There are vast deserts in Ethiopia, as well as in that tract of land which extends to Cape Gardafu. This country, which may be considered as the eastern part of Ethiopia, is almost entirely uninhabited. To the south, Ethiopia is bounded by the Bediouns, and a few other nations who follow the law of Mahomet; a circumstance which corroborates the supposition, that the Ethiopians are of Arabian extraction; indeed they are only separated by the strait of Babel-Mandel; and therefore it is probable, that the Arabians had formerly invaded Ethiopia, and driven the natives northward into Nubia.
The Arabians have even extended themselves along the coast of Melinda, of which the inhabitants are of the Mahometan religion, and only a tawny complexion, The natives of Zanguebar, are not black; they generally speak Arabic, and their garments are made of cotton. This country, though under the torrid zone, is not excessively hot; and yet the hair of the natives is black and frizly like that of the Negroes. We find, on the whole of this coast, as well as at Mosambique and Madagascar, some white men, who, it is pretended came originally from China, and settled there, in the time that the Chinese navigated all the Eastern seas, in the same manner as they are now navigated by the Europeans. Whatever foundation there may be for this opinion, it is certain that the natives of this oriental coast of Africa are black, and that the tawny or white men we find there, have come from other countries. But, to form a just idea of the differences among these black nations, we should examine them more minutely.
In the first place, it is evident, from comparing the descriptions given by travellers, that there is as much variety in the race of blacks as in that of the whites; and that, like the latter, the former have their Tartars and their Circassians. Those of Guinea are extremely ugly, and have an insufferable stench; those of Sofala, and Mosambique, are handsome, and have no bad smell. It is necessary, then, to divide the blacks into different races; and in my opinion, they may be reduced to two principal ones, that of the Negroes, and that of the Caffres. In the first I comprehend the blacks of Nubia, Senegal, Cape de Verd, Gambia, Sierra-Leone, the Teeth and Gold Coasts, of the coast of Juda, Benin, Gabon, Loango, Congo, Angola, and of Benguela, till we come to Cape-Negro. In the second I place the inhabitants beyond Cape-Negro to the point of Africa, where they assume the name of Hottentots; as also all those of the eastern coast of Africa, such as those of the land of Natal, Sofala, Monomotapa, Mosambique, and of Melinda; the blacks of Madagascar, and the neighbouring islands, are likewise Caffres and not Negroes. These two races of black men resemble each other more in colour than in their features, hair, skin, or smell. In their manners and disposition there is also a prodigious difference.