sitively, that
the way from that town to the Sahara was through a ground more or less
elevated, and slopes more or less steep, and without having any chain of
mountains to cross. The Pass of Teniah which leads from Algiers to
Mediah is, therefore, included in the principal chain of that part of
the Regency.
[16] Xenophon, in his Anabasis, speaks of ostriches in Mesopotamia being
run down by fleet horses.
[17] Mount Atlas was called Dyris by the ancient aborigines, or Derem,
its name amongst the modern aborigines. This word has been compared to
the Hebrew, signifying the place or aspect of the sun at noon-day, as if
Mount Atlas was the back of the world, or the cultivated parts of the
globe, and over which the sun was seen at full noon, in all his fierce
and glorious splendour. Bochart connects the term with the Hebrew
meaning 'great' or 'mighty,' which epithet would be naturally applied to
the Atlas, and all mountains, by either a savage or civilized people. We
have, also, on the northern coast, Russadirum, the name given by the
Moors to Cape Bon, which is evidently a compound of _Ras_, head, and
_dirum_, mountain, or the head of the mountain.
We have again the root of this word in Doa-el-Hamman, Tibet Deera, &c.,
the names of separate chains of the mighty Atlas. Any way, the modern
Der-en is seen to be the same with the ancient Dir-is.
[18] The only way of obtaining any information at all, is through the
registers of taxation; and, to the despotism and exactions of these and
most governments, we owe a knowledge of the proximate amount of the
numbers of mankind.
[19] Tangier, Mogador, Wadnoun, and Sous have already been described,
wholly, or in part.
[20] In 936, Arzila was sacked by the English, and remained for twenty
years uninhabited.
[21] According to Mr. Hay, a portion of the Salee Rovers seem to have
finally taken refuge here. Up the river El-Kous, the Imperial squadron
lay in ordinary, consisting of a corvette, two brigs, (once
merchant-vessels, and which had been bought of Christians), and a
schooner, with some few gun-boats, and even these two or three vessels
were said to be all unfit for sea. But, when Great Britain captured the
rock of Gibraltar, we, supplanting the Moors became the formidable
toll-keepers of the Herculean Straits, and the Salee rivers have ever
since been in our power. If the Shereefs have levied war or tribute on
European navies since that periods it has been under our tac
|