accompanied with a present, a custom established from time immemorial in Africa, as well as in the East ; and these presents are in proportion to the magnitude o f the négociation. The king o f Spain, during the reign o f Seedy Mohammed ben A b d A lla h , r of the reigning Emperor, sent presents to an enormous amount, in order to purchase the friendly alliance o f the Em- peroi, and to induce him to continue the exportation o f grain to Spain. 11th. In addition to all these sources o f revenue, may be mentioned the duties on the exportation o f cattle and vegetables to our garrison o f Gibraltar, and on a few similar supplies to Spain and Portugal. Before the present Emperor ascended the throne, the produce o f the country was allowed to be exported from all the ports on the coast,- and formed a v e ry considerable source o f revenue ; the duties on grain alone, from Dar E l Beida, in one year, amounted to 722,000 dollars. T h e exportation from the ports o f A r z illa , E l Araiche, Mamora, Rabat, Fedella, Azamor, Ma- zagan, SafFy, Mogodor, and Santa Cruz, in Suse, were not quite so considerable. T he present prohibition of the exportation o f grain, together with all the articles enumerated above, to which may be added, wool, flax, and cotton, cannot be a proof o f the Emperor’s avarice, a passion ascribed to him b y many ; as, b y allowing their exportation, and encouraging their cultivation, an accession o f several millions would annually be added to the revenue o f his empire. CHAPTER VIII. Some Account o f a peculiar Species o f Plague which depopulated West Barbary in 1799 and 1800, and to the Effects o f which the Author was an eye-witness. F r o m various circumstances and appearances, and from the character o f the epidemical distemper w hich raged lately in the south of Spain, there is eve ry reason to suppose, it was similar to that distemper or plague w hich depopulated West Ba rb a ry; for whether we call it b y the more reconcileable appellation o f ,the epidemy, or ye llow fever, it was undoubtedly a plague, and a most destructive one, for wherever it prevailed, it in va riab ly carried off, in a few months, one-balf, or one-third, o f the population. It does not appear how the plague originated in Fas in the y ea r 1199.* Some persons, who were there at the time it broke out, have confidently ascribed it to infected merchandize imported into that place from the E a s t ; whilst others, o f equal ve ra city and judgment, h a v e not scrupled to ascribe it to the locusts which, had infested West Barbary during the seven preceding. years,-)' the destruction o f which was followed b y the (jedrie) small-pox, which pervaded the country, and was genera lly latal. T h e jedrie is supposed to be the forerunner o f this * See the Author’s observations, in a letter to Mr. Willis, in Gentleman’s Magazine, February 1805. + See page 105.
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