REVIEW OF LITERATURE.-FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

The Travels of Ali Bey, in Morocco, Tripoli, Cyprus, Egypt, Arabia, Syria and Turkey, between the years 1803 and 1807. Written by himself, and illustrated by numerous maps and plates. 2d Am. Edit. J. Conrad. Philadel phia. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 390 and 428; and one 4to vol. of plates.

THESE travels are said to be written by a Spanish gentleman, named Badia, who seems from the publisher's advertisement, to have been well known in the literary circles of London and Paris. He assumed the character and manners of a Turk, and performed all the ceremonies of a musselman with a degree of punctuality which might make a christian blush; but there is such a comical gravity in his language when he speaks of the fasts and ablutions to which his curiosity subjected him,-for he pretends to keep on the disguise in his book-that it is impossible not to laugh. Descended, as he announced himself, from the ancient race of the Abassides, and familiar with the idiom and the customs of the countries that he visited, he was received without suspicion: the wandering Arab, invited him to join in his caravan, and the doors of the jealous Turk were thrown wide to admit him. The sultan of Morocco received him with great cordiality,-praised God for having enabled so learned a man to return from the land of infidels, and presented him with an elegant villa.

In 1802 Ali Bey was in London; in 1803 he sailed from Spain to Morocco, where he remained till October 1805, and then embarked at Larisch for Tripoli. In January, 1806, he sailed for Cyprus, where he continued two months, and arrived at Alexandria the ensuing May. In October he went to Cairo, in December to Suez, and from that place sailed to Jeddo. He proceeded on the mahomedan pilgrimage to Mecca. He returned to Cairo in June; and thence to Acre, Mount Carmel, Nazareth, the sea of Galilee, the river Jordan, Damascus and Aleppo. At the end of October 1807, he visited Constantinople; whence he made his way through Adrianople; then over Mount Hæmus, and across the Danube to Bucharest in Wallachia, where he takes his leave of the reader.

In four hours he landed at Tanja or Tangier. His sensations during his rapid transition from Tariffa to Tangier he says, can only be compared with a dream. In all other parts of the world some relation subsists between the inhabitants of neighbouring countries, and travellers can discern something like a community of manners and customs; but between Spain and the opposite shores, the change is abrupt, and after passing over a few leagues, we find ourselves, as it were, in another planet. The comparison is not in favour of this new world. Nothing exhibits an aspect more wretched, than the empire of Morocco, considered in a political point of view. It is governed by a despotism so stupid and gross, that its influence affects the despot himself. Those who possess wealth are obliged to submit to the appearance and even the wants of poverty, in order to avoid the rapacity of authority. The number of these persons, however, is very small, the great mass of the people being miserably poor. Ali Bey says that the sultan of Constantinople is but a slave compared with the empe. ror of Morocco; a tyrant who has carried the regal sway to its utmost limits. The douars or villages of this impoverished kingdom appear more like the lairs of savage animals, than the abodes of man. The great city of Fez, which once contained upward of 200,000 souls, cannot enumerate more than a moiety of that number: and the depopulation has been more rapid in Morocco itself, where, instead of 700,000 inhabitants, who were formerly there in prosperity, the modern traveller finds but 200,000 in the greatest poverty. The soil of this country only requires cultivation; but while a wise economy has compelled nature to quadruple her productions, in other parts of the world, the ingenious hand of despotism has discovered the secret of producing sterility in a climate disposed to produce in abundance without the aid of art.

If the lot of the Moroccoans be in general so miserable, what shall we say of the Jews, whose servitude is so base, that the very beasts of burden are objects of their envy? We need scarcely add that the arts and sciences partake of the general degradation. It is with governments as it is in nature; if a good government promote the prosperity, even of arts for which it has no

employment, a stupid and blind despotism will destroy those which would be agreeable and useful.

The mere passages of Ali Bey from one place to another, &c. &c. do not excite a very lively interest; there is a great deal of sameness in them, and the reader feels no wish to be at the side of his author. It must be admitted, however, that readers of itineraries, are rather unreasonable. They expect to be charmed with the narrative, while the poor traveller is contending with tediousness and monotony. We look for catastrophes, perilous crises and tragical events. If none of these can be had, we expect at least once in each chapter to hear of a man being nearly swallowed by the waves, or cast upon a desert island, among some horrible anthropophagi. In a word, we look with eagerness, for bumps and bruises, and even though it is evident that the traveller's license is liberally used, yet we are not displeased if our feelings are highly excited. Of moving accidents by sea and land, our traveller has not much to say, in his first volume. He had nearly died of thirst in crossing the desert, it is true, but there is nothing very moving in that. This gentleman, however, travelled for other purposes than the gratification of such readers. He procured some important information on subjects heretofore but imperfectly understood. He has ascertained the longitudes and latitudes of many places, and has rectified various errors in the common maps of Morocco. The river Luccos, for instance, flows to the south and not the north of Alcassor, and the city of Fez, according to Ali Bey, is situated in 34° 6' 3" north latitude, and 7° 8′ 30′′ west from Paris; and not as laid down in the maps of Arrowsmith, Maj. Rennel, Delille, Golberri, &c.

The observations of Ali Bey, in some respects, have not led to that certainty which might have been expected. We find many of the customs of China here, although that country is separated from Morocco by many thousand leagues. The shaved heads, on the tops of which a single lock is suffered to remain, the large cloaks thrown over the rest of their attire, the yellow slippers, chambers whose floors and walls are covered with mats, small windows with jealousies or blinds, houses ornamented in relief with various colours, even with gold and silver, eating without knives or forks, and many other things, remind the reader of the Chinese.

Although these coincidences may have arisen entirely from accident, yet many system-mongers would not hesitate to build a theory upon them and ascribe to the two nations, a common origin.

The prevailing notion respecting the colour of the females in this country is that they are black, but we learn from our traveller that their complexion is a dead white, resembling marble. Beauty is common among the Jews, who possess this advantage in an eminent degree. Hence he infers, that distress and servitude are more favourable to elegance than opulence.

If we could succeed in persuading the ladies of the truth of this, we should confer a vast obligation, not only upon young bachelors, who want money, but upon married men who want liberty, since the fair would no longer look for wealth in a suitor or contend for power with him, to whom they have been commanded to be obedient.

Nothing is more simple or expeditious than the manner of distributing justice among these musselmen. The caid is seated on cushions in the middle of a hall and the parties are placed by the door on their knees, with a line of soldiers behind them. When the signal is given, the suitors bawl out their complaints, at the same time, until they are stopped by blows from the guards. The sentence is then pronounced: the guards cry out 66 run, run," and beat the suitors out of the court. We have another proof of similarity of manners, in the strange customs of two nations, without being able to deduce a common origin. At a funeral in Morocco, our traveller saw a number of women, divided into two choruses, who alternately cried Ah! Ah! and who at each exclamation struck themselves so violently as to draw blood. The dead are honoured in the same manner in the Society Islands, when the women, on these occasions, lacerate their persons with the tooth of a fish and cry Ah! Ah! in a most touching manner. After this they bathe and appear without any signs of grief, as if they considered that an hour or two devoted to lamentation was sufficient for the loss which they had sustained. When we consider the mode in which they express their regret, we cannot but think that the time is quite long enough. It may not be amiss to add here that at the funerals of the ancient Greeks the funereal cry was * * *.

The first volume concludes with a curious dissertation on the Atlantis, which the author thinks he has discovered, and by a very ingenious conjecture, upon an interior sea, which he places in Africa on the south of Saha and Fezzan, and to the north of the mountains of Tong. Here he finds the Niger flowing, and the proofs upon which he forms this opinion, for he did not visit the spot, are very strong.

At length our mysterious traveller arrives at Tripoli, where he was received with great pomp and splendour, and refreshed with essences and perfumes. Thence he proceeded to Cyprus. This part of his travels is particularly interesting, because we know little of this famous island. Those who have gone thither have given very superficial descriptions of the ruins, or, which is worse, have only repeated what they heard from the modern Greeks. Ali Bey examined every thing with his own eyes, guided by his own taste and knowledge; and he depicts, with a mournful pencil, the remains of the famous Cythera, Idalia, and Paphos. But, amidst these ruins, despised by those who dwell among them, he found many objects which are fitted to excite the warmest enthusiasm of those whose studies have been directed to the ancients. The palace of the Queen, of which the vestiges yet remain, is on the summit of a mountain, cut out of a rock; and its origin seems to baffle the researches of history. The ancient Paphos is hewn out of the rock. Each house is formed by excavating a block of marble, and there are still to be seen portions of entablatures and capitals which remain fixed to the architrave, because they form one body with the cornice. From what our author says of the modern inhabitants of this island, we conclude that the mother of Love does not retain her abode among them.

But we must hasten with our traveller to Mecca, where every thing is new to most of our readers. No christian having ever been permitted to penetrate the famous temple in this city, and to visit the holy Kaaba, it is gratifying that a musselman, who speaks and writes in a christian tongue, has undertaken to remove the veil which has concealed for upwards of 200 years, the mysteries of Islamism. The conscientious traveller would regard any omission as a profanation; he therefore describes in full detail, the Holy City, the house of God, the Kaaba, and the famous black