e last fifty years, since he became valueless through
British and American philanthropy, that lie at the root of the
depopulating process which is going on in the dark land of the Niger.
Empty bags are now filled with heads instead of cowries. Mr. Bowen was
surprised to see so few black men in Soudan, where, half a century ago,
he says they were so numerous. But he rather regards it as a fortunate
circumstance, as he has no hope of Christianizing the typical negro,
except through slavery to Christian masters--and that idea is abhorrent
to the school in which he was taught; but he has more hope from the
mixed races, and these, he confesses, can not be effectually
Christianized until civilized. He deplores the bad example of the black
race, among them, their polygamy, etc., as greatly in the way of
civilizing the mulattoes. But he has overlooked the important fact, as
many do, that the existence of the hybrids themselves depends upon the
existence of the typical Africans. The extinction of the latter must, of
necessity, be soon followed by the extinction of the former, as they can
not, for any length of time, propagate among themselves.

Mr. Bowen inferred that the negroes of Central Africa, although
diminishing in numbers, are rising higher in the scale of humanity, from
the very small circumstance that they do not emit from their bodies so
strong and so offensive an odor as the negro slaves of Georgia and the
Carolinas do, nor are their skins of so deep a black. This is a good
illustration of the important truth, that all the danger of the slavery
question lies in the ignorance of Scripture and the natural history of
the negro. A little acquaintance with the negro's natural history would
prove to Mr. Bowen that the strong odor emitted by the negro, like the
deep pigment of the skin, is an indication of high health, happiness,
and good treatment, while its deficiency is a sure sign of unhappiness,
disease, bad treatment, or degeneration. The skin of a happy, healthy
negro is not only blacker and more oily than an unhappy, unhealthy one,
but emits the strongest odor when the body is warmed by exercise and the
soul is filled with the most pleasurable emotions. In the dance called
_patting juber_, the odor emitted from the men, intoxicated with
pleasure, is often so powerful as to throw the negro women into
paroxysms of unconsciousness, vulgo hysterics. On another point of much
importance there is no practical difference bet