LETTER XIII.

Responsibility of the Governors—­Empire beautiful and productive—­Humane Efforts of the Emperor—­Blind Submission to his Will—­Great Number of Negroes naturalized—­The Moors might be truly formidable.—­Emperor’s Brother—­Fez divided into two Parts—­Magnificent Mosques—­Commercial Privileges—­Indignities which Christians undergo—­Singular Supply of Water—­The Imperial Gardens—­Propensity to defraud—­Factories—­Exports—­Costume—­Character—­Manner of living—­Domestic Vermin.

Fez.

Having extended my last letter to an unusual length, I broke off rather abruptly; I shall therefore resume the subject in this.

The Governors commanding large districts or provinces in Barbary, are answerable for the crimes and misdemeanors committed in their governments, if they fail to bring the offenders to public justice; consequently they impose very heavy fines on the community, to impel them to seize, and deliver to them, the murderer or robber.  The sudden and frequent changes in the public offices keep the most powerful Governors in the empire in continual awe and depression; and the fear of being, in an instant, hurled from the height of prosperity to the lowest abyss of adversity, usually prevents them from amassing great wealth, as it is sure to pass into the Emperor’s treasury on their disgrace; and the same cause prevents the forming of dangerous cabals.  Yet some of them contrive, during their short-lived administration, to squeeze from their wretched vassals as much money as they can, by every fraudful artifice and despotic violence.  The sufferers murmur, and complain; but the government appears to wink at the oppression for a time, and reserves its dreadful vengeance till the annual review, on the plains of Fez, where the collected spoils of the cruel peculator are seized, and himself deposed, imprisoned, and the whole fruit of his rapine transferred to the royal treasury.

This empire is one of the most beautiful and fertile countries, perhaps in the world; but the despotism under which it has groaned, and the capricious humours of its former rulers, destroyed, and prevented the effects of industry; besides, the rapacity of the Sheiks, who are the Bashaws of the country, carried off every thing that labour could collect.  The present Emperor is endeavouring to correct these abuses, and to bring about a reformation, which I am sure he will never effect, owing to the great influence of the priests and saints in these states.  Although this monarch is humane and impartial, and possesses nothing of the ferocious character of his predecessors, yet seldom a day passes without some executions.

The people regard their Emperor as a god upon earth, and revere him as a descendant of their great prophet.  All his commands, right or wrong, just or unjust, they consider as the decrees of Heaven.  A blind obedience to the will of their Sovereign, is inculcated in the minds of their youth, more as a matter of religion than of state; and the Emperor may put as many of his subjects to death as he deems expedient, without assigning any other motive for so doing than secret inspiration.  When at war with any Christian prince, it is considered as a war of religion, and the Moors who fall in the field of battle, are accounted martyrs.