first view of the town is very fine; the fituation beautiful, and the road fo great and well-made, as to add much to the general fcene; indeed there can no where be a finer; it is carried in an even line over all narrow vales, fo that you have none of the inconveniencies which otherwife are the effect of hills and declivities. A few palm trees add to the novelty of the profpect to northern eyes. The laft half-mile, we were in great hafte to be in time for the gates, as they are shut at nine o'clock: we had had a moft burning fun for forty miles, were a good deal fatigued, yet forced to undergo a strict ridiculous fearch at the gate, as every thing pays an entrée to government that goes into the town. When this was over, we went to the French Crown, but all full; then to La Fonde, where we found good quarters. My friend thought this the most fatiguing day he had ever experienced; the heat being exceffive, oppreffcd him much. The contraft of this inn, which is a very great one, with many waiters, active and alert, as in England; a good fupper, with fome excellent Mediterranean fifh, ripe peaches, good wine, the most delicious lemonade in the world, good beds, &c. &c. contrafted molt powerfully with the dreadful ftarving or flinking fare we had every where elfe met with. The 17th. View the town, which is large, and, to the eye, in every ftreet remarkably populous: many of the Greets are narrow, as may be expected in an old town, but there are alfo many others of a good breadth, and with good houfes. Yet one cannot, upon the whole, confider it as well built, except in what relates to the public edifices, which are erected in a magnificent ftyle. There are fome confiderable openings, which, though not regular fquares, are highly ornamental, and have a good effect in fetting off the new buildings to the best advantage. One quarter of the city, called Barcelonetta, is entirely new their their hair, without powder, in a thick black net, which hangs down the back: nothing can have a worse effect, or be, in idea, more offenfive in fo hot a climate. But the object at Barcelona which is the moft ftriking, and which has hardly any where a rival, is the quay the defign and execution are equally good it is about half a mile long, as I gueffed by my eye. A low platform is built but a few feet above the level of the water, of stone, close to which the fhips are moored; this is of breadth fufficient for goods and packages of all forts in loading and unloading the veffels: a row of arched warehoufes open on this platform, above and over which is the upper part of the quay, which is on a level with the ftreet; and, for the convenience of going up or down from one to the other, there are ways for carriages, and also stair-cafes: the whole is moft folidly erected in hewn ftone, and finifhed in a manner that fhews a true fpirit of magnificence, in this moft ufeful fort of public works. It does credit to the kingdom. The road by which we travelled for feveral miles to Barcelona, the bridge over which we paffed the river, and this quay, are all works which will reflect a lafting honour on the present King of Spain. They are truly great. There are now about 140 fhips in the harbour, but the number is often many more. The manufactories at Barcelona are confiderable. There is every appearance as you walk the streets of great and active induftry; you move no where without hearing the creak of ftocking-engines. Silk is manufactured into stockings, handkerchiefs, (but thefe are not on fo great a fcale as at Valencia) laces, and various stuffs. They have alfo fome woollen fabrics, but not confiderable. The great bufinefs of the place is, that of commiffion; there are not many fhips belong ing to the town, but the amount of the trade tranfacted here is very confider able. The industry and trade, however, which have taken root and profpered in this city, have withstood the continued fyftem of the Court to deal fe verely with the whole province of Catalonia. The famous efforts which the Catalans made, in the beginning of this century, to place a Prince of the Houfe of Auftria upon the throne of Spain, were not foon forgotten by the Princes of the Houfe of Bourbon. Heavy taxes are paid in Barcelona; nothing comes into the town without paying an entrée; a load of 220 bottles of wine pays 12 pefettos, which is about 12s. English: even wheat is not exempted. Houfes pay a heavy proportional tax, which is levied with fuch ftrictnefs, that the least addition or improvement is fure to be attended with an increase of the tax. Nor is taxation the only inftance of severity; the whole province continues to this day difarmed, fo that a nobleman cannot wear a fword, unless privileged to do it by grace, or office; and this goes fo far, that they, are known, in order to be able to exhibit this mark of dif tinction, to get themfelves enrolled as Familiars of the Inquifition, an office which carries with it that licence. I note this correctly, as the information was given me; but I hope the perfon who gave it was mistaken, and that no fuch double dishonour is in question; in a court, to drive men, fourfcore years after their offence, and which offence was only fidelity to the Prince they esteemed their fovereign, to fo unworthy a means of perfonal diftinétion. The mention of the Inquifition made us inquire into the prefent ftate of that holy office; and we were informed, that it was now formidable only to perfons very notorious in ill fame; and that when it does act against offenders, an Inquifitor comes from Madrid to conduct the procefs: from the expreffions, however, which were used, and the inftances given, it appeared that they take cognizance of cafes not at all connected that if men or women were guilty of vices which made them notorioufly offenfive, this was the power which interpofed: an account by no means favourable; for the circumftance which was fuppofed moft to limit their power, was the explicit nature of the of fence, that it was against the catholic faith, and by no means against public morals, to fecure which is an object of very different judicatures in every country. There are reckoned to be from 1200 to 1500 monks and nuns in the city. Price of Provifions. Bread, 4 fous and a fraction per lb. of 120Z. 17 that of the poor People very little lefs; but they buy the foldiers bread, Mutton, 22 fous which comes cheathe lb. of 360z. per; they live very Pork, 45 fous the much on ftock lo. of 12 02. J fish, &c. Hams fometimes three or four pefettos or fhillings the lb. of 12 oz. Wine four to five fous the bottle. connected with faith in religion; and The 18th, leave Barcelona; fearched again at the gate going out, which feems for the payment of entries to be a needlefs and burthenfome precaution. Enter immediately an extraor dinary scene of watered cultivation, and which must have given the general reputation to the province. No. thing can well be finer. The crops in perpetual fucceflion-and the attention given to their culture great. Not the idea of a fallow; but the moment one crop is off, fome other immediately fown. A great deal of lucerne, which is cut, four, five, fix, and even seven times in a year; all broadcast, and exceedingly thick and fine, from 24 to 3 feet high when cut. It is all watered every eight days. We meet many mule loads of it going into the town, each 450lb. or 4 quintals, which fells for four pefettos, or near 4s. English; fuppofe it 4s. for 500lb. it will not be difficult to calculate the produce of an acre. All I faw would yield ten ton green per acre at each cutting, and much of it a great deal more: let us fuppofe five cuttings or 50 tons per acre, at 16s. a ton, this is 401. fterl. per acre. It is to be remembered that the growth we faw was the third, perhaps the fourth, and that the first and fecond are in all probability more confiderable; it will not, therefore, be thought any exaggera tion to calculate on five fuch. I by no means affert lucerne yields always, or generally fo, as I fpeak only of what I fee. I have very little doubt, however, but this is the amount of that portion which is thus cut and fold to Barcelona; poffibly one-third, certainly one-fourth is to be deducted for the expence of carriage: this is the most difficult part of the calculation, for it depends on how many times the mule goes in a day, which muft alfo depend on the readiness of fale and other circumftances. The profit is, however, amazingly great. All the other lucerne I have any where feen finks, in my idea, to nothing, on comparifon with the raft and luxuriant The markets are now full of ripe figs, peaches, melons, and more common forts of fruit, in great profufion. I bought three large peaches for a penny, and our laquais de place faid that I gave too much, and paid like a foreigner. Noble orange trees are in the gardens in the town full of fruit, and all forts of garden vegetables in the greatest plenty and perfection. The climate in Winter may be conjectured from their having green peafe every month in the year. Labour. Common day wages are 25 fous French, fometimes rife to 33 fous, the very loweft 22 1-half. Stocking-weavers earn 33 fous. View the very pretty fort to the fouth of the town, which is on the fummit of a hill that commands a vaft profpect by fea and land. It is exeeedingly well built, and well kept: Notwithstanding this fort to the fouth, and a citadel to the north of the town, corfairs, in time of war, have cut fifhing veffels out of the roads, and very near the shore. burthens burthens given by thefe watered ter-wheel, with jars around the circumference. The gardens between Barcelona and the fort, and alfo within the walls, are watered in the fame manner; the water is let into every little bed, in the fame way as I have already defcribed. They are crowded with crops, and kept in most beautiful order: thofe in and close to the town fcattered with mulberry-trees. But in the diftrict of which I am fpeaking at prefent, among the hemp and lucerne, neither vine, olive, nor mulberry. Thefe watered lands belong generally to proprietors who live in Barcelona, and are let at thirty to forty Spanish livres the journal. grounds. The finest crops I have known in England are drilled: but there is a fallacy to the eye in the drilled crops in proportion to the diftance of the rows; they appear thick while they are really thin, but in broad-caft ones which fatisfy the eye there is no deception; and thefe immenfe burthens, through which the scythe is with difficulty moved, produce more at one cutting than twofeet drills would at three, with the advantage of the herbage being finer and fofter. But weeds in England and Catalonia are two very different things; it well deferves, however, with us, a better trial than it has yet generally received. I have viewed broad-caft crops in that country, particularly Rocque's, on a very rich garden-foil, and Dr Tanner's on a common turnip-loam, which, though not to be named with the Spanish, were certainly encouraging. Hemp, through all these watered lands, is the predominant crop; it is feven feet high, and perfectly fine; fome of it is already harvested. I am forry to fee that the watered part of the vale is not more than a mile broad, Indian fig, called here figua de Maura, grows fix or seven feet high, very branching and crooked, the arms at bottom as thick as the thigh of a common man; these and many aloes in the hedges. Every garden or farm has a fmall houfe with a refervoir for water, which is filled in most by a wa The valley in its wideft part is three miles broad. Here it lets at 34 Spanifh livres a-year the journal, and the journal fells from 600 to 1000 livres, cach of these livres being about 54 fous (1000 Spanish livres make 2700 French ones.) Taking the medium at 800, and the French livre at 10d. this makes the journal 9ol. 2s. 6d. and the rent of it 41. The grofs rent of the land, therefore, pays nearly 4 per cent.; but whether this is clear rent, the tenant paying all taxes, and doing the fmall repairs of his houfe, &c. or whether there are deductions on thofe accounts, are queftions which were neither forgotten nor refolved. To fhew the quick fucceffion of their crops, they have corn in ftooks on the borders of fome of the fields, and the land ploughed and fown with millet, which is already nine inches high. Defcription of the Cities of Miquenez and Fez *. AFTER Muley Ifmael had uni- South to North. Morocco was cho ted the little kingdoms that compofe the empire of Morocco, he wifhed to have two imperial cities large enough to contain his people cafily as they paffed alternately from VOL. VII. No 37. fen as the fouthern, and Miquenez as, the northern imperial city. Miquenez ftands at the extremity of the province of Beni-Haffen, eighty leagues North from the city of MoD Recherches Hifariques fur les Maures rocco, rocco, and twenty to the Eaft of SaJee and the ocean. Maknaffa, its founder, built it at firft in the bottom of a valley; but Muley Ifmael éx. tended it confiderably over the plain that lies to the Welt of the valley. It is furrounded with well-cultivated fields and hills, adorned with gardens and olive plantations, and abundantly watered with rivulets. Accordingly, fruits and kitchen ftuff thrive here exceedingly, and even the fuperior urbanity of the inhabitants announces the temperature of the climate. The Winter indeed is very inconvenient 'on account of the dirtinefs of the town, the streets not being paved, and the foil being flimy. Miquenez is furrounded with walls; the palace itself is fortified with two bastions, on which formerly fome fmall guns were mounted. Muley Ifmach and Muley Abdallah, often in this city refifted the efforts of the Brebes, the fworn enemies of their tyranny. To the Weft are feen fome walls of circumvallation fix feet in heighth, which were probably mere intrenchments for the infantry; the attacks of the Brebes being only fudden and momentary inroads, which did not require a long defence. There is at Miquenez, as well as at Morocco, a walled and guarded fuburb for the Jews. The houfes are neater here than at Morocco, the Jews are more numerous, and they can turn their industry to greater account, because the Moors in this city are more polished, and, being nearer to Europe, more vifited than those in the fouthern parts. Near the Jewry there is another inclosed and separate quarter called the Negro-town. It was built by Muley Ifmael for the accommodation of thofe black families which compofed his foldiery. This town is now uninhabited, as are all thofe deftined for the fame ufe through the rest of the empire. At the fouth-east extremity of the city ftands the palace of the Emperor, which was built hy Muley Ifmael. The space occupied by this palace is very great; it includes feveral gardens elegantly difpofed and well watered. I was favoured with a view of this palace, by order of the Emperor, for there is no other means of admittance. There is a large garden in the centre, furrounded by a vaft and pretty regular gallery refting on colomas which communicates with the apartments. Thofe of the women, which are not now fo well peopled as they were in the days of Muley Ifmael, are very fpacious, and have a communication with a large chamber which looks into the garden. As you pafs from one apartment to another, you find at intervals regular courts paved with fquare pieces of black and white marble: in the middle of thefe courts is a marble bason, from the center of which rifes a jerd-cau, and the water falls down into this bafon. Thefe fountains are numerous in the palace; they are useful for domeftic purpofes, and they ferve for the ablutions, which the fcruples of the Mahometans have exceedingly multiplied. The palaces of the Moorish kings are large, because they are compofed only of one range of apartments; thefe are long and narrow, from 18 to 20 feet high; they have few ornaments, and receive the light by two large folăing doors, which are opened more or lefs as occafion requires. The rooms are always lighted from a square court in the center, which is generally encompaffed with a colonade.. The Moors here are more courte ous than thofe in the fouthern parts; they are civil to ftrangers, and invite them into their gardens, which are very neat. The women in this part of the empire are beautiful; they have a fair complexion, with fine black eyes and white teeth. I have fometimes feen them taking the air on the ter races; |