John Washington

“ The dreadful plague, and more dreadful famine, that visited this country a few years since, have committed fearful ravages; not half the space within the gates is now inhabited; mined walls and tenantless houses meet one at every turn; nothing flourishes but vegetation, which, even in the months of December and January, is rife and luxuriant—its springing freshness forming a striking contrast to the mouldering walls around. ”

“ When the soil is unproductive, the herbage scanty, or their tents so full of fleas and vermin, that they can no longer rest in quiet, they decamp and seek another spot, a spring of water, or a saint's tomb, generally influencing the selection. The Arabs are hospitable, and when they promise may be trusted; yet, otherwise, they are great thieves. They are a hardy race, slightly made, and under the middle size; the girls, when young, are pretty; the women frightfully ugly, owing to exposure and hard work, as all demotic duties (a wide range in this country) fall upon them. ”

“ The river San Tadeo, although of small size, being navigable only for eleven miles, is the largest of any of the rivers of the coast to the south of the Archipelago of Chiloe, and therefore merits a particular description. At seven miles from the mouth it is fed by two streams or torrents, the currents of which are so strong that a fast-pulling boat can hardly make way against it. One of these streams takes its rise in a mountainous range over which it is probable the communicating road passes; and the other is the drain of an extensive glacier or plain of ice of fifteen miles in extent. ”

“ Four miles further quit the beach, and ascend the hills, covered with droo, palmetto, &c.; from summit, an extensive view of the line of coast towards Cape Spartel, and across the straits to the ever-memorable Cape of Trafalgar; descend to the shore, and reach the small town of
Arzilla, a walled square of a quarter of a mile, situated on the open beach; facing the sea are planted a few guns; the wall built by the Portuguese; many of the houses still preserve the pointed roof; population may be one thousand; country around varied and pretty. ”

“ We conversed through the medium of the scheik of the Jews residing in this valley, and obtained correctly some hundred words of their language; they dwell in cottages, built of rough stones and mud, with slightly sloping slate roofs; their chief occupation is hunting; mix very little with the Arabs and Moors of the plan; wherever their valley afforded a spot of ground it was enclosed and cultivated; to us, they were hospitable and generous. In each village are many Jewish families, who have fled hither to avoid the degradation and taxation to which they are liable in the cities ”

“ Oom-erbegh, at the ford called Meshra el 'Khalluf, or ford of wild boar, many of which we hunted and killed during our day's journey; the river here is not rapid; about one hundred and fifty yards broad, and fordable; it flows through banks of deep soil. During these fifty miles passed but twelve Arab encampments, and six saints' tombs; much less population, but which may be accounted for by the land being destined to pasturage; herds of cattle, flocks of sheep and goats. ”

“ At daylight, struck our tents, and set forward by a sharp ascent; a brawling torrent in the valley below us; its banks well wooded with olive, carooba [15] , walnut, acacia, cedar—the finest timber we had vet seen in the country, though not very large—and profusion of oleanders, stunted palms and rose-trees; cheered and enlivened on our march by the shouts of the Shellūh huntsmen, re-echoed from rock to rock, in their endeavours to rouse the game ”

“ Encamped close under the eastern extremity of the schistose range of hills, forming the northern limit of the plains and at the source of the river Tensift. The schistose hilts, varying from five to eight hundred feet in height, assume eyery variety of shape; truncated cones, pyramidal, pine-apple, sugar-loaf, &c.; one of which was covered with masses of gneiss, or cross-grained granite, abounding with black mica; many of these blocks were several tons weight. How got they there? If granite, the nearest granite mountains are at the distance of twenty-five or thirty miles. Can they be boulders? ”

“ Fidallah, situated on the limit of a fine corn plain, at three-quarters of a mile from the sea, intended as a magazine for grain before Mogador was built; a walled square, of about two hundred and fifty paces, now encloses a respectable mosque, the ruins of European merchants' houses, and an Arab encampment; possibly three hundred inhabitants, Moors, Arabs, and Jews; half a mile to the westward, a rocky peninsula point, projecting one mile east-north-east, forms a sandy bay a mile and a half deep, offering a fair and well-sheltered roadstead to small merchant-ships. ”

“ On the summit of the tower is a small turret in the shape of a lantern, whence it derives the name Smā el Fanār. The body of the mosque, though large, is an irregular building, and insignificant when contrasted with the lofty tower by which it is surmounted. ”

“ From the Seboo to the river Oom-erbegh, the country dips considerably towards the west, and still more so from this latter fiver to the plain of Marocco; throughout these plains there is great want of wood; even on the skirts of the Atlas the timber does not reach any great size, nothing that we saw to justify Pliny's account of timer speaking of Mauritania, lib. v.
But we cannot fail to be struck by the extraordinary capabilities of the soil; from the foot of Atlas to the shores of the Atlantic, one vast corn plain. ”

“ Aqueducts.—Extensive under-ground aqueducts surround the town; some ten or twelve feet deep, but chiefly in ruins; they reach across the plain to the foot of Atlas, in many cases twenty miles in extent; evident signs of a more numerous population, and far greater cultivation of the arts.
Cemeteries.—Several large cemeteries outside the walls, both to the north and south, but especially to the east of the city is one upwards of a hundred acres in extent; war, plague, and famine, have thickly tenanted them. ”

“ The town is dull and lifeless; streets narrow and filthily dirty; provisions, fish, vegetables, and fruit, abundant and good. Population may be three thousand, including Jews. At the south-eastern angle of the town is a suburb containing a mosque and a sanctuary. The county around open; no wood; but well cultivated, and many gardens; soil, fine loam; large plantations of 'hhenna, a field of which, of about six or eight acres, the Kaïd told us was worth to him about 100l annually, producing, by irrigation three crops a year. ”

“ Our barometer here showed an elevation of six thousand four hundred feet. The mountain on which we stood was of hard red sand-stone, strata running in an east and west direction, dip 10° south; we had thus only passed limestone [16] , micaceous schist, and sand-stone, only transition and secondary rocks; no traces of the primitive, except a boulder of granite or rather of gneiss in the valley below, and veins of foliated quartz in the schistose hills; besides, the tendency of the formation is to table-land, ridges, and rounded summits, not to sharp or Alpine peaks ”

“ Travelling along the coast of the Atlantic from Cape Spartel to Cape Blanco, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles, generally within one mile of the sea, and often along the beach, a sailor's attention would naturally be directed to endeavour to fix the line of the coast, to effect which no opportunity was lost ”

“ Negroes, who not very numerous, are slaves, and here, as in more civilized countries, are articles of traffic; yet they sometimes reach stations of great importance, and gain their freedom; and thus even in benighted, barbarian Africa, that foulest stain on a nation's fame—is not half so black as in enlightened, Christian Europe:—the negro's character stands high for fidelity, the sultan's body-guard, the only standing army, is chiefly composed of these: it is now not above five thousand strong ”

“ S.W. by S. 11 miles. Lake loses itself in a marshy stream; country becomes hilly—highest five hundred feet; soil gravelly and sandy; colocynth and coarse herbage; pass two coubbas, nine douars, three springs; from summit of these hills of sandstone basis, view of the
Wād Seboo, winding in the boldest sweeps imaginable, through a rich and varied plain, far as the eye can reach; descended a steep bank covered with broom, myrtle, juniper; crossed the river, about four hundred yards wide ”

“ Of these eighteen words have found five, in two different Berēber vocabularies, to the the same as in the Shellūh dialect. During our visit to the Atlas, we wrote down from the mouth of a native Shellūh, who had passed all his life there, some hundred words of that idiom. On our return home, finding that the British and Foreign Bible Society had lately acquired a translation of part of the Scriptures into one of the dialects of northern Africa, I applied to them, who most liberally showed me their vocabulary, which proved to be compiled from a manuscript in Berēber language ”

“ Every person conversant with South American geography must be acquainted with the voyage of Sarmiento. From the determined perseverance through difficulties of no ordinary nature shown by this excellent and skilful navigator, we are possessed of the details of a voyage down the western coast and through the Strait of Magalhaens that has never been surpassed. His journal has furnished us with the description of a coast more difficult and dangerous to explore than any that could readily be selected ”

“ Population cannot exceed one hundred thousand, perhaps not above eighty thousand, including five thousand Jews; the women rarely showing themselves in the streets makes it difficult to estimate, but here are traces of a much greater population. ”

“ We counted here ten mosques, besides the mausoleum of a sultan, and that of the hero of Moorish Africa, the mighty Al Mansor. The main street of the town, which runs parallel to the river, contains the principal shops, not very attractive; the markets abundantly supplied with vegetables and fruit; orange orchards, vineyards and cotton plantations, are extensive; the fruits excellent, though grown on a light sandy soil. Moorish population may be eighteen thousand; Jews, three thousand: the former appear wealthy ”

“ Horse, and often, indeed, it is an animal of great beauty; has more stuff in him than the Andalusian jennet, probably owing to finer pasturage; his action and shape also differ; he does not raise his feet so high, and advances more; neither does he pace, but his usual step is a long walk; nor slip in his quarters as the Spanish horse; and is sure-footed even when galloping over rough ground, as we often proved, hunting both wild boar and gazelles. The horses usually stand from fourteen to fifteen hands high, of every colour ”

“ Arina range, which presents a striking feature even as seen from Marocco; basis of lime; strata east and west, dip 20° to the south-east; its north-western face precipitous, five hundred feet high, and deeply channelled with water-courses, and having dark red clay, possibly metallic, between the strata of lime. Road turns north across the plain; soil light clay; ground covered with cornelians, agates, &c.; traversing numerous streamlets gushing from all the vallies of the Atlas ”

“ Here was formerly the residence of the European consuls, and their deserted hours still line the Marina, commanding a fine view of the port and of the Atlantic; the town is fast falling to decay; population may be four thousand, including Jews; some little commerce in charcoal, &c.; supplies abundant; a fine spring of water on the northern shore, very convenient for watering shipping. The river
El Kōs, signifying a bow, and so named from its winding, may be traced through a beautiful valley far away to the eastward ”

“ Passed a large market to-day, held in the midst of the great plain; camels, horses, mules, asses, rude implements of husbandry, coarse woollen manufactures, corn, vegetables, fruit, dates, almonds, 'hhenna, &c., exposed for sale; snowy peaks of Atlas beautifully silvered by the meridian sun; encamped at the foot of a semi-circular range of small hills, varying from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet; gravel; on summit of one of the highest stands the ruin of a building named
Gherando, either a fort or watch-tower ”

“ Music is almost unknown; a rude pipe and more barbarous drum are in use, but after listening a long time no pretensions to harmony could be discovered, except among the Shellūh mountaineers, why'songs were plaintive and pleasing.
The Moors are generally a fine-looking race of men, of the middle stature, though at first sight their loose flowing dress gives them the appearance of large men; after middle age they become corpulent, both men and women, owing to their inactive life. They have usually good teeth ”

“ A journey of seventy miles across a series of plains, in a north-west direction, brings the traveller from the banks of the Oom-erbegh to the sea coast at Fidallah; the former part of the plain gravelly; a palmetto desert, but the latter part a fine rich. soil; thinly peopled and little cultivation; but as the spring in this climate draws on, nature teems with life ”

“ Laws, the will of a despot, who in the capital administers justice in person; in the provinces the kalifa or bashaw faithfully copies the despotism of his imperial master; yet judgment is generally correct, and always prompt; the ruling principle appears to be—keep the people poor, and they will not rebel. ”