Note (return) — WEST AND SOUTH BARBARY,

We struck our tents at five o'clock, and travelled very fast to get out of these treacherous habitations; for we learned that, the preceding night, Alkaid L'Hassan Ramy, a Negro captain of the emperor's army, passed this Douar, and was robbed of his bridles, saddles, and tent equipage, with which the thieves made off, without being discovered. I afterwards met Alkaid L'Hassan Ramy at Mequinas; and he appeared quite astonished that I should have escaped being robbed at the above Douar, calling the whole Kabyl a set of lawless thieves. On the 17th, we started at five o'clock, and arrived at Mequinas at nine o'clock, performing the journey from Rabat to Mequinas in twenty-two hours, being sixty-six miles. The city of Mequinas is the court-town of the northern division of the empire: the imperial palace at this place is above two miles in circumference. At the corners are erected (Coba's) square buildings or pavilions, containing one room up stairs, where the emperor frequently transacts business. This palace was built by the sultan Muley Ismael: it is very neat, and consists for the most part of moresque architecture; the marble columns and other decorations were brought from (Kasser Farawan) the ruins of Pharaoh, about a day's journey to the eastward. There is a superior garden of choice fruit within the wall which surrounds the palace, and in the latter are many elegant apartments, ornamented À-la-mauresque. The ladies of Mequinas are so extremely handsome, that I cannot say I saw one plain young woman, although I visited several families; nay, I can say, without offense to truth, that I did not see one that was not comely and handsome. I was most hospitably entertained wherever I went. On the 18th June, at eight o'clock A.M. we started for Fas; when we had approached the latter city, we met a messenger, with the prince Muley Abdsalam's secretary, from the emperor to his excellency J.M. Matra, the British ambassador to the court of Marocco, who informed me that his excellency had just terminated his embassy, had waited for my arrival two days, and was on his return to Tangier. Presuming, therefore, that the ambassador had negociated my business for me, I turned to the north-east, travelled all day without halting, till eight o'clock in the evening, when we arrived at the renowned sanctuary 114 of Muley Dris Zerone, on the declivity of North Atlas; a most magnificent, beautiful, and picturesque country, abounding in all the necessaries and luxuries of life. This sanctuary was never before, nor since, visited by any Christian. It was here that the standard of Muhamed was first planted in North-western Africa, by the fakeer and prince Muley Dris, the founder. A favourable combination of circumstances, of which I availed myself, enabled me to procure not only an asylum, but a most hospitable and kind reception and entertainment in this renowned sanctuary; and I actually slept in the Horem or Adytum itself, which honour I obtained by a present, appropriated to the circumstance, and sent to the chief fakeer of the sanctuary, accompanied with some observations expressed in a manner which was agreeable to the holy fraternity. When I entered the Horem of this renowned sanctuary, where I slept alone, its silence reminded me of the silence of death, which formed one of the ancient mysteries of Egypt. The chief of the fakeers met me in the portico, and cordially shook hands with me, calling me his brother. At this time there was a rumour that Bonaparte was preparing to invade the country; and indeed he had intimated as much, the English were therefore courted; it was even hoped and expected by the emperor that they would in such an event become his allies, and give him succour. The next morning, I gave the fakeer some wax candles accompanied with observations emblematical of the present, which was so favourably received, that no less than nine saints prostrated themselves at the place of prayer, which is at the entrance of the town, as I passed out to pursue my journey, uttering with audible voices a (fâtha) prayer of benediction, invoking on me the protection of Almighty God, and a blessing on the English nation; also that God would avert every danger from the embassy, and restore them in safety to their native land. I am perfectly aware that, in recording this extraordinary circumstance, persons who have visited this country, and have remarked the rancour that generally exists with the lower orders against Christians, may doubt my veracity, so unprecedented a circumstance it is for a Christian to be admitted into a Horem! the most respected also and the most sacred in the empire! My answer to such is, that the circumstance is so incredible, that I should not have presumed to lay it before the British public, if I had not two most respectable witnesses, now living in West Barbary, who can and will corroborate my report; these two men are Bel Hage, a Muselman, who had been the prince's cook, and who officiated as mine during the journey, and Muhamed, commonly called Deeb, of Diabet, a village near Mogodor, the same man whose dexterity Aly Bey, in his travels, alludes to, when he shot a fish in the river near Mogodor.