of a city, is either constructed as an infringement upon the prerogative of the omnipotent Creator, who knows how many people he creates, and how to take care of them, or it is the question of a spy, who is seeking to ascertain the strength or weakness of the country.  Europeans can, therefore, rarely obtain any correct statistical information in Morocco:  all is proximate and conjectural. [18] I am anxious, nevertheless, to give some particulars respecting the population, in order that we may really have a proximate idea of the strength and resources of this important country.  In describing the towns and cities of the various provinces, I shall divide them into,

1.  Towns and cities of the coast.

2.  Capital or royal cities.

3.  Other towns and remarkable places in the interior [19].

The towns and ports, on the Mediterranean, are of considerable interest, but our information is very scanty, except as far as relates to the praesidios of Spain, or the well-known and much frequented towns of Tetuan and Tangier.

Near the mouth of the Malwia (or fifteen miles distant), is the little town of Kalat-el-wad, with a castle in which the Governor resides.  Whether the river is navigable up to this place, I have not been able to discover.  The water-communication of the interior of North Africa is not worth the name.  Zaffarinds or Jafarines, are three isles lying off the west of the river Mulweeah, at a short distance, or near its mouth.  These belong to Spain, and have recently been additionally fortified, but why, or for what reason, is not so obvious.  Opposite to them, there is said to be a small town, situate on the mainland.  The Spaniards, in the utter feebleness and decadence of their power, have lately dubbed some one or other “Captain-general of the Spanish possessions, &c. in North Africa.”

Melilla or Melilah is a very ancient city, founded by the Carthaginians, built near a cape called by the Romans, Rusadir (now Tres-Forcas) the name afterwards given to the city, and which it still retains in the form of Ras-ed-Dir, (Head of the mountain).  This town is the capital of the province of Garet, and is said to contain 3,000 souls.  It is situate amidst a vast tract of fine country, abounding in minerals, and most delicious honey, from which it is pretended the place receives its name.

On an isle near, and joined to the mainland by a draw-bridge, is the Spanish praesidio, or convict-settlement called also Melilla, containing a population of 2,244 according to the Spanish, but Rabbi and Graeberg do not give it more than a thousand.  At a short distance, towards the east, is an exceedingly spacious bay, of twenty-two miles in circumference, where, they say, a thousand ships of war could be anchored in perfect safety, and where the ancient galleys of Venice carried on a lucrative trade with Fez.  Within the bay, three miles inland, are the ruins of the ancient city of Eazaza, once a celebrated place.