I Sincerely Hope This Man May Recover To Enjoy The
Munificence Of His Sovereign.
I have most excellent quarters here, contiguous to one of the palaces,
and am allowed to walk or ride in the Imperial gardens, which are very
extensive.
The Emperor's palaces here, are much upon the same plan,
with those at Fez, but larger. One of them is about three miles in
circumference. All the apartments are on the ground floor, and are
large long rooms, about twenty feet in height, receiving air from two
folding doors which open into a square court, with a portico round,
embellished with colonnades. The walls of the rooms are faced with
glazed tiles, and the floors paved with the same, which gives an air
of coolness and neatness, so desirable in this warm climate.
The seraglio of the Emperor, and indeed the harams of men of less
rank, are sacred. No strangers are admitted, and it is profanation in
a man to enter; but as a _tweeb_, I am privileged, and enjoy a
liberty, never granted before. The day after my arrival, His
Excellency the _Sheik_ called upon me, and requested me to go home
with him. He informed me that he had been assured, in the most
positive manner, by all the doctors, and female attendants, that his
wife had a dead child in her, and that nothing less than a miracle of
their great Prophet could save her. The poor man was very much
agitated while giving me this account. I find she is his favourite
wife, and no wonder, for she is a very lovely woman. Upon
examination, I found that what they imagined to be a dead child, is a
protuberant hardness in the region of the liver, extending nearly all
over the abdomen. The tumefaction was considered as a case of
pregnancy; and she having considerably passed her time, the child was
thought to be dead within her. I have begun a course of medicine,
which I flatter myself will entirely eradicate the disorder.
My stay was so very short, when I was here before, that I could give
you no account of the town, &c. The city of Mequinez is in the
kingdom of Fez, and thirty miles from the capital of that name. The
dynasty of _Mequinez_ were the founders of this town, which they
erected upon the ruins of the old one. Stephanus takes notice of it,
by the name of _Gilda_, and says, that it was a place of great note.
Marmol also asserts, that the present Mequinez answers in every
respect to the ancient _Gilda_. It was considerably enlarged by Muley
Ishmael, who (as well as several other Moorish princes, successively)
defended himself in this place, against the attacks of the
mountaineers. Several lines of circumvallation and intrenchments are
still to be seen.
It is surrounded with walls, and fortified by two bastions; but has no
artillery. It contains about one hundred thousand inhabitants;
twenty-five thousand of whom are Jews, who have a town of their own,
irregularly fortified, and guarded by a strong force, under the
direction of an Alcaid, who is styled the Governor of the Jews.
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