BAR BAH Y STATES. 



415 



the whole country is covered with flowers. The 

 moisture and warmth impart to the productions of the 

 soil an uncommon vigour and exuberant growth. 

 Barley is the most importantproduction. Wheat, maize, 

 millet, rice, and a kind of pulse (in Spanish, gar- 

 bancos), which is eaten roasted, in large quantities, 

 are generally cultivated. The Indian fig-tree, which 

 takes root easily, forms impenetrable hedges for gar- 

 dens and vineyards. The vine stretches itself, in 

 beautiful windings, from one tree to another. Its 

 trunk is often as large as that of a common sized 

 tree. Everywhere are seen well-cultivated olive- 

 gurdens. The pomegranates are three times as large 

 as in Italy. Excellent oranges ripen in great quan- 

 tities. Melons, cucumbers, cabbages, lettuce abound. 

 The artichoke grows wild. The henna is raised in 

 the gardens. The acorns of the quercus ballotta, 

 with a high trunk, an article of food of the inhabi- 

 tants, taste like wild chestnuts. The tall tapering 

 cypress, the cedar, the almond-tree, the white mul- 

 berry-tree, the indigo/era glauca (which is important 

 for dyeing), the cineraria of the meadows (which is 

 efficacious against the stone), the fragrant cistus, the 

 splendid cactus, grow every where. The hills are 

 covered with thyme and rosemary, which purify the 

 air, and serve for firewood. In all directions are 

 seen bushes of white roses, from which is extracted 

 the purest essence. The sugar cane flourishes excel- 

 lently. An inferior variety of this, called soliman, 

 reaches a considerable height, and is more juicy than 

 any other in the world. The lotus and the palm-tree 

 are of the greatest advantage to the inhabitants. 

 The fan-palm grows on the whole coast ; the date- 

 palm, in the parts which lie nearer to the desert of 

 Sahara. There are, along the coast, woods of the 

 cork tree. Gum is obtained from the acacia tree. 



Among the useful animals, the camel holds the 

 highest place. Greater care might be bestowed on 

 the breeding of horses and buflaloes. Sheep, with 

 fat tails, are common. Wild boars and many other 

 species of game are abundant. In the interior of the 

 country are apes, jackals, hyenas, lions, panthers, 

 ounces, and the gentle gazelles. Ostriches live in 

 the desert. Birds are numerous, as are, also, locusts, 

 gnats, flies, bugs, toads, and serpents, the latter from 

 nine to twelve feet long ; river and sea fish and turtles 

 in abundance. The bees deposit excellent honey in 

 the rocks and trees. The art of mining is neglected ; 

 but there is much iron, copper, lead, tin, sulphur, 

 many mineral springs, much gypsum, limestone, good 

 clays, &c., together with salt from springs and the 

 sea, in abundance. 



This extensive and beautiful country, separated 

 from Europe only by a sea of no great width, has 

 often been the centre of an advanced civilization. It 

 was distinguished for prosperity, population, and 

 industry, under the Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, 

 and Arabians. Its commercial advantages are very 

 great. Its intercourse with the coasts of Europe is 

 far more easy and quick than the intercourse of those 

 coasts with their own capital cities, and the transpor- 

 tation of goods is less expensive from Marseilles and 

 Genoa to Tunis and Algiers than to Paris, or even to 

 Turin and M ilan. Cato showed to the Roman senate 

 fresh figs which were gathered under the walls of 

 Carthage ; yet this fruit, except in its dried state, is 

 not edible after three days from the time of gathering. 

 The whole country can support sixty millions of in- 

 habitants, and now hardly contains ten millions and a 

 half. Next to Egypt, it was the richest and most 

 productive Roman province, and one of the granaries 

 of the mistress of the world. The Roman writers 

 called it the soul of the republic, the Jewel of the em- 

 pire, speciositas totius terrce fiorentis, and the wealthy 

 citizens considered the possession of palaces and 



country houses on this beautiful coast as the highest 

 happiness. The little Arabian courts, too, of Fez, 

 Tetuan, Tremecen, Garbo, Constantine, sedulously 

 encouraged the arts and agriculture. Amalfi, 

 Naples, Messina, Pisa, Genoa, and Florence enriched 

 themselves by their commercial intercourse with this 

 fine country, and the Venetians ships visited all the 

 cities of the African coast. Three centuries ago, an 

 end was put to all this prosperity. The land became 

 the abode of crime and misery, the prey of 13-14,000 

 adventurers, collected together from another part of 

 the world, and detested by the native inhabitants. 



The inhabitants of the country are divided into 

 Cabyles, Moors, and Arabs, negroes, Jews, and 

 Turks. First, the original inhabitants, called, also, 

 Barabra or Berbers (hence Barbary), dwell in the 

 mountains in small villages. The Guanches, in the 

 Canaries, were also Berbers. These are wild, ath- 

 letic, well-formed men, of great muscular strength, 

 who bear, with ease, hunger and hardships ot all 

 kinds. All the branches of this race are distinguish- 

 ed by thin beards. They are, for the most part, 

 robbers, inhuman and faithless ; yet they practice 

 hospitality, and travelers are secure under their pro- 

 tection. Jealous of their liberty, they are subject to 

 their sovereign only in name, and usually carry on 

 war with the troops employed in collecting the taxes. 

 They prepare their fire-arms themselves, and are 

 good marksmen. The shepherds, on the high moun- 

 tains, dwell in caves, like the ancient Troglodytes. 

 The Schilluh-Berbers, in Morocco, are the most im- 

 placable and vindictive. The most numerous people 

 of northern Africa are the Arabs. Those who dwell 

 in cities are particularly called Moors; those who 

 wander over the country, and live in tents, are called 

 Bedouins. The last are descended from the Sara- 

 cens, the first conquerors of the country. They are 

 large, muscular, with spirited, handsome counte- 

 nances, large, black, piercing eyes, noses somewhat 

 aquiline, regular teeth, white as ivory, a full, strong 

 beard, and black hair. The complexion of the people, 

 in the northern parts, is light brown, and, toward the 

 south, becomes darker, till at last it is entirely 

 black, but without the negro physiognomy, which 

 first shows itself in Soudan. The Arab natives are. 

 for the most part, a wandering race, dwelling in 

 tents, in bodies of from ten or twelve- to a hundred 

 families, in the patriarchal manner, every family un- 

 der a sheik, who explains the Koran, administers 

 justice, and adjusts quarrels. They carry on a con- 

 stant war, in the most savage manner, either with the 

 Berbers, or with the collectors of tribute, sent by 

 their sovereign. Their business is war ; their in- 

 come, plunder. When they are not engaged in war 

 with their neighbours, they enter, as auxiliaries, the 

 service of the deys. They universally hate the Chris- 

 tians, yet they are less dissembling and deceitfid than 

 the Moors and Berbers. The right of hospitality is 

 of avail only within their little camps. 



The Moors are a mixture of all the nations which 

 have settled in northern Africa, but, in their princi- 

 pal characteristics, are Arabs. They call themselves 

 Moslems (that is, believers), or Medains (that is, inha- 

 bitants of cities). As zealous professors of Moham- 

 med's doctrine, they despise and hate Christians aim 

 Jews. They are jealous, suspicious, unsociable, 

 dissembling, cruel, incapable of love and friendship ; 

 moreover, so idle and inactive, that they sit whole 

 days with their leg's crossed under them, leaning 

 against the wall, and, without uttering a word, gaze 

 at the passers by. There is no longer any trace ot 

 the intellectual cultivation which they had attained in 

 the middle ages, under a better gov eminent in Spain. 

 They are in the highest degree superstitious, and, in 

 their eyes, it is a crime merely to possess a printed 



