Page:An essay on the origin and relative status of the white and colored races of mankind.djvu/8



Anciently, all the interior parts of Africa, lying south of Egypt, were called Ethiopia, and comprised those countries now called Nubia and Abyssinia. The black race who inhabited Ethiopia, were then called Ethiopeans; and every book we open, which treats of the Ethiopean or black Race; is involved in acknowledged obscurity. We find the great mass of the Race, in its own country, in a state of heathenism and barbarism; and, in some localities, they are cannibals to this day. They are divided into numerous Tribes, under Tribal despotisms; and have no general government, nor have they made any material advances towards civilization or Christianity; and, consequently, have no written or even reliable traditional history of their race. When DuChaillu, the distinguished African explorer, inquired of them concerning their past history, they answered him with emotions of surprise and derisive laughter. There is in fact, no account of the black man, either in the Mosaical history of creation, or among those who were saved in the ark of the Deluge: and the only traces of his genealogy, beyond a limited period, are to be found in the dim mazes of inferential conjectures; and the various supposititious theories of his origin are irreconcileable with Revelation and the laws of Nature. As the visage of the white Race (especially the feminine sex,) with its prominent outline of features—fair complexion; changeable rosy cheeks: delicate ruby lips; expressive