declining gradually into the lowlands, each threaded with fertilizing streams, and fanned with ocean breezes.
The most northern of these plateaus, with their declivities and plains, forms the delightful land of one of the most powerful and intelligent of the African tribes, namely, the Mandingoes. They are made up of shrewd merchants and industrious agriculturists; kind, hospitable, enterprising, with generous dispositions, and open and gentle manners. Not far from the Mandingoes, are the people called Solofs, whom Park describes as "the most beautiful, and at the same time the blackest people in Africa."
But perhaps the most remarkable people among these nations are the "Fulahs," whose native seat is the southern part of the plateaus above described. Here, in their lofty independence, they cultivate the soil, live in "clean and commodious dwellings," feed numerous flocks of sheep and goats, and herds of oxen and horses, build mosques for the worship of one God, and open schools for the education of their children.
Timbri, their capital, is a military station, containing nine thousand inhabitants, from which their victorious armies have gone forth and subdued the surrounding country. They practice the mechanic arts with success, forge iron and silver, fabricate cloth, and work skilfully with leather and wood. Like the Anglo-Saxon, their capital has been the hive whence colonies have swarmed forth to form new settlements, and extend the arts of industry; and the "Fellatahs," an enterprising people who dwell a thousand miles in the interior, are well known to belong to the same stock.
There are many other nations, or rather, tribes, in
