- "Mauritania generally, excepting a small part desert, is
rich and fertile, well watered with rivers and washed with lakes;
Abounding in all things, and producing trees of great dimensions."
Another writer adds "this country produces a species of the vine whose
trunk the extended arms of two men cannot embrace, and which yields
grapes of a cubit's length." "At this city," says Pliny, "was the palace
of Antaeus, and his combat with Hercules and the gardens of Hesperides."
Mehedia or Mamora, and sometimes, Nuova Mamora, is situate upon the
north-western slope of a great hill, some four feet above the sea, upon
the left bank of the mouth of the Sebon, and at the edge of the
celebrated plain and forest of Mamora, belonging to the province of
Beni-Hassan. According to Marmol, Mamora was built by Jakob-el-Mansour
to defend the embouchure of the river. It was captured by the Spaniards
in 1614, and retaken by the Moors in 1681. The Corsairs formerly took
refuge here. It is now a weak and miserable place, commanded by an old
crumbling-down castle. There are five or six hundred fishermen,
occupying one hundred and fifty cabins, who make a good trade of the
Shebbel salmon; it has a very small garrison. The forest of Mamora,
contains about sixty acres of fine trees, among which are some splendid
oaks, all suitable for naval construction.
Salee or Sala, a name which this place bore antecedently to the Roman
occupation, is a very ancient city, situate upon the right bank of the
river Bouragrag, and near its mouth.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 68 of 196
Words from 17979 to 18246
of 53114
