who are some check upon the beys, and receive a small tribute. All of them, however, in cases of emergency, claim the protection of the Ottoman court; and they still continue to prey upon the Spaniards, having never been at peace with them since the loss of Grenada. They make prize also of all other christian ships that have Spanish goods and passengers aboard. The Turks of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, are an abandoned race; consisting of pirates, banditti, and the refuse of Turkey, who have been forced to leave their respective countries to avoid the punishnent of their crimes. They are, of all the inhabitants of Barbary, the fewest in number, and in all respects worse than the two other classes of the population, the Moors and Arabs; over whom they exercise their tyranny with the most wanton and savage rigour. They make ostentatious professions of Mahometanism, but, in practice, they neglect and violate its precepts in the most licentious degree, and are so notorious for the dissoluteness of their manners, that they are abhorred by all true Mahometans.

These states, under the Roman empire, were justly denominated the garden of the world; and to have a residence there was considered as the highest state of luxury. The produce of their soil formed those magazines, which furnished all Italy, and great part of the Roman empire, with corn, wine, and oil. Though the lands are now uncultivated, through the oppression and barbarity of their constitution, yet they are still fertile, not only in the above commodities, but in the dates, figs, raisins, almonds, apples, pears, cherries, plums, citrons, lemons, oranges, pomegranates, &c. Excellent hemp and flax grow on their plains; and, by the report of Europears who have lived there for some time, the country abounds with all that can add to the pleasures of life. Neither the elephant nor the rhinoceros are to be found in the states of Barbary; but their deserts abound with lions, tigers, leopards, nynas, and monstrous serpents. The Barbary horses were formerly very valuable, and thought equal to the Arabian; and, though their breed is now said to be decayed, yet some very fine ones are occasionally imported into England. Dromedaries, asses,

mules, and kumrahs, a most serviceable creature, begot by an ass upon a cow, are their beasts of burden: but from the service of the camel they derive the greatest advantages. This useful quadruped enables the African to perform his long and toilsome journies across that continent. The camel is, therefore (says Mr. Bruce), emphatically called the ship of the desert. Their cows are but small, and barren of milk; their sheep yield but indifferent fleeces, but are very large, as are their goats. Bears, porcu pines, foxes, apes, hares, rabbits, ferrets, weasels, moles, camelions, and all kinds of reptiles, are found here. "Besides vermin," says Dr. Shaw, in his Travels through Barbary, "the apprehensions we were under of being bitten or stung by the scorpion, the viper, or the venomous spider, rarely failed to interrupt our repose-a refreshment so very grateful and so highly necessary to a weary traveller." Partridges and quails, eagles, kawks, and all kinds of wild-fowl, are found on this coast; and of the smaller birds, the caspa-sparrow is remarkable for its beauty, and the sweetness of its note, which is thought to excced that of any other bird; but it cannot live out of its own climate. The seas and bays of Barbary abound with the finest and most delicious fish of every kind, and were preferred by the ancients to those of Europe.

The whole of Barbary is situated under the temperate zone. All the coast and mountains on the side of the Mediterranean, from the straits of Gibraltar to Egypt, are rather cold than hot, and snow falls at certain times of the year: the rainy season commences about the middle of October throughout all the country; the months of December and January are more severe, nevertheless the cold is not so great as to render a fire necessary: the cold diminishes from January, and the season is then so inconstant, that it often changes three or four times a day; the west and north winds blow with violence during the month of March: In April all the trees begin to bloom, and at the end of the same month they gather ripe cherries in Fez, Algiers, and Tunis, and in some parts of Morocco. The inhabitants consist of three different races of men:

the Africans, natives; seek their fortunes; and dwell in the deserts.

Turks, who come to Arabians, who chiefly The Africans, again,

are divided into whites and blacks: the former of which are those who inhabit the sea-ports and country along the coast; and the latter those who reside in the interior parts. In this country all foreigners are allowed the open profession of their religion, but the inhabitants of the states are Mahometans; and many subjects of Morocco follow the tenets of Hamed, a modern sectary, and an enemy to the ancient doctrine of the khalifs. All of them have much respect for idiots; whose protection in some cases screens offenders from punishment for the most notorious crimes. In the main, however, the Moors of Barbary, as the inhabitants of these states are now promiscuously called (because the Saracens first entered Europe from Mauritania, the country of the Moors), have adopted the very worst parts of the Mahometan religion, and seem to have retained as much of it as countenances their vices. Adultery in women is punished with death; but, though the men are indulged with a plurality of wives and concubines, they commit the most unnatural crimes with impunity. As the states of Barbary possess those countries that formerly went by the name of Mauritania and Numidia, the ancient African language is still spoken in some of the inland countries, and even by some inhabitants of the city of Morocco. In the sea-port towns and maritime countries a bastard kind of Arabic is spoken; and seafaring people are no strangers to that medley of living and dead lauguages-Italian, French, Latin, &c. that is so well known in all the ports of the Mediterranean, by the name of Lingua França.

These states, which formerly contained Carthage, and the pride of the Phoenician, Greek, and Roman works, are replete with the most curious remains of antiquity. Some memorials of the Mauritanian and Numidian greatness are still to be met with, and many ruins of cities, which bear evidences of their ancient grandeur and populousness. These point out the old Julia Cæsaria of the Romans, which was little inferior in magnificence to Carthage itself. A few of the A few of the

aqueducts of Carthage are still remaining, but no vestige of its walls. The same is the fate of Utica, famous for the retreat and and death of Cato; and so over-run is the country with barbarism, that their very scites are not known, except by their ruins, amphitheatres, and other public buildings, which remain still in tolerable preservation. Besides those of classical antiquity, many Saracen monuments, of the most stupendous magnificence, are likewise found in this vast tract; these were erected under the khalifs of Bagdad and the ancient kings of the country, before it was subdued by the Turks, or reduced to its present form of government. Their walls form the principal fortifications in the country, both inland and maritime. We know of few or no natural curiosities belonging to this country, except its salt-pits, which in some places take up an area of six miles. Dr. Shaw mentions springs found here that are so hot as to boil a large piece of mutton very tender in a quarter of an hour.

The lower subjects of these states know very few imaginary wants, and depend partly upon their piracies to be supplied with necessary utensils and manufactures; so that their exports consist chiefly of leather, fine mats, embroidered handkerchiefs, sword-knots, and carpets, which are cheaper and softer than those in Turkey, though not so good in other respects. As they leave almost all their commercial affairs to the Jews and Christians settled among them, the latter have established silk and linen works, which supply the higher ranks of their own subjects. They have no ships that, properly speaking, are employed in commerce; so that the French and English carry on the greatest part of their trade. Their exports, besides those already mentioned, consist of ostrich feathers, copper, tin, wool, hides, honey, wax, dates, raisins, olives, almonds, gum-arabic, and sandarac. The inhabitants of Morocco at present likewise carry on a considerable trade by caravans, to Mecca, Medina, and some inland parts of Africa, from whence they bring back vast numbers of negroes, who serve in their armies, and are slaves in their houses and fields. In return for their exports, the Eu

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ropeans furnish them with timber, artillery of all kinds, gunpowder, and whatever they want, either in their public or private capacities. The duties paid by the English in the ports of Morocco are but half those paid by other Europeans. It is a general observation, that no nation is fond of trading with these states, not only on account of their capricious despotism, but the villany of their individuals, both natives and Jews, many of whom take all opportunities of cheating, and when detected are seldom punished.

In this country, no regular form of government can be said to exist., The emperors have for some ages been parties, judges, and even executioners with their own hands, in all criminal matters; nor is their brutality more incredible than the submission with which their subjects bear it. In the absence of the emperor, every military officer has the power of life and death, and it is seldom that they mind the form of a judicial proceeding. Some vestiges, however, of the khalifate government still continue; for in places where no military officer resides, the mufti, or highpriest, is the fountain of all justice, and under him the cadis, or civil officers, act as our justices of the peace. Though the emperors are not immediately subject to the Porte, yet they acknowledge the Grand Seignor to be their superior, and pay him a distinct allegiance, as the chief representative of Mahomet. The Moors are the original natives; the Arabs have over-run the country; the Turks have since made themselves masters of some of the best provinces, and the several kingdoms of Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers, under a kind of tribute or mark of dependence to the Ottoman Porte. The Moors, or natives, are for the most part Mahometans. They are more scrupulous observers of the Mahometan law than the Turks themselves; and as they are generally even more ignorant, they have adopted every absurdity of superstition.Among the corsairs of Barbary, no charm or magic spell, no expedient, however senseless, monstrous, and diabolical, can be invented, to which they will not have recourse in fights and storms, of other emergencies attending their hazardous profession. Their condition is abject and miserable in the extreme. They

are bowed down by taxes, and treated with the utmost cruelty by their insulting masters, or exposed to the continual inroads of the plundering Arabs. Such is the state of those who live at large in the country, upon their agriculture and cattle. The people who inhabit the sea-ports along the coast are allowed to follow a variety of handicraft trades and manufactures, and to carry on a trifling commerce by land and sea; but they are no less oppressed by the weight of taxes and numerous exactions.

The Arabs of Barbary are like those of other parts of Africa; they follow the same mode of living, are governed by their own despotic shaiks; and all of them, except those of the wandering kind, and such as live under the dominion of the emperors of Morocco and Fez, are in some degree tributary to the Turks. They are often obliged, by the oppression they suffer, to abandon their habitations, and to seek refuge among the most rocky and inaccessible mountains, whether the Turkish forces cannot pursue them. Such is the condition of those who live in the country, and along the ridge of Mount Atlas; but there is a more civilised class, who are, like the Moors, settled in some of the towns and villages, applying themselves to agricultural pursuits, and to the breeding of those valuable and favourite horses, Arabian Barbs The wild or wandering Arabs who range along the great Atlas, and other parts of Barbary, are warlike, bold, and even desperate, in all their plundering excursions, especially in their attempts on the large and rich caravans which go from Morocco into Egypt. The Arabs of each class are addicted to the study of astronomy and astrology, to which they are disposed by their pastoral life, which affords much leisure, by their clear sky and natural superstition. They neither sow, reap, plant, travel, nor undertake any expedition, without previously consulting the starry heavens.

Impatient of restraint, and fondly attached to independence, few Arabs are found in any of the towns: but they bring their produce to market, pitching their tents on the nearest spot where grass and water are met with.When they march, the women sit in a groupe, perhaps of three, on the back of the camel

The younger animals, sub aldren, labs, and kids, are allotted their places in the panniers on each side. The fowl, whose forecast and vigilance predict the approaching movement of the camels, in due time flock to secure themselves a settlement, wherever a projecting point of the lean frame of the quadruped affords them a promise of security. Thus, guarded by a few men on horseback, with their muskets rested on their pummels, and the rest driving their herds, they are met in their migrations. They move from place to place as the land becomes exhausted. As they increase, and their flocks and herds become too numerous for the food which the country affords, they separate, like Abraham and Lot, one proceeding to the right and the other to the left.

The encampments of the Arabs are at a considerable distance from the towns. They consist of broad tents, constructed of the leaves of the palmetto, or of camel's hair, are supported by canes, and others are fixed by pegs. The form of an Arab tent is in some degree similar to a tomb, or the keel of a ship reversed. They are dyed black, are broad, and very low. The tent of the Shaik, or governor, is considerably larger than any of the others, and is placed in a conspicuous part of the camp. These camps are named by the Arabs douhars, and the number of tents in them vary according to the proportion of people in the tribe or family. Some of the douhars contain only four or five, while others consist of near a hundred. The camp forms either a complete circle or an oblong square, but the first is more common. The cattle, which are left to graze at large in the day, are carefully secured within the boundaries at night.

In all the camps the tents are closed on the north side, and are quite open on the south, by which means they escape the cold northerly winds, so prevalent in this country during the winter season.

The Arabs who inhabit these encampments are in many respects a very different race of people from the Moors who inhabit the towns. The latter, from being in general more affluent, from their intercourse with Europeans, and from their different education, have introduced luxuries, and imbibed

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ideas, of which the others are entirely ignorent. From their strong family attachments, indeed, as well as from their inveterate prejudices in favour of ancient customs, these tribes of Arabs appear to be at a vast distance from a state of civilisation. As this singular people associate continually in tribes, their marriages are confined to their own family; and so strict are they in the observance of this attachment, that they will not permit a person who is not in some degree related to them to inhabit the same carp with themselves.

The husband, wife, and children, all sleep in the same tent, commonly on a pallet of sheep-skins, but sometimes on the bare ground. The children remain with their. parents till they marry, when the friends of each party are obliged to provide them with a tent, a stone hand-mill to grind their corn,, a basket, a wooden bowl, and two earthen dishes, which constitute the whole of their furniture. Besides these they have, however, a marriage portion, which consists of a certain number of camels, horses, cows, sheep, and goats, with a proportionable quantity of wheat and barley and by grazing and cultivating the neighbouring ground they gradually increase their stock. The Arabs have seldom more than one wife. Their women, who are in general the very opposite to every idea of beauty, do not, like those who inhabit the towns, conceal their faces in the presence of strangers.

Each camp is under the direction of a shaik, to whom the rest apply for redress whenever they feel themselves aggrieved.This governor is invested with the power of inflicting any punishment which he may think proper, short of death. He is appointed by the emperor, and is in gencral the Arab who possesses the greatest property.

As they are generally at a distance from any mosque where they can exercise their religion, an empty tent is allotted for the purposes of worship, which is placed in the centre of the camp, and which at the same time serves for the nightly abode of any traveller who may pass that way; and those who take shelter in it are provided with a good supper, at the expence of the whole

association. Within this tent all the children assemble every morning an hour before day-break, before a large wood fire, which is made on the outside, and learn their prayers, which are written in Arabic characters on boards, and are always hanging up in the tent. The learning to read the few prayers. which are on these boards, and to commit them to memory, is the only education to which the Arabs in general ever attain.

In the empire of Morocco all landed property, except what is immediately connected with towns, belongs to the emperor. The Arabs, therefore, when they wish to change their situation, are obliged to procure a licence from him, or at least from the bashaw of the province, allowing them to take possession of any particular spot of ground; and in consideration of this indulgence they pay the emperor a proportion of its produce.

The dress of the men consists of a long coarse frock, made of undyed wool, which is girt about the waist, and is called a cashove. In addition to this they wear the haick, which is a piece of stuff several yards in length, made either of wool, or wool and cotton. This, when they go abroad, they use as a cloak, throwing it over the whole of the under-dress in a careless manner, the upper part serving to cover their head. They wear their hair cut quite close, use no turban, cap, nor stockings, and seldom even wear slippers.

The dress of the women is nearly the same, differing only in the mode of putting on the cashove, which is so contrived as to form a bag on their backs, for the purpose of carrying their children; and this they are able to do, and perform all the drudgery of the family at the same time. Their hair, which is black, is worn in different plaits, and is covered with a handkerchief tied close to their head. They are very fond of gold and silver trinkets when they can obtain them, and none of them are without a number of bead necklaces. Their children go quite naked till the age of nine or ten, when they are initiated in the drudgery of their parents.

The ill effects of strong family prejudices, and of that narrow and exclusive disposition which accompanies them, is strongly marked

in these little societies. Every camp beholds its neighbour with detestation or contempt. Perpetual feuds arise between the inhabitants of each, and too commonly are productive of bloodshed, and the most extravagant outrages. When one of these unfortunate contests proceeds to open acts of violence, it seldom terminates till the emperor has taken a share in the dispute. Whoever is the author, he at least generally derives advantages from these dissensions; for, independent of the corporal punishment which he inflicts, he also imposes heavy fines upon the contending tribes, which proves the most effectual mode of pacifying the combatants.

Besides what the emperor gains in this way, which is frequently considerable, he likewise receives annually the tenth of every article of consumption which is the produce of the country; he also sometimes exacts an extraordinary impost, answering in value to about the fortieth part of every article they possess, which is levied for the purpose of supporting his troops. Besides these levies, these unfortunate people are liable to any other exaction which his caprice may direct him to impose upon them, from a plea of pretended or real necessity, The first tax (the tenth) is paid either in corn and cattle, or in money. The other is always paid in corn and cattle.

The mode practised by the emperor for extorting money from his subjects is very simple and expeditious. He sends orders to the bashaw or governor of the province to pay him the sum he wants within a limited time. The bashaw immediately collects it, and sometimes double the sum, as a reward to his own industry, from the alcaides of the towns and shaiks of the encampments in the province which he commands. The example. of the bashaw is not lost upon these officers, who take care to compensate their own trouble with equal liberality from the pockets of the subjects: so that, by means of this chain of despotism, which descends from the emperor to the meanest officer, the wretched people generally pay about four times the taxes which the emperor receives-so little gainers are arbitrary monarchs by the oppression of the public! The exactions indeed have been sometimes so severe, that the