copper pot be omitted; the latter whereof was the necessary utenfil for cooking our provifions, the other for ferving it up, or kneading therein our unleavened cakes. These two vessels made up the whole of our kitchen furniture. When we were therefore either to boil or to bake, the camels dung, that we found left by fome preceding caravan (for wood is very scarce) was our ufual fuel; which after being left a day or two in the fun, quickly catches fire, and burns like charcoal. No fooner was our food prepared; whether it was potted flesh, boiled with rice, a lentil foup (the red pottage, Gen. xxv. 30.) or unleavened cakes ferved up with oil or honey; than one of the Arabs (not to eat his morfel alone, Job xxxi. 17.) after having placed himself upon the highest spot of ground in the neighbourhood, calls out thrice, with a loud voice, to all his brethren, The fons of the faithful, to come and partake of it; though none of them were in view, or perhaps within a hundred miles of us. This cuftom however they maintain to be a token at least of their great benevolence, as indeed it would have been of their hofpitality, provided they could have had an opportunity to shew it.

Here we

But travelling in Barbary is of a quite different nature. always endeavour to find out the douwars of the Arabs (not being fond of vifiting the Kabyles, who are a set of sturdy fellows not fo eafily managed) where we are entertained at free coft, as in the towns and villages above mentioned, and as we read of the wayfaring man, Jer. xiv. 8. for the space of one night. For in this country the Arabs and other inhabitants are obliged, either by long custom; by the particular tenure of their lands; or from fear and compulfion, to give the fpabees and their company the mounah, as they call it; which is fuch a fufficient quantity of provifions for ourselves, together with ftraw and barley for our mules and horfes. Befides a bowl of milk and a basket of figs, raifins, or dates, which upon our arrival were prefented to us, to ftay our appetites, the mafter of the tent where we lodged, fetched us from his flock (according to the number of our company) a kid or a goat; a lamb or a sheep; half of which was immediately seethed by his wife, and ferved up with cufcafooe; the reft was made kab-åb, i. e. cut into pieces (μísuaλov is the term, Hom. Il. A. ver. 465.) and roafted; which we referved for our breakfaft or dinner the next day.

Yet

Yet the cold and the dews, that we were every night expofed to, in the deferts of Arabia, did not incommode us half fo much as the vermin and infects of all kinds, which never failed to moleft us in Barbary. Befides fleas and lice, which might be faid, without a miracle, to be here in all their quarters, the apprehenfions we were under, in fome parts at leaft of this country, of being bitten or ftung by the scorpion, the viper, or the venomous-spider, rarely failed to interrupt our repose; a refreshment so very grateful and so highly neceffary to a weary traveller. Upon fight indeed of one or other of thefe venomous beafts, a (thaleb or) writer, who was one of my Spabees, after he had muttered a few myftical words, exhorted us all to take courage, and not be afraid of fuch creatures, as he had made tame and harmless, by his charms and incantations. We were likewife no lefs offended (from whence we might leaft expect it) by their young kids, lambs, and calves, that are tied up, every night, under the eaves of their tents, to prevent them from fucking their dams. For the cords used upon these occafions, being made only of yarn loosely spun, the fretful creatures are every moment breaking loose, dropping their dung, and trampling upon us.

When we were entertained in a courteous manner (for the Arabs will fometimes fupply us with nothing till it is extorted by force) the author used to give the master of the tent a knife, a couple of flints, or a fmall quantity of English gunpowder; which being much ftronger than their own, is in great esteem, and kept chiefly for the priming of their fire-arms. If the lallah (or lady) his wife had been obliging also in her way, by making our cufcafooe favoury and with expedition, she would return a thousand thanks for a skean of thread, or for a large needle, or for a pair of sciffars; all of them great rarities, and very engaging prefents with thefe people. An ordinary filk handkerchief of two fhillings value, was a prefent for a princess.

During the exceffive heats of the fummer, and especially when we were apprehenfive of being intercepted by the free-booting Arabs or harammees, we then travelled in the night; which having no eyes (according to their proverb) few of them dare venture out; as not knowing the unforeseen and unexpected dangers and ambuscades, which they might poffibly fall into. At this time we have frequent opportunities of calling to remembrance the beautiful words of the

b

Pfalmift,

Pfalmift, Pfal. civ. 20. Thou makeft darkness that it may be night; wherein all the beafts of the foreft do move. The lions roaring after their prey; the leopards, the hyanas, the jackalls, and a variety of other ravenous creatures crying out to their fellows, If. xiii. 22. and xxxiv. 14. (the different fexes perhaps finding out and correfponding in this manner with their mates) break in very awfully upon the folitude, and the fafety likewife, that we might otherwife promife to ourfelves at this feafon.

Our horfes and camels keep generally a conftant pace; the latter at the rate of two miles and an half, the other of three geographical miles an hour; fixty of which miles, according to my calculation, conftitute one degree of a great circle. The space we travelled over was firft of all computed by hours, and then reduced into miles, which in the following obfervations, when Roman is not mentioned, are always to be taken for geographical miles: I alighted usually at noon to take the fun's meridian altitude (called by the Arabs, the weighing of the fun) and thereby adjust the latitudes: observing all along the courfe and direction of our travelling by a pocket-compass; the variation whereof (A. D. 1727.) I found at Algiers to be 14o, and at Tunis 16° to the weft. Every evening therefore, as foon as we arrived at our connack (for fo the Spabees call the tents, "the houses, or places where we put up) I used to examine what latitude we were in, how many hours and in what direction we had that day travelled; making proper allowances for the feveral windings and occafional deviations that we had made out of the direct road. In our paffage through the mountains and forests, or where the plains were cut through with rivers (for we no where met with hedges, or mounds,

2 Connac is at prefent the fame appellation in the Eaft, with the wavdoxicv and xalάue in the Old and New Teftament, which are rendred inns or hofpitia. But excepting the caravanferais, which may in fome measure answer to the πανδοχεία and καταλύματα (thofe which I have feen were only bare walls) there. are properly speaking no houfes of entertainment in this country; in the fenfe at leaft that we understand inns or hofpitia; viz. where we can be provided with lodgings, provifions, and other neceffaries

4

for our money: For a conac denotes the place itself only, whether covered or not, where the travellers or caravans halt or break off their journey for a time, in order to refresh themselves and their beafts

of burthen. Thus the malon, or inn, Gen. xlii. 27. and xliii. 21, &c. where give their affes provender, are no other the fons of Jacob opened their facks to than one of the like ftations, which I place where they themselves refted and have described above in Arabia, viz. the place where they themselves refted and unloaded their afles. Vid. not. I. p. ix.

or

or inclosures to retard and moleft us) it frequently happened, that when we had travelled eight hours, i. e. twenty four miles, they were, according to the method above laid down, and as far as longitude or latitude were concerned, to be eftimated for no more than eighteen or twenty. I found by obfervation the latitude of Algiers, by which that of other places is regulated, to be 3° 32′ 30′′ east of London, which in the maps is my firft meridian: according to which they are all of them laid down and projected. And here, to digrefs a little from the diary-part, and to give some account of the work itself, I am to acquaint the reader, that the prickt ..... or double lines, which are traced out upon the maps, denote the places they pass through, to be laid down according to the obfervations of the author. Mr. Sanfon, who attended, for many years, the viceroy of Conftantina as his flave and furgeon, fupplied me with a great many geographical remarks concerning that province; in the description of which, particularly with regard to Lambefe, I am likewise obliged to the learned and curious Dr. Poiffonel, who took, A. D. 1726, a furvey of the greatest part of the kingdoms of Algiers and Tunis, at the expence of the French king. In the defcription of the weftern portion of the Zeugitania, which the civil wars (A. D. 1727.) prevented me from vifiting, I am much indebted to the learned Father Francifco Ximenes, then the Spanish adminiftradôr at Tunis, who very generously communicated to me his notes and remarks, which he had made, in his feveral journeys over those parts. The provinces of Zaab, Wadrang, and the other fouthern diftricts of the kingdom of Algiers, are laid down from the repeated accounts which I received of those countries from the inhabitants themselves; with whom we have frequent opportunities of conversing, in almost every city of Barbary. And as I rarely found them difagree in their accounts, I am perfuaded that I have been little, if at all, imposed upon by them.

The several names of the places and tribes of these kingdoms are all of them written according to the English pronunciation and the force of our own alphabet. The Arabic letters + → answering to our i, h, and w make those words (which indeed are very numerous) wherein they occur, to have an easier tranfition into our language, than into the French or Italian; and, for the want of the like correfpondent

b 2

correfpondent letters, the authors who have defcribed these countries, have generally mifcalled the true Arabic appellations, and thereby rendred them useless to travellers, as I can speak by experience, in making inquiries after particular places there recorded, by being thus ftrangely expreffed in those idioms.

The stars (*) that are prefixed to the names of feveral cities in Barbary, denote them to have been epifcopal fees at the time they were poffeffed by the Chriftians. We learn from the Notitia, that they were, at one time or other, more than fix hundred; though, for want of geographical circumftances, I have not been able to adjuft the fituation of more than one hundred of them. And, in examining their ruins, I have often wondered that there fhould remain fo many altars and tokens of Pagan idolatry and fuperftition, and fo very few croffes or other monuments of Chriflianity. Yet even this may perhaps be well enough accounted for, from that great hatred and contempt which the Saracens have always had for the Chriftian name, and of their taking all imaginable opportunities to obliterate and destroy it: wherein they are further encouraged, by finding not only a number of coins, but large pieces of lead and iron also, wherewith the ftones, which they are thus induftrious to pull down, are bound together. But of these coins I rarely met with any that were either valuable or curious. Such of them as are purely African, or Carthaginian, or carry along with them at least the infignia and characteriftics of being ftruck there or in Sicily, and other of their colonies, may be well accounted the rareft; and of thefe I have given the reader feveral drawings and defcriptions: not taking the leaft notice. of the Mifilia as they are called, of the lower empire; nor of the coins, which are equally common, of Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Alexander, Gordianus, and Philippus; in whofe times these parts of Africa appear to have been adorned with the most sumptuous edifices. I have some picces likewife of glass money, found in the ruins of fuch of their buildings, as were erected by their fultans, viz. Occ'ba and Ben Egib: For thefe, no less than thofe that were erected by their predeceffors the Carthaginians and Romans, have been equally subject to their changes and revolutions. Thefe coins, of which I have two forts, the one of the bigness of a farthing, the other of a filver twopence, are flat and plain on the one side, and impressed on the other