42 D a r el Beida. exception o f that o f A gadeer, the only one where ships may ride at anchor in security in winter, which is owing to the land south o f the peninsula before mentioned, projecting into the ocean towards the west. About twelve miles to the south o f Fedala, is Dar el Beida,* a town formerly belonging to Portugal, but now in ruins, and consisting o n ly o f some huts. T he plains in the vicinage o f Dar el Beida are so abundant in grain, that when the old Emperor (Seedy Mohammed) reigned, he received annually for duties on corn shipped at this place, five or six hundred thousand Mexico d o lla r s ; but since the accession o f his son, the present Emperor, and the consequent prohibition o f the exportation o f grain, the soil here and elsewhere has lain fallow, as it would be useless for a people, whose mode o f life renders their wants so few, to sow corn, without having a market to sell it a t ; and I m y se lf know, that in consequence o f this prohibition, corn had become so cheap, that many husbandmen, after the famine and plague in 1800 had subsided, let their crops stand, the va lu e o f them being insufficient to p a y the expense o f reaping them. Forty-four miles south o f Dar el Beida, stands the town o f Azamore, in the A rab province o f Duquella, at some distance from the mouth o f the riv e r M o rb e y a ; the entrance to this riv e r being dangerous, the town o f Azamore is not adapted to commerce. The walls built here by the Portu- tuguese are s t ill standing. It was beseiged in 1513 by the Duke o f Braganza, but abandoned b y the Portuguese about a century afterwards. * Formerly called Anafa, probably from the quantity of anise-seed grown in the neighbourhood, anafa being the Arabic word for anise-seed. Azamore.— Mazagan. 43 There is an immense quantity o f storks here, insomuch that the y considerably exceed the number o f inhabitants. 1 h e air is v e ry salubrious. A little to the south o f A zamore, on the northern extremity o f the bay o f Mazagan, are the ruins o f Tett, which signilies in A rabic Titus, and is therefore supposed to be the ruins o f the ancient c ity o f Titus, founded b y the Carthaginians. On the southern extremity o f this bay stands the town o f Mazagan, b u ilt in 1506 b y the Portuguese, and called b y them Castillo Real, or the Royal Castle. T h e re is a dock on the north side o f the town, capable o f admitting small vessels, but large vessels anchor about two miles from the shore, on account o f the Cape o f Azamore stretching so far westward, as, in the event o f a south-west w ind blowing, th e y would not be able to clear it, i f they la y nearer. Mazagan was besieged by the Moors in 1562 ineffectually, and in 1769 the Portuguese had resolved to abandon it when the Emperor Seedy Mohammed ben A b d a llah laid siege to it, and took it, the Portuguese having previously evacuated it. It is a strong and w e ll built town, h a vin g a wall twelve-feet thick, strengthened with bastions mounting cannon. T h e air o f Mazagan is peculiarly salubrious; the water is also excellent, and has a good effect on horses soon after their a rriv a l here, after passing a country where that element is v e r y indifferent, and is taken up in buckets from wells about one hundred feet deep. There still exists in this town a subterranean cistern, constructed b y the Portuguese in a v e r y elegant style, sufficiently large to supply the garrison w ith water, which is collected in the rainy season from the terraces o f the houses, which
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