Jenks's Portland gazette. [volume] (Portland [Me.]) 1799-1802, 1799-09-30
DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY OF MOROCCO.

w - 1 " 11N&15 Gill 81 tiiS ANsJL VI
Atlas, is plain of comfortable extent;
The fertility of which is increafed by
numerous freams, falling from the
neighbouring mountain. 1t was for
merly divided into gardens and plant
atoms, few of which have furyived the
devaitation of tyranny and faction.
In the midlt of this plain is fituated
the city Of Morocco; the metropolis
of kingdom which vies with France
in extent, and exceeds it il fertility !;
but, in coniequence of mifgovernment,
| is little better than delert. So
The walls, which are nearly entire,
comprile afpace not inferior to Paris,
but which exhibit little more than
heaps of ruins, Indeed, of half a mil
lion of inhabitants, which it probably
contained in the Aourilhing period of
the Arabians, twenty or thirty thoufand
are the mott that can now be found in
it. In the abfence of the prince, the
number is even lcfs than this.
The foundations of houfes, and the
yeitiges of ifreets are every where
yiflble. The quarters that have been
rebuilt are diltant from each other,
and competed of houfes awkwardly
contracted, lettering, dark, inconven-
lent and filthy.
The houfes of private perfons, in
their fize and proportions, have no re-
Tendance to each other. They are not
built in the fame line. The breadth of
the itreet is therefore perpetually vary
ing. They all agree in prefenting
fquare front, of mud, half converted
into bricks, irregular in furface, and
with no aperture but door.
The Jews reiide in a feparate quarter,
encloled by craggy wall. The ruins
OF iynagogues and habitations fhow this
quarter TO have once been populous.-
1t is iaid to have contained twenty
thouiand perlons, who have now dwin-
died to two hundred families. The
reit have been difperfed by violence,
or have taken refuge, from ianguina-
ry and tyrannical government, in the
boiom OF the neighbouring hills,
The public buildings are mofqucs,
kaileria, or market-places, and the
buildings of the great. The mofques,
iome OF which are fpacious, are built
in iimilar, but fome-what worfe ityle
than itru6tors of the fame kind in Ma
tolia and Greece. The kaileria are
mean in their ftrudure, and make but
a beggarly difplay of merchandize.-l
They are much inferior to the bezef-
teens in Turkey, places appropriate to
the fame purpole.
A large ipacc, enclofed by walls,
containing gardens of orange trees and
odoriferous flowers, and interpreted
by gay paviiions, is the abode of the
monarch, his kinfmen, and his gran
dees. Theie differ in extent and
iplendor in proportion to the rank and
wealth OF the poiedor that of. the
prince is of courfe the mott magnif-
cent.
The lalt is an edi6ce of fome gran
deur. 1t fronts the fnowy and ftupen-
dous ridge of Atlas, which, though
many leagues diltant, feems to over
hang the city, The walls, through
which you are led by gates of hewn
itone, adorned with Gothic arches and
Arabian ornaments, encioie various
courts and gardens. Thefe were laid
out by captives or hirelings from Ma
pies and France, and forcibly reminded
me OF my native country, In this
initance, tor iome reafon which am
unable to afaign, this people feem to
have dilmiaed thei: ufual antipathy to
whatever is chriltian, w