Note 35 — WILLIAM BENJAMIN SMITH (continued 3)

Witness Schweinfurth, one of the carefulest observers and highest authorities: "If we could at once grasp and set before our minds facts that are known (whether as regards language, race, culture, history, or development) of that vast region of the world which is comprehended in the name of Africa, we should have before us the witness of an intermingling of races which is beyond all precedent. And yet, bewildering as the prospect would appear, it remains a fact not to be gainsaid, that it is impossible for any one to survey the country as a whole without perceiving that, high above the multiplication of individual differences, there is throned a principle of unity (he refers to the autochthonous black stock), which embraces well-nigh all the population" (Heart of Africa, Vol. I., p. 313).