and without order or discipline: I
attended their evening parade yesterday, and was truly diverted with
the sorry appearance of their best militia-men, who were to mount
guard for the night. These Moorish soldiers are remarkably addicted
to cheating. It is probably owing to their excessive indolence, which
prevents them from making the usual exertions for obtaining a
livelihood, and induces them to adopt the more expeditious mode of
extorting from strangers the means of subsistence; but as they are not
often presented with an object of prey, they continually labour
against the pressure of extreme poverty. Tangiers is under the
government of Sidy Ash-Ash; who resides at Tetuan. He is by no means
partial to the English, but devoted to France; influenced by French
principles, and French interest. Excepting a few small armed vessels,
fitted out for piracy, there is no shipping in the harbour. I have
observed none for the purpose of commerce; all their goods are
exported in foreign bottoms; and when they bring in a prize, the
vessel remains unsold for a considerable length of time, and it is
always disposed of to a foreign merchant.

Several remains of the European fortifications are yet visible; the
Moors have repaired some, among which the western bastions still form
a principal part of the strength of the place. The castle, which
appears to have been built before the time of the Portuguese, stands
in a commanding position upon one of the most prominent rocks of this
coast. By an order of the Emperor, all the civil and military officers
of this town are obliged to reside in it.

From this castle is a subterraneous passage containing many curious
remnants of antiquity. On each side of the passage are ruinous
apartments, which we may readily suppose to have been designed as
places for the concealment of treasures, or receptacles for the
dead. From the fragments of some urns I have collected, upon which are
to be traced parts of inscriptions in the Punic character, I imagine
this subterraneous place to have been built by the Carthaginians, for
one or both of those purposes. It extends from the castle to several
miles without the gates of the town; whence we may likewise infer,
that it served as a means of escape in case of a sudden insurrection,
or siege. Here are several superb mosques and commodious public baths.

The _Socco_, or market, is held twice a week (on Sunday and
Wednesday), in a spacious sandy square, outsid