tranquillity of the state, where I had been obliged to run the gauntlet through half a dozen anti-rooms and offices, and undergo the inquisitorial examination of a host of inspectors and employés before I could get permission to embark and bid them farewell-to me, who had not thought myself sure of my departure until I had fairly lost sight of the tri-coloured flag-to me, the ease and security of Barbary was peculiarly surprising and delightful. There are, thought I to myself, compensations even in Barbary; there are advantages even in this land of terrors, for as such I had been accustomed to look upon it from infancy; and I felt somewhat reconciled to the place of my exile.

The only drawback I experienced from this practical freedom, during the time I remained under the despotic government of a Moorish regency, proceeded not from the Moors or Turks, but from my own countrymen, from Europeans. The Consuls and Vice-Consuls, especially those of Imperial France, had brought along with them some of the appendages of civilization; some of the improvements which had taken place in their country. They had established a sort of inquisitorial police, in humble imitation of their great prototypes at home. They were very particular in exacting that foreigners of their respective nations should, as soon as landed, show their passports, and submit them to their visa; very careful that no conscript should lose the opportunity of serving the Emperor in the field of glory; in short, they were extremely tender of the honour and interests of their countrymen. They even went so far as to afford a safe lodging within the Consulate-house to those whom they suspected of being runaway conscripts, or persons who had escaped the tutelary eye of the police; and to indulge them with the attendance of their janizaries or Moorish guards, until they could be safely embarked on board some national vessel and restored to their native country. They also exercised the same sort of ungracious hospitality towards those sailors and passengers of any hostile nation who were captured by privateers, until they could be sent to swell the depôt of prisoners in France. Thus, they were not only Consuls, but acted also as Commissioners of Police; they were obliged to do so by strict orders from home. It is true that their power, being necessarily limited, was often evaded; that prisoners escaped by the connivance of the Moors, who cared but little about French decrees; that travellers got pass ports from other agents: yet it was curious to see how that formidable engine, Napoleon's continental system, extended the range of its action even to a country so completely foreign to, and separated from, his empire as Barbary was. The Bey

of Tunis, who guaranteed to the Consuls an inviolable residence, and the attendance of his soldiers, for the safety of the Europeans who visited his country, was little aware that many of the latter would have dispensed with such protection in the present instance: but he was a barbarian, and uninitiated into the high mysteries of state policy.

These reflections, half ludicrous, half melancholy, like most of those which have occurred to me while comparing with one another the different families of men which are scattered over the globe, occupied my mind as we walked through the streets of Biserta, passing by the listless lazy Moor and the haughty supercilious Turk, on our way to the French Consulate. On arriving there, I found myself as it were transported to Europe again; the same etiquette, the same vexatious forms; but, as I had not the advantage of being a subject of the French emperor, my examination was short, and I left the Imperial representative with the earnest hope that this was the last time I should have the eagled seal affixed to my passport. My two companions, however, were not so easily dismissed; they were Tuscans, and therefore French; they were young, they might belong to the conscription list; the Vice-Consul had some suspicions on the subject. At last, they were allowed to proceed to Tunis, being recommended to the special care of the French Consul-General at that place.

Being now easy on this important point, I left the French Consulate-house with my two less fortunate comrades, who found themselves still within the grasp of power; and we sauntered about through the narrow crooked streets, or rather lanes, of Biserta. We went to the market-place, an open space, unsheltered and unpaved, where the venders sate crosslegged upon the sand, with their provisions in baskets spread before them. We asked the price of some fish, in Lingua Franca, a sort of bad Italian, which is understood all along the Barbary and Levant shores. The man, without looking up, mentioned a certain number of carroubes, a small Tunisian coin."It is too dear," said the captain of our vessel, "I will not give you so much." The Moor half rose himself on his hams, darted a furious look at us, and cried out in the same vile jargon, in which the verbs are always put in the infinitive to facilitate conversation; "Si voler, pigliar; si non voler, lasciar." After which he squatted himself down again, resuming his downcast look. If you will have the fish (at the price I told you) take it; if not, leave it," and but I will add no interpretations. This was laconic, and reasonable at the same time. We, therefore, gave him what

Ι

he demanded, and took the fish, without another word passing between us.

We then went to arrange matters for our departure, the captain having resolved to proceed to Tunis by land, and carry with him some of his most valuable goods. A caravan was going to set out next day in the evening. Bargains are easily made in that country, and in general punctually adhered to. We were to have each a conveyance of some sort or other, but whether in the shape of a camel, a mule, a horse, or a donkey, could not be ascertained until the number of travellers should be known. I was, however, determined to proceed, and cared but little about the manner. I felt elated with the novelty of a journey in Africa, although of forty miles only, the distance between Biserta and Tunis.

Having settled our bargain, we retraced our steps towards the shore, in order to return to our vessel. We passed by a handsome marble fountain, over which was an Arabic inscription. Several Moors were assembled around. A fountain or a well in Africa, as well as in southern Asia, is the place of general rendez-vous. In this, as in many other respects, those countries are still what they were in patriarchal times; for the habits of the people are there stamped by an imperious climate, and survive the overthrow of empires and dynasties, and even the total change of races. It is this immutability of features, that gives to the East a peculiar interest of solemnity and grandeur. There you see the primitive history of mankind developed before you as it were from its cradle, and closely connected with the history of nature; while, in other countries, man is become an artificial being, the creature of fashion, every thing about him as temporary and as changeable as his own mind.

The streets of Biserta, like those of other Barbary towns, are narrow, crooked, and unpaved. The dust and sand annoys you in summer, and in winter you struggle through pools of mud and rain. What surprised me was the appearance of total idleness in the people; there was hardly any stir of trade or industry. I saw but one or two small paltry shops; I remarked a manufactory of coarse woollen and cotton stuff, of which the Moors make their baracans or cloaks, which often constitute their only garment. Many of the natives are to be seen wrapped up in a sort of blanket, without any other clothes underneath. Like the capota of the Spaniard, the baracan serves both for winter and summer; it keeps away the burning heat as well as the chilling rain. With such an easy dress, and the extreme cheapness of the first necessaries

or

of life, it is easy to account for the idleness in which these people indulge, relaxed as they are by the heat of the climate. A piece of bread dipped in oil, a few dates, or a melon, form the repast of a poor Moor. These are easily procured, and he has, therefore, full leisure to stretch himself at ease on the sand, under the shade of a wall, or on the banks of the river. Now and then, however, the apathy of these people is disturbed by sudden gusts of passion; they quarrel and pelt each other with stones, uttering dreadful yells, while the Turk, superior Moor, stalks about gravely in his flowing silk robe, stern and silent, or sits cross-legged on a bench outside of the coffee-house, smoking his pipe, without any other interruption than that of having the bowl filled afresh, and the contents lighted by the crouching Jewish or Greek waiter. He alters not his posture for hours together, and hardly ever raises his eyes to notice what happens around him. Concentrated in themselves, do these beings indulge in meditations and dreams; or are they in that state of torpid apathy in which man can hardly be said to think, as the vague ideas that fleet through his brain leave no impression, and their recollection fades before the mind has had time to define and register them?

Woman's soothing countenance is never seen in this country. A few wretched females of the lowest cast, whose misery puts them either above or below the rigid rules of their nation, are to be met occasionally carrying burthens or going to the well for water; but their faces are always covered with a piece of black cloth, having two slits in it corresponding to the eyes.

The cheering sound of bells is never heard in Barbary; their place is supplied by the melancholy, but not inharmonious, sound of the muezzim's voice, when, from the spiral minaret, he summons the faithful to prayer. Heard at a distance in the dead stillness of night, through an atmosphere unruffled by breeze or mist, that shrill lengthened chaunt has a thrilling effect upon a stranger; it sounds, as if it were the voice of a departed spirit recalling man to the reflection of his passing existence, and reminding him of the omnipresence of his Creator. The words are simple, yet striking; Allah illah Allah! "There is only one God;" such is the impressive preamble" adore him, come to prayers, for God is great!" I reverence these sounds, although proceeding from the mouth of a disciple of Islamism; and when he adds that "Mahomet is the prophet of God," although I grieve for the imposition, I bow in submission to the inscrutable views of Providence, who permitted an obscure self-instructed Arabian shepherd

to establish his creed over one half of mankind; and to recal them by this means from the gross and degrading abominations of Heathenism to a belief far inferior to Christianity, but which in the purity and sublimity of its fundamental dogmas may be considered as next to it, although disfigured, as every other doctrine, by the interested interpretations of men.

No carriages are to be seen in Barbary; camels, mules, asses, and a few horses, are the only modes of conveyance. Almost every object in this country appears new to an European; bearded faces, heads either turbaned or closely shaved, with only a tuft of hair left at the top, necks and legs bare. Even the voice of man, which in general is pleasant to the ear, seems changed; it resembles the hum of beetles, or the croaking of frogs, from the guttural sounds of the Arabic dialect which the Moors speak, and the low hollow tone in which they pronounce it. All the senses of an European_are_confounded by the strangeness of the objects presented to them. There is even a peculiar smell, which is remarked by foreigners as soon as they land in this country. It may be owing either to the constant use of the pipe, to the peculiar effluvia of the soil and of animal bodies, to the habits of the people and their want of linen, to the productions of the earth, perhaps to all these causes put together ;-but the fact is certain, the smell that you meet on Turkish land is unlike that of any other country.

This is then the land, thought I to myself, for which I have left the smiling regions of Europe, the verdant banks of the Arno, the sight of female beauty in all its loveliness, the mellow tones of soft Italy, the But there are compensations even in Barbary, reason quickly retorted, as I stepped carelessly into our boat.

As we rowed towards our vessel, we saw several sandals, a sort of large swift-sailing boat, with lateen sails, returning from their cruize. Their appearance reminded me that I was in the land of Christian captivity, and I felt an instinctive shuddering of horror in looking at the ruffian crew on board, who were a mixture of negroes and sallow-faced Moors. They appeared to me like so many fiends, their looks being hardly human, and their savage yells and gestures answering to the idea. The blood-red flag was the appropriate ensign of their inhuman trade. What a dreadful fate must be that of the poor captives who happen to fall into the hands of those demons! To think of old men, of children, of helpless females, becoming their prey, being exposed to their taunts, their revilings, their ruffian outrages, left entirely at their mercy-the word is a misnomer, for mercy is a quality unknown to them,