C76 TRAVELS IN AFRICA, 
CHAP. XIX. 
DAR-FUR. 
Government —Hijlory — Agriculture , ^c. — Population — Building 
— Manners and cujloms — Revenue — Articles of commerce^ 
^c. 
Government, 
Th e magiftracy of one, which feems tacitly, if it be not ex- 
prefsly favoured by the difpenfation of Mohammed, as in moft 
other countries profeffing that reHgion, prevails in Dar-Fun 
The monarch indeed can do nothing contrary to the Koran, but 
he may do more than the laws eftablifhed thereon will autho- 
rife: and as there is no council to control or even to affift him, 
his power may well be termed defpotic. He fpeaks in public of 
the foil and its produdions as his perfonal property, and of the 
people as little elfe than his flaves. 
When manifeft injuftice appears in his decifions, the FuMara, 
or ecclefiaftics, exprefs their fentiments with fome boldnefs, but 
their oppofition is without any appropriate object, and confe- 
quently its effedls are inconfiderable. All the monarch fears is 
a general alienation of the minds of the troops, who may at their 
will 
