whole tribes of savages.  He built cities, and planted fields; he tended flocks, and became trader.  He poured new blood into crumbling principalities, and taught the fingers of the untutored savage to war.  His religion, in many places, put out the ineffectual fires of the fetich-house, and lifted the grovelling thoughts of idolaters heavenward.  His language, like the new juice of the vine, made its way to the very roots of Negro dialects, and gave them method and tone.  In the song and narrative, in the prayer and precept, of the heathen, the Arabic comes careering across each sentence, giving cadence and beauty to all.

On the heels of the Mohammedan followed the Portuguese, the tried and true servants of Rome, bearing the double swords and keys.  Not so extensive as the Arab, the influence of the Portuguese, nevertheless, has been quite considerable.

[Transcriber’s Note:  A breve diacritical mark, a u-shaped symbol above a letter used to indicate special pronunciation, is found on several words in the original text.  These letters are indicated here by the coding [)x] for a breve above any letter x.  For example, the word “tonda” with a breve above the letter “o” will appear as “t[)o]nda” in the following text.]

All along the coast of Northern Guinea, a distance of nearly fifteen hundred miles,—­from Cape Mesurado to the mouth of the Niger,—­the Kree, Grebo, and Basa form one general family, and speak the Mandu language.  On the Ivory Coast another language is spoken between Frisco and Dick’s Cove.  It is designated as the Av[)e]kw[)o]m language, and in its verbal and inflective character is not closely related to the Mandu.  The dialects of Popo, Dahomey, Ashantee, and Akra are resolvable into a family or language called the Fantyipin.  All these dialects, to a greater or less extent, have incorporated many foreign words,—­Dutch, French, Spanish, English, Portuguese, and even many words from Madagascar.  The language of the Gold and Ivory Coasts we find much fuller than those on the Grain Coast.  Wherever commerce or mechanical enterprise imparts a quickening touch, we find the vocabulary of the African amplified.  Susceptible, apt, and cunning, the coast tribes, on account of their intercourse with the outside world, have been greatly changed.  We are sorry that the change has not always been for the better.  Uncivilized sailors, and brainless and heartless speculators, have sown the rankest seeds of an effete Caucasian civilization in the hearts of the unsuspecting Africans.  These poor people have learned to cheat, lie, steal; are capable of remarkable diplomacy and treachery; have learned well the art of flattery and extreme cruelty.  Mr. Wilson says,—­

“The Sooahelee, or Swahere language, spoken by the aboriginal inhabitants of Zanzibar, is very nearly allied to the Mpongwe, which is spoken on the western coast in very nearly the same parallel of latitude. One-fifth of the words of these two dialects are either the same, or so nearly so that they may easily be traced to the same root.”

The Italics are our own.  The above was written just a quarter of a century ago.