FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   >>  
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
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   >>  



Top keywords:

mountain

 

modern

 

aborigines

 

ancient

 

Hebrew

 

vessels

 

mountains

 

mighty

 
portion
 

Rovers


finally
 

refuge

 

mankind

 
numbers
 

Tangier

 
Wadnoun
 
Mogador
 

amount

 

proximate

 

exactions


governments

 

knowledge

 
twenty
 

remained

 
uninhabited
 

English

 

sacked

 

wholly

 
Arzila
 

According


keepers

 

Herculean

 

Straits

 

rivers

 

formidable

 

captured

 

Britain

 

Gibraltar

 
supplanting
 
periods

navies

 

European

 

tribute

 

Shereefs

 

levied

 

merchant

 

bought

 

corvette

 

consisting

 

Imperial