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W E find a commonwealth compared to a flfip, and the weftern part of Bar bary hath fulfilled the allegory, not only in refpect of the inteftine broilswherewith it has been fo long toffed; nor yet in regard that the government thereof hathbeen continually floating from one faction to another. But in this efpecially, that thereremains no track, or impreflion, no regifters to acquaint us with what hath paffed, exceptruins and devaftations, the genuine memories of a defolating war. For to demand ofatalib (one of the molt learned fort among the Moors) the annals of remote vicifli-tudes, or an account of the traverfes that bear a frefher date, were to baffle his obfer-. Vation, and thereby affront his adored literature.
Now the likelieft reafon, that can be rendered of this ignorance, is the neglect ofpreferving records of their tranfaftions, for the Moors truft all to kn illiterate tradi-tion ; infomuch that the bell chronique can be now compiled of their late changes,mult for the rnoft part be colle&ed from fome aged grandfire’s memory; a frail founda-tion to fupport an hiftorical credit.
As for the ancient model of the Morefco Polity, it is fo miferably convulfed andftiaken through manifold alterations caufed by prevailing interefts, that not many of itsfirft maxims, nor much of its old conftitution, are vifible in the prefent ftate; and thisfuperfeded my curiofity in making refearches into the Moor’s politics, further thanto be informed of the methods ufed to afcend to government by the afpiring factionsof the laft age, of which I have given an account in the foregoing narrative. Andtherefore without the folemnity of any larger introduction, I fhall give a faithfulnarration of the prefent cuftoms of Barbary in the fucceeding chapters.
CHAP. I. — The Soil, Productions, Commodities , and Husbandry of the Country.
LEO Afer delivers two etymologies, which are fo agreeable both to the nature ofthe language, and glebe of the country, that they may feem to have been impofed byAdam, the primitive nomenclator. For if we liften to the Moors ’ language, Barbary feems to be defcended from Barbar, which fignifies an inarticulate murmur andgrumbling noife without accent or harmony, for their fpeech is harlh, being veryguttural: which is efteemed an argument of its antiquity. And indeed it hath gainedthe vogue of no lefs ancient a pedigree, than to be bred of the old Punic andArabian.
Another reafon why this country bears the name of Barbary , may be taken from theframe and difpofition of the earth, which being full of wild and unkindly tumours, well
* Father of the celebrated Addifon. Printed at the Theatre, Oxford, 1671, 8vo.
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