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Europe and Asia, contains many varieties created by the same causes, vicinity to the sun, elevation of the land, the nature of the soil, the temperature of wind, the manners of the people and the mixture of nations who, at different period and in a state more or less civilized, have established themselves within it, either by conquest, or for the purposes of trade. But the two principal varieties of complexion which prevail from the northern tropic, or a little higher, to the Cape of Good Hope are the negro, and the Caffre. The Caffre prevails over the greatest portion of the region between the tropics, but becomes of a more jetty hue as we approach the western coast. The cause of the great difference between the eastern and western sides of Africa will be obvious to those who consider the course of the tropical winds, and the extreme heat they must collect from the immense tract of burning sands which they traverse in passing over that continent, in those latitudes where is spreads itself

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out of the greatest breadth. The winds under the equator, following the course of the sun, reach the eastern coast after blowing over the Arabian and iNdian seas; where the countries of Aian, Zanguebar and Monomotapa, receive their breezes greatly tempered by that vast expanse of waters. But arriving at Guinea, and the neighbouring regions after having  traversed three thousand miles of sand heated by a vertical sun, they glow with an ardor unknown in any other portion of the globe. And these countries lying in the part of the zone where the continent is widest and consequently hottest, the natives and distinguished by complexion of a deeper jet, and by more deformed features than those on the southern side of the equator, on the coasts of Congo, Angola, and Loango. The intense heat which, in this region, produces such a prodigious change on the human constitution, equally affects the whole race of beasts, and of vegetables. All nature bears the marks of a powerful fire. As soon as the traveller leaves the borders of the few rivers which flow through this tract, where he sees a luxuriant vegetation, the effects of moisture combined with heat, he immediately enters on a parched and naked soil which produces little else than a few scrubby bushes,

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-05 14:08:24