g the cunning and dissimulation which characterizes these
people, they are generous, open, and hospitable, and their women are
aimiable and engaging: they are more zealous Mahomedans than the Foolahs;
their colour has a mixture of yellow, but their features are more regular
than the other nations of Africa which I have seen. The Foolahs, the
Mandingos, and the Joliffs, bordering on the Senegal, are the most handsome
Negroes on this part of Africa; the hair of the latter, however, is more
crisped and woolly, their nose is round, and their lips are thick; this
nation, in particular, is blacker than those approximating towards the
line; nor are the Negroes in the Krew coast, and towards Palmas, so black
as the nation I now speak of; which may tend to prove, that the colour of
the Africans does not arise from a vertical sun, but from other physical
causes yet unknown.

There is a characteristic feature between the Mahomedan nations of Africa,
particularly those from the shores of the Mediterranean (whom I have seen
in my travels in that quarter) which, with their almost universal
profession of the Mahomedan religion, sanctions the idea, that this part of
the coast has been peopled from the eastern parts of the continent; but the
visible difference in religion, complexion, and feature, of the nations
towards Cape Palmas, give rise to other conjectures. An obvious difference
may be observed among these numerous nations; their language and their
customs are various, and are frequently without affinity or relation. From
the shores of the Mediterranean to this part of Africa, the majority of the
nations are Mahomedans, but towards Cape Palmas they are gross idolaters,
with a mixture Mahomedanism and superstition; many of them erect temples,
and dedicate groves to the devil. I have seen several of these, which
exhibit no outward sign or object of worship, but consist of stumps of
trees, in a circular form, covered with leaves, or a thatched roof, in the
centre of which stands a square altar of mud, without any image of
adoration. The reason assigned by them for their omission in this
instance, is, "that they never look the Devil or evil spirit, therefore
they do not know how to make any thing like him." To the good spirit they
neither make offering nor sacrifice, considering it as unnecessary to
obtain his favours, from his disposition to do nothing but good, which of
course he will administer to them.

From every thing that I h