. . .tinued barren plain of a brown sandy soil impregnated with salt, so that if you take up the earth it has a salt flavour; the surface also has the appearance of salt, and if you dig a foot deep, a brackish water ooses up. On the approach, to within a day's journey of Tafilelt, however, the country is covered with the most magnificent plantations and extensive forests of the lofty date, exhibiting the most elegant and picturesque appearance that nature, on a plain surface, can present to the admiring eye. In these forests there is no underwood, so that a horseman may gallop through them without impediment. Wheat is cultivated near the river, and honey is produced of an exquisite quality. The faith and honour of the (filelly) inhabitants of Tafilelt is proverbial; a robbery has not been known within the memory of man; they use neither locks nor keys, having no need of either!

Having had my audience of leave of the Emperor, I prepared to proceed to Mogodor, bu. . . Read More