LI. CHA P. might affemble in arms; but the number of three hundred and fixty towns is incompatible with the ignorance or decay of hufbandry 147; and a circumference of three leagues will be justified by the ruins of Erbe or Lambefa, the ancient metropolis of that inland country. As we approach the sea-coast, the well-known cities of Bugia 148 and Tangier 149 define the more certain limits of the Saracen victories. A remnant of trade still adheres to the commodious harbour of Bugia, which, in a more profperous age, is faid to have contained about twenty thoufand houses; and the plenty of iron which is dug from the adjacent mountains might have fupplied a braver people with the inftruments of defence. The remote pofition and venerable antiquity of Tingi, or Tangier, have been decorated by the Greek and Arabian fables; but the figurative expreffions of the latter, that the walls were conftructed of brafs, and that the roofs were covered with gold and filver, may be interpreted as the emblems of ftrength and opulence. The province of Mauritania Tingitana ", which affumed 147 See Novairi (apud Otter, p. 118.), Leo Africanus (fol. 81. verfa, who reckons only cinque citta è infinite cafal, Marmol (Description de Afrique, tom. iii. p. 33. ), and Shaw (Travels, p. 57. 65—68.). 14 Leo African. fol. 58, verfo, 59. recto. Marmol, tom. Shaw, p. 43. 149 Leo African. fol. 52. Marmol, tom. ii. p. 228. ii. p. 415 150 Regio ignobilis, et vix quicquam illuftre fortita, parvis oppidis habita. tur, parva flumina emittit, folo quam viris melior et fegnitie gentis obfcura. Pomponius Mela, i. 5. iii. 10. Mela deferves the more credit, since his own Phoenician ancestors had migrated from Tingitana to Spain (fee, in ii. 6. a paffage of that geographer fo cruelly tortured by Salmafius, Ifaac Voffius, and the most virulent of critics, James Gronovius). He lived at the time of LI. affumed the name of the capital, had been im- CHAP. perfectly discovered and fettled by the Romans; the five colonies were confined to a narrow pale, and the more fouthern parts were seldom explored except by the agents of luxury, who fearched the forefts for ivory and the citron wood ", and the fhores of the ocean for the purple fhell-fifh. The fearless Akbah plunged into the heart of the country, traversed the wilderness in which his fucceffors erected the fplendid capitals of Fez and Morocco 2, and at length penetrated to the verge of the Atlantic and the great defert. The river Sus defcends from the western fides of mount Atlas, fertilifes, like the Nile, the adjacent foil, and falls into the fea at a moderate diftance from the Canary, or Fortunate, iflands. Its banks were inha of the final reduction of that country by the emperor Claudius: yet almost thirty years afterwards, Pliny (Hift. Nat. v. i.) complains of his authors, to lazy to inquire, too proud to confefs their ignorance of that wild and remote province. 151 The foolish fashion of this citron wood prevailed at Rome among the men, as much as the taste for pearls among the women. A round board or table, four or five feet in diameter, fold for the price of an estate (latefundii taxatione), eight, ten, or twelve thousand pounds fterling (Plin. Hift. Natur. xiii. 29.). I conceive that I must not confound the tree citrus, with that of the fruit citrum. But I am not botanist enough to define the former (it is like the wild cyprefs) by the vulgar or Linnæan name; nor will I des cide whether the citrum be the orange or the lemon. Salmafius appears to exhauft the fubject, but he too often involves himself in the web of his diforderly erudition (Plinian. Exercitat. tom. ii. p. 666, &c.). 152 Leo African. fol. 16. verfo. Marmol, tom. ii. p. 28. This province, the first scene of the exploits and greatness of the cherifs, is often mentioned in the curious hiftory of that dynasty at the end of the iii volume of Marmol, Defcription de l'Afrique. The iiid vol. of the Recherches Hiftoriques fur les Maures (lately published at Paris) illuftrates the history and geography of the kingdoms of Fez and Morocco. CHAP bited by the laft of the Moors, a race of favages, LI. without laws, or difcipline, or religion: they were aftonished by the strange and irresistible terrors of the Oriental arms; and as they poffeffed neither gold nor filver, the richest spoil was the beauty of the female captives, fome of whom were afterwards fold for a thousand pieces of gold. The career, though not the zeal, of Akbah was checked by the profpect of a boundless ocean. He spurred his horfe into the waves, and raising his eyes to heaven, exclaimed with the tone of a fanatic: "Great "God! if my course were not stopped by this fea, "I would ftill go on, to the unknown kingdoms "of the Weft, preaching the unity of thy holy name, and putting to the fword the rebellious "nations who worship any other gods than << thee '53" Yet this Mahometan Alexander, who fighed for new worlds, was unable to preferve his recent conquefts. By the univerfal defection of the Greeks and Africans, he was recalled from the fhores of the Atlantic, and the furrounding multitudes left him only the refource of an honourable death. The laft fcene was dignified by an example of national virtue. An ambitious chief, who had difputed the command and failed in the attempt, was led about as a prisoner in the camp of the Arabian general. The infurgents had trufted to his difcontent and revenge; he difdained their offers and revealed their defigns. In the 153 Otter (p. 119.) has given the ftrong tone of fanaticifm to this exelamation, which Cardonne (p. 37.) has softened to a pious wish of preaching the Koran. Yet they had both the fame text of Novairi before their eyes. hour LI. hour of danger, the grateful Akbah unlocked his CHA P. fetters, and advised him to retire; he chose to die under the banner of his rival. Embracing as friends and martyrs, they unfheathed their feymetars, broke their fcabbards, and maintained an obftinate combat, till they fell by each other's fide on the last of their flaughtered countrymen. The third general or governor of Africa, Zuheir, avenged and encountered the fate of his predeceffor. He vanquifhed the natives in many battles; he was overthrown by a powerful army, which Conftantinople had fent to the relief of Carthage. tion of A. D. It had been the frequent practice of the Moorish Founda tribes to join the invaders, to fhare the plunder, Cairoan, to profefs the faith, and to revolt to their favage 670~675. state of independence and idolatry, on the first retreat or misfortune of the Moflems. The prudence of Akbah had proposed to found an Arabian colony in the heart of Africa; a citadel that might curb the levity of the barbarians, a place of refuge to fecure, against the accidents of war, the wealth and the families of the Saracens. With this view, and under the modeft title of the station of a caravan, he planted this colony in the fiftieth year of the Hegira. In its prefent decay, Cairoan "54 ftill holds the fecond rank in the kingdom of Tunis, from which it is distant about fifty 154 The foundation of Cairoan is mentioned by Ockley (Hift. of the Saracens, vol. ii. p. 129, 130.); and the situation, mosch, &c. of the city are de fcribed by Leo Africanus (fol. 75.), Marmol (tom. ii. p. 532.), and Shaw (p. 115.). CHAP. miles to the fouth 155; its inland fituation, twelve LI. miles weftward of the fea, has protected the city 155 A portentous, though frequent, miftake has been the confounding, from a flight fimilitude of name, the Cyrene of the Greeks, and the Cairoan of the Arabs, two cities which are separated by an intervai of a thousand miles along the fea-coaft. The great Thuanus has not efcaped this fault, the lefs excufable as it is connected with a formal and elaborate defcription of Africa (Hitoriar. 1. vii. c. 2. in tom. i. p. 240. edit. Buckley). |