An account of the empire of Marocco, and the districts of Suse and Tafilelt; compiled from miscellaneous observations made during a long residence in, and various journies through, these countries. To which is added an account of shipwrecks on the western coast of Africa, and an interesting account of Timbuctoo, the great emporium of Central AfricaJackson, James Grey
History
An account of the empire of Marocco, and the districts of Suse and Tafilelt; compiled from miscellaneous observations made during a long residence in, and various journies through, these countries. To which is added an account of shipwrecks on the western coast of Africa, and an interesting account of Timbuctoo, the great emporium of Central Africa
Jackson, James Grey
Morocco
_River Suse_ discharges itself into the ocean. This fine river rises
at Ras-el-Wed, at the foot of Atlas, about thirty miles from the city
of Terodant. The (fulahs) cultivators of land, and the gardeners of
Suse have drained off this river so much in its passage through the
plains of Howara and Exima, that it is fordable at its mouth at low
water in the summer, so that camels and other animals are enabled
to cross it with burthens on their backs: at its mouth is a bar of
sand which at low water almost separates it from the ocean. The banks
of this river are inundated in winter, but in summer are variegated
with Indian corn, wheat, barley, pasture lands, beautiful gardens,
and productive orchards. Either this river, or that of Messa, must
have been the _Una_ of Ptolomy, which is placed in lat. 28° 30′
N. We may presume that the Suse was anciently navigable as far as
Terodant, as there are still in the walls of the castle of that city
immense large iron rings, such as we see in maritime towns in Europe,
for the purpose of mooring ships.
_Draha._—The river of this name flows from the north-east of
Atlas to the south, and passing through the province of Draha,
it disappears in the absorbing sands of Sahara. A great part of the
country through which it passes being a saline earth, its waters have
a brackish taste, like most of the rivers proceeding from Atlas, which
take their course eastward. It is small in summer, but impetuous and
impassable in winter, or at least during Liali. It is not improbable
that this river formerly continued its course westward, discharging
itself into the ocean at Wednoon, and called by the ancients Darodus;
but it often happens in Africa, particularly on the confines of any
desert country, that the course of rivers is not only changed by
the moveable hills of dry sand, but sometimes absorbed altogether,
as is now the case with the Draha, after its entrance into the Desert.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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