CONQUEST OF AFRICA AND SPAIN. 385 



Arabian fables have decorated with walls of brass, 

 and roofs covered with gold and silver, — emblematic 

 expressions, perhaps, of its strength and opulence. 

 Crossing the Atlas range and tlie Great Desert, the 

 fearless Akbar traversed the wilderness in which 

 the Moslems afterward erected the splendid capitals 

 of Fez and Morocco. His career, though not his 

 zeal, was checked bj^ the prospect of a boundless 

 ocean. Spurring his horse into the waves, and rais- 

 ing his eyes to heaven, he exclaimed, with the en- 

 thusiasm of the Macedonian madman, " Great 

 God ! if my course were not stopped by this sea, I 

 would still go on to the unknown kingdoms of the 

 West, preaching the unity of thy holy name, and 

 putting to the sword the rebellious nations who wor- 

 ship any other gods but thee I" 



It was on the banks of the Sus, which falls into 

 the Atlantic not far from the Canary Islands, that 

 he encountered the last of the Moors, a race of law- 

 less undisciplined savages, Avho beheld with astonish- 

 ment the strange and resistless banners of a foreign 

 invader. They possessed neither gold nor silver to 

 reward the conqueror ; but a valuable traffic was 

 discovered in the beauty of the female captives, 

 some of whom brought in the Eastern markets 1000 

 pieces of gold. Numbers of the barbarians had pro- 

 fessed the faith and joined the ranks of the Moslems ; 

 though their aid and their conversion were alike in- 

 sincere. To curb their seditious spirit, as well as to 

 afford a place of security for the Saracen troops and 

 the immense booty they had amassed, Akbah adopted 

 the judicious pohcy of founding an Arabian col- 

 ony in the heart of Africa. In the fiftieth year of 

 the Hejira, he laid the foundation of Kairwan or 

 Cairoan, about fifty miles to the south of Tunis, and 

 twelve westward Irom the sea. A circumference of 

 3600 paces was encompassed with a brick wall ; and 

 in the course of five years, from being the station of 



Vol. I. — Kt 



