being latterly the most powerful of the African princes. In the hands of an industrious people the kingdom of Morocco, or ancient Mauri tania, might still be of considerable importance; but from ignorance and want of policy, the western harbours are, by Mr. Lempriere'* report, blocked up with sand, so that Morocco may be effaced from the list of maritime powers or pirates. There are heaths of great extent; and the rklge of Atlas here displays its lofty summits and most extensive wildness; but many districts are fertile, particularly that of Tafilet on the south-cast side of the Atlantic ridge. In the summer months the heat is tempered by breezes from the Atlas, always clothed with snow. The Moors of the towns are somewhat civilized, particularly the mercantile class, and the wandering Arabs hospitable, but the Brebes or Brebers, who gave name to Barbary, are a fierce and obstinate race of the ancient natives; and, secure in the mountainous recesses, defy the government, being chiefly ruled by elective sheiks. The universal food is coscoau, consisting of bits of paste about the size of rice crumbled into an earthen colander, and cooked by the steam of boiled meat and vegetables, which are all served up together in an earthen dish, with butter and spices. This stew in which nothing is lost, even the steam being received by the paste, is the favourite meal of the peasant and the monarch. The domestic animals are much the same as those of Europe, except the camel; and dromedaries of great swiftness are procured from Guinea. The oxen and sheep are small but well flavoured: fowls and pigeons plentiful, but ducks rare, and geese and turkies unknown. There is plenty of game; and storks are common, being free from molestation. In the ridge of Atlas there are mines of iron, neglected by the unskilful Moors; but copper is wrought near Tarudant. The Portuguese formerly held several places on the coast, as Santa Cruz in the south, and Tangier in the north, while the Spaniards still retain Ceuta. The chief Mahometan port is Tetuan, which is rather an open road; but the town is in a picturesque situation, and the people particularly friendly to the English. The city of Morocco is situated in a fertile plain, variegated with clumps of palm trees and shrubs, and watered by several lucid streams from the Atlas:t the extent is considerable, surrounded by very strong walls of tabby, a mixture of stone and mortar which becomes as hard as rock. The chief buildings are the royal palace and the mosks; and there is a considerable Jewry or quarter inhabited by Jews. The palace consists of detached pavilions, as common in the east; and even the mosks are squares with porticoes, like that of Mecca, the climate not requiring a covered edifice like our churches, or the Turkish mosks, often origin

* It terminates at Santa Cruz, by the Arabs called Aguadir. Chenier, i. 46. Lempriere, 112. and by the French St.Croix de Barbaric. Mogador is by the Arabs called Souera. Saugnier, p.53. When the sherifs about A.l). 1500 seized the sceptre, many fugitive Portuguese retreated to the great desert where their descendents still exist, ib. p. 69, &c. The character of the Moors by Brisson, ib. 474, &c. is truly horrible.

The great range passes on the south and east at the distance of about twenty miles; and on the north is a chain of mountains, probably the lessti Atlas of Ptolemy. See Lempriere 183.

IN THE NORTH.

ally Christian edifices. The dress of the Moors is rather singular; and the ladies not only paint their cheeks and chins with deep red, but make a long black mark on the forehead, another on the tip of the nose, and several on the cheeks. The women of the haram are ignorant and childish, their employments being chatting in circles, and eating coscosu. Sidi Mohamed, the late monarch, had attained a great age, and his most remarkable characteristic was avarice; he was succeeded by one of his sons called Yazed.

BOTANY OF THE NORTH OF AFRICA.

Botany. The territory now occupied by the Barbary or piratical states, extending from the frontiers of Egypt to the Atlantic ocean in one direction, and from the Mediterranean sea to the Great Desert in the other, includes a tract of country proverbial in better times for its never failing fertility. The soil partaking of the general character of Africa is light and sandy with intervening rocks, though the vales of mount Atlas, and of the small streams that descend into the Mediterranean are overspread with a deep rich well-watered mould. Hence it is that the most characteristic of the indigenous vegetables are such as flourish on the open shore, or root themselves in the driving sand; while the plants of rarest occurrence are the natives of marshes and forests. Many of the saline succulent species, as the salsolx and salicornix, a few of the bulbous rooted, as the Pancratium maritimum and scilla maritima, together with various kinds of tough long rooted grasses, among which the Iygeum spartum, panicum Numidianum, saccharum cylindricum, and agrostis pungens are the chief, intermixed here and there with the heliotropium, soldanella and eryngo, overspread the flat arid shore, and prevent it from drifting with every wind. The dry and rocky intervals between the valleys of the interior bear a near resemblance to the heaths of Spain; like these they abound in scattered groves of cork trees and evergreen oaks, beneath whose shade, the sage, the lavender, and other aromatic plants are found abundantly, and in high perfection. The arborescent broom, the various species of cistus, the mignonette (reseda odorata), the sumach, the tree heath, together with the aloe, agave, and several kinds of Euphorbia and cactus, all of them patient of heat and drought, adorn the interrupted rocks, and afford both food and shelter to the goats by which they are inhabited. The valleys and cool recesses of the mountains are profuse of beauty and fragrance; besides the bay, the myrtle, the pomegranate, the olive, the jasmine and oleander, which are common both to Africa and the south of Europe, we find here in a truly wild state, the Aleppo

pine, the red juniper, the date palm, the pistachia, the orange, and superior even to the orange blossom in odour, the white musk rose.

To the south of these chief Mahometan states are several countries little explored, as Drah, Sijelmissa, or Segulmessa, and the Land of Dates, so called because that fruit constitutes the chief food of the inhabitants. Fezzan is a large and remarkable Oasis in the north of the great desert. The more central parts will be briefly illustrated towards the conclusion of this short description of Africa. Suffice it here to observe that, with a few exceptions of the more barbarous districts, the Mahometan faith extends to the great central ridge of mountains, or within ten degrees of the equator: and wretched must those regions have been, into which Mahometans could introduce industry and civilization, while in Europe and Asia they are the fathers of destruction and barbarism.

According to some Biledulgerid implies the Land of Dates: but Dr. Shaw, p. 5. says it should be Btaul at Jerid, or Dry Country. In Arabic it would seem the Land of Dates is Cuaten Tumar.

THE WESTERN COAST.

JALOrS, FOULAHS, AND OTHER TRIBES—BENIN—L0ANG0—CONGO.

ON this side of Africa, so far as hitherto explored, are innume rable tribes, as little meriting particular description as those of America. The Jalofs or Yolofs and Poulahs are the chief races on the rivers Senegal and Gambia; while Guinea, divided into the Grain, or more properly Windward coast, Ivory coast, and Gold coast, chiefly supplies slaves, a trade which commenced in 1517 by a patent from the emperor Charles V, obtained at the instance of Las Casus, the noted protector of the American savages. Hawkins, the great navigator, was the first Englishman engaged in this commerce. The settlements in Guinea are chiefly Portuguese; and the slaves from the river Senegal are called Mandingos, from an inland country of that name; while those from the Gold coast are called Koromantees; and those towards Benin Eboes. For these slaves British goods have been exported to the annual value of 8(0,000/.

The countries of Benin and Calabar, which seem to afford the easiest access towards the interior, are followed by other savage tribes. The kingdoms of Congo and Angola are celebrated in Portuguese narrations, and present the most interesting objects in this wide extent of territory. To the south of these there is deep obscurity t till we arrive at the nations or tribes called Great and Little Nemakas, and Kaffers or Koussis, on the north of the European colony of the Cape of Good Hope.

Edwards's West Indies, ii. JO. The forts and factories belonging to Europeans are about forty; lifteen Dutch, fourteen English, four Portuguese four Danish, three French, ib. 53. With the Koromantyns, Accompong is the supreme Deity far above all worship. Assarci is the god of the earth, and Ipboa of the sea, while Obboney is the au nor of evil. ib. 72. Among the more curious animal* are the chimpanzees, in the face resembling negroes, but with straigh' hair. See Matthew's Voyage, p. 41.

From Cape Negro to the Bay of Krio the coast can scarcely be said to be inhabited, but it belongs to the Cimbebas, a black nation whose king is called. Sail. Dir. p. 94.

4 F

VARIOUS TRIBES. The repeated description of the manners of negro tribes would little interest the reader, and only a few peculiarities shall be remarked. The Yalofs are an active and warlike race, and esteemed the most handsome of the negroes. The Mandingos are widely diffused, and of a mild and sociable disposition. They wear cotton frocks of their own manufacture; but their huts and furniture arc of the simplest kind. The Foulahs, near the river Gambia, are chiefly of a tawney complexion, with silky hair and pleasing features, being probably tribes that fled from Mauretania. The Foulahs of Guinea are of a very different description, and the identity of name might have been avoided. Teembo, the capital of the latter, contains about 7000 inhabitants; and there are iron mines worked by women, besides some manufactures in silver, wood, and leather. These Foulahs, it is said, can bring into the field not less than 16,000 cavalry; and being surrounded by twenty-four Pagan nations or tribes, these Mahometans never hesitate to make war for the sake of procuring slaves. To the west of these Foulahs is the English settlement of Sierra Leone, formed in 1787, for the benevolent purpose of promoting African civilization.*

At the other extremity of this coast are the Nemakas, whose manners have been illustrated by that romantic enthusiast Le Vaillant, who also pretends to have observed other tribes called Korakas and Houzouanas; the latter being, by his account, an active and hardy nice, rather of a leaden colour, but with noses still flatter than those of the Hottentots. They often sleep upon the bare ground; and their only arms are bows and arrows. Further particulars need not be added; at, if the author's accounts be veracious, he has still the unhappy art of making them wear every appearance of fiction.

0 Bksir.

The kingdom of Benin is asserted to be very considerable; and it is said that the monarch could raise an army of one hundred thousand. The capital of the same name is said to contain thirty streets of low houses, while the inhabitants are remarkable for cleanliness and propriety of behaviour. They are said to acknowledge a supreme bene volent deity, whose worship they deem superfluous, as he can neither be influenced, enraged, nor appeased; but they offer sacrifices to inferior and malignant spirits, in order to soothe their enmity 4

•This benign colony has been recently attacked by the savages, a proof that Conquest alone can civilize Africa. By the treaty of 1783 the river of Senegal and its dependencies were left in the possession of the French, who had extended their factories about 500 miles from the shore. In despite of D'Anville, recent French writers in general call the Senegal the Nigir. Adanson observes, p. 90, that the rainy season, or what is called the winter, is the hottest. The village Mbao, p. 200, corresponds with the American names in DobrizhoiTer; and the burial of the dead in huts covered with sand, p. 283, is that of the Patagonians described by Falkner.

+ Second Journey, iii. 166, but see Dapper's Africa for the Housaquas.

The river of Benin appears to be considerable from Bosman's account, p. 399, but is divided into many branches, and the climate most pernicious. The government seems a singular aristocracy of three chiefs, who control even the king. Strings of coral are worn as badges of honour; but this coral, p. 408, is a pale red earth or stone like speckled red marble, and there is also, p. 102, a blue sort. Was the coral of Tibet of this kind! Here, as in almost every part of Africa, the commonest events are imputed to witcheraft. Benin is only a village of clay housis, there being no stones in the country larger than a man's list.