540 A Visit to T anglers. [Nov. 



heads, and at a single check suddenly arrested the progress of their 

 horses, by throwing them completely back upon their haunches. 



The curiosity of the Moorish soldiery which attended the sultan was ' 

 particularly discernible in the eagerness with which they crowded round 

 the English officers to view their uniforms, &c. Perhaps not a single 

 one of these troops had ever seen an European face. Under pretence of 

 admiring the dirks of the Highland officers, they were with difficulty 

 prevented from stealing them. That which they least comprehended 

 was the use of the knife and fork which the dirk contains, which, from 

 some misinterpretation (the conversation being chiefly conducted by 

 signs), they understood were used for the purpose of cutting up and 

 devouring their enemies when killed. They were equally surprised at 

 the gloves, and could not at all conceive why a covering should be used 

 for the hands. They professed themselves willing to sell their swords or 

 daggers, or any part of their accoutrements, which were of the rudest 

 workmanship, though the Moors are of opinion that their guns are the 

 best in the world, and that foreign nations would be glad to imitate 

 them. One of these was subsequently purchased of a gunsmith, which 

 cost the unhappy mechanic a hundred severe stripes 011 the feet, for 

 having dared to sell the arms of his country to an European ; and the 

 gun was obliged to be conveyed secretly on board a vessel to be taken 

 out of the country. 



The principal characteristics of the natives of Barbary are cunning 

 and deceit ; what they want in knowledge they endeavour to make up 

 in subtlety : they are vain and imperious with the weak, and submissive 

 and adulatory with the strong, but too often treacherous to all. They 

 possess a proverbial dignity of deportment and gravity of countenance, 

 which at first sight might be mistaken for the effect of inborn greatness, 

 but which is in fact nothing more than that assumed garb the safety 

 of reserve often adopted by the more polished. Without eloquence, 

 they never want plausibility, and hide their deficiencies beneath the 

 most artful pretences. If by any Chance the less obstinate are ever* 

 made to feel or acknowledge their inferiority, it must not be taken as a 

 mark of diffidence, but rather as a means of exciting the least unfavour- 

 able consideration of their error. When defeated or detected in any 

 misdoings, as a last appeal, they exclaim, " You ought to forgive us, 

 what can you expect from barbarians ?" a name which they are aware 

 attaches to them in Europe. But their ingenuity is by no means to be 

 depreciated : it enables them in many instances to cope with their more 

 learned neighbours. 



Whilst all the world was striving to get rid of the poll-tax imposed 

 on foreigners entering the garrison of Gibraltar, the Moors, who were 

 most averse to its payment, soon brought their negociations on the sub- 

 ject to a close. Every nation, and even the English inhabitants of Gib- 

 raltar themselves, had complained of the illiberality of this tax, but in 

 vain ; the Berberiscos therefore resolved upon having something good 

 in return. They threatened to levy a tax of two dollars per head 

 (instead of one real of vellon per day) on every Englishman setting foot 

 in Barbary. The idea was certainly founded in perfect reciprocity, and 

 could not be quarrelled with ; but this threat so alarmed the good father 

 of the invention, that the ghost of Wat Tyler himself could not have 

 made him more uncomfortable. His wisdom was for the first time 

 awoke to the manner in which he had exposed Englishmen to have the 



