plains of the desert possess generally thin, wiry forms, capable
of great exertion, and severe privation. Many are of low stature,
but not dwarfish; the specimens brought to Europe have been selected,
like coster-mongers' dogs, on account of their extreme ugliness;
consequently English ideas of the whole tribe are formed in the same
way, as if the ugliest specimens of the English were exhibited in
Africa as characteristic of the entire British nation."

It can readily be seen that whatever the African character is
measured by the standard of an African slave, the judgement must
necessarily be an erroneous one. The best tribes are not, in the
nature of things, those out of which slaves are made. The bolder,
more energetic and intelligent are those who make slaves. War and
conquest are the fruitful sources of slavery; they have been in all
age, in every country, and are so today in Africa. But the abler
tribes are the warriors and the conquerors, while the weaker and
the lower are the captives. Thus at the outset the slave declares
by the fact of his servitude his inferiority of lineage.

To this we are also to add the pretty well-known fact that the
poorest of these captives are those who came into the hands of
the slave-dealer on the coast, while the better made and the more
intelligent are reserved for the service of their captors. Thus,
with this further reduction, you have in the African as he comes
to the slave-ship, the lowest specimen of an inferior type of
his people. But just these have been the exponents of the African
race, and it is not only not surprising, but entirely natural that
a false estimate should have been made of the whole negro family.

What we would infer, the exploration of recent travellers show to