B A R B A R Y. 
till the year of the Hegira 35S. Haring then made all 
neceirary preparations, he committed the care of that ex¬ 
pedition to a faithful and experienced general called Giafar 
or Jaafar ; but in the mean time, this enterprife did not 
divert Al Moez from the care of his other conqueds, par¬ 
ticularly thofe of Sicily and Sardinia: to the lad of which 
he failed in the year of the Hegira 361, continuing a whole 
year in it, and leaving the care of his African dominions 
to an experienced officer named Yufef Ben Zeiri. He 
failed the following year for Tripoli, where he received 
the agreeable news that his_general had made himfelf maf- 
ter of Alexandria. He immediately embarked for that 
city, leaving the government of his African dominions in 
the hands of his trudy fervant Yufef above-mentioned, 
and, arriving fafely at that port, was received with every 
demonllration of. joy. Here he began to lay the founda¬ 
tion of his new Egyptian dynafly, which was to put a final 
end to the old one of Kairvvan, after it had continued a- 
bout lixty-five years. 
From the era of the departure of Al Moez, we may 
date the commencement of the prefent abjedt and degene¬ 
rated policy in the government of Barbary. Al Moez, 
indeed, for a time, preferved his dominions of Kairvvan, 
or Africa Proper ; but the ambition or avarice of the go¬ 
vernors he appointed buffered them to run quickly to 
decay. And, thefe governors in a fliort time fhaking off 
all controul, they foon began to fet up for themfelves, li- 
cenfing and abetting every kind of lawlefs depredation, un¬ 
til the defert became filled with banditti, and the whole 
maritime coad, from the Egyptian confines to the pillars 
of Hercules, now named Gibraltar, fwarmed with pirates, 
infomuch that they have fince been didinguilhed by the 
title of the Piratical States ; for the more immediate and 
particular hiftory of which, fee Algiers, Morocco, 
Fez, Tunis, and Tripoli. 
Thefe dates, under the Roman empire, were judly de¬ 
nominated the garden of the world ; and to have a relidence 
of there, was confidered as the higheft date of luxury. 
The produce of their foil formed thofe magazines, which 
furnilhed all Italy, and great part of the Roman empire, 
with corn, wine, and oil. Though the lands are now un¬ 
cultivated, through the oppreflion and barbarity of their 
conftitution, yet they are dill fertile, not only in the above 
commodities, but in dates, figs, raiiins, almonds, apples, 
pears, cherries, plums, citrons, lemons, oranges, pome¬ 
granates, &c. Excellent hemp and flax grow on their 
plains ; and, by the report of Europeans, who have lived 
there for fome time, the country abounds with all that 
can add to the pleafures of life. Neither the elephant nor 
the rhinoceros are to be found in the dates of Barbary; 
but their deferts abound with lions, tigers, leopards, hy¬ 
aenas, and monftrous ferpents. The Barbary horfes were 
formerly very valuable, and thought equal to the Ara¬ 
bian ; and, though their breed is now faid to be decayed, 
yet fome very fine ones are occafionally imported into Eng¬ 
land. Dromedaries, afles, mules, and kumrahs, a mod 
ferviceable creature, begot by an afs upon a cow, are 
their beads of burden ; but from the fervice of the camel 
they derive the greated advantages. This ufeful quadru¬ 
ped enables the African to perform his long and toilfome 
journies acrofs that continent. The camel is, therefore, 
(fays Mr. Bruce,) emphatically called the^/fo/i of the defert. 
Their cows are but fmall, and barren of milk; their Iheep 
yield but indifferent fleeces, but are very large, as are 
their goats. Bears, porcupines, foxes, apes, hares, rab- 
bits, ferrets, weafels, moles, cameleons, and all kinds of 
reptiles, are found here. Befides vermin, fays Dr. Shaw, 
in his Travels through Barbary, the apprehenfions we were 
undef of being bitten or dung by the fcorpioii, the viper, 
or the venomous fpider, rarely failed to interrupt our re- 
.pofe ; a refrefhment fo very grateful and fo highly necef- 
j'ary to a weary traveller. Partridges and quails, eagles, 
hawks, and all kinds of.wild-fowl, are found on this coad; 
and of the fmaller birds, the cafpa-fparrow is remarkable 
for its beauty, and the fweetnefs of its note, which is 
thought to exceed that of any other bird ; but it cannot 
live out 0^ its own climate. The feas and bays of Bar¬ 
bary abound with the fined and mod delicious fifh of every 
kind, and were preferred by the ancients to thofe of Eu¬ 
rope. 
The whole of Barbary is fituated under the temperate 
zone. All the coad and mountains on the fide of the Me¬ 
diterranean, from the Straits of Gibraltar to Egypt, are 
rather cold than hot, and fnow falls at certain times of 
the year : the rainy feafon commences about the middle 
of October throughout all the country ; the months of 
December and January are more fevere, neverthelefs the 
cold is not.fo great as to render a fire neceffary : the cold 
di mini dies from January, and the feafon is then fo incon- 
dant, that it often changes three or four times a day ; 
the wed and north winds blow’ with violence during the 
month of March. In April all the trees begin to bloom, 
and at the end of the fame month they gather ripe cher¬ 
ries, in Fez, Algiers, and Tunis, and in fome parts of 
Morocco. The inhabitants confid of three different faces 
of men : the Africans, natives ; Turks, who come to feek 
their fortunes; and Arabians, who chiefly dwell in the 
deferts. The Africans again are divided into whites and 
blacks: the former of which are thofe who inhabit the 
feaporls, and country along the coad; and the latter thole 
who refide in the interior parts. In this country all fo¬ 
reigners are allowed the open profeflion of their religion, 
but the inhabitants of the dates are Mahometans; and 
many fubjeDs of Morocco follow the tenets of the Hamed, 
a modern feidary, and an enemy to the ancient doctrine of 
the khalifs. All of them have much refpedf for idiots ; 
whofe protection in fome cafes fereens offenders from pu- 
nidiment for the mod notorious crimes. In the main, 
however, the Moors of Barbary, as the inhabitant# of 
thefe dares are now promifeuoufly called, (becaufe ths 
Saracens fird entered Europe from Mauritania, the coun¬ 
try of the Moors,.) have adopted the very word parts of 
the Mahometan religion, and feem to have retained oniy 
as much of it as countenances their vices. Adultery 
in women is punidied with death ; but, though the men 
are indulged with a plurality of wives and concubines, 
they commit the mod unnatural crimes with impunity. 
As the dates of Barbary poffefs thofe countries that for¬ 
merly went by the name of Mauritania and Numidia, the 
ancient African language is dill fpoken in fome of the 
inland countries, and even by fome inhabitants of the city 
of Morocco. In the fea-port towns, and maritime coun¬ 
tries, a badard kind of Arabic is fpoken ; and fea-faring 
people are no drangers to that medley of living and dead 
languages, Italian, French, Latin, See. that is fo well 
known in all the ports of the Mediterranean, by the name 
of Lingua Franca. 
Thefe dates, which formerly contained Carthage, and 
the pride of the Phoenician, Greek, and Roman, works, 
are replete with the mod curious remains of antiquity. 
Some memorials of the Mauritanian and Numidian great- 
nefs are dill to be met with, and many ruins of cities which 
bear evidences of their ancient grandeur and populoufnels. 
Thefe point out the old Julia Csefarea of the Romans, 
which was little inferior in magnificence to Cartilage it lei i . 
A few of the aqueducts of Carthage are dill remaining, 
but no vedige of its walls. The fame is the fate of Utica, 
famous for the retreat and death of Cato ; and fo over¬ 
run is the country with barbarifm, that their very Rites 
are not known, even by their ruins, amphitheatres, and 
other public buildings, which remain dill in tolerable pre- 
fervation. Befides thofe of claflical antiquity, many Sa¬ 
racen monuments, of the mod dupendous magnificence, 
are likewife found in this vad tradt ; thefe were erected 
under the khalifs of Bagdad, and the ancient kings of the 
country, before it was fubdued by the Turks, or reduced 
to its prefent form of- government. Their walls form the 
principal fortifications in the country, both inland and ma¬ 
ritime. We know of few or no natural enriofities belong, 
ing to -this counry, except its falt-pits, which in fome 
