according to their own account, the former mulct had exhausted all their means, now offered immense sums in exchange for their lives, not only to the king, but likewise to the general. This being the point aimed at, their offer was of course accepted; and having paid eighty-four thousand pieces of gold to the king, and rewarded the astute general with a costly present of horses, slaves, and perfumes, the poor men were at length liberated. Leo, who was present at this transaction, admires the extraordinary ingenuity of mankind in extorting money; and observes that some time after this his majesty of Fez extracted a still larger sum from a single Jew. The chronology of our traveller’s various expeditions it is difficult if not impossible to determine; but he appears shortly after this characteristic affair to have made an excursion into those vast plains, or deserts, of Northern Africa, inhabited by the Bedouins, where he amused himself with contemplating the rude character and manners of this primitive people. His first attempt, however, to visit these wild tribes was unsuccessful. Setting out from Fez, and traversing a mountainous and woody country, abounding in fountains and rivulets, and extremely fertile, he arrived at the foot of Mount Atlas, whose sides were covered with vast forests, while its summits were capped with snow. The merchants who cross this tremendous mountain with fruit from the date country usually arrive about the end of October, but are often surprised in their passage by snow-storms, which, in the course of a few hours, not only bury both carriages and men, but even the trees, so that not a vestige of them remains visible. When the sun melts the snow in the spring, then the carriages and the bodies of the dead are found.