It’s just as likely that the seagoing trade was conducted by them, with various intermediaries. Bead trade began a very long time ago, using local or traded-for materials like lapis lazuli.
DNA and language:
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4162482/posts
Thanks for a fascinating link:
By “much darker skinned” what they actually mean is akin to olive-skinned Mediterranean types, rather than pale blond-haired or ginger Nordic types.
Our family’s olive skinned darker color came supposedly from a Greek female slave, who became the wife of a Brit Sea Captain, who settled in what is now N.C..
Somehow, some west African Black DNA also, got into our total DNA package @ about the same time.