Fez is computed to contain about twenty thousand inhabitants, all either artificers or traders, who carry on an extensive commerce in European manufactures, which they export to Tafilet and Timbuctoo as well as to the adjacent mountainous countries. The 14th of August, at seven in the morning, I quitted the fandac and walked through the city with my leathern bag thrown over my shoulder. A long street conducted me to the western gate, where I hired a mule to carry me to Mequinaz; and, our provision for the journey being prepared, we departed, directing our course W. N. W., over a smooth soil composed of very good mould but uncultivated. I remarked several tents of wandering Arabs pitched beside a little river formed by the junction of the rivulets which water the environs of Fez. Our road, which was very uneven, lay between two ridges of barren hills, and crossed several well constructed bridges. About two o’clock we rested under a bridge which sheltered us from the sun. We had in our company two women who, being under no restraint, shewed but little solicitude to conceal their fair complexions and pretty faces beneath their veils; one of them rode on my mule behind me; and I presume that my attentions were agreeable to her, as she offered me a slice of melon and a bit of bread which I accepted with pleasure. Our pretty fellow-travellers, however, learning that the Emperor had set out for Rabat, returned to Fez, and I continued my route with my guide alone; our mules keeping up so good a pace that I estimated our progress at four miles an hour. At five in the morning we arrived at Mequinaz, the streets of which city were as dirty and narrow as those of Fez; and, entering a fandac, I begged to be allowed to sleep in a stable, a favour which the master refused in the rudest manner. Turning from a place which offered so little hospitality to an unfortunate stranger, I sought refuge in the mosque, the asylum of the indigent: there I hoped to repose in peace till the morning; but alas! I was disappointed. About ten at night an old bamâb (porter) came to me, and kicking me, roughly desired me in a hoarse voice to rise and begone, for he was about to shut up. In vain I represented myself as a stranger not knowing whither to go, and implored him to allow me to pass the night in this retreat: without the least regard to my situation he compelled me to leave the mosque. Such conduct ought not to have surprised me, for in this part of Africa, as in some other more civilized countries, men are distinguished only by their apparel, and it must be confessed that mine did not plead in my favour; but I considered that it would be highly imprudent to study my dress: my rags excited no attention, and this livery of poverty served as a veil with which prudence required that I should still envelop myself.