od.[93]

They believe the immortality of the soul, and that both men and
women go to paradise; that there is no future punishment; the
wicked are punished in this world. Happiness, after death, consists
in being in the presence of God. They are not circumcised. A
divorce may take place while a woman is pregnant, but she cannot
marry again till delivered. As soon as a woman is divorced,
midwives, women brought up to that profession, examine her to see
whether she is pregnant.

[Footnote 93: This is the Arabic, or Muhamedan grace after
meat; the grace before meat is equally sententious, viz.
Bismillah, i.e. in the name of God.]

[Illustration: map of West Barbary]

55

LETTERS
CONTAINING
AN ACCOUNT OF JOURNIES
THROUGH VARIOUS PARTS OF
WEST AND SOUTH BARBARY,
AT DIFFERENT PERIODS,
PERFORMED PERSONALLY BY J.G.J.

LETTER I.

_On the opening of the Port of Agadeer, or Santa Cruz in Suse, and
of its Cession by the Emperor Muley Yezzid, to the Dutch._

TO JAMES WILLIS, ESQ.

(Late British Consul for Senegambia) Eversholt, near Woburn,
Bedfordshire.

Mogodor, 28th February, 1792.

The emperor has consented to the proposition of the Dutch
government, to open the port of Agadeer, or Santa Cruz, in the
province of Suse, to the commerce of that nation; and I have
finally resolved to establish a house there, so soon as the sultan
Yezzid's order respecting that port shall reach the hands of Alkaid
Aumer ben Daudy, the governor of this port. There are various
political intrigues in agitation, to deter me from going personally
56 to establish the commerce of this most desirable and long-neglected
port of Santa Cruz. The governor anticipates a considerable
diminution in the treasury of Mogodor; and the merchants of this
place anticipate a great diminution of the various articles of
produce of this fine country, seeing that the principal articles of
exportation from the empire of Marocco are produced in the province
of Suse, and in the neighbourhood of Santa Cruz.

The stream of commerce will, therefore, necessarily be converted
from Mogodor to Santa Cruz. The merchants of Fa