Thus Much
May Suffice Of Elephants And Ivory, And I Shall Now Say Somewhat Of The
People, And Their Manners, And Mode Of Living, With Another Brief
Description Of Africa.
The people who now inhabit the regions of the coast of Guinea and the
middle parts of Africa, as
Inner Lybia, Nubia, and various other
extensive regions in that quarter, were anciently called Ethiopians and
_Nigritae_, which we now call Moors, Moorens, or Negroes; a beastly
living people, without God, law, religion, or government, and so
scorched by the heat of the sun, that in many places they curse it when
it rises. Of the people about Lybia interior, Gemma Phrysius thus
writes: Libia interior is large and desolate, containing many horrible
wildernesses, replenished with various kinds of monstrous beasts and
serpents. To the south of Mauritania or Barbary is Getulia, a rough and
savage region, inhabited by a wild and wandering people. After these
follow the _Melanogetuli_, or black Getulians, and Phransii, who wander
in the wilderness, carrying with them great gourds filled with water.
Then the Ethiopians, called Nigritae, occupy a great part of Africa,
extending to the western ocean or Atlantic. Southwards also they reach
to the river Nigritis or Niger, which agrees in its nature with the
Nile, as it increases and diminishes like the Nile, and contains
crocodiles. Therefore, I believe this to be the river called the Senegal
by the Portuguese. It is farther said of the Niger, that the inhabitants
on one side were all black and of goodly stature, while on the other
side they were brown or tawny and of low stature, which also is the case
with the Senegal.[215] There are other people of Lybia, called
_Garamantes_, whose women are in common, having no marriages or any
respect to chastity. After these are the nations called _Pyrei,
Sathiodaphintae, Odrangi, Mimaces, Lynxamator, Dolones, Agangince, Leuci
Ethiopes, Xilicei Ethiopes, Calcei Ethiopes_, and _Nubi_. These last
have the same situation in Ptolemy, which is now given to the kingdom of
Nubia, where there are certain Christians under the dominion of the
great emperor of Ethiopia, called Prester John. From these towards the
west was a great nation called _Aphricerones_, inhabiting, as far as we
can conjecture, what is now called the _Regnum Orguene_, bordering on
the eastern or interior parts of Guinea. From hence westwards and
towards the north, are the kingdoms of _Gambra_ and _Budamel_, not far
from the river Senegal; and from thence toward the inland region and
along the coast are the regions of _Ginoia_ or Guinea. On the west side
of this region is Cabo Verde, _caput viride_, Cap Verd, or the Green
Cape, to which the Portuguese first direct their course when they sail
to the land of Brazil in America, on which occasion they turn to the
right hand towards the quarter of the wind called _Garbino_, which is
between the west and south.
[Footnote 215: It may be proper to mention in this place, that the Niger
and the Senegal, though agreeing in these particulars, are totally
different rivers in the same parallel.
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