrors
of the middle passage, and finally to the rice and cotton fields of
the Carolinas and Virginias. So, in speaking of the race in this
country, in subsequent chapters, I shall refer to them as _colored
people_ or _Negroes_.

FOOTNOTES:

[56] Earth and Man, pp. 300-302.

[57] It is a remarkable fact, that the absence of salt in the food of
the Eastern nations, especially the dark nations or races, has been
very deleterious. An African child will eat salt by the handful, and,
once tasting it, will cry for it. The ocean is the womb of nature; and
the Creator has wisely designed salt as the savor of life, the
preservative element in human food.

[58] Physical History of Mankind, vol. ii. pp. 45, 46.

CHAPTER IV.

NEGRO KINGDOMS OF AFRICA.

BENIN: ITS LOCATION.--ITS DISCOVERY BY THE
PORTUGUESE.--INTRODUCTION OF THE CATHOLIC RELIGION.--THE
KING AS A