The Moorish empire then extended in Africa above a thousand miles from east to west; and five hundred and fifty, in its broadest part, from north to south. It included also one half of Spain, and menaced the remainder. It embellished Africa as well as Seville and Cordova, with some of the noblest structures that any age has produced. It caused arts and science to flourish amidst the ravages of war. Rabat outshone the “court” of Morocco,--merchants gathered to share in its commerce, and professors to teach in its schools. A Roman-like aqueduct still strides along the plain, and from the tower, raised to supply the want of mountains, the fleets of foes, or the convoys of friends, could be descried for twenty leagues at sea. This meteor capital of the “west” was seen, and then vanished. It was laid low in the wars of the Almohadis and the Benemerines. Further to the south, there are long lines of low white walls connected with a small building, where the Sultan was residing. In the rear there was a large encampment of cavalry in a square, as if it had been a Roman legion. We calculated their force at ten thousand. The last intelligence we had received before sailing from Gibraltar, was that an insurrection had broken out at Morocco, and another on the borders of Algiers, in favour of Abd-el-Kadir. The French steamer, that was recently here, came to press an answer from the unfortunate monarch to an _ultimatum_ from the French government, giving him the option of war with France or Abd-el-Kadir. It was painful to reflect how much the fortunes of Europe, and the internal condition and ultimate government of France, were dependent upon the weakness or caprice of the descendants of the “_Rovers of Salee_.” For a step involving the entrance of French troops into Morocco, by changing the position of Algeria into a basis of operation against Africa, would have similarly changed France in respect to Europe. It would have subjugated the policy of the metropolis to the conduct of the colony. It was no object of the cabinet of the Tuilleries to drive the Sultan into a false and untenable position at home, or to compromise him with France. The Government of Algiers had got the management of the negotiation, and had this purpose. My trip had reference to this matter, and was not uninvited by the Moorish Government, otherwise I should not have risked presenting myself at so unfrequented an entrance to this inhospitable land. Adverse winds, however, detained me in the Gut, whilst steam carried the French--that is, the Algerine--emissary to his destination. Nothing could be more tantalizing than thus to hover above the country, and in sight of its assembled multitudes, in utter ignorance of what was passing, and with the contingency before my eyes of being even yet unable to set foot on it.