Previously to entering into any further detail of the different expeditions for exploring the interior of Africa, it may be greatly conducive to the better understanding of the subsequent narratives, when treating of the distinct races of people by which the countries are inhabited, to give a concise statement of the population of that part of Africa, which is known by the appellation of West Barbary, and which may be said to be divided into three great classes, exclusive of the Jews, viz.

Berrebbers, Arabs, and Moors.

The two former of these are, in every respect, distinct races of people, and are each again subdivided into various tribes or communities; the third are chiefly composed of the other two classes, or of their descendants, occasionally mixed with the European or negro races.

The indiscriminate use of the names Arab and Moor, in speaking apparently of the same people, frequently leads the reader into an error as to the real class to which the individual belongs, and thus the national character of the two classes becomes unjustly confounded, whilst at the same time an erroneous opinion is formed of the relative virtues and vices of the different people, with whom the traveller is brought into collision.
In the class of the Berrebbers, we include all those, who appear to be descendants of the original inhabitants of the country before the Arabian conquest, and who speak several languages, or dialects of the same language, totally different from the Arabic.

The sub-divisions of this class are:--1st, the _Errifi,_ who inhabit the extensive mountainous province of that name on the shores of the Mediterranean; 2nd, _the Berrebbers of the interior,_ who commence on the southern confines of the Errifi, and extend to the vicinity of Fez and Mequinez, occupying all the mountains and high lands in the neighbourhood of those cities; 3rd, _the Berrebbers of middle Atlas;_ and, 4th, _the Shilluh of Suse and Haha,_ who extend from Mogadore southward to the extreme boundaries of the dominions of the Cid Heshem, and from the sea coast to the eastern limits of the mountains of Asia.
The Errifi are a strong and athletic race of people, hardy and enterprising, their features are generally good, and might in many cases be considered handsome, were it not for the malignant and ferocious expression, which marks them, in common with the Berrebber tribes in general, but which is particularly striking in the eye of an Errifi.