The Administration Of Criminal Justice, As Far As I Had
Opportunities Of Observing, Was Prompt And Decisive:
For although
civil rights were but little regarded in Ludamar, it was necessary
when crimes were committed that examples
Should sometimes be made.
On such occasions the offender was brought before Ali, who
pronounced, of his sole authority, what judgment he thought proper.
But I understood that capital punishment was seldom or never
inflicted, except on the negroes.
Although the wealth of the Moors consists chiefly in their numerous
herds of cattle, yet, as the pastoral life does not afford full
employment, the majority of the people are perfectly idle, and spend
the day in trifling conversation about their horses, or in laying
schemes of depredation on the negro villages.
Of the number of Ali's Moorish subjects I had no means of forming a
correct estimate. The military strength of Ludamar consists in
cavalry. They are well mounted, and appear to be very expert in
skirmishing and attacking by surprise. Every soldier furnishes his
own horse, and finds his accoutrements, consisting of a large sabre,
a double-barrelled gun, a small red leather bag for holding his
balls, and a powder bag slung over the shoulder. He has no pay, nor
any remuneration but what arises from plunder. This body is not
very numerous; for when Ali made war upon Bambarra I was informed
that his whole force did not exceed two thousand cavalry. They
constitute, however, by what I could learn, but a very small
proportion of his Moorish subjects. The horses are very beautiful,
and so highly esteemed that the negro princes will sometimes give
from twelve to fourteen slaves for one horse.
Ludamar has for its northern boundary the great desert of Sahara.
From the best inquiries I could make, this vast ocean of sand, which
occupies so large a space in northern Africa, may be pronounced
almost destitute of inhabitants, except where the scanty vegetation
which appears in certain spots affords pasturage for the flocks of a
few miserable Arabs, who wander from one well to another. In other
places, where the supply of water and pasturage is more abundant,
small parties of the Moors have taken up their residence. Here they
live, in independent poverty, secure from the tyrannical government
of Barbary. But the greater part of the desert, being totally
destitute of water, is seldom visited by any human being, unless
where the trading caravans trace out their toilsome and dangerous
route across it. In some parts of this extensive waste the ground
is covered with low stunted shrubs, which serve as landmarks for the
caravans, and furnish the camels with a scanty forage. In other
parts the disconsolate wanderer, wherever he turns, sees nothing
around him but a vast interminable expanse of sand and sky - a gloomy
and barren void, where the eye finds no particular object to rest
upon, and the mind is filled with painful apprehensions of perishing
with thirst.
The few wild animals which inhabit these melancholy regions are the
antelope and the ostrich; their swiftness of foot enabling them to
reach the distant watering-places.
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