tion other particular places in his tables, relative to them both, which are put 5° or ccc M. further to the S. than they are found to be by ob servation. And then again, with regard to the extent of this kingdom, as it is laid down in the Antonine Itinerary, we are to observe, that the Portus Cæcili (a few miles only from Twunt, our western boundary) and Tabarca are placed nearly one thousand Roman, or DCCC Geographical miles from each other; c M. short indeed of Ptolemy's account; though above ccc M. more than the real distance betwixt them. But to shew, without being too particular at present, how cautiously this guide or directory is sometimes to be followed or relied upon, we need only give the reader, in one view, some of the more noted places, with their distances as they are marked down there, and as they have been found, in the following sheets, by observation, viz. But to return to the modern geography of this kingdom, and to describe the further extent of it, we are to observe, that the dominion, which the Algerines Algerines pretend to beyond the Tell, is very uncertain and precarious: for which reason I have fixed the proper boundaries and limits of this kingdom that way, sometimes upon the northern skirts of the Sahara; sometimes upon the most advanced parts of the mountains of Atlas; which, indeed, for the most part, coincide with them. Some of the villages indeed of the province of Zaab and others likewise, that have a more distant situation from Algiers, pay regularly their annual taxes, or at least give some tokens of submission to the Turks: but the other communities are all of them independent: whilst the correspondent Arabs are seldom brought under contribution; being always upon their guard, or at a distance particularly when the Turkish armies are abroad to collect the taxes." The southern part of this kingdom, which I am now speaking of, together with the whole tract of land, that lies in that direction between the Atlantic ocean and Egypt, is called by most · of the modern geographers, Biledulgerid; or, according to its true name, Blaid el Jeridde, i. e. The dry country. Though, if we except the Jerid, a small portion of it, that is situated near the Lesser Syrtis, and belongs to the Tuniseans; all the rest of it is known (at least to those Arabs whom I have conversed with) by no other general name than the Sahara, i. e. The desert, as we may interpret it. Gramage, De la Croix, and other modern geographers divide this kingdom into a great many provinces, provinces, according to the several petty royal ties which, at one time or other, it was cantoned into, before and after the time of the Turkish conquests. But at present there are only three, viz. the province of Tlem-san, to the west; of Titterie, to the south; and of Constantina, to the east of Algiers. The dey appoints over cach of these provinces a bey or viceroy, who has a despotic power within his jurisdiction; and at the appointed seasons of collecting the tribute, upon a rebellion, insurrection, or other the like occasions, is assisted with a body of troops from Algiers. Thus stands, at present, the general description and division of this kingdom, which, upon comparison, will correspond with the Provincia Nova* or Numidia† of the ancients. For if we bound it with the river Tuscat, (i. e. the Zaine) to the east, it will then contain a part of the Africa of Pomponius Mela || and Ptolemy §; the Numidia properly so called ¶, or the Numidia of the *** Καισαρ - της Νομάδας λαβών ες τε το ὑπήκοον επήγαγετα εν τη Λιβύη εθνε ταυτα, το μεν περι τιην Καρχηδόνα (ὁ δη και Αφρικην και λεμεν) παλαιον, ότι εκ πολλὰ κατέργαςο· το δε δη των Νομαδων, νέον, ÓTI VENTI EIANATO Ewropa. Dion. Hist. Rom. 1. xliii. p. 345-6. ed. Steph. + Numidæ possedere ea loca, que proxuma Carthaginem Numidia appellatur. Sal. Bell. Jug. Cantab. 1710. § 21. p. 287. Ad Mauritaniam Numidæ tenent. Id. § 22. Plin. 1. v. cap. 3, 4. § Ptolem. Africa Sit. c. iii. ριτανίαι, δυτικωτέρα μεν ή Τιγγιτανη, ny ǹ Afgien, esta ʼn Kugnvain, &c. P. Mel. Africa Descript. c. vii. Plin. ut supra. Solin. Polyhist. c. 26. Ethic. Cosmog. Lug. Bat. p. 63. Martian Capell. de duabus Maurit. Isid. c. 5. the Massyli*. And again, as it is bounded to the westward with the mountains of Trara, (excepting that small space of it which lies from thence to the Mullooiah, and belongs to the Western Moors) it will take in the other Numi, dia, viz. the Numidia of Mela †, or the Numidia of the Massæsyli: this was called afterwards, when the Romans were in full possession of it, the Mauritania Cæsariensis ||; and, in the middle age, that part of it which lay near the city Sitifi, took the name of Sitifensis, as we learn from Æthion, Isidore, and other geographers of that time. We may well take that remarkable chain of eminences, which sometimes borders upon the Sahara, Strab. Geog. ed. Amst. 1. ii. p. 193. & 1. xvii. 1188. Cum Syphace Romanis juncta amicitia est. Quod ubi Carthaginienses acceperunt, extemplo ad Galam in parte altera Numidia (Massyla ea gens vocatur) regnantem, legatos mittunt. Liv. 1. xxiv. $48. Syphax erat rex Numidarum. ibid. Massylii regnum paternum Masanissæ læti, ut ad regem diu desideratum concessere. Syphax, pulsis inde præfectis præsidiisque suis, vetere se continebat regno, neutiquam quieturus. Id. 1. xxx. § 11. + P. Mel. c. vi. Vid. Not. 7. Masanissa non in possessione modo paterni regni esset, sed etiam socios Carthaginiensium populos, Massæsylorum fines (id Syphacis regnum erat) vastaret. Liv. 1. xxix. § 32. Massasyli gens affinis Mauris, regionem Hispaniæ, maxime qua sita est Carthago nova, spectant. Idem. 1. xxviii. § 17. Post hos immensæ Nomadum de semine gentes, Priscian. Perieg. v. 176-7. || Plin. 1. v. c. 2. Solin. Polyhist. c. 25. Ethic. Cosmog. p. 63. Isid. de Libya, c. 5. Ο Κλαύδιος δίχη της Μαυρες τις υπη κους ενειμεν, ες τε τα περι Τεγγιν και ες τα περι Καισάρειαν (αφ' ώνπερ και ονομάζονται) και δυο αρχεσιν ιππεύσι προσέταξε. Dion. Hist. Rom. 1.lx. p. 771. Sahara, and sometimes lies within the Tell, to be the Astrixis of Orosius, the same with Mount Atlas, so noted in history. Yet, it may be observed, that this mountain is not always of that extraordinary height or bigness which has been attributed to it by the ancients, being rarely or ever equal, as far as I have seen, to some of the greater mountains of our own island; and perhaps can no where stand in competition either with the Alps, or the Appennines. If we conceive, in an easy ascent, a number of hills, usually of the (perpendicular) height of four, five, or six hundred yards, with a succession of several groves and ranges of fruit and forest-trees growing, one behind another, upon them; and if, to this prospect, we sometimes add a rocky precipice of superior eminence and more difficult access, and place upon the side or summit of it, a mud-walled Dashkrah of the Kabyles, we shall then have a just and lively picture of mount Atlas, without giving the least credit to the nocturnal flames, to the melodious sounds, or lascivious revels of such imaginary beings, as Pliny *, Solinus, and others, have, in a peculiar manner, attributed to it. It has been remarked by some of the old geographers, that these mountains were called Dyris and Adiris, or Dyrim and Adderim† by the Indigenæ *Herod. p. 280. ed. Lugd. Bat. Plin. l. v. c. 1. Solin. Polyhist. c. 24. Mart. Capell. de Afric. + Strab. 1. xvii. p. 1185. Plin. 1. v. c. 1. Solin. Polyhist. . xxiv. Mart. Capell. de Afr. |