d to their
father at Fas; but it was discovered by the governor or alkaid of
187 Tangier, that during the passage some persons had died; and
accordingly the alkaid would not suffer any of the passengers to
land, except the princes, until he should have received orders from
the Emperor how to act; he accordingly wrote to Fas, for the
imperial orders, and in the mean time the princes arrived, and
presented themselves to the emperor: the latter wrote to the
alkaid, that as the princes had been suffered to land, it would be
unjust to prohibit the other passengers from coming ashore also. He
therefore ordered the alkaid to suffer all the passengers, together
with their baggage, to be landed, and soon afterwards the plague
appeared at Fas, and at Tangier. Thus the contagion which is now
ravaging West Barbary was imported from Egypt. It does not appear
that the mortality is, or has been, during its acme at Fas, any
thing comparable to what it was during the plague that ravaged this
country in 1799,[140] and which carried off more than two-thirds of
the population of the empire.

[Footnote 140: It has been asserted by a physician who has
lately written, _Observations on contagion, as it relates to
the plague and other epidemical diseases_, reviewed in article
20th of the _British Review_, and _London Critical Journal_,
published in May last, that I have asserted that the deaths
during the prevalence of that disorder in West Barbary in 1799,
amounted to 124,500; but on a reference to my account of
Marocco, Timbuctoo, &c., 2d or 3d edition, note, page 174, it
will appear, that this mortality was that of two cities, and
two sea-ports only, viz., the cities of Fas and Marocco, and
the ports of Saffy and Mogodor; the mortality, however, was
equally great in the imperial cities of Mequinas and Terodant,
and in the sea-port towns of Tetuan, Tangier, Arzilla,
L'Araich, Salee, Rabat, Dar el Bieda, Azamore, Mazagan, and
Santa Cruz, or Agadeer; and considerably greater among the
populous and numerous encampments of the Arabs, throughout the
various provinces of the empire; not to mention the incredible
mortality in the castles, towns, and other walled habitations
of the Shelluh province of H