The Tribute They Pay Is Considerable; And
They Manifest Towards Their Moorish Superiors The Most Unlimited
Obedience And Submission, And Are Treated By Them With The Utmost
Indignity And Contempt.
The Moors of this and the other states
adjoining the country of the negroes resemble in their persons the
Mulattoes of the West Indies to so great a degree as not easily to
be distinguished from them; and, in truth, the present generation
seem to be a mixed race between the Moors (properly so called) of
the north and the negroes of the south, possessing many of the worst
qualities of both nations.
Of the origin of these Moorish tribes, as distinguished from the
inhabitants of Barbary, from whom they are divided by the Great
Desert, nothing further seems to be known than what is related by
John Leo, the African, whose account may be abridged as follows:-
Before the Arabian conquest, about the middle of the seventh
century, all the inhabitants of Africa, whether they were descended
from Numidians, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, or
Goths, were comprehended under the general name of Mauri, or Moors.
All these nations were converted to the religion of Mohammed during
the Arabian empire under the Kaliphs. About this time many of the
Numidian tribes, who led a wandering life in the desert, and
supported themselves upon the produce of their cattle, retired
southward across the Great Desert to avoid the fury of the Arabians;
and by one of those tribes, says Leo (that of Zanhaga), were
discovered, and conquered, the negro nations on the Niger.
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