their princes or governors are found to defpife and flight their law in any notorious inftances, how loyal foever the Moors may be in all cafes where their religion is not concerned, this would be looked upon as a fufficient ground for renouncing their authority. The prefent Emperor, by his drunkennefs, which their law forbids, has loft the hearts of the best part of his fubjects, and is maintained on the throne purely by the power of his negro troops.

Murder, theft, and adultery, are generally punished with death: and their punishments for other crimes, particularly thofe against the ftate, are very cruel; as impaling, dragging the pritoner through the streets at a mule's heels till all his fleth is torn off; throwing him from a high tower upon iron hooks; hanging him upon hooks till he dies; crucifying him against a wall. And indeed the punishment, as well as condemnation of criminals, is in a manner arbitrary: The Emperor, or his bafhaws, frequently turn executioners, fhoot the offender, or cut him to pieces with their own hands, or command others to do it in their prefence.

Shipping.] They have no fhipping to carry on a foreign trade by fea, but the Europeans bring them whatever they want from abroad; as linen and woollen cloth, fluffs, iron, wrought and unwrought, arms, gunpowder, lead, and the like; for which they take in return, copper, wax, hides, Morocco leather, wool, (which is very fine), gum, foap, dates, almonds, and other fruits.

Forces.] As to their military forces, it is computed that the black cavalry and infantry do not amount to lefs than 40,000 men, and the Moorish horfe and foot may be as many.

As to their fhipping, Captain Blaithwait relates, that when he was there in the year 1727, their whole naval force confited but of two twenty-gun fhips, the biggest not above 200 tuns, and a French brigantine they had taken, with fome few row-boats and yet with these, being full of men, they iffue out from Sallee and Mamora, which lie in the Atlantic ocean, near the Streights mouth, and make prizes of great numbers of Chriftian merchant-thips, carrying their miferable crews into captivity.

Revenues.] Thefe aufe either from the labour of the hufbandmen. and the fruits of the earth; or by duties upon goods imported and exported. The Emperor has a tenth of all corn, cattle, fruits, and produce of the foil, as well as of the captives; and a tenth of all the prizes that are taken.

Perfons and Habits.] The Moors, or natives of this country, are of the fame complexion as the Spaniards on the oppofite thores; thofe that are exposed to the air a little tawny, but the reit as fair as Europeans. But there have been fuch multitudes of negroes introduced from Guinea, efpecially near Mequinez, where the court refides, that you fee almost as many black as white people. The Emperor has forty thoufand negroes in his army, it is faid, and here the negroes refide with their families.

The Emperor's mother was a negro, and he himself of a very dark complexion they are generally of a good ftature, but have the fame thocking features as other negroes have.

The habit of a Moor is a linen frock or fhirt next his skin, a vet of filk or cloth tied with a fath, a pair of drawers, a loose coat, his arms bare to the elbows, as well as his legs; fandals, or flippers, on his feet; and fometimes people of condition wear bufkins; they fhave their heads and wear a turbant, which is never pulled off before their fuperiors, or in their temples; they exprefs their reverence both to God and man, by pulling off their flippers, which they leave at the door of the mofque or palace, when they enter either; and when they attend their prince in the city, they run barefoot after him, if the ftreets are ever fo dirty. Their turbants are of filk or fine linen.

The habit of a woman is not very different from that of a man, except that he wears a fine linen cloth or caul on her head instead of a turbant, and her drawers are much larger and longer than the mens. The women alfo, when they go abroad, have a linen cloth over their faces, with holes in it for their eyes, like a mask.

Furniture.] They have neither wainscot nor hangings; neither beds, chairs, ftools, tables, nor pictures; they fleep upon a mattress on the floor, which, in the houses of perfons of quality, is covered with carpets.

Food.] Their meat is all boiled and roafted to rags, fo that they can pull it to pieces with their fingers: and this is very neceflary, because they ufe neither knives nor forks; but, having washed their hands, every man tucks up his fleeves, and putting his hand into the dith, takes up and fqueezes together a good handful of all the ingredients, as much as his mouth will hold. Their cups and difhes are of brafs, pewter, earth, or tin, the law prohibiting their using gold or filver veffels; and as wine alfo is forbidden, they drink nothing but water, fometimes mixing it with honey.

Temper.] The Moors are faid to be a covetous unhofpitable people, intent upon nothing but heaping up riches, to obtain which they will be guilty of the meanelt things, and stick at no manner of fraud. The Arabs also have always had the character of a thievifh pilfering generation. The people who inhabit the hills, and who have the leaft to do with the court, or with traffic, are much the plaineft, honestest people among them, and ftill retain a good deal of liberty and freedom, the government ufing them rather as allies than fubjects, left they fhould entirely difown their authority. But to proceed in the character of the Moors, they are obferved, with all their bad qualities, to be very dutiful and obedient to their parents, their princes, and every fuperior.

Women and Marriages.] A plurality of wives and concubines is allowed here as in other Mahometan countries: nor do they confine themfelves to women, but keep boys as they do in Turkey. On the other hand, the woman who commits adultery is punished with death; but it is not difficult for her to obtain a divorce if the is ill used.

Funerals.] The corpfe is carried to the grave in the usual drefs, the priests finging before it, La illa All illa Mahomet Refoul Alla, God is a great God, and Mahomet his prophet.

Religion.] The inhabitants of Morocco are Mahometans of the fect of Haly, and have a Mufti or high priest, who is alfo the fupreme civil magistrate, and the last refort in all caufes ecclefiaftical and civil;

and

and the reft of the clergy, who perform divine fervice in their mofques, are the only judges in their provinces and great towns, except in matters of state and military affairs, where the great officers and governors, of towns take upon them to pafs fentence, and fometimes controul the civil magiftrate, and, indeed, arbitrarily imprison, and put men to death often without any trial or form of justice.

Besides their Molla's, or priefts, they have Marabouts, or Mahometan hermits, for whom they have fuch a veneration, that if a criminal can escape to their cells, the officers of justice cannot feize him, and the faint frequently obtains a pardon for him. But these holy men, I perceive, multiply wives and concubines, and indulge frequently in all the pleasures the world affords; though there are others that condemn themselves to great aufterities, and the people proftrate themselves be

fore them.

Notwithstanding the natives are zealous Muffulmen, they allow foreigners the free and open profeffion of their religion, and their very flaves to have their priests and chapels in the capital city.

Coins.] The coins of this empire are, 1. A fluce, a small copper coin, twenty whereof make a blanquil, of the value of two pence Sterling. A blanquil is a little filver coin, which is made ftill lefs by the Jews clipping and filing it. The Moors, therefore, who have always fcales in their pockets, never fail to weigh them; and when they are found to be much diminished in their weight, they are recoined by the Jews, who are masters of the mint, by which they gain a confiderable profit, as they do alfo by exchanging the light pieces for thofe that are full weight. Their gold coin is a ducat, refembling the ducat of Hungary, worth about nine fhillings Sterling, and they ufually give three of them for a moidore. Merchants accounts are kept in ounces, ten of which make a ducat in merchants accounts; but in payments to the government, it is faid, they will reckon feventeen ounces and a half for a ducat.

Revolutions and memorable events.

HE coaft of Barbary was probably firft planted by the Egyp Utica and Carthage; and, finding the country divided into a great many little kingdoms and ftates, the Carthaginians either fubdued, or made the princes on that coaft their tributaries; who being weary of the Carthaginian yoke, affifted the Romans in fubduing Carthage, TheRomans remained fovereigns of the coaft of Barbary, until the Vandals, in the fifth century, reduced it under their dominion. The Roman, or rather the Grecian Emperors, however, recovered the coaft of Barbary from the Vandals; and it remained under their dominion until the Saracen caliphs, the fucceflors of Mahomet, made an entire conquest of all the north of Africa in the feventh century, and divided the country among their chiefs, of whom the fovereign of Morocco was the moft confiderable, poflefling the north-weft part of that country, which in the Roman divifion obtained the name of Mauritania Tingitania, from Tingis or Tangir the capital, and is now ftyled the empire of Morocco, comprehending the kingdoms or provinces et Fez,

Ii 2

Morocco,

Morocco, and Suz Thefe emperors are almost always at war with the Spaniards and Portuguefe. Their ancestors, indeed, made a conqueft of the greatest part of Spain in the eighth century, and were not entirely driven out of it until the fixteenth century; and by the articles granted the Moors, on the furrender of Granada, they were to have enjoyed their eftates in Spain, and the free exercife of their religion. But the Spaniards broke through thefe articles, banifhed feveral hundred thoufand of them to Africa, and erected the court of inquifition to confume the Moors who remained in Spain; whereupon the banished Moors joined with their brethren on the coaft of Barbary, invaded the Spanish coafts, carried many thousands of the Spaniards into captivity, and maintain a perpetual war with that nation to this day.

Boundaries.] Bounded by the Mediterranean fea, on the north; by

the river Guadilbarbar, or Zaine, which divides it from Tunis, on the eaft; by the fouth fide of Mount Atlas, which divides it from Biledulgerid, on the fouth; and by the river Mulvia, or Malva, which divides it from Morocco, on the weft. Divided into three parts or provinces.

Mountains. It is generally a mountainous, country; the moft confiderable chain of mountains are thofe of Mount Atlas, on the fouth, which extend from east to west; but are not, Dr Shaw obferves, of that extraordinary height or bignefs, as has been attributed to them by antiquity: They can no where ftand in competition with the Alps, or Appenines. If we conceive a number of hills ufually of the perpendicular height of 5 or 600 yards, with an eafy afcent, and feveral

grors

groves of fruit and foreft trees, rifing up in a fucceffion of ranges one behind another; and if to this profpect we here and there add a rocky precipice of a fuperior eminence, and difficult accefs, and place on the fide or fummit of it, a mud-walled dafhkrath, or village of the Kabyles, we fhall have a juft and lively idea of thefe mountains. The fea-coaft of Conftantina also is very mountainous and rocky. And here it may be proper to give fome account of the city of Algiers, the capi tal of the kingdom, and of the adjacent country.

Algiers city, and the adjacent country.] The city of Algiers lies on the fide of a mountain; and rifing gradually from the fhore, appears to great advantage, as we approach it from the fea. The walls are three miles (Dr Shaw fays a mile and a half) in circumference, ftrengthened, on the bank-fide, by baftions, and fquare towers be tween them. The port is of an oblong figure, an hundred and thirty fathom long, and eighty broad. The hills and valleys round about Algiers are every where beautified with gardens and country-feats, whither the inhabitants of better fashion retire during the fummer-feafon. The country-feats are little white houses, fhaded by a variety of fruit-trees and ever-greens, whereby they afford a gay and delightful profpect towards the fea; the gardens are well flocked with melons, fruit, and pot-herbs of all kinds; and what is chiefly regarded in thofe hot climates, each of them enjoys a great command of water, from many rivulets and fountains. The town contains, according to the fame writer's computation, two thousand Chriftian flaves, fifteen thoufand Jews, and one hundred thoufand Mahometans, of which only thirty, at moft, are renegadoes.

Rivers.] The principal rivers in Algiers, are, 1. Mulvia, which runs from fouth to north, and discharges itself into the Mediterranean, being the boundary between Algiers and Morocco. 2. Saffran, which runs from fouth to north, and discharges itself into the fea near Algiers. 3. Major, which runs in the like direction, and falls into the fea near Bugia. And, 4. The river Guadilbarbar, which divides Algiers from Tunis. Of thefe fcarce any are navigable beyond their mouths, though that of Mulvia is capable of being made navigable for many miles.

Bays of the Sea and Capes.] The chief bays of the fea, on that part of the coaft of Barbary which lies in the kingdom of Algiers, are thofe of Marfilquiver, Oran, Algiers, and Bugia. The capes are, Cape Fegula, Cape Falcon, Cape Ivy, Cape Cambron, Cape Bugia, and Cape Metefuz.

Air and Winds.] The air of this country is healthful and temperate, neither too hot in fummer, nor too fharp and cold in winter. The winds are generally from the fea, i. e. from the weft (by the north) to the eaft; thofe from the eaft are common at Algiers from May to September; at which time the wefterly winds take place, and become the most frequent; the foutherly winds, which are ufually hot and violent, are not frequent at Algiers; they blow fometimes for five or fix days together, in July and Auguft, rendering the air fo exceflively fuffocating, that, during their continuance, the inhabitants are obliged to fprinkle the floors of their houses with water.

It is feldom known to rain in this climate during the fummer-feafon;

and