Jacobite
patriarch of Alexandria: as late as the twelfth century, Christianity
prevailed; and some rites, some ruins, are still visible in the savage
towns of Sennaar and Dongola. [154] But the Nubians at length executed
their threats of returning to the worship of idols; the climate required
the indulgence of polygamy, and they have finally preferred the triumph
of the Koran to the abasement of the Cross. A metaphysical religion may
appear too refined for the capacity of the negro race: yet a black or
a parrot might be taught to repeat the words of the Chalcedonian or
Monophysite creed.

[Footnote 150: About the year 737. See Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex
p. 221, 222. Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. p. 99.]

[Footnote 151: Ludolph. Hist. Aethiopic. et Comment. l. i. c. 8.
Renaudot Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 480, &c. This opinion, introduced
into Egypt and Europe by the artifice of the Copts, the pride of the
Abyssinians, the fear and ignorance of the Turks and Arabs, has not even
the semblance of truth. The rains of Aethiopia do not, in the increase
of the Nile, consult the will of the monarch. If the river approaches at
Napata within three days' journey of the Red Sea (see D'Anville's Maps,)
a canal that should divert its course would demand, and most probably
surpass, the power of the Caesars.]

[Footnote 152: The Abyssinians, who still preserve the features and
olive complexion of the Arabs, afford a proof that two thousand years
are not sufficient to change the color of the human race. The Nubians,
an African race, are pure negroes, as black as those of Senegal or
Congo, with flat noses, thick lips, and woolly hair, (Buffon, Hist.
Naturelle, tom. v. p. 117, 143, 144, 166, 219, edit. in 12mo., Paris,
1769.) The ancients beheld, without much attention, the extraordinary
phenomenon which has exercised the philosophers and theologians of
modern times]

[Footnote 153: Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. tom. i. p. 329.]

[Footnote 154: The Christianity of the Nubians (A.D. 1153) is attested
by the sheriff al Edrisi, falsely described under the name of the Nubian
geographer, (p. 18,) who represents them as a nation of Jacobites. The
rays of historical light that twinkle in the history of Ranaudot (p.
178, 220--224, 281--286, 405, 434, 451, 464) are all previous to this
aera. See the modern state in the Lettres Edifiantes (Recueil, iv.) and
Busching, (tom. ix. p. 152--139, par Berenger.)]

Christianity was more deeply rooted in the