imperfectly discovered and settled by the Romans; the
five colonies were confined to a narrow pale, and the more southern
parts were seldom explored except by the agents of luxury, who searched
the forests for ivory and the citron wood,[151] and the shores of the
ocean for the purple shellfish. The fearless Akbah plunged into the
heart of the country, traversed the wilderness in which his successors
erected the splendid capitals of Fez and Morocco,[152] and at length
penetrated to the verge of the Atlantic and the great desert. The river
Suz descends from the western sides of mount Atlas, fertilizes, like the
Nile, the adjacent soil, and falls into the sea at a moderate distance
from the Canary, or adjacent islands. Its banks were inhabited by the
last of the Moors, a race of savages, without laws, or discipline, or
religion: they were astonished by the strange and irresistible terrors
of the Oriental arms; and as they possessed neither gold nor silver, the
richest spoil was the beauty of the female captives, some of whom were
afterward sold for a thousand pieces of gold. The career, though not
the zeal, of Akbah was checked by the prospect of a boundless ocean.
He spurred his horse into the waves, and raising his eyes to heaven,
exclaimed with the tone of a fanatic: "Great God! if my course were not
stopped by this sea, I would still go on, to the unknown kingdoms of the
West, preaching the unity of thy holy name, and putting to the sword the
rebellious nations who worship another gods than thee." [153] Yet this
Mahometan Alexander, who sighed for new worlds, was unable to preserve
his recent conquests. By the universal defection of the Greeks and
Africans he was recalled from the shores of the Atlantic, and the
surrounding multitudes left him only the resource of an honourable
death. The last scene was dignified by an example of national virtue. An
ambitious chief, who had disputed the command and failed in the attempt,
was led about as a prisoner in the camp of the Arabian general. The
insurgents had trusted to his discontent and revenge; he disdained their
offers and revealed their designs. In the hour of danger, the grateful
Akbah unlocked his fetters, and advised him to retire; he chose to die
under the banner of his rival. Embracing as friends and martyrs, they
unsheathed their scimeters, broke their scabbards, and maintained an
obstinate combat, till they fell by each other's side on the last of
their slaughtered