About noon we arrived at Jarra, a large town situated at the bottom of some rocky hills.

CHAPTER IX—­THE TOWN OF JARRA—­DETAINED BY THE MOORS.

The town of Jarra is of considerable extent; the houses are built of clay and stone intermixed—­the clay answering the purpose of mortar.  It is situated in the Moorish kingdom of Ludamar; but the major part of the inhabitants are negroes, from the borders of the southern states, who prefer a precarious protection under the Moors, which they purchase by a tribute, rather than continue exposed to their predatory hostilities.  The tribute they pay is considerable; and they manifest towards their Moorish superiors the most unlimited obedience and submission, and are treated by them with the utmost indignity and contempt.  The Moors of this and the other states adjoining the country of the negroes resemble in their persons the mulattoes of the West Indies to so great a degree as not easily to be distinguished from them; and, in truth, the present generation seem to be a mixed race between the Moors (properly so called) of the north and the negroes of the south, possessing many of the worst qualities of both nations.

Of the origin of these Moorish tribes, as distinguished from the inhabitants of Barbary, from whom they are divided by the Great Desert, nothing further seems to be known than what is related by John Leo, the African, whose account may be abridged as follows:-

Before the Arabian conquest, about the middle of the seventh century, all the inhabitants of Africa, whether they were descended from Numidians, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, or Goths, were comprehended under the general name of Mauri, or Moors.  All these nations were converted to the religion of Mohammed during the Arabian empire under the Kaliphs.  About this time many of the Numidian tribes, who led a wandering life in the desert, and supported themselves upon the produce of their cattle, retired southward across the Great Desert to avoid the fury of the Arabians; and by one of those tribes, says Leo (that of Zanhaga), were discovered, and conquered, the negro nations on the Niger.  By the Niger is here undoubtedly meant the river of Senegal, which in the Mandingo language is Bafing, or the Black River.

To what extent these people are now spread over the African continent it is difficult to ascertain.  There is reason to believe that their dominion stretches from west to east, in a narrow line or belt, from the mouth of the Senegal (on the northern side of that river) to the confines of Abyssinia.  They are a subtle and treacherous race of people, and take every opportunity of cheating and plundering the credulous and unsuspecting negroes.  But their manners and general habits of life will be best explained as incidents occur in the course of my narrative.