by the ancients'; and, we may likewife add, by the moderns. The reader will foon be enough acquainted with this country, to embrace the fame opinion. And, if the fituation of several of the ancient rivers, ports, or cities, may be fixed and fettled by fome few names, ruins, or traditions of them, that are continued down to our times, he will likewise have further occafion to complain of the want of accuracy and correctness both in the old and the later geography. No apology, we prefume, need be made for the little amufement and entertainment, which fome readers may receive from these or other of our geographical enquiries. Strabo, Ptolemy, and Pliny, thofe celebrated masters in this branch of literature, have given us the pattern, which we have all along endeavoured to follow and imitate: with what success, must be left to the judgment and decifion of those alone who are acquainted with, and take delight in, these studies. CHA P. II. Of that part of the Maritania Cæfarienfis, which belongs to the Tingitanians or Western-Moors. A S the Mauritania Cafarienfis extended itself as far as the river The Mullooïah that river. The Malva then, Malua, Maλsa, or Mul-looïah, (according to the pronunciation of the Moors) is a large and deep river, which empties itself into the Mediterranean Sea, overagainst the bay of Almeria in Spain. It lies, as was before obferved, about XL M. to the weftward of Twunt, and CCXL M. from the Atlantic ocean. Small cruising veffels are still admitted within it's channel; which, by proper care and contrivance, might be made fufficiently commodious, as it seems to have been formerly, for veffels of greater burthen. The fources of it, according to Abulfeda, are a great way within the Sahara, at the distance of DCCC M. and the whole course of it, contrary to most of the other rivers, lies nearly in the fame meridian. river Malva. The Mullooïab therefore, as it appears to be the most confiderable The Mullooïriver in Barbary, so it is by far the fitteft for fuch a boundary, as the ah, Molochancient geographers and hiftorians have made it, betwixt Mauritania ath, and Mulucha the fams 'Multa in Mauritania turbata & confufa videntur, quod ftrabimus. Cellar. Geegraph. Antiq. 1. iv. cap. 5. p. 126. ad loca fingula demon- TRES INSU- Seedy Abdelmoumen, or LEMNIS. Maifearda. and Numidia; or betwixt the Mauritania Tingitana and Cæfarienfis, as they were afterwards called. The fame river likewife, by comparing together the old geographers, will appear to be the Molochath and the Mulucha: for both these names have no small affinity with the Mullooiab or Mul-ûbhah, the true original name perhaps of the Malva, or Muxa. The fame boundary likewife between the Mauri and the Massafyli, which is by Strabo afcribed to the Molochath, is by Salluft, Mela3, and Pliny afcribed to the Mulucha. As then the Mauritania Cafarienfis, which extended to the Malva, was the fame with the country of the Maffayli, which likewise extended to the Molochath or Mulucha; the Malva, Molochath, and Mulucha must be the fame river with the prefent Mul-lccïah. 4 THREE little islands, where there is good fhelter for small vessels, are fituated to the N. W. of the river, at the distance of x M. Thefe are the Tres Infulæ of the Itinerary. Six leagues further to the eastward is the village of Seedy Abdelmoumen, one of the tutelar Marab-butts or faints of this country, whofe tomb they have here in the greatest veneration. Below it, there is a fmall but commodious road for veffels, which the row-boats of this country frequently touch at; as they do likewife at Mai-fear-da, a little beyond it to the eaft. This, which is another of the leffer maritime villages of Barbary, from whence a great quantity of grain is often shipped for Europe, is made up, like thofe in the inland country, in a careless flovenly manner, with mud, stone, timber, hurdles, and fuch materials, as are not the most durable, but the most easily Strabo, 1. xvii. p. 1183. Haud longe à flumine Mulucha, quod Jugurtha Bocchique regnum disjungebat, &c. Sal. Bell. Jugurth. Cantab. 1710. $97. p. 471. Gatulorum magna pars & Numida ad flumen ufque Mulucham fub Jugurtha erant; Mauris omnibus rex Bocchus imperitabat. Id. § 22. p. 292. Ego flumen Mulucham, quod inter me & Micipfam fuit, non egrediar, neque Jugurtham id intrare finam. Bocchi Orat. Id. § 118. p. 524. Ad Mauritaniam Numida tenent: proxume Hifpaniam Mauri funt. Id. § 22. p. 291. Pauci ad Regem Bocchum in Mauritaniam abierant. Id. § 66. p. 398. 3 P. Mela Afr. defcript. cap. 5. in fine. 4 Plin. l. v. cap. 2. s Ptol. I. iv. cap.2. in princip. 6 Seedy (or Cid) as the Spanish hiftorians write it, (which we fhall have frequent occafion to mention) is the fame word of respect amongst the Moors and Arabs, that fir, mafter, or lord is amongst us; but which they attribute in a higher degree to their Mar-rab-butts, as they call fuch perfons who are or have been remarkable for any extraordinary fanctity of life, or aufterity of manners. These Mar-rab-butts (whom I fhall have frequent occafion likewife to mention) are ufually buried under a little vaulted roof, (or Cubba as they call it; from whence our Cupola) having their tombs painted and adorned with beads, ribbons, and fuch like trinkets. A number of thefe fanctuaries are dispersed all over Barbary, and are usually places of refuge; where there is kept up great hofpitality, especially for pilgrims and perfons in diftrefs. In the Levant these faints are called Shecks, which word properly fignifies elders. procured procured. The first of these villages was probably the Lemnis of the Itinerary. the Mullooïah, and El-Joube. The Tingitanians have upon the banks of the Mullocïah, in the road The cofile of betwixt Fez and Tlem-fan, a well-fortified castle, with a garrison of a thousand men. They have another at El-Joube, i. e. the ciferns, xx M. further to the eastward. In the wars betwixt the late Muley Ishmael and the regency of Algiers, they were both of them of the greatest confequence; as they ftill continue to be very serviceable in awing the Ang-gadd and other factious clans of Arabs; inhabitants unworthy of fo delicious and fruitful a country. Wooje-da, the Guagida of Leo, is the frontier town of the Western- Woojeda or Moors, and lies about the half way betwixt El-Joube and Tlem-fan. Guagida. To the Southward is the defert of the Ang-gadd, whofe numerous The Angand warlike offspring extend their hoftilities and encampments to the gadd. very walls of Tlem-fan; and to the Northward, nearer the sea, we have, together with a celebrated intermitting fountain, the mountainous and rugged district of Beni Zeneffel, (or Jefneten, as Leo Beni Zeneffel, calls them) a no lefs powerful tribe of Kabyles; who, fecure in or Herpitheir numbers and situation, have not hitherto fubmitted to the Tingi- dileni. tanians. Ptolemy's Chalcorychian mountains, the feat of the ancient Herpiditani, had probably this fituation. We should not leave Tingitania without obferving, that, during Safetravelling the long reign of the late Muley Ishmael, Thefe, no less than the other in Tingitania. diftricts, more immediately influenced by the Capital, were under such strict government and regulation, that, notwithstanding the number of Arabs who are every where in the way, intent, every one of them, upon plunder and rapine; yet a child, (according to their manner of speaking) might fafely carry a piece of money in his open band from one end of the kingdom to another, whilft the merchant travelled with his richest commodities, from one fair and fea-port to another, without the leaft danger or moleftation. By defert or wilderness, the reader is not always to understand a country altogether barren and unfruitful; but fuch only as is rarely or ever fown or cultivated; which, tho' it yields no crops of corn or fruit, yet affords herbage more or lefs for the grazing of cattle; with fountains or rills of water, though more fparingly interfperfed than in other places. The wilderness or defert where our Saviour was tempted, with feveral others. mentioned in Scripture, was of this nature and quality. CHA P. III. Of that part of the Sea-Coaft of the Mauritania Cæfarienfis, called at present the Western Province, or the Province of Tlemfan.. L The general EAVING Maifearda and Woojeda at fome diftance to the west-defcription of ward, we enter upon Twunt and the mountains of Trara; a this province. beautiful knot of eminences, which furnish the markets of Tlemfan: with all manner of fruit. These are the confines of this province to the west, as the river Ma-faffran, at near cc M. distance, to the east.. The whole of it is almoft equally distributed into mountains and valleys; and, were it better fupplied with rivers and fountains, it would be more delightful, as it was in the time of Salluft (Bell. Jug. p. 278.) accounted a more fertile and populous diftrict than the eaftern part of this kingdom.. The mountains of Atlas, The mountains It will be difficult, from the uniformity and the little interruption there is among the mountains of this province, to diftinguish that particular chain of them, which may be taken for the continuation: of mount Atlas: a point of geography that must be always regarded.. However, as the mountains of Sachratain behind Tlem-fan, lye the nearest to the Sahara, and are continued, quite through this province, by thofe of Sout el Tell, Tafarowy, Ellcalla, Benizerwall, Elcadara, and Miliana; thefe, I prefume, as they are all along remarkably confpicuous, from the great number and variety of plains which lye on each. fide of them, fo they seem to lay the greatest claim to that celebrated. ridge of mountains.. About XIV M. from Tiunt, the mountains of Trara ftretch themof Trara, &c. felves into the sea, and make one of the longest and most confpicuous Cape Hone, Ras Hunneine, forelands to the eastward of the Mullocïah. It is called at present er Mellack. Cape Hone, Ras Hunneine, and Mellack; and was the péya angwτnexov, Miya axul or the Great Promontory of Ptolemy. The meridian of London, which CLOF, f. MAGNUM PRO- likewife, in laying down the maps, is our firft meridian, falls in pretty nearly with this Cape. MONT. Tafna, er Siga. Six leagues to the E. of this Cape, is the mouth of the river Tafna, the ancient Siga', made up of the Iffer, the ancient Affanus, the Barbata, and other smaller rivulets. On the western banks are several • Scylac. Perip. p. 46. Ed. Oxon. Ptol. Geogr. l. iv. c. 2. Plin. Nat. Hift. 1. v. c. 2. ancient ancient ruins, called Tackumbreet; where the city Siga, or Sigeum, Tackumbreet, once the metropolis of Sciphax and other Mauritanian kings, was fitu- f. civitas Siga. ated. We We may well imagine, that from the most early times, great encouragement must have been given to trade and navigation, inafmuch as these princes chose this for their place of refidence, which has no beautiful profpects or fertility of foil to recommend it; which likewise, from the influx and frequent inundations of the adjacent rivers, is far from being the most wholesome and agreeable. The Wool-hafa are inhabitants of this neighbourhood. Over against Takumbreet, there is a small island, the Acra of the . Acra, f. ancient geography. This forms the port of Harfgoone; where veffels Harth-goone. of the greatest burthen may lie in fafety. MEN SALSUM. Five leagues from the Tafna, is the mouth of the Wedel Mailah, i. e. Wed el Maithe Salt-river. This was the Flumen falfum of the Itinerary; the fame lah, or FLUappellation, expreffive of the faline quality of its water, having been given to it in all ages, and by all authors; yet, notwithstanding this circumstance, fuch is the want of good water in the neighbourhood, that the Arabs, by long custom and habit, are reconciled to the taste, and drink it without reluctance. The Si-nan, the most confiderable of the brooks which fall into The Si-nan. the Wedel Mailah, has it's fources at no greater diftance than the fouthern confines of the plains of Zei-doure. It glides in a variety of beautiful windings through this fruitful diftrict, and is known, as most of the rivers of this country are, by several names, according to the remarkable places that are vifited by them. It was near the banks of this river, which might be occafionally fwelled, where the elder Barbaroffa ftrewed about his treasure, when he was pursued by the victorious Spaniards; his laft, though ineffectual, effort to retard the pursuit of his enemies. The Wed el Mailah, a little after it is united with the Si-nan, discharges itself into the Harfb-goone. 2 El Marques [de Comares] le [el Barbarroja] alanço ocho leguas de Tremecen, antes de paffar a un grande rio que fe dize Huexda. [I fuppofe a corruption only of Wed] Barbarroja q vido al Marques a fus Efpaldas y tan cerca que ya venian los Chriftianos rebueltos con fus Turcos matando y degollando, dava fe prieffa por paffar en toto cafo el rio y falvarfe. Y para mejor lo poder hazer y entretener al enemigo, ufo de un lindo eftratagema de guerra (fi lo huuiara con otra gente) porque mando fembrar muchos vafos de oro y de plata, muchas joyas y mucha moneda de que yuan todos cargados, con muchas otras cofas, y ropas muy preciofas: pareciendole que topando los Chriftianos con efto, la cobdicia los harta entretener, para cogerlo, y anfi tendria tiempo para el y fus Turcos poder huyr y paffar aquel rio a fu falvo, &c. Epitome de los Reges de Argel. cap. i. 11. p. 54. p. Diego de Haedo, &c. Valladolid. 1612. Pour les [Chriftiens] arrefter il laffoit couler de tems en tems de l'or et de l'argent par le chemin. Marmol. 1. v. c. II. p. 341. C 2 Paffing |