The Number Of Negroes That Have Been Imported Into This Country, And
Are Now Settled In These States, Is Astonishing.
The amount is little
less than three hundred thousand.
The Emperor's body-guard, which
consists of eighteen thousand horsemen, is chiefly composed of
negroes, who enjoy every privilege that despotic power can confer, and
are ready upon all occasions to enforce the royal mandate.
The great schools for the Moorish gentry are the chanceries of the
Bashaws, where the young men learn the arts of dissimulation and
duplicity in the greatest perfection, and become, very, early such
great adepts in these valuable acquirements, that in my opinion they
are fully able to cope with Monsieur Talleyrand, and the best
politicians at the court of St. Cloud. They are very dexterous also
in the art of temporizing with an enemy, and deluding him by a
thousand little expedients. It is therefore fortunate for Europe, that
the Moors are so indolent a set of people; for the immense power this
empire might have; were it peopled by an industrious and ambitious
race of men, would render it the most formidable in the world.
I shall now return to my own affairs, from the period at which they
were left off in a former letter. The Emperor had requested me to
report to him, personally, every morning, the state of his favourite
Sultana; I therefore waited upon him regularly at five o'clock, and
was extremely happy that I was enabled to make the report more welcome
each day. After this visit to His Imperial Majesty, I daily paid my
devoirs to the blind prince, the only remaining brother of the Emperor
now in Barbary, and who took no part in the disputes of former times;
and I then called upon the great officers of state.
Finding the Sultana in such a fair way of recovery, the Emperor
dismissed his Governors to their respective provinces, and removed his
court to Mequinez, his favourite summer residence, leaving me here, to
complete the cure of the Sultana, and to attend several of his
subjects, who stand high in his favour, in the lower town of Fez. As
the attendance required by my patients does not occupy the whole of my
time, I employ my leisure in observing such things as appear most
worthy of remark.
The town (or rather _towns_ of Fez, this city being divided into two
distinct parts, the one called Upper, the other Lower Fez) is the
capital of the kingdom of that name, and is supposed to contain about
three hundred thousand inhabitants, besides foreigners of their own
persuasion. There are upwards of five hundred mosques: one of them in
particular, which was built by Edris the Second, and in which his
remains were deposited, is magnificent beyond description, and is
about a mile and a half in circumference. There is another very little
inferior to this, which was erected by the Arabs of Caiwan, and
called _Carubin_. The other mosques have been constructed since. To
most of the mosques are annexed several colleges, religious schools,
and hospitals for the pilgrims who visit this place, for, in point of
holiness, it is considered as next to Mecca and Medina.
The lower town of Fez was built by Edris the Second, about the end of
the eighth century, and is taken notice of by Pliny under the name of
_Volubilis_. According to that author, and others, this city ranked
amongst the principal inland towns of Mauritania, and was a Roman
colony. It is a place of considerable trade; the inhabitants are
mostly freed men, engaged in commerce, and reputed to be very opulent
and industrious; they have purchased a charter, by which they ensure a
kind of independence, and are totally unmolested in their traffic; in
short, there are great privileges attached to this town, which are not
to be met with in any other part of Barbary. The lower town is almost
entirely surrounded by hills, which are highly cultivated, and abound
with vineyards, and gardens producing most exquisite fruits.
Upper Fez is situated on one of the highest of the hills which almost
encircle the lower town, and contains the imperial palace and
seraglio, several old palaces occupied by the sons of the Emperor, and
the habitations of the principal officers in the household. Contiguous
to these, is the inclosed town belonging solely to the Jews, who are
about thirty thousand in number, having one hundred and fifty
synagogues. On that part of the wall of the Jewish town which
overlooks Lower Fez, are placed several heavy pieces of ordnance,
which, in case of an insurrection in the latter, would very soon
demolish it: as the lower town is by much the most populous and
extensive, this precaution may not be unnecessary. The Jewish town is
commanded by an Alcaid, who cannot however shield its unfortunate
inhabitants from oppression and insults. These people are obliged to
walk barefooted through the Moorish streets; and they suffer the
greatest outrages without a murmur, nay, some of them have been
actually murdered in the act of selling their goods to the Moors. No
Christian is allowed to appear publicly in the streets of Fez, without
a special permission from the Emperor, and a military escort.
These towns are supplied with water in a most singular manner from a
river, called _Rasalema_, which takes its source in a valley near the
road to Mequinez. It issues from a rock, about eight or ten feet above
the ground, in a stream, that, from the form of the valley through
which it runs, appears a continued waterfall. It is conveyed into the
Emperor's garden by means of a large wheel, about twenty-five feet in
diameter, round which, at regular distances, are small buckets, which,
as the wheel goes round, are alternately filled, and emptied into a
reservoir at the top of the wall of the garden. From the reservoir the
water is also conveyed to the upper and lower towns by aqueducts.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 22 of 39
Words from 21500 to 22505
of 39195
