The Sultan's Authority Is Now Indeed Purely Nominal, And The French Look Forward To The Time When These Fine And Centrally Placed Oases Will Form "Une Dependance De L'Algerie."

The only countries in the South which now pay a regular impost to the Emperor, are Tafilett, limited to the valley of Fez, Wad-Draha as far as the lake Ed-Debaia, and Sous.

The countries of Sidi, Hashem, and Wadnoun nominally acknowledge the Emperor, and occasionally send a present; but the most mountainous, between Sous and Wad-Draha, which has been called Guezoula or Gouzoula, and is said to be peopled by a Berber race, sprang from the ancient Gelulir, is entirely independent. In the north and west are also many quasi-independent tribes, but still the Emperor keeps up a sort of authority over them; and, if nothing more, is content simply with being called their Sultan.

Maroquine Moors call their country El-Gharb, "The West," and sometimes Mogrel-el-Aksa, that is "The far West:" [8] the name seems to have originated something in the same way among the Saracenic conquerors, as the "Far West" with the Anglo-Americans, arising from an apprehensive feeling of indefinite extent of unexplored country. Among the Moors generally, Morocco is now often called, "Blad Muley Abd Errahman", or "Country of the Sultan Muley Abd Errahman." The northwestern portion of Morocco was first conquered; Morocco Proper, Sous and Tafilett were added with the progress of conquest. But scarcely a century has elapsed since their union under one common Sultan, whilst the diverse population of the four States are solely kept together by the interests and feelings of a common religion.

The Maroquine Empire, with its present limits, is bounded on the north by the Mediterranean Sea and the Straits of Gibraltar, on the west by the Atlantic Ocean and the Canary and Madeira Islands, on the south by the deserts of Noun Draha and the Sahara, on the east by Algeria, the Atlas, and Tafilett, on the borders of Sahara beyond their eastern slopes. The greatest length from north to south is about five hundred miles, with a breadth from east to west varying considerably at an average of two hundred, containing an available or really _dependent_ territory of some 137,400 square miles, or nearly as large as Spain; and the whole is situate between the 28 deg. and 40 deg. N. Latitude. Monsieur Benou, in his "Description Geographique de l'Empire de Maroc" says Morocco "comprend une superficie d'environ 5,775 myriametres carres, un peu plus grande, par consequant, que celle de la France, qui equivaut a 5,300." This then is the available and immediate territory of Morocco, not comprising distant dependencies, where the Shereefs exercise a precarious or nominal sovereignty.

Previously to particularizing the population of Morocco, I shall take the liberty of introducing some general observations on the whole of the inhabitants of North Africa, and the manner in which this country was successively peopled and conquered. Greek and Roman classics contain only meagre and confused notions of the aborigines of North Africa, although they have left us a mass of details on the Punic wars, and the struggles which ensued between the Romans and the ancient Libyans, before the domination of the Latin Republic could be firmly established. Herodotus cites the names of a number of people who inhabited North Africa, mostly confining himself to repeat the fables or the more interesting facts, of which they were the object.

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