Travels through the Empire of Morocco | Page 3

artificial.
LETTER XX.
Practice of Physic--Astrology--Poetry--Entertainment given by the
Author to the Moors--Their Astonishment at the Effects of Electricity.
LETTER XXI.
Prevalent Diseases--Abuse of Stimulants--Medicinal
Well--Sorcery--Hydrophobia.
LETTER XXII.
Depart for Gibraltar--Oppressive Heat--Robbers--Arrive at
Larache--Affray of some English Sailors--Letter from the Governor to
Lord Collingwood.
LETTER XXIII.
Embark for Gibraltar--Precautionary Hints.
APPENDIX.
No. I.--Letter from J. Turnbull, Esq. General Chairman of the
Merchants trading to the Mediterranean, recommending Dr. Buffa for a
civil medical Appointment at Gibraltar.--Dated 5th August 1805.
No. II.--Letter from the Secretary of the Transport Board, informing Dr.
Buffa that a Passage in one of His Majesty's Transports to Gibraltar
was ordered for him and his Family.
No. III.--Extract of a Letter from John Turnbull, Esq. Chairman of the
Committee of Merchants trading to the Levant, &c. to Dr. Buffa.
No. IV.--Extract of a Letter from John Ross, Esq. Acting Consul
General at Tangiers, to Dr. Buffa.
No V.--Letter sent by a Courier from the Court of Morocco to J. Ross,
Esq. by Permission of His Imperial Majesty's First Minister, after Dr.
Buffa's having finally settled the Difference excited at that Time by the
French Party in Barbary, between that Country and Great Britain.
No. VI.--Letter from Captain Stewart, of His Majesty's Ship Seahorse,
to the Government of Morocco, for Supplies; which Dr. Buffa was
directed to answer, after having procured the said Supplies without any
Charge.
No. VII.--Letter from Admiral the Right Hon. Lord Collingwood, to the
Government of Morocco, in answer to Dr. Buffa's Official Letter to
Captain Stewart, touching on various public Matters.
No. VIII.--An Official Letter written by Dr. Buffa, by particular
Direction of the Emperor of Morocco, in answer to a Letter of Lord

Collingwood of the 8th July 1806, giving his Lordship Information of
the happy Termination of the Negotiations which Dr. Buffa carried on,
and which all the Representations of Mr. Ross to that Court were
unable to effect; which gave rise to a very long and expensive
Correspondence between Mr. Ross and Dr. Buffa, Long carried on by
constant Couriers.
No. IX.--Letter written by Command of the Emperor of Morocco, to
Lord Collingwood, in favour of Dr. Buffa.
No. X.--Translation of a Letter from the Emperor of Morocco to the
King. Referred to in the Petition.
Nos. XI. and XII.--Copies of two Letters received from the
Government bf Morocco, to which Dr. Buffa has hitherto been unable
to reply.

TRAVELS,
&c.

LETTER I.
Inducement for the Journey--Arrive at Tangiers--Its History--
Situation--Inhabitants--Military--Governor--Fortifications--
Subterraneous Passage--Socco, or Market--Adjacent Villas--Invited to
Larache.
Tangiers, January 12th, 1806.
I have long felt very desirous to visit a country, which, notwithstanding
the many revolutions it has undergone, and the enlightened characters
of its conquerors, is regarded as still immersed in a degree of barbarism
almost unparalleled. It appeared to me next to impossible that a nation
so contiguous to Europe, with which it has for centuries maintained a
constant intercourse, could have remained in a state of such profound
ignorance.
Impressed with these ideas, I readily embraced the offer of a friend to
accompany him from Gibraltar to this place, intending to travel further
up the country, should I meet with sufficient inducement from the
result of my observations here. We landed on the first of this month,
and the intermediate time I have employed in obtaining information
relative to the town of Tangiers from the earliest tradition to the present

time. As the particulars I have collected do not appear devoid of
Interest, I flatter myself, you will be gratified that I should have made
them the subject of a letter.
This town, which by the ancients was called Tingis, or Tingir, and
appears to have been the metropolis of the Western Mauritania, or
Tingitania, as it was named, to distinguish it from _Mauritania
Caesariensis_; according to Pliny and others, was first founded ed fay
Antaeus (about a thousand years before Christ), the same who was
afterwards conquered and slain by Hercules. The giant is supposed to
have been buried here: and the report of Plutarch, that his tomb was
opened by Sertorius, and a corpse sixty cubits or more in length, taken
out of it, confirms the idea. But according to others, Tingis, or the
present Tangiers, lays claim to a more ancient founder than Antaeus.
Procopius mentions, that in his time were standing two pillars of white
stone, upon which were inscribed in the Phoenician characters the
following words: _"We are the Canaanites who fed from Joshua, the
son of Nun."_
A colony of Carthaginians settled here, and it is most probable that a
flourishing trade was carried on by them, as the situation of Tangiers is
extremely well adapted for that purpose. Indeed the name Tingis, in the
language of the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, signifies an emporium.
When the Mauritaniae became subject to