FOOTNOTES:
[113]I procured several specimens of gold and silver ores from the various mines in this province, which I sent to Europe to be analyzed; but the smallness of the quantity precluded any considerable advantage from the analyzation, and I had not an opportunity afterwards of repeating the trial to a larger extent.
[114]It is probably owing to the deficiency of knowledge in African languages among Europeans (which not only impedes, but often renders abortive, our negociations with the Emperor) that we have been hitherto prevented from obtaining very considerable supplies as well of this as of many other useful articles, such as naval stores and provisions, from West Barbary.
[115]The Arabs of Woled Abussebah manufacture gun-powder of a quality far superior to that of Europe; for if it be immersed in water during a night, and then taken out, it is perfectly dry and fit for use; but they keep the process a secret. That which is made by the Moors is, in general, of a very inferior quality, having neither strength nor quickness.
[116]Harushe is a name applied in Africa to all plains or places covered with basaltic stones, bearing marks of some ancient convulsion of nature. These places are interspersed over the Desert, or Sahara, and in other parts of Africa.
[117]Sonini, in his travels in Egypt, called it hobezé; there is, however, no h in the word, but a guttural k (خ) an error originating in a partial, and but an oral, knowledge of the Arabic language; or possibly he had seen the word written by a professed Arabian scholar, who frequently omits the punctuation, which he can make out by the tenour of the discourse; in this case the word would have been written with the letter h (ح).
[118]In passing these plains, where such a variety of beautiful flowers grow spontaneously, it has often occurred to me that this country was once in a considerably higher degree of cultivation than it is at present.
[119]Probably the Euphorbium officinalis of Linnæus.
[120]These adhere to every thing which touches them, and seem to have been intended by nature, to prevent cattle from eating this caustic plant, which they always avoid on account of its prickles.
[121]See [page 118.]