The Ethnology of the British Colonies and Dependencies Part 7

The blacks form the great majority of the coloured population. Besides these, however, there are--

3. Arabs.

4. Chinese.

5. Hindus, from the continent of India; convicts being transported to the Mauritius for life, and worked on the roads of the colony.

6. Cingalese from Ceylon--the Kandian chiefs whose presence in their native country was thought likely to endanger the tranquillity of the island, were sent hither.

The whites of the Mauritius are chiefly French; though not wholly of pure blood. The first settlers took their wives from Madagascar. The English form the smallest part of the population.

_Rodrigues_--occupied by a few French colonists from the Mauritius.

_The Seych.e.l.les_--The same; the coloured population outnumbering the white in the proportion of ten to one. Here there is a Portuguese admixture. From Maha, the chief town of the Seych.e.l.les, to Madagascar, is five hundred and seventy-six miles--a fact to be borne in mind when we speculate upon the origin of the population of that island.

_The Africans of British America.--Honduras, Belize, the West India Islands, and Demerara._--The usual distribution of the population of these parts is--

WHITE.

1. European whites, born in Europe.

2. Creoles, or whites born in the island.

COLOURED.

_a. Pure Blood._

1. Mandingos, from the river-systems of the Senegal and Gambia.

2. Coromantines--from the Ivory and Gold Coast.

3. Whydahs--from Dahomey.

4. Ibos--from the Lower Niger.

5. Congos--from Portuguese Africa.

_b. Mixed Blood._

1. Sambos, intermixture of the Negro and Mulatto.

2. Mulattoes--Negro and white.

3. Quadroons--Mulatto and white.

4. Mestis--Quadroon and white.

Such is what I find in Mr. Martin's valuable work on the Colonies, and it is, undoubtedly, a convenient and practical cla.s.sification. Yet for the purposes of ethnology, it is deficient in detail. Without even guessing at the proportion of American slaves which the different parts of the western coast of Africa may have supplied, I subjoin a brief notice of tract between the Senegal and Benguela.

1. First come the _Wolof_, between the Senegal and Cape Verde. To the back of these lie--

2. The _Serawolli_--and around Cape Verde--

3. The _Sereres_--none of these are truly Mandingo; nor is it certain that many slaves have come from them; such as do, however, are probably Mandingos in the current cla.s.sification.

4. The Fulahs of Fouta-Torro and Fouta-Jallo possess the higher part of the Senegambian system. Imperfect Mahometans, they are lighter-coloured than either the Wolof or the Mandingo. Notwithstanding the great Fulah conquests--for under a leader named Danfodio this has been one of the encroaching and subjugating families of Africa--there are still American slaves of Fulah blood--though, perhaps, but few. Mr. Hodgson procured his vocabulary from a Fulah slave of Virginia; and what we find in the United States, we may find in the British possessions also.

5. The Mandingos Proper are the Negroes of the Gambia; but the following Africans, all within the range of the old slave trade, belong to the same cla.s.s.

_a._ The Susu; whose language is spoken from the River Pongos to Sierra Leone.

_b._ The Timmani.

_c._ The Bullom--each in contact with that settlement.

_d._ The Vey--the written language already noticed.

_e._ The Mendi--conterminous with the Vey.

_f._ The Kissi--like the last two, spoken in the country behind Cape Mount, and on the boundaries of Liberia.

South of the Gambia and north of the Pongos, the Mandingo tongues, though spoken in the interior, do not reach the coast. On the contrary, they encircle the populations on the mouths of the Cacheo, Rio Grande, and Nun--and truly barbarous populations these are. Of these the most northern are--

6. _The Felup_ (Feloops)--between the Gambia and Cacheo.

7. _The Papel_--south of the Cacheo.

8. _The Balantes_--south of the Papel.

9. _The Bagnon_--on the Lower Cacheo.

10. _The Bissago_--islanders off the Cacheo.

11. _Nalu_ (_Naloos_)--on the Lower Nun.

12. _Sapi_--_ibid_.

After these come the Susu, &c.; down to the tribes about Cape Mount and Cape Mesurado.

Between Cape Mesurado and Cape Palmas come--

13. _The Krumen._ Next to them--

14. _The Quaquas_, of the Ivory Coast; speaking different Avekvom dialects.

Somewhere hereabouts come the--

15, 16, 17. Kanga, Mangree, and Gien; three undetermined vocabularies of the "Mithridates." Then--

18, 19, 20. The Fanti, Gha, and Adampi (?) of the Gold Coast. We now approach the great marts--

21, 22. Benin and Dahomey; and--almost equal in infamous notoriety--the countries of the Delta, of the Niger, or of the--

23, 24, 25. Ibu, Bonny, and Efik (Old Calabar) Africans; at the back of which lie--