Of one thing I became thoroughly convinced-the color of these Africans is not the result of any recent admixture of white blood. The yellow men are descendants of other yellow men for many generations, probably for many centuries. This is supported by several points of evidence. The traditions of the colored men indicate no white ancestry ; and owing to their remarkable powers of memory, the careful preservation of tradition, its transmission as a sacred possession to posterity, and the pride with which the AfroCaucasian of mixed blood always refers to any known white ancestry, this traditionary testimony of an unmixed descent for hundreds of years is of considerable value. Moreover, the history of African exploration, which is full and accurate, clearly shows no white residents for centuries in many parts of the continent where these yellow people have long resided. Again, there are no ethnic residua of white influence save of the most remote character, which will be discussed presently. A peculiar fact in this connection is that the color of the copper-hued Africans is not at all that of the mulatto or other degree of Caucasian mixture ; their color is quite suigenenk-of a curiously reddish tinge, somewhat like that of the American Indian, which the careful observer can readily distinguish from the other. For example, there were in my employ two copper-colored lads, one of whom was partly Portuguese, the other wholly African ; yet the only external difference, so far as the skin was concerned, was this peculiar reddish tinge
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