•10 Shelia, T h e road o f Salée is dangerous for shipping, and the accumulation o f sand at the entrance, w ill scarcely permit a vessel o f 100 tons to enter the riv er without danger. Vessels may lie in safety out o f the river, near Rabat, from April till September in clusive ; but they are not secure the rest o f the year, the wind blowing from the southern quarter, and often obliging them to quit their moorings. T he best anchorage in this season, is between the Mosque o f Rabat and the old Tower o f Hassen, having the latter to the north. A great number o f anchors having been lost, much attention must be paid to the cables and buoys, Rabat stands in 34° 3' N. lat. On the eastern side o f Rabat is a walled town named Shelia: this is sacred ground, and contains many Moorish tombs, held in great ven eration : the town is a sacred asylum, and is entered only b y Mohammedans. Once, however, when I was staying at Salée, an English captain dressed himself in the Arabian habit, and accompanied by a confidential friend, entered this sacred town, and viewed what his guide told him were the tombs o f two Roman generals; but he had not time to examine the inscriptions thereon, for fear o f exciting observation. Shelia was probably the Carthaginian metropolis on the coast o f the ocean. Various Roman and ancient A frican coins used to be continually dug up here, but the exorbitant price given for them by some agents o f European antiquarians, induced the Jews to imitate them, which they did so correctly, that these amateurs were de ceiv ed; and lately people have fallen into the opposite extreme, being now so ove r cautious as to dispute even the antiques themselves; for this reason the Moors often sell them to the silve r and goldsmiths for their weight in silver. T h e last time 1 was in Africa, I collected a number o f these coins, but the vessel, in which 1 was coming to England, sprung a leak, and foundered: and although I saved some clothes, I could not get at the coins, which were stowed away in a secret part o f the ship, to be secure from discovery, in the event o f our falling in with any French privateer. A bout twenty-five miles south o f Rabat is a square building called (El Monsoria) the Building o f E l Monsor, it having been erected b y that Sultan in the J2th century, as a refuge for travellers during the n igh t; as the adjacent country is fa v o u r able to the depredations o f robbers; and the people o f this neighbourhood ha ve been noted, from time immemorial, as mischievous plunderers. Following the coast southward for 25 miles more, we reach Fed ala ; where a peninsula, which forms an indifferent shelter to small vessels, has been called in some maps an island. T h e Emperor Seedy Mohammed, before he founded Mogodor, was desirous o f building a c ity here. T h e situation, as to country and produce,’ is d e ligh tfu l; and to encourage commerce, he . caused the corn to be brought from the Matamores * o f the adjacent provinces, and allowed it to be shipped here ; it being cheap, he induced the merchants to b u ild houses, as a condition o f their being allowed to export i t ; but the place, although an - excellent situation, was abandoned soon after the corn was shipped, owing to some new whim o f the Em p e ro r; for such is the fickle instability o f the Moors, that it is no uncommon thing in this extraordinary country, to see a town deserted before the buildings are all completed, and such indeed was the case with this delightful place. T h e road here is, I believe, with the * Subterraneous vaults, or holes made in the form of a cone, where corn is deposited, and these being closed at the opening, it will keep thirty years or more* G
27f 39
To see the actual publication please follow the link above