Bloomsbury-square,
May 30, 1809.
ADVERTISEMENT
TO THE SECOND EDITION.
The very favourable manner in which the first Edition of this Account of Marocco was received by the Public, and the flattering terms in which it was spoken of by the most eminent Critical Journals of the day,[1] afford me now an opportunity, in presenting a second Edition to the world, of thus publicly returning my most grateful acknowledgments, and at the same time of enlarging and improving the work, and thereby rendering it still more worthy of public approbation: this I have been enabled to do from my own original notes, many of which were forgotten or overlooked in the first arrangement of the book.
The new matter now submitted to the Public, consists principally in a fuller account of the revenues of the state, several additions on various other subjects, as the natural history of the country, its inhabitants, and their modes of life, administration of justice, treatment of children, and education of youth; some further observations on the plague, and the diseases incident to the inhabitants; a comparison between the ancient language of the Canary Islands and that of the Shelluhs of South Atlas; Mr. Betton’s philanthropic Will and patriotic intentions, manifested in his liberal bequest to emancipate British seamen from captivity; cautions to navigators; laws, manufactures, and customs of Timbuctoo; and, for the amusement of the Arabic scholar, three Letters are introduced, with their translations, to enable him to compare the Arabic of Africa with that of Asia. Finally, there is scarcely a page that has not received some additional matter or improvement.
Indeed I have been anxious to discuss every subject that could in any manner tend to illustrate the actual state of the Empire of Marocco, being confident that the more these subjects are discussed among us, the more they will merit our attention: and that, if ever the interior of Africa is to be explored by Europeans, if ever we are to reach the grand object of our research, the Emporium of Central Africa (Timbuctoo), Marocco is the most eligible point to set out from. But it is indispensably necessary that we should first overcome our own prejudices and misconceptions respecting this country; we should first secure to ourselves all those advantages which would result from an active and uninterrupted commercial intercourse with the principal Sea Ports of the Western Coast; and when these objects shall have been accomplished, the rest will readily follow.
In the first Edition I promised that, should my labours meet with approbation, I would publish the political history of Marocco: this I had written, and intended as a second part to this Edition (indeed three sheets of it were printed); but considering that the subject has been before discussed, and being unwilling to trouble the public with intelligence not altogether new, I have thought it expedient to suppress it.
It is not probable that I shall do any thing more to this work, I therefore now dismiss it as perfect as I can render it. The greater part of it, I repeat, is the fruit of my own knowledge and experience; and I have never spoken on the authority of others, but when I have had opportunities of investigating the sources of their intelligence, and when I have had every reason to believe their information correct.[2]
J. G. JACKSON.