nto
numerous divisions and subdivisions. Hence the term has a twofold power.
Sometimes it is a generic name for a large group; sometimes the
designation of a particular section of that group. The Mandingos of the
Lower Gambia are Mandingos in the restricted meaning of the word.

For the Mandingo tribes, when we use the term in a general sense, the
most convenient classification is into the _Mahometan_ and the _Pagan_.
That this division should exist is natural; since, with the exception of
the Wolofs, the Mandingos are the most northern of all the western
Negroes, and, consequently, those who are most in contact with the
Mahometan Arabs, and the equally Mahometan Kabyles of Barbary and the
Great Desert,--a fact sufficient to account for the monotheistic creeds
of the northern tribes.

As for the Paganism of the others, we must remember how far southwards
and inland the same great stock extends--indefinitely towards the
interior, and as far as the back of the Ashanti country, in the
direction of the equator.

This prepares us for finding Mandingos at our next settlement.

_Sierra Leone._--The native populations which encircle this settlement
are two--the _Timmani_ towards the north, and _Bullom_ towards the
south.

Both are Negroes of the most typical kind, in respect to their physical
conformation.

Both are Pagans.

Both speak what seem to be mutually unintelligible languages, but which
have an undoubted relationship to each other, and to the numerous
Mandingo dialects as well. It is this which induces me to place them in
the same section with the more civilized Africans of the Gambia.

It is safe to say that they are amongst the rudest members of the stock;
indeed it is only in the eyes of the etymologist that they are Mandingo
at all. Practically, they, and several tribes like them, are Mandingo,
in the way that a wolf is a dog, or a goat a sheep.

The Bullom and Timmani are the frontagers to Sierra Leone; and it was
with Bullom and Timmani potentates that the land of the settlement was
bargained for. The settlers themselves are of different origin. Mixed
beyond all other populations of Africa, the occupants of Free Town are
in the same category with the Negroes of Jamaica and St. Domingo;
concerning whom we can only predicate that they have dark skins, and
that they come from Africa. The analysis of their several origins, and
their distribution amongst the separate branches of the African family,
would b