It is asserted that until lately no Jews were permitted to enter the town, and various conjectures have been made as to the cause of this interdiction. It is also reported that those Jews who do now resort thither, are obliged to become Mohammedans, the forms of which religion they probably relinquish on their return to their native country; but whatever may be the ostensible, I am inclined to think the true cause why the Jews are not admitted into Timbuctoo, is the extreme jealousy of the individuals of the Moorish factory, whose avarice induces them to exclude every person from sharing their emoluments whenever a plausible pretext can be found. The climate of Timbuctoo is much extolled as being salubrious and extremely invigorating, insomuch that it is impossible for the sexes to exist without intermarriage; accordingly it is said, there is no man of the age of eighteen who has not his wives or concubines, all which are allowed by the laws of the country, which are Mohammedan; and it is even a disgrace for a man who has reached the age of puberty to be unmarried. The natives, and those who have resided there any considerable time, have an elegance and suavity of manners which is not observed on this side of Sahara: they possess a great flow of animal spirits, and are generally so much attached to the country, that they invariably return, when insurmountable difficulties do not prevent them. With regard to the manufactures of different kinds of apparel at Timbuctoo, and other places of the interior, they are made, for the most part, by the women in their respective houses, whenever they cannot procure European cloths and linens, or when there is a great scarcity of Fas and Tafilelt manufactures of silk, cotton, and woollen. It has been said that there is an extensive library at Timbuctoo, consisting of manuscripts in a character differing from the Arabic; this, I am inclined to think, has originated in the fertile imagination of some poet; or, perhaps, some Arab or Moor, willing to indulge at the expense of European curiosity, has fabricated such a story. In all my enquiries, during many years, I never heard of any such library at Timbuctoo. The state library, which is composed for the most part of manuscripts in the Arabic, contains a few Hebrew, and perhaps Chaldaic books; amongst the Arabic, it is probable there are many translations from Greek and Latin authors at present unknown to Europeans.