Part 9

I wrote you at considerable length on the 1st of June last, and assure you that none of your letters, received prior to that date, have remained unanswered. I have now to acknowledge the receipt of your several favours, and beg you to accept my best thanks, for your very curious and valuable present of the gold ring from Wangara, which has been shown to several persons of great distinction, and even to the king himself. _It is universally considered as a great curiosity_; and I have taken care to make it known that you are the person to whom I am indebted, for the first _Wangarian_ jewel that has ever been seen in England. I have also shown your letter, containing your judicious opinions upon the course of the Niger[110], and other geographical points, to Sir Joseph Banks and Major Rennell; and have invariably represented you to them, and to others, as the person possessing eminently the best information concerning the interior of Africa; an object which draws at present the earnest attention, both of the learned and the 104 great, and which our late victories in Egypt, render more peculiarly interesting.

[Footnote 110: See Jackson's account of Marocco, last chapter.]

I think, with you, it is probable there is a communication by water between Jinnie and Egypt; but I should rather imagine there is some large lake or Mediterranean sea, like the Caspian, for instance, into which the Niger may discharge itself from the west, and a branch of the Nile from the east. This idea seems to reconcile the opinions of ancient geographers, with those resulting from modern discoveries. If we should be able to effect the complete conquest of Egypt, and to retain that kingdom, much light will probably soon be acquired upon these interesting subjects. 105

LETTER XIII.

_Journey from Mogodor, to Rabat, to Mequinas, to the Sanctuary of Muley Dris Zerone in the Atlas Mountains, to the Ruins of Pharaoh, and thence through the Amorite Country to L'Araich and Tangier.--Started from Mogodor with Bel Hage as my_ (Tabuk) _Cook, ana Deeb as my_ (Mule Lukkerzana) _Tent Master.--Exportation of Wool granted by the Emperor.--Akkermute depopulated by the Plague.--Arabs, their Mode of hunting the Partridge.--Observations respecting the River Tansift.--Jerf El Eudie, or the Jews' Pass.--Description of Saffy, and its Port or Road.--Woladia calculated to make a safe Harbour.--Growth of Tobacco.--Mazagan described.--Azamor the Abode of Storks.--Saneet Urtemma a dangerous Country.--Dar El Beida, Fedalla, and Rabat described.--Mausoleum of the Sultan Muhamed ben Abd Allah at Rabat.--Of Shella, a Roman Town.--Of the Tower of Hassan.--Road of Rabat.--Productive Country about Rabat.--Salee.--The People inimical to Christians.--The Dungeon where they confined Christian Slaves.--Ait Zimurh, notorious Thieves.--Their Mode of Robbing.--Their Country disturbed with Lions.--Arrival at Mequinas.--Some Account of that City and its imperial Palace.--Ladies of Mequinas extremely beautiful.--Arrival at the renowned Sanctuary of Muley Dris Zerone.--Extraordinary and favourable Reception there by the Fakeers of the Sanctuary.--Slept in the Adytum.--Succour expected from the English in the Event of an Invasion by Bonaparte.--Prostration and Prayer of Benediction by the Fakeers at 106 my Departure from the Sanctuary.--Ruins of Pharaoh near the Sanctuary.--Treasures found there.--Ite Amor.--The Descendants of the Ancient Amorites.--Character of these People.--Various Tribes of the Berebbers of Atlas.--El Kassar Kabeer.--Its Environs, a beautiful Country.--Forest of L'Araich.--Superior Manufacture of Gold Thread made at Fas, as well as Imitations of Amber.--Grand Entry of the British Ambassador into Tangier.--Our Ignorance of African Matters.--The Sultan's Comparison of the Provinces of his Empire to the various Kingdoms of Europe._

TO JAMES WILLIS, ESQ.

Tangier, 8th August, 1801. Dear sir,

My journey to meet His Excellency James M. Matra, the British ambassador to the Court of Marocco, was undertaken principally to obtain permission to ship a large quantity of wool which I had in my possession, the exportation of which had been recently prohibited. I thought I could not select a more seasonable time than when our ambassador was at court; accordingly, I started from Mogodor (the morning after I dispatched two vessels for Europe) on the 4th June last, at four o'clock, P.M. My journey was first to Rabat; thence, across the country, to Fas and Mequinas; thence to the renowned and revered sanctuary of Muley Dris Zerone, on the declivity of the mountains of Atlas, east of Mequinas; thence to _Kassar Farawan_ (the ruins of Pharaoh), and through the warlike 107 province of the Ait Amor, to L'Araich, Arzilla, and to Tangier.

I took with me two of the finest horses in the country, to ride alternately. Two mules and three camels carried my baggage, tents, &c. Muhamed of Diabet, commonly called _Deeb_, I engaged as tent-master; this is the man that astonished Aly Bey El Abassy, when he shot the fish in the river, as recorded by that interesting traveller. I engaged a most excellent fellow as cook, a man who had performed many journies in a similar capacity with the princes; he was acquainted with the roads, the country, and the character of the people; the camel-drivers and muleteers completed our party. We arrived at Tela at nine o'clock in the evening, being a journey of five hours. We remained at Tela the whole of the following day, and started on the 6th June at seven o'clock; arrived, at ten o'clock, at Akkermute, a town in ruins, in the plains west of _Jebbel El Heddeed_ (the iron mountains), which was depopulated by the plague about fifty years since. Passing through the plains of Akkermute, towards the river Tensift, we saw a party of Arabs hunting partridges; we did not stop to see this novel sport, but I was informed that the dogs were directed by the huntsmen to the spot where the birds settled, which roused them; they then pursued them again, and after rousing them several times without intermission, the birds become fatigued and exhausted by continual 108 flying, and the dogs then run them down and seize on them. In six hours from Akkermute, at four o'clock, P.M., we reached the river Tensift, which brings its water from the Atlas, east of Marocco, meandering through the plains and passing about three miles north of that city.

We pitched our tents under the walls of the (_Luksebba_) castle, on the south bank of the river.

We started the next morning at six o'clock, and travelling through a fine country, we came to a narrow pass on the declivity of a lofty mountain called Jerf El Eudie, a most picturesque country, and arrived at the port of Saffy at eleven o'clock. Saffy has no harbour, but a road where ships are obliged to put to sea whenever the south-wind blows; the town was fortified when in possession of the Portuguese, and is situated in a declivity between two hills, so that during the rainy season the waters come down so rapidly that they sometimes overflow the lower apartments of the houses and commit considerable damage. On the 8th June we started from Saffy at nine o'clock, and arrived at the sanctuary of Seedi Cuscasoe at five o'clock, P.M.; and proceeding on, we reached El Woladia at nine, and pitched our tents. This place might be made a secure harbour for the whole British navy, by blowing up a rock which impedes the narrow passage at the entrance of a long and extensive bay. From hence we started at half-past five o'clock in the morning; we proceeded northwards along the coast till eleven 109 o'clock, when we reached the beautiful and abundant valley, the Woolga; travelling on through the country, leaving the sea to the left, we arrived at six o'clock at the Douar, (an encampment of Arabs,) called _Woled Aisah, i.e._ "Sons of Jesus," situated in the productive province of Duquella. The environs of the Douar of Woled Aisah abound in plantations of tobacco, of a superior quality, equal to the Havannah. The next morning, viz. on the 10th June, we struck our tents at six o'clock, and travelling three hours we arrived, at nine, at the _Jerf el Saffer_ (the Yellow Cliff): three hours more brought us to Tet, and an hour more to Mazagan, which we reached at one o'clock. Mazagan is the Portuguese name; the Moorish name is El Burreja. This is a very strong place, having several stout bastions; there is a magnificent (_mitfere_) cistern of water, built by the Portuguese, supported by many pillars of great strength of the Tuscan order. The water in the neighbourhood of Mazagan is very salubrious; this country is full of springs. The inhabitants have a good healthy colour, very different from the inhabitants of the plains of the province of Duquella, which being supplied by water from wells only, of from 100 to 200 feet deep, have a sallow and sickly appearance. It may, in Europe, appear extraordinary that the quality of water should produce such a manifest difference in the complexion of the inhabitants, but when we consider that these people drink no wine, spirits, or malt 110 liquor, the paradox will immediately vanish. After viewing the mitfere, or cistern, and batteries at Mazagan, we mounted at four o'clock, and arrived at Azamor at seven o'clock P.M., pitched the tents in a large spacious fondaque, or caravansera, in the centre of the town. We were annoyed during the night by thousands of storks, the cluttering of whose bills would not permit us to sleep. This town is in the centre of a beautiful country. On the 11th June, at noon, we pursued our journey, and reached Sancet Urtemma at eight o'clock P.M. This is a dangerous country, infested with robbers, who, from the undulating face of the country, have many modes of escape; we, therefore, retired into a solitary retreat, and lay on our arms, without sleep, all night. At six o'clock next morning, being the 12th June, we started, and arrived at Dar el Beida at twelve. Here I was hospitably entertained by the agents of the Spanish house of the Cinquo Gremos of Madrid, who were established here for the purpose of shipping corn to Spain. We left Dar el Beida, at half-past three, and reached Fedalla at half-past seven. This is a fine productive country, abounding in grain as well as Dar el Beida. On the 13th we started at four o'clock, and reached El Mensoria at seven; stopped and dined, mounted at ten A.M. and arrived at Rabat at seven o'clock, P.M. after a journey from Mogodor, of 80-1/2 hours of actual travelling, or 242 English miles.[111]

[Footnote 111: Calculated at the rate of three miles an hour, including stoppages and refreshments.] 111 Rabat is the largest town on the coast of the empire, it is walled round; its circumference is about four miles; an aqueduct conveys abundance of water to the town from a distance of several miles. The mausoleum of the sultan Muhamed, father to the present sultan Soliman, is in the town of Rabat, it is a neat building, surrounded by a colonade; here is a lamp continually burning, and a _muden_[112], who is a fakeer, is continually proclaiming the omnipotence of God, and that Muhamed is the prophet. "_La Allah, ila Allah, wa Muhamed rassul Allah._" There is a very strong battery towards the sea, at the mouth of the river, which is bomb proof. The city wall is high, and is strengthened by several bastions mounting cannon: towards the land, about a mile from Rabat, there is a spring, reported to have been discovered by the Romans, and near it is the Roman town of Shella, which none but musulmen are permitted to enter. In it are said to be the tombs of two sultans, but most probably of Roman generals. Kettles or pans of coins are continually found by the people who dig the ground at this place, and the coins found are Roman. Some European travellers enhanced the price of these coins so much, by their eagerness to purchase them, that they offered more than double their intrinsic 112 value, so that the Jews imitated them so well that they deceived even these antiquaries. There are several mosques in this town, but that which attracts particularly the notice of travellers, is the _sma Hassan, i.e._ the tower of Hassan, situated about a mile from Shella, on the south banks of the river Buregreg, so called from its being in the province of Beny Hassan, it is an old tower built in a superior manner by an architect of Grenada, the same that built the tower at Marocco, called _Jamaa Lifenar_, one at Timbuctoo, and that at Seville; it is about 200 feet high, perfectly square, and a person may ride up to the top on horseback, having a gradual ascent, and seven chambers one above the other: the cement with which it is made is so hardened that no pickaxe can destroy it. It was represented to the sultan Muhamed that the apartments in this tower were the haunts of vice and immorality, and the sultan ordered the floor or terras, by which visitors ascend, to be broken; it was found, however, impossible to destroy it, wherefore the workmen were ordered to desist, and the entrance was blocked up with loose stones. This tower I ascended with my friend the Comte de Fourban, nephew to the duke de Crillon, who conducted the famous siege of Gibraltar, and whose machinations were so admirably defeated by the immortal governor of that garrison, General Elliott, Lord Heathfield. The Comte had ruined his constitution by being immolated in a dungeon in France, during 113 the reign of Robespierre, where he remained during fifteen months, oftentimes seated on steps in water up to his ankles. The Comte was a very generous and liberal man, an emigrant French nobleman, protected by the British consul at the court of Morocco. The disorder contracted by ill usage and confinement in prison, brought on a disease which, after applying various remedies to no purpose, carried him off, and he died at Rabat. The house of the French consul and those of some other European consuls who formerly resided here, are conveniently situated on the southern banks of the river Buregreg, which divides Rabat from Salee. Ships of one hundred tons, that do not draw much water, may pass the bar and load close to these houses; but larger vessels must come to anchor in the offing, and take in their cargoes by boats. The country about Rabat and Salee is wonderfully abundant in all the finest grain, leguminous plants, fruits, vegetables, and cattle; the orange, lemon, Seville, or bitter orange, and citron plantations are here very extensive and extremely productive. Several ships might be loaded here with oranges in October and November, before the gales of the latter half of December and the month of January set in. One hundred fine large oranges may be had for a drahim, a silver coin worth 6_d._ sterling. The orange plantations of Rabat are of incalculable extent; the trees are as large as a middling-sized oak; the vineyards and cotton plantations are likewise most abundant; and nothing can exceed the good quality of 114 the grapes, figs, oranges, citrons, apricots, peaches, and water-melons; the quality of the latter is peculiarly _sweet_, they are called _Dilla Seed Billa_; the seed of which might be advantageously transported to our new colony, the Cape of Good Hope. The vineyards of Rabat are very extensive; the vines are cultivated in the Arabian system, on the ground, which is a light sandy soil: the immense numbers of turtle-doves that are in these vineyards is such, that a bad sportsman cannot fail killing a dozen or two at every shot; they rise just before you in thousands, and the foulahs, or vine cultivators, express their gratitude to the Christians who go to shoot them. These birds, from being unmolested, are so tame and so abundant, that they destroy an incalculable quantity of the best fruit.

[Footnote 112: The muden is the man who ascends the tower of the Mosque and announces prayer.]

On the 14th, the Comte de Fourban accompanied me, and we crossed the river, in the ferry, to visit Salee. The inhabitants of this town are inimical to Christians: we viewed the subterraneous cavern where the Sallee rovers formerly confined their Christian slaves: it resembled a mitfere or large subterraneous granary; it had two grates to let in the air; it appeared perfectly dry, but no one was in it. The Comte observed that it was far preferable to the prison where he was confined in France, during the reign or usurpation of Robespierre. The air of Salee and Rabat, and the adjacent country, 115 is strongly perfumed, morning and evening, with the sweet odour of the orange-flower, of which they make immense quantities of delectable comfits.

On the morning of the 15th, we pursued our journey to Mequinas, passing through a very fine country, inhabited by a Kabyl of Berebbers, called Ait Zemurh. We halted, at four o'clock P.M. at a circular Douar of these Berebbers, in a fine campaign country. The next morning, at five o'clock, we struck the tents, and proceeded through a dangerous country, infested by artful robbers, and the occasional depredations of the lion and other wild beasts, whose roaring we heard at a distance. We saw several square buildings, which our guides informed us were built by the Berebbers, for the purpose of destroying the lion. The patient hunter will conceal himself in one of these buildings, which are about five feet by seven, and will wait whole days for an opportunity to get a shot at the lion: these noble beasts are here said to be the largest in all Africa. After travelling this day ten hours, we pitched our tents at another circular encampment of the Zimurite[113] Berebbers. These people drive in stakes and place thorny bushes round their encampment, eight feet high, and fill up the entrance every night with thorns, as the fiercest lions of Africa abound in the adjacent forests, and sometimes attack their habitations, accordingly they 116 keep a large fire all night to deter the lions and other wild beasts from approaching. About two hours after midnight, my grey horse, who was an old campaigner, neighed and awoke us; this gave the alarm, and my people were presently on the alert, and perceived two men approaching our tents, crawling naked along the ground, which was of the same colour with their bodies. We did not wish to take them, fearing that the people of the Douar would espouse the cause of their countrymen, but my people gave the alarm, and exclaimed "_Erd abellek asas_," i.e. "Be watchful, guards!" We then saw these marauders jump up, and run away as fast as they could; keeping watch the rest of the night: we were advised to take no notice of this circumstance. The people of Ait Zimurh are professed robbers: they would not allow us to pitch our tents _within_ their circular encampment, a privilege universally granted to strangers and travellers. I thought this very unhospitable; being totally different from any thing I had ever before witnessed in this country, where hospitality generally exceeds all bounds. I have no doubt that the people of the Douar were in league with the robbers; I considered my escape, the next day, when I was apprised of the danger of the country I had confided in, quite providential, and I have no doubt but these people would delude any one that would trust to their honour: they reminded me of the ancient Africans, as described by Sallust, in the wars of Jugurtha.