HER 



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large province of Sus from the rest of the empire. They com- 

 pose the majority of the population in Sus, and especially 

 in southern Sus, where Sidi Hishiam, of the imperial race 

 of the Sbereefs, formed, in 1810, an independent state, in- 

 habited by 250,000 people, chiefly Shellooh. The capital is 

 Talent. The Sheliouh are also very numerous in the pro- 

 vince of Draha, eastward of the Atlas and towards Tafilelt. 

 The town of Beneali, situated in the Atlas near the sources 

 of the river Draha, is the residence of the chief of all the 

 independent Shellooh of the provinces of Guzznla and 

 Draha. In Jackson's map of Marocco, the various tribes of 

 Shellooh, Berbers, and Arabs, are marked with the initials 

 of each nation, but how accurately we cannot tell. Most of 

 the Shellooh tribes have the prefix Ait before their name, 

 while the Berbers have mostly adopted the Arabic prefix 

 Beni, like most of the Kabyles of the state of Algiers. Of 

 the character of the Shellooh, of their patriarchal habits and 

 hospitality, we have favourable accounts from various tra- 

 vellers, but not so of the Berbers and Kabyles, who appear 

 to be thievish, murderous, and cruel. The Shellooh, how- 

 ever, are also often at variance among themselves, through 

 hereditary and bloody feuds. The Shellooh profess Islam- 

 ism ; they have Imams and learned men of their nation; 

 they have given sovereigns, not only to Marocco, but to all 

 North Africa and to Spain: the founders of the dynasties 

 uf the Almoravides and Almobades were Shellooh. 



About the other divisions of the Amazirgh race, impro- 

 perly called Berber, we have still less information than 

 about those of Marocco, who have been till now the most 

 accessible to Europeans. [For the Kabyles of Algiers, see 

 ALGIKRS.] The Kabyles are loosely calculated by Graberg 

 and others to be nearly one million in the whole state of 

 Algiers; but we have no account of any traveller who has 

 lived among them in their dashkrahs in the Atlas. The 

 same may be said of the Amazirgh or Kabyles of Tunis, 

 who are called Zuaghes or Zuaves, and whom travellers 

 have generally confounded with the Arabs; and the Moors 

 of the towns call indifferently the Berbers and the Bedo- 

 ween Arabs, who live in the interior, by the name of Kabyles. 

 M'Gill, in his account of Tunis, does not even mention the 

 Berbers, as if there were no such race, although we know 

 the names of several Amazirgh tribes near Kerwan and 

 towards the island of Gerbi distinct from the Arab or Bedo- 

 ween tribes. [See TUNIS.] 



With regard to Tripoli, the population of that state is 

 essentially Arab. Tully says there are tribes of African 

 Arabs which he distinguishes from the Asiatic Arabs. But 

 it appears they all speak Arabic, and it is doubtful whether 

 there are any Amazirgh tribes at all. The African Arabs 

 of Tripoli have a tradition that they came, in very remote 

 times, from Arabia Felix under Melek Afriki. This Sabeean 

 immigration is mentioned throughout all North Africa as 

 having come by land across the desert. These Saboeans 

 either mixed with the prior colonies of the Amazirghs from 

 Palestine or Egypt, or contributed to form the other and 

 very mixed race of North Africa called Moors. [See 

 MOORS.] But the oasis of Ghadamis south of Tripoli is 

 inhabited by a race not Arab ; they are called A'dem ; they 

 have a distinct language, which is called Ertana by the 

 Arabs, and they are supposed to be a tribe of Amazirgh 

 like those of Siwah. ( Marmol's Africa ; Edrisi's Africa ; 

 Leo Afric.anus, Description of Africa ; Ritter's Afrika ; 

 Paulus' Latin translation of an itinerary from Fas to Tafi- 

 lelt by Ahmed Ben el Hhassan el Metsiovi, written in 1 789 ; 

 Shaw's Travelt in Barbary; OttavioCastiglioni, Recherches 

 sur let Berberes Allantiquei habitans de la Barbarie ; Ven- 

 ture, Notice sur la Langue Berbers in Langles' Memoire 

 iur lei Oaset ; and the other writers mentioned in this 

 article.) 



BERBICE, a district of the colony of British Guiana, was 

 first settled by the Dutch in the year 1626. In 1690 the 

 colony had made considerable progress, and the French, 

 who effected a landing, levied on the population a contribu- 

 tion of 20,000 florins. The colony was comprised in the 

 'barter of the Dutch West India Company ; but an ar- 

 r.mgement had been made in 1678, with the family of Van 

 Pccre of Flushing, who were in fact the founders and pro- 

 prietors, by which it was granted to them in perpetuity. In 

 17 12 a flotilla of French privateers attacked the settlement, 

 and exacti-d a contribution of 300,000 florins, which was 

 finally paid by the house of Van Hoorn and Company, who 

 received in return from the family of Van Peere a cession of 

 three-fourths of the concern. In 1 720, the proprietor*, not 



having sufficient capital for the cultivation of the land, raised 

 a loan in shares, to be employed solely in the production of 

 sugar, and from this date the colony rapidly flourished. Coll'oo 

 was introduced from Surinam, and a fort was built at the 

 confluence of the Canjee with the Berbice. A negro insur- 

 rection in 1 763 threatened the colony with destruction ; nor 

 was it subdued till the arrival of a strong force from Holland. 

 Six years after the woods were set on fire, as it was sup- 

 posed, by some rebel negroes, and the conflagration extended 

 from the river Courantyne to the Demerara, destroying the 

 forests and devastating several rich plantations. In 1781 

 Berbice fell into the hands of the British, but was re-cap- 

 tured by the French in the following year. In 1 796 it again 

 surrendered to the British forces with the rest of the Dutch 

 settlements on this coast, but they were all restored to Hol- 

 land by the treaty of Amiens in 180-2. The limits of the 

 colony, which formerly extended no farther to the eastward 

 than the Devil's Creek, were, after the surrendering of Suri- 

 nam to the English, enlarged in 1799 by the addition of the 

 country between that creek and the river Courantyne : the 

 opposite boundary, separating it from Demerara, passes from 

 the mouth of Abary Creek in a direct line to the southward. 

 On the breaking out of the war in 1803 England again 

 took possession of Berbice, since which time it has remained 

 a British colony, having been finally ceded by the treaty of 

 Paris, August, 1814, with the condition that the Dutch 

 proprietors should have liberty to trade with Holland under 

 certain restrictions. In 1831 Demerara, Essequibo, and 

 Berbice, were united under one government called BRITISH 

 GUIANA. . 



New Amsterdam, the capital of the colony, was com- 

 menced in 1796, the position of Old Amsterdam, which was 

 higher up. being found inconvenient. It stands on the east 

 bank of the Berbice river, immediately above the junction 

 of the Canjee, where it is intersected by canals, and has all 

 the advantages of the tides. It extends about a mile and a 

 half along the Berbice, and each house has an allotment of 

 a quarter of an acre, completely insulated by trendies, which, 

 being filled and emptied with the tide, prevent an accumu- 

 lation of filth. The government house is of brick, in the 

 European style, and is considered the finest building in 

 British Guiana. 



The whole line of sea-coast, extending between fifty and 

 sixty miles, is low and flat. It has a shoal along it which 

 runs off about three miles, so that the land, which from the 

 patches of trees appears like islands, is scarcely visible to 

 vessels till they arrive in very shallow water. There are 

 several small creeks along the coast navigable only for boats. 

 Off the coast the current sets strong to the westward. A 

 beautiful road, sixty feet broad with parapets on each side, 

 runs along the shore to Demerara ; the sea-coast has been 

 embanked and luxuriantly laid out in plantations. 



Berbice river falls into the Atlantic fifty-seven miles to 

 the eastward of the Demerara in 6 24' N. lat. ; at its en- 

 trance it is four miles wide with low cleared land on both 

 sides covered with trees in clusters, which at a distance 

 appear like islands. In mid channel lies Crab Island, so 

 called from the number of land-crabs on it. Crab Island is 

 low and bushy, about a mile in circumference, with a spit 

 of sand running out to the north and south, dividing the 

 river into two navigable channels, of which the eastern has 

 seventeen to twenty feet, the western only eight to thirteen 

 feet water. As a harbour, however, the advantage of the 

 Berbice is much lessened by a sand-bar across its mouth, 

 over which there is only seven feet water at low tides : this 

 bar reaches eight miles off Crab Island to the northward, 

 and off the east point a spit runs off which at low water 

 dries five miles from the land. The entrance to the river is 

 protected by three strong batteries, two on the eastern side, 

 and the other called York Redoubt, on the western bank 

 opposite Crab Island. About four miles up the river is 

 Fort St. Andrew, a small low fortification with four bastions, 

 surrounded by a ditch and mounted with eighteen 12- 

 pounder guns. An extensive swamp lies in the rear of this 

 fort, which is separated from New Amsterdam by the 

 Canjee, so that it cannot be commanded from any adjacent 

 point. The confluence of the Canjee takes place about 

 five miles from the entrance, and after branching off to the 

 eastward runs a tortuous course to the southward, nearly 

 parallel with the Berbice, at a distance of seven to ten miles, 

 watering the territory between that river and the Couran- 

 tyne. It is navigable for the small schooners of the country 

 for about fifty miles, when falls and cataracts occur. It is 



NO. 238. 



[THE PENNY CYCLOPAEDIA.] 



VOL. IV.-2 M 



