[21] According to Mr. Hay, a portion of the Salee Rovers seem to have finally taken refuge here.  Up the river El-Kous, the Imperial squadron lay in ordinary, consisting of a corvette, two brigs, (once merchant-vessels, and which had been bought of Christians), and a schooner, with some few gun-boats, and even these two or three vessels were said to be all unfit for sea.  But, when Great Britain captured the rock of Gibraltar, we, supplanting the Moors became the formidable toll-keepers of the Herculean Straits, and the Salee rivers have ever since been in our power.  If the Shereefs have levied war or tribute on European navies since that periods it has been under our tacit sanction.  The opinion of Nelson is not the less true, that, should England engage in war with any maritime State of Europe, Morocco must be our warm and active friend or enemy, and, if our enemy, we must again possess ourselves of our old garrison of Tangier.

[22] So called, it is supposed, from the quantity of aniseed grown in the neighbourhood.

[23] Near Cape Blanco is the ruined town of Tit or Tet, supposed to be of Carthaginian origin, and once also possessed by the Portuguese, when commerce therein flourished.

[24] El-Kesar is a very common name of a fortified town, and is usually written by the Spaniards Alcazar, being the name of the celebrated royal palace at Seville.

[25] Marmol makes this city to have succeeded the ancient Roman town of Silda or Gilda.  Mequinez has been called Ez-Zetounah, from the immense quantities of olives in its immediate vicinity.

[26] Don J. A. Conde says—­“Fes or sea Fez, the capital of the realm of that name; the fables of its origin, and the grandeur of the Moors, who always speak of their cities as foundations of heroes, or lords of the whole world, &c., a foible of which our historians are guilty.  Nasir-Eddin and the same Ullug Beig say, for certain, that Fez is the court of the king in the west.  I must observe here, that nothing is less authentic than the opinions given by Casiri in his Library of the Escurial, that by the word Algarb, they always mean the west of Spain, and by the word Almagreb, the west of Africa; one of these appellations is generally used for the other.  The same Casiri says, with regard to Fez, that it was founded by Edno Ben Abdallah, under the reign of Almansor Abu Giafar; he is quite satisfied with that assertion, but does not perceive that it contains a glaring anachronism.  Fez was already a very ancient city before the Mohammed Anuabi of the Mussulmen, and Joseph, in his A. J., mentions a city of Mauritania; the prophet Nahum speaks of it also, when he addresses Ninive, he presents it as an example for No Ammon.  He enumerates its districts and cities, and says, Fut and Lubim, Fez and Lybia, &c.

[27] I imagine we shall never know the truth of this until the French march an army into Fez, and sack the library.

[28] It is true enough what the governor says about quietness, but the novelty of the mission turned the heads of the people, and made a great noise among them.  The slave-dealers of Sous vowed vengeance against me, and threatened to “rip open my bowels” if I went down there.