MANDINGOES, otherwise known as Wangarawa, Malinkes, or Wakore (the last probably their primitive designation), are one of the most widely distributed and important peoples of Western Africa to the north of the equator, and perhaps form the best representatives of the Negro stock. The country of Manding, from which their ordinary name is derived, is a comparatively small district on both banks of the Niger, about the intersection of 12° N. lat. with 9° E. long. A Mandingo empire, usually called after Mali, the chief town, which stood on the bank of the Niger to the north of Buré, was founded by a certain prince Baramindana or Baramangole in the 12th century; and its power was gradually extended till, in the reign of Mansa Musa (1311-31), Songhai, Timbuctoo, and, in fact, the whole of the Sudan with the exception of Genné on the Niger, were more or less thoroughly subjugated. Timbuctoo finally fell into the hands of the Berbers about 1433; but Mali remained a leading state and its capital a great commercial centre till the beginning of the 16th century, when Omar Askia, prince of Songhai, captured the city. The Mali dynasty was a Mohammedan one; and, though some sections of the Mandingo race are still pagans, the greater number are ardent supporters of Islam. Of the present grouping and relations of the states in which they are the dominant element detailed information does not exist; but such accounts as those of Benj"amin Anderson (Journey to Musardu, the capital of the Western Mandingoes, New York, 1870) show that some of them are possessed of a considerable share of barbaric civilization. According to Dr Quintin, the leading areas of Mandingo occupation are the country watered by the great headstreams of the Senegal (the Falerne, the Bating, &c.), the district to ...