Page:The lives of celebrated travellers (Volume 1).djvu/134

This page needs to be proofread.

agreeable subject, which he recited to the prince after supper.

The date of our traveller's various excursions through the kingdom of Fez is unknown, but he apparently, like many other travellers, visited foreign countries before he had examined his own, and I have therefore placed his adventures in Morocco before those which occurred to him at home. In an excursion to the seacoast he passed through Anfa, an extensive city founded by the Romans, on the margin of the ocean, and in a position so salubrious and agreeable that, taking into account the generous character and polished manners of the inhabitants, it might justly be considered the most delightful place in all Africa. From hence he proceeded through Mansora and Nuchailu to Rabat, once a vast and splendid city, abounding with palaces, caravansaries, baths, and gardens, but now, by wars and civil dissensions, reduced to a heap of ruins, rendered doubly melancholy by the figures of a few wretched inhabitants who still clung to the spot, and flitted about like spectres among the dilapidated edifices. The scene, compared with that which the city once presented, was so generative of sad thought, that on beholding it our traveller sank into a sombre revery which ended in tears. From this place he proceeded northward, and passing through many cities, arrived at a small town called Thajiah, in whose vicinity was the ancient tomb of a saint, upon which, according to the traditions of the country, a long catalogue of miracles had been performed, numerous individuals having been preserved by this tomb, but in what manner is not specified, from the jaws of lions and other ferocious beasts. The scene is rugged, the ground steril, the climate severe; yet so high was the veneration in which the sanctity of the tomb was held, that incredible numbers of pilgrims resorted thither in consequence of vows made in situations of imminent danger, and encamping round the