dition would not fail to add to the achievements of science and the
extent of natural history as well as to his own reputation.

The human inhabitants of the Soudan would not, but for their vices and
misfortunes, be disproportioned in numbers to the fauna or less happy.
War, slavery, and oppression have, however, afflicted them until the
total population of the whole country does not exceed at the most
liberal estimate three million souls. The huge area contains many
differences of climate and conditions, and these have produced peculiar
and diverse breeds of men. The Soudanese are of many tribes, but two
main races can be clearly distinguished: the aboriginal natives, and the
Arab settlers. The indigenous inhabitants of the country were negroes as
black as coal. Strong, virile, and simple-minded savages, they lived as
we may imagine prehistoric men--hunting, fighting, marrying, and dying,
with no ideas beyond the gratification of their physical desires, and
no fears save those engendered by ghosts, witchcraft, the worship of
ancestors, and other forms of superstition common among peoples of low
development. They displayed the virtues of barbarism. They were brave
and honest. The smallness of their intelligence excused the degradation
of their habits. Their ignorance secured their innocence. Yet their
eulogy must be short, for though their customs, language, and appearance
vary with the districts they inhabit and the subdivisions to which they
belong, the history of all is a confused legend of strife and misery,
their natures are uniformly cruel and thriftless, and their condition is
one of equal squalor and want.

Although the negroes are the more numerous, the Arabs exceed in power.
The bravery of the aboriginals is outweighed by the intelligence of
the invaders and their superior force of character. During the second
century of the Mohammedan era, when the inhabitants of Arabia went
forth to conquer the world, one adventurous army struck south. The first
pioneers were followed at intervals by continual immigrations of Arabs
not only from Arabia but also across the deserts from Egypt and Marocco.
The element thus introduced has spread and is spreading throughout the
Soudan, as water soaks into a dry sponge. The aboriginals absorbed the
invaders they could not repel. The stronger race imposed its customs and
language on the negroes. The vigour of their blood sensibly altered the
facial appearance of the Soudanese. For