J. Leo says, page 65.  “That they lived in common, having no property in land, no tyrant nor superior lord, but supported themselves in an equal state, upon the natural produce of the country, which afforded plenty of roots, game, and honey.  That ambition or avarice never drove them into foreign countries to subdue or cheat their neighbours.  Thus they lived without toil or superfluities.”  “The antient inhabitants of Morocco, who wore coats of mail, and used swords and spears headed with iron, coming amongst these harmless and naked people, soon brought them under subjection, and divided that part of Guinea which lies on the rivers Senegal and Gambia into fifteen parts; those were the fifteen kingdoms of the Negroes, over which the Moors presided, and the common people were Negroes.  These Moors taught the Negroes the Mahometan religion, and arts of life; particularly the use of iron, before unknown to them.  About the 14th century, a native Negro, called Heli Ischia, expelled the Moorish conquerors; but tho’ the Negroes threw off the yoke of a foreign nation, they only changed a Libyan for a Negroe master.  Heli Ischia himself becoming King, led the Negroes on to foreign wars, and established himself in power over a very large extent of country.”  Since Leo’s time, the Europeans have had very little knowledge of those parts of Africa, nor do they know what became of his great empire.  It is highly probable that it broke into pieces, and that the natives again resumed many of their antient customs; for in the account published by William Moor, in his travels on the river Gambia, we find a mixture of the Moorish and Mahometan customs, joined with the original simplicity of the Negroes.  It appears by accounts of antient voyages, collected by Hackluit, Purchas, and others, that it was about fifty years before the discovery of America, that the Portugueze attempted to sail round Cape Bojador, which lies between their country and Guinea; this, after divers repulses occasioned by the violent currents, they effected; when landing on the western coasts of Africa, they soon began to make incursions into the country, and to seize and carry off the native inhabitants.  As early as the year 1434, Alonzo Gonzales, the first who is recorded to have met with the natives, being on that coast, pursued and attacked a number of them, when some were wounded, as was also one of the Portugueze; which the author records as the first blood spilt by christians in those parts.  Six years after, the same Gonzales again attacked the natives, and took twelve prisoners, with whom he returned to his vessels; he afterwards put a woman on shore, in order to induce the natives to redeem the prisoners; but the next day 150 of the inhabitants appeared on horses and camels, provoking the Portugueze to land; which they not daring to venture, the natives discharged a volley of stones at them, and went off.  After this, the Portugueze still continued to send vessels on the coast of Africa;